Casablanca

Plot synopsis:
In the early years of World War II, December 1941, the Moroccan coastal city of Casablanca attracts people from all over the world, particularly Nazi-occupied Europe. Many are transients trying to get out of Europe; a few are just trying to make a buck. Most of them -- gamblers and refugees, Nazis, resistance fighters, and plain old crooks -- find their way to Rick's Café Américain, a swank nightclub owned by American expatriate Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart). Though we learn later that Rick once harbored enough idealism to put himself at risk to fight fascism, he's now embittered and cynical, professing to be neutral and detached: "I stick my neck out for nobody."Ugarte (Peter Lorre) comes to Rick's with letters of transit he obtained by killing two German couriers. The papers allow the bearer to travel freely around German-controlled Europe, including to neutral Lisbon, Portugal; from Lisbon, it's relatively easy to get to the United States. They are almost priceless to any of the refugees stranded in Casablanca. Ugarte plans to make his fortune by selling them to the highest bidder, who is due to arrive at the club later that night. However, before the exchange can take place, Ugarte is arrested by the police under the command of Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains). A corrupt Vichy official, Renault accommodates the Nazis. Unknown to Renault and the Nazis, Ugarte had left the letters with Rick for safekeeping, because "...somehow, just because you despise me, you're the only one I trust."Then the reason for Rick's bitterness re-enters his life. Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) arrives with her husband Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) to purchase the letters. Laszlo is a renowned Czech Resistance leader who has escaped from a Nazi concentration camp. They must have the letters to escape to America to continue his work. At the time Ilsa first met and fell in love with Rick in Paris, she believed her husband had been killed. When she discovered that he was still alive, she left Rick abruptly without explanation and returned to Laszlo, leaving Rick feeling betrayed. After the club closes, Ilsa returns to try to explain, but Rick is drunk and bitterly refuses to listen.At different times Rick and Ilsa torment themselves by asking the club's piano player, Sam (Arthur "Dooley" Wilson), to play As Time Goes By, a song they loved when they were together in Paris. The famous line "Play it again, Sam," which refers to this song, doesn't actually appear in the movie -- Ilsa says "Play it, Sam," and later, Rick orders "Play it!" While Sam plays the song, Rick reminisces about his affair with Ilsa in Paris. Though she seems happy to be with Rick, her mood near the end of their time together is cautious because she has learned her husband may not be dead. When the Nazis begin to close in on Paris, she receives word that Victor is indeed alive in another part of Europe. She and Rick had been planning to take a train to Southern France to escape the German Army's assault; however, on the platform Rick receives a handwritten letter from her. She writes that she can't explain why she's leaving him but she loves him. Rick and Sam leave without her.The next night, Laszlo, suspecting that Rick has the letters, speaks with him privately about obtaining them. They're interrupted when a group of Nazi officers, led by Major Strasser (Conrad Veidt), commandeer Sam's piano and begin to sing Die Wacht am Rhein (The Watch on the Rhine), a German patriotic song. Infuriated, Laszlo orders the house band to play La Marseillaise in honor of Occupied France. The band leader looks to Rick for guidance; he nods. Laszlo starts singing, alone at first, then long-suppressed patriotic fervor grips the crowd and everyone joins in, drowning out the Germans. In retaliation, Strasser orders Renault to close the club.Later that night, Ilsa confronts Rick in the deserted cafe. He refuses to give her the documents, even when threatened with a gun. She is unable to shoot, confessing that she still loves him. Rick decides to help Laszlo, leading her to believe that she will stay behind when Laszlo leaves.Laszlo is jailed on a minor charge. Rick convinces Renault to release Laszlo, promising to set him up for a much more serious crime: possession of the letters of transit. However, Rick double crosses Renault, forcing him at gunpoint to assist in the escape. At the last moment, Rick makes Ilsa get on the plane to Lisbon with her husband, telling her that she would regret it if she stayed: "Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life."Major Strasser drives up, tipped off by Renault, but Rick shoots him when he tries to intervene. When his men arrive, Renault informs them that Strasser is dead and covers for Rick by sharply ordering them to "round up the usual suspects." He then recommends that they both leave Casablanca. Renault, suggesting they join the Resistance, walks into the fog with Rick who says "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

Tags: murder, dramatic, atmospheric, flashback, humor, romantic, suspenseful, sentimental

Review:
And there are quite a few moments of comedic delight, just think of the pickpocket ("This place is full of vultures, vultures everywhere!") or the elderly couple on the last evening before their emigration to the US ("What watch?").But 'Casablanca' is not only great as a whole, it still stands on top if we break it apart and look at single lines of dialog, scenes or performances alone.
Many of scenes have become a part of film history; the duel of 'Die Wacht am Rhein' and 'La Marseillaise' is probably one of the greatest scenes ever shot (the only I can think of that would rival it for the #1 spot is Hynkel and the globe from Chaplin's 'The Great Dictator'), and the last scene is probably even familiar to the few people who've never seen 'Casablanca'.
Am I the only one who is absolutely convinced that the film wouldn't have become what it is today if Rick and Ilsa would have ended up as the lucky couple?About the performances: So much has been said about the uniqueness of Humphrey Bogart's and Ingrid Bergman's chemistry as Rick and Ilsa, about Claude Rains' terrific turn as Renault, about the scene-stealing performances by Peter Lorre (one of the 10 all-time greatest actors) as Ugarte and Sydney Greenstreet as Ferrari and about Dooley Wilson stopping the show as Sam. I'd love to emphasize here two other performances, one that is not mentioned quite as often and one which is blatantly overlooked: Conrad Veidt as Major Strasser had a really difficult task here, as his character is the only evil one, but still Strasser is not a one-dimensional character, and it took more than 50 years until another actor gave an equally (maybe even more) impressive performance as a Nazi, Ralph Fiennes in 'Schindler's List'.
"Casablanca" remains Hollywood's finest moment, a film that succeeds on such a vast scale not because of anything experimental or deliberately earthshaking in its design, but for the way it cohered to and reaffirmed the movie-making conventions of its day.
This is the film that played by the rules while elevating the form, and remains the touchstone for those who talk about Hollywood's greatness.It's the first week in December, 1941, and in the Vichy-controlled African port city of Casablanca, American ex-pat Rick Blaine runs a gin joint he calls "Rick's Cafe Americaine." Everybody comes to Rick's, including thieves, spies, Nazis, partisans, and refugees trying to make their way to Lisbon and, eventually, America.
Rick is a tough, sour kind of guy, but he's still taken for a loop when fate hands him two sudden twists: A pair of unchallengeable exit visas, and a woman named Ilsa who left him broken-hearted in Paris and now needs him to help her and her resistance-leader husband escape.Humphrey Bogart is Rick and Ingrid Bergman is Ilsa, in roles that are archetypes in film lore.
He's mad at her for walking out on him, while she wants him to understand her cause, but there's a lot going on underneath with both, and it all spills out in a scene in Rick's apartment that is one of many legendary moments."Casablanca" is a great romance, not only for being so supremely entertaining with its humor and realistic-though-exotic wartime excitement, but because it's not the least bit mushy.
Take the way Rick's face literally breaks when he first sees Ilsa in his bar, or how he recalls the last time he saw her in Paris: "The Germans wore gray, you wore blue." There's a real human dimension to these people that makes us care for them and relate to them in a way that belies the passage of years.For me, and many, the most interesting relationship in the movie is Rick and Capt.
Paul Henreid is often looked at as a bit of a third wheel playing the role of Ilsa's husband, but he manages to create a moral center around which the rest of the film operates, and his enigmatic relationship with Rick and especially Ilsa, a woman who obviously admires her husband but can't somehow ever bring herself to say she loves him, is something to wonder at.My favorite bit is when Rick finds himself the target of an entreaty by a Bulgarian refugee who just wants Rick's assurance that Capt.
Rick flashes on Ilsa, suppresses a grimace, tries to buy the woman off with a one-liner ("Go back to Bulgaria"), then finally does a marvelous thing that sets the whole second half of the film in motion without much calling attention to itself.It's not fashionable to discuss movie directors after Chaplin and before Welles, but surely something should be said about Michael Curtiz, who not only directed this film but other great features like "Captain Blood" and "Angels With Dirty Faces." For my money, his "Adventures Of Robin Hood" was every bit "Casablanca's" equal, and he even found time the same year he made "Casablanca" to make "Yankee Doodle Dandy." When you watch a film like this, you aren't so much aware of the director, but that's really a testament to Curtiz's artistry.
As Rick says, "Three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this big old world."  If you're in a mood where you understand what he's saying, watch this movie and it will transport you.There is no single movie that deserves to be called the best movie of all time.
In any event we've got some proof in the case of Casablanca.Check out some time a film called Background to Danger that Warner Brothers did with George Raft that also featured Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet.
Through this film, Casablanca will always live in my heart and I will think of its characters as family.Seeing it for the first time is truly the start of a romance with ideals that will live in you long after credits end..
Casablanca is a different kind of love story, more likely to infect rather than effect.She almost makes me believe it every time.
Not everyone who watches it today shares the opinion that it is a classic, but it's still good to see fans of modern movies giving it a try for themselves.The cast is one of its main strengths, not just Bogart and Bergman but also the fine supporting cast.
Here was a man who was a legend in German film history as the murdering somnambulist (a possible warning about the Nazi soldiers to come?) and because of the vicious anti-Semitism and racism of the Germany of the '30s and '40s, we in America and in Hollywood were given a great gift.Everyone in this film is fabulous, but it is the chemistry of Rick (Bogart) and Ilsa (Bergman) been truly holds the film together.
There is a reason why he was named the actor of the century.While every person in the film becomes a real flesh and blood presence, the story of Rick and Ilsa is the center of this cinema feast.I must confess that I have seen this picture so many times that I can recite every single line in the movie to the consternation of my wife who can't watch it with me anymore.
That movie was "All Through The Night." I love this movie too, and I'm not even a New Yorker.There have been many attempts to revisit "Casablanca," but only the original makes you really feel what it was like to live through "The Good War" in a faraway place like Casablanca in French Morocco.Even  though such trickery as midget airport workers, fog machines and cardboard cutout airplanes were utilized, this film convinces through its beautiful story with many layers, and characters that are so well realized.If you've never seen this movie before, shame on you and see it immediately.
Rather than some "off the cuff" comments, I'll quote instead from my article on Claude Rains (from March 2000 issue of CLASSIC IMAGES) that pretty well sums up the film:"It was 1943's 'Casablanca', bustling with melodramatic wartime intrigue, that really put him (Claude Rains) in the forefront as one of the screen's smoothest character actors, almost--but not quite--stealing the film from Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, as the uniformed Captain Louis Renault who investigates the goings-on at Rick's notorious cafe.
Sydney Greenstreet, Conrad Veidt, Victor Francen and Peter Lorre all gave sterling performances and Rains was again nominated for Best Supporting actor."And by the way, I disagree with a former comment indicating the black and white photography of this film was primitive as compared to today's.
I object to a cut-rate one', 'Round up the usual suspects', and, of course, the oft quoted, apocryphal, 'Play it again, Sam'.Madeleine LeBeau plays Yvonne, the jilted lover of Humphrey Bogart, who is seen drowning her sorrows at the bar early in the film and who later, to get back at Rick and looking for solace takes up with a German officer finding only self-hatred.
You guys my age, this is a great Sit-down-and-watch-with-your-girl-on-a-rainy-afternoon type movie, and parents already love it, so everyone's happy.I always say when I write these things that, even though I liked it, you might not.
And, of course, there's Sam, the piano player, who plays all the favorites, including "As Time Goes By".All of the film's technical elements are excellent including the script, with its colorful characters, like the debonair Captain Renault (Claude Rains); and Signor Ferrari (Sydney Greenstreet), the articulate and portly "leader of all illegal activities in Casablanca".
And a minor character that made an impression on me was the guitar playing female singer at Rick's (Corinna Mura), whose beautifully operatic voice was an unexpected delight in this smoke filled saloon.The film's dialogue, though substantial, is clever and lively, like when Captain Renault observes Rick escorting an intoxicated woman out of the bar: "How extravagant you are, throwing away women like that; some day they may be scarce".High-contrast B&W lighting renders a noir look.
The place, Casablanca, becomes a citadel of despondence and despair for so many people, yet for Rick and Ilsa, (Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman) the situation is tailor made for a passionate redemption!!
It has everything a great movie should have: romance, sacrifice, wonderful lines, a memorable song, incredible acting (even in the smallest roles) and it is one of the few non-film noir movies filmed in the B&W era that I wouldn't want to see refilmed in color (that is in definite contrast to "I Know Where I'm Going!" which begs to be refilmed to show the beauty of its vistas).
I don't think the ending that exists in Casablanca could be filmed today and though most have seen this movie (or any of its parodies) I don't want to give anything away.
But ultimately, we all fall under the spell that Michael Curtiz created and for almost two hours we are in Casablanca among the spies and would be travelers eavesdropping into their conversations and the different schemes going on.Humphrey Bogart was an actor without the looks of some of the handsome male stars of that era, yet, he is mesmerizing as Rick Blaine.
Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, S.K. Sakall, and above all Dooley Wilson, as Sam, made a magnificent contribution to the film in small roles.Casablanca gets better and better, as time goes by..
It isn't even in my top ten but I always find it very, very enjoyable and the latest 2-disc DVD transfer makes it even better to view.Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, of course, are the stars but I always found Claude Raines' character the best to watch.
He and Bogart's character are similar, essentially coming across as people who only care about themselves but deep inside are good-hearted people.The ending is much discussed and very famous and helps make the movie so revered.
The movie has immortal images with memorable quotes and the best scenes ever written , such as the exciting final when Bogart bids Bergman farewell at the airport with ¨Here's looking at you kid¨still has audiences choking back a tear.
Everyone remembers 'As Time Goes By' (the song that only stayed in the film, so popular culture has it, because Bergman had cut her hair for 'Joan of Arc', and couldn't retake scenes using another tune) but there is much more to this world-weary romance.Bogart, of course, was hardly the usual romantic movie hero.
He spars with Claude Rains (the crooked police captain) and Sidney Greenstreet (a rival bar owner) like a trooper, has a quiet contempt for Paul Henreid (a freedom fighter) and Peter Lorre (a thief), gives Conrad Veidt (the Nazi Major) as good as he gets, is on the level with employees Dooley Wilson and Cuddles Sakall.Through all this, truly loves Ingrid Bergman (the beautiful Ilse, the love of his life).
He is faced with tough decisions that he easily overcomes or easily pushes away until his one true love, Ilsa Lund played by Ingrid Bergman, appears on his doorstep.The scripting in this film is "cheesy" by modern day conversations standards, but is still powerful.
In one hundred years, do you think "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy will really - really - be remembered?"Casablanca" is a love story, just as so many other films released to this day, but upon a viewing two nights ago, I asked myself what sets it apart from the rest.
(I was even more shocked to see Bogie smile!) I was bored through the story, the men's thick black eyeliner looked like an ethnic joke, their white eyeliner was a little less distracting, but I've seen worse, so I decided what the heck, I'm 1/4th through this movie might as well keep going since it's not like it's starring *insert your most insipid actress and buffoon of an actor here* And OK, since I'm well-endowed in the "suspend disbelief" department, I'll pretend I'll buy Ingmar Bergman or whatever as the love interest.Since some of the dialog was amazing, I thought I'd actually give this a 7.
Old time lovers - Rick (Humphrey Bogart) and Lisa (Ingrid Bergman), meet after many years in Casablanca and remember their love in France.
Now a days we see so many movies  but to think of the rave Casablanca would have created during world war second times, would have been enormous.My salute to Martin Curtiz and Humphrey Bogart!
Bogart (whom I never found a bit attractive anyway) mumbles through the story, as a one-dimensional "cynical with a big heart" (my god, what a novelty!!), Bergman cries a lot, but as a compliant female does what she's told and follows her husband: Rick is a man, he knows what's best for her, and her husband needs her support, he's a war hero!!
Watchable, yes, but not great, and certainly not deserving of being on the IMDb top 250.The movie was fast-paced, which was both good and bad: good because it would've been unbearable to watch otherwise, and bad because it didn't give the viewer time to get attached to any of the characters (which is just as well, since as I've said, it was war propaganda and so the less effective, the better).Apart from a few good one-liners and patches of clever dialog, the only other positive thing I can say about it is that it was technically well made, in particular the lighting and the dynamic camera work (though I'm not personally a fan of this style of camera work, as I find it detracts from story and atmosphere).
The greatest love story on film - pure and simple.The telling is so perfect: the setting, the timing, the exotic, the human.Bogart was never better, Ingrid Bergmann never more beautiful: the first time they see each other takes my breath away every time - truly one of the best moments in cinema history.Casablanca has a true timeless to it: partly because it is so beautifully shot; it is one of the most beautiful B & W films: the use of lighting, and shade are exquisite and compliment the settings perfectly.Above all, though it is a film about love: who wouldn't want to be Rick, or to be Ilsa, and to have had Paris...Exceptional, excellent, and will remain a favourite as time goes by.
You never get the truth about what these characters really want from each other, nor is there any clear central point to the story.It seems to me what people like about this film most is the glamour of Ingrid Bergman -- and the low key cool act of Humphrey Bogart.
Compassion, romance and sentimentality come with a story The focus is on Bogart's character, but that does not diminish the fact that it is a great performance.Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund at its best and the strongest role.
Set in Casablanca during WWII, this film tells the story of Rick Blaine (Bogart), a bar owner bitter after an abruptly-ended romance with the lovely Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman).
Add into the cast great talents like Claude Rains, Peter Lorre and Sidney Greenstreet and how can you lose?Arguably the best movie of all time, "Casablanca" is well-worth viewing.
Specifically, this happens when we learn that Ilsa's (Ingrid Bergman) "new" love, the man for whom her romance with Rick (Humphrey Bogart  one of the biggest giants in film history) has to end, is really a good man.
Humphrey Bogart is perfect for the role, a bad ass American, Rick Blaine, who owns a night club at Casablanca during the World War II, but yet he is surprisingly soft-hearted.
Rick Makes the Heroic Choice: One of the Best Hollywood Films of All Time.
And Rick Blaine, played by Humphrey Bogart in his most memorable role, also makes an heroic choice in the ageless and timeless American film "Casablanca".
This movie, and Bogart's character of 'Rick' most notably, are reminiscent of other great genres of American cinema of the time, like film noir and the hard-boiled detective story (of which Bogart was a mainstay at the time).