Casablanca (1942) at Reel Classics: Article 2: As time goes by, 'Casablanca' is still the most beloved movie of them all; The Boston Globe, 1992 As time goes by, 'Casablanca' is still the most beloved movie of them all By Jay Carr The Boston Globe, April 26, 1992 p. B31 It's still the same old story. Maybe more so. "Casablanca" - returning Friday to the Brattle Theatre in Harvard Square, where the Bogart cult was launched when the film was revived in 1957, was never a great film, never a profound film. It's merely the most beloved movie of all time. In its 50-year history, it has resisted the transmogrification of its rich, reverberant icons into camp. It's not about the demimondaines washing through Rick's Cafe Americain - at the edge of the world, at the edge of hope - in 1941. Ultimately, it's not even about Bogey and Ingrid Bergman sacrificing love for nobility. It's about the hold movies have on us.

That's what makes it so powerful, so enduring. It is film's analogue to Noel Coward's famous line about the amazing potency of cheap music. Like few films before or since, it sums up Hollywood's genius for recasting archetypes in big, bold, universally accessible strokes, for turning myth into pop culture. It's not deep, but it sinks roots into America's collective consciousness. As a love story, it's flawed. We don't feel a rush of uplift when trench-coated Bogey , masking idealism with cynicism, lets Bergman , the love of his life, fly off to Lisbon and wartime sanctuary with Paul Henreid , while he strolls into the mist toward Brazzaville with his corrupt French police pal, Claude Rains , drawling, "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." Part of what's wrong is that you believe Bogart : Although you certainly believed his earlier bitterness came from pain, you're now quite convinced that he and Rains will have a good time, trading ironic repartee, understanding one another fully, neither making uncomfortable demands on the other.

Apart from the fact that Paul Henreid 's Victor Laszlo is such a saint that he's irritating, you don't want to see Bergman 's Ilsa Lund go off with him. She's so obviously strong - and strong-willed - that you're disappointed to see her just knuckle under and go off and do what she's supposed to do. Her appeal is precisely that she'll let her feelings lead her to what she's not supposed to do, namely love Bogey 's Rick Blaine. Ilsa's pain adds to her poignancy. But mainly you're feeling more than a little let down by her genuflection to idealism. You feel passion is being subordinated to an abstraction. You want her to second-guess Rick and not go. "Casablanca" leaves the heart feeling cheated. And it's hardly Bergman 's greatest role. Even though her face mirrors real ambivalence (she didn't know which man Ilsa would wind up with until almost the end of shooting), she's more complex and psychosexually interesting in Hitchcock 's "Notorious." And Rick is a little too accepting of the idea of losing her.

So if "Casablanca" really can't be said to be one of film's great love stories, what is it? Several things. When it opened, late in 1942, "Casablanca" was said to be a lucky movie, its popularity ascribed to topicality and timing - with insufficient credit given to the way creative lightning could strike under chaotic conditions any time a studio gathered under its roof a band of combustible creative types. The Allies' successful North African offensive, launched at Casablanca in November, caused Warners to move up the premiere. Shortly afterward, Roosevelt and Churchill held a summit conference there. So the real Casablanca, by staying in the news, fed the resonances of the film. But patriotism is only the most obvious of several powerful claims "Casablanca" has made on audiences. Movies, so central to American life, shaped the American mind, and "Casablanca" is as much about movies as about romantic adventure. It taps our love of movies, our involvement with them, our dreamy bondage by them. Some movies innovate. "Casablanca" culminates.

It brings to a peak the between-the-wars imperative that one was obliged to live life with a sense of style. The style at work in "Casablanca" is marked by witty poise, by the sophistication of cafe society between the wars, with its white linen suits and baccarat in private rooms - and also its helplessness before corruption, its impotent sleekness. One of the many extraordinarily potent resonances comes when we notice that the croupier at Rick's is played by Marcel Dalio, the same Dalio who played the nervous aristocrat dancing on the edge of a crumbling world in Jean Renoir's "Rules of the Game" in 1939. There are more than a few homages to French films of the period. But it's the insistence of "Casablanca" on the importance of style, exemplifying it in the character of Rick, that has caused "Casablanca" to tilt toward Bogart over the years.

That and his way of standing outside institutions and calling his own shots to his own moral code - which, as the film quickly makes clear, includes some bravely defiant idiosyncrasies, such as OK'ing IOUs, but refusing to cash the check of an obviously solvent Berlin banker. And after the film's revival - to an audience with its collective ear cocked to the winds of existentialism emanating from the Deux Magots on Paris' Left Bank and the alienated howl of the American Beats - it was revelation. Bogey singlehandedly solved the biggest problem facing any young generation: how to keep your integrity and still be cooler than everyone else in sight. Even when making light of fighting for the right losing causes in Spain and Ethiopia, he stays cool - replying, when asked his nationality, "I'm a drunkard." It's his controlled exterior that makes Rick's wild romanticism acceptable. With his pouchy, watchful eyes, perpetual cigarette, black bow tie and white dinner jacket, his cynical crust fooled nobody - least of all Bergman 's Ilsa.

He talked a good game of noninvolvement, but obviously he was nuts about her, still wounded deeply by her abandonment of him after their fling in Paris (the flashbacks were skilled montages by Don Siegel, who went on to become a well-known director in his own right). His is the emotion you feel when they meet up again in his club, over Dooley Wilson's piano - that source of so much garbled legend. Neither he nor Ilsa ever said "Play it again, Sam" to Wilson. What she says, after entering the club with her Resistance-hero husband, whom she believed dead when she took up with Rick in Paris, is, "Play it once, Sam, for old time's sake. Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By.' " Rick, rushing over, says, "Sam, I thought I told you never to play it." Then he notices Ilsa. They exchange a long look. Later, when Rick is sitting at a table after hours (muttering, "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in the world, she walks into mine"), he masochistically asks Sam to play: "You know what I want to hear. You played it for her.

You can play it for me. If she can stand it, I can. Play it!" Max Steiner , the film's musical director, didn't want the song. It was there only because Murray Bennett, the teacher who wrote the unproduced play (with Joan Alison) on which the film is based, liked it. Steiner wanted to drop it, and may have succeeded - except that Bergman had already cropped her hair for her next film, "For Whom the Bell Tolls," and retakes were impossible. So it stayed. Actually, Wilson - the only cast member ever to have played the real city of Casablanca - couldn't play the piano. He was a singing drummer. (Studio musician Elliott Carpenter dubbed the piano-playing.) Wilson and Bogart were the only American-born members among the leads. There's evidence on both sides, but on the whole it leans away from the story that Ronald Reagan was Jack Warner 's first choice for the role of Rick. George Raft - who made the mistake of turning down roles that Bogart capitalized on in "High Sierra" and "The Maltese Falcon" - campaigned for the role, but it was Bogey 's from the start.

Producer Hal Wallis first considered Ann Sheridan for the female lead, then Hedy Lamarr . French actress Michelle Morgan was Warner 's first choice. But she wanted $ 55,000, and Warners got Bergman from David O. Selznick , who owned her contract, for $ 25,000 plus the use of Olivia de Havilland 's services for one film. Philip Dorn was Paul Henreid 's only serious competition for the role of her freedom-fighting husband. Rains , Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet had a lock on their high-profile, corruption-tinged roles, but Otto Preminger was Wallis ' first choice for the role of Major Strasser, the Nazi officer played by Conrad Veidt. Even Wilson was an afterthought. Wallis first thought of women - Lena Horne , Ella Fitzgerald and Hazel Scott - before settling on Wilson. Workhorse Michael Curtiz , himself a refugee from Hungary, and the director of 42 Warners films in a decade, was assigned the film after William Wyler , Vincent Sherman and William Keighley turned it down.

When Howard Koch, one of the writers, pointed out inconsistencies to him, Curtiz is reported by Koch to have answered, "Don't worry what's illogical. I make it go so fast nobody notices." It was more a case of nobody making much of the flaws, the biggest of which has the precious exit visas everybody's chasing bear the signature of Resistance mainstay Gen. Charles De Gaulle - a name not likely to be cherished by the collaborationist Vichy government running Casablanca. When the film won best picture, best director and best screenplay Oscars, Curtiz ' broken English rose to the occasion. He said: 'So many times I have a speech ready, but no dice. Always a bridesmaid, never a mother. Now I win. I have no speech." Many writers contributed to the script. Oscar winners Koch and brothers Julius and Philip Epstein figured most prominently in a lineup that included Aeneas McKenzie, Wally Kline, Jerry Wald, Casey Robinson and Wallis himself, who wrote Bogey 's curtain line.

Most of the best-known and most-quoted lines came from the Epsteins - "Round up the usual suspects," and the exchange between Bogart and Rains : "I came to Casablanca for the waters." "Waters? What waters? We're in the desert." "I was misinformed." Or Rains ': "I like to think you killed a man. It's the romantic in me." (Koch and Julius Epstein are the only "Casablanca" principals still alive.) Somehow there was something fitting about "Casablanca" being born in a kind of chaos that paralleled that coursing through the flossy raffishness of Rick's Cafe. "Everybody Comes to Rick's" was the title of the original play, with its crossroads-of-the-world atmosphere. These days, as the film's 50th anniversary approaches, everybody writes about Rick's. The movie's flaws never did matter. What mattered then, and matters even more resonantly now, is its evocation of a yeasty, corrupt atmosphere from which self-respect could somehow be won, or won back.

The cynical Rick would have loved the result of an experiment by writer Chuck Ross in 1982, detailed in American Film magazine. Changing its name back to "Everybody Comes to Rick's," Ross sent the story to 217 agencies. Most returned it unread. Of the 85 who did read it, only 33 recognized it. And yet, as an example of potent iconography under pressure, it has seldom been matched and never been surpassed. First, last and always, "Casablanca" remains a triumph of stance. ï¿½ 1992 The Globe Company Casablanca (1942) Casablanca (1942) Pages: ( 1 ) ( 2 ) ( 3 ) ( 4 ) ( 5 ) Background The classic and much-loved romantic melodrama Casablanca (1942), always found on top-ten lists of films, is a masterful tale of two men vying for the same woman's love in a love triangle. The story of political and romantic espionage is set against the backdrop of the wartime conflict between democracy and totalitarianism.

[The date given for the film is often either 1942 and 1943. That is because its limited premiere was in 1942, but the film did not play nationally, or in Los Angeles, until 1943.] With rich and smoky atmosphere, anti-Nazi propaganda, Max Steiner's superb musical score, suspense, unforgettable characters (supposedly 34 nationalities are included in its cast) and memorable lines of dialogue (e.g., "Here's lookin' at you, kid," and the inaccurately-quoted "Play it again, Sam"), it is one of the most popular, magical (and flawless) films of all time - focused on the themes of lost love, honor and duty, self-sacrifice and romance within a chaotic world. Woody Allen's Play It Again, Sam (1972) paid reverential homage to the film, as have the lesser films Cabo Blanco (1981) and Barb Wire (1996), and the animated Bugs Bunny short Carrotblanca (1995).

The line "Play it again, Sam" appeared in the Marx Brothers' A Night in Casablanca (1946). Clips or references to the film have been used in Play It Again, Sam (1972) , Brazil (1985) , My Stepmother is an Alien (1988), and When Harry Met Sally (1989) . Directed by the talented Hungarian-accented Michael Curtiz and shot almost entirely on studio sets, the film moves quickly through a surprisingly tightly constructed plot, even though the script was written from day to day as the filming progressed and no one knew how the film would end - who would use the two exit visas? [Would Ilsa, Rick's lover from a past romance in Paris, depart with him or leave with her husband Victor, the leader of the underground resistance movement?] And three weeks after shooting ended, producer Hal Wallis contributed the film's famous final line - delivered on a fog-shrouded runway. The sentimental love story, originally structured as a one-set play, was based on an unproduced play entitled Everybody Comes to Rick's by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison - the film's original title.

Its collaborative screenplay was mainly the result of the efforts of Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch. In all, six writers took the play's script, and with the models of Algiers (1938) and Only Angels Have Wings (1939) to follow, they transformed the romantic tale into this quintessential classic that samples almost every film genre. Except for the initial airport sequence, the entire studio-oriented film was shot in a Warner Bros. Hollywood/Burbank studio. Many other 40s stars were considered for the lead roles: Hedy Lamarr, "Oomph Girl" Ann Sheridan, French actress Michele Morgan, and George Raft. [It's an 'urban legend' that Ronald Reagan was seriously considered for a role in the film. The Warner Bros.

publicity office famously planted a pre-production press release in The Hollywood Reporter on January 5, 1942 (it was also released to dozens of newspapers across the country two days later), stating that Reagan would co-star with Ann Sheridan for the third time in Casablanca (1942) - in order to actually encourage support for the soon-to-be-released film Kings Row (1942) with the two stars.] And pianist Sam's role (portrayed by "Dooley" Wilson - who was actually a drummer) was originally to be taken by a female (either Hazel Scott, Lena Horne, or Ella Fitzgerald). The lead male part went to Humphrey Bogart in his first romantic lead as the tough and cynical on-the-outside, morally-principled, sentimental on-the-inside cafe owner in Casablanca, Morocco. His appearance with co-star Ingrid Bergman was their first - and last.

As a hardened American expatriate, Bogart runs a bar/casino (Rick's Cafe Americain) - a way-station to freedom in WWII French-occupied Morocco, where a former lover (Bergman) who previously 'jilted' him comes back into his life. She is married to a heroic French Resistance leader (Henreid). Stubbornly isolationist, the hero is inspired to support the Resistance movement and give up personal happiness with his past love. The Hollywood fairy-tale was actually filmed during a time of US ties with Vichy France when President Roosevelt equivocated and vacillated between pro-Vichy or pro-Gaullist support. And it was rushed into general release almost three weeks after the Allied landing at the Axis-occupied, North African city of Casablanca, when Eisenhower's forces marched into the African city. Due to the military action, Warner Bros. Studios was able to capitalize on the free publicity and the nation's familiarity with the city's name when the film opened. It played first as a pre-release engagement on Thanksgiving Day, 1942 at the Hollywood Theater in New York.

[On the last day of 1942, Roosevelt actually screened the film at the White House.] Its strategic timing was further enhanced at the time of its general release in early 1943 by the January 14-24, 1943 Casablanca Conference (a summit meeting in which Roosevelt broke US-Vichy relations) in the Moroccan city with Churchill, Roosevelt, and two French leaders - DeGaulle (the charismatic Free French leader) and General Henri Giraud (supportive of Marshal Petain). [Note: Stalin declined the invitation to attend the so-called 'Big Three' Conference.] The big-budget film (of slightly less than $1 million), took in box-office of slightly more than $4 million. It was considered for eight Academy Awards for the year 1943. [Actually, it should have competed against Mrs. Miniver (1942) (the Best Picture winner in the previous year), since it premiered in New York in November of that year.

However, because it didn't show in Los Angeles until its general release that January, it was ineligible for awards in 1942, and competed in 1943.] The nominations included Best Actor (Humphrey Bogart), Best Supporting Actor (Claude Rains), Best B/W Cinematography (Arthur Edeson, known for The Maltese Falcon (1941) ), Best Score (Max Steiner, known for Gone With the Wind (1939) ), and Best Film Editing (Owen Marks). The dark-horse film won three awards (presented in early March of 1944): Best Picture (producer Hal B. Wallis), Best Director, and Best Screenplay. Bogart lost to Paul Lukas for his role in Watch on the Rhine. And Bergman wasn't even nominated for this film, but instead was nominated for Best Actress for For Whom The Bell Tolls (and she lost to Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette). Bogart had made three other films in 1943: Sahara, Action in the North Atlantic, and Thank Your Lucky Stars.

The Story At the film's beginning, the credits are displayed over a political map of Africa. In the first five minutes of footage, the introductory details are succinctly communicated by a stentorian narrator. Over a crude, slowly-spinning globe and a zoom-in shot toward Western Europe, a doom-laden, ominous voice-over, similar to the March of Time newsreel narrations [by Westbrook Van Voorhis], explains the turbulent Nazi takeover of Europe, the coming of World War II, and the frenetic stream of political refugees (superimposed over the globe) from persecution out of Hitler's besieged Europe to Vichy France and North Africa: With the coming of the Second World War, many eyes in imprisoned Europe turned hopefully or desperately toward the freedom of the Americas. Lisbon became the great embarkation point. But not everybody could get to Lisbon directly... A three-toned relief map of the land mass of Axis-occupied Europe spins into the frame, showing the opposing sides in the conflict: Light Tone: Allied Powers: Great Britain, the British Empire, and her allies (including the Soviet Union) Middle Tone: Neutral Nations: Sweden, Switzerland, Eire (Ireland), Spain, and Portugal.

Unoccupied and neutral zones include the southern portion of France and French North Africa (Tunisia, Algeria, and French Morocco) Dark Tone: Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, their allies (Hungary, Rumania, Slovakia, Croatia), and conquered territories (Belgium, The Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, and parts of Poland, Luxembourg, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia). Northwestern France is German occupied European refugee trails and torturous escape routes are developing - a bold line is drawn from the city of Paris to Marseilles in Vichy France. The line finally reaches to Casablanca on the coast of neutral French Morocco, the setting for the film, where refugees (unless they are wealthy or influential enough to acquire quick-exit visas) are victimized by predatory, corrupt Vichy bureaucrats: And so a torturous, round-about refugee trail sprang up. Paris to Marseilles, across the Mediterranean to Oran [in Algeria], then by train or auto or foot across the rim of Africa to Casablanca in French Morocco. Here the fortunate ones through money or influence or luck might obtain exit visas and scurry to Lisbon, and from Lisbon to the New World.

But the others wait in Casablanca, and wait and wait and wait. The camera descends from a mosque into the crowded, stucco-walled coastal city of Casablanca, a way station city (an upscale concentration camp) technically ruled by neutral Unoccupied France - located out of war-torn Europe. The story is set in early December 1941 in a city (and cafe), in a dangerous, far-off locale that is a microcosm of the wartime world. More important details regarding the setting and characters are telescoped very precisely and economically - information about the theft of transit letters, the political and social situation in pro-Vichy Casablanca, the arrival of the Nazi commandant and his friendship with the self-satisfied Vichy policeman, the crucial daily flights to Lisbon, and the central importance of Rick's Cafe.

[The film's opening montage was created by Don Siegel, later known for Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and Dirty Harry (1971) .] In a medium closeup shot, a French-accented police officer reads a teletype report to all officers (over the radio) about the Tuesday, December 1, 1941 murder of two German couriers and the theft of official important documents they were carrying: To all officers. Two German couriers carrying important official documents murdered on train from Oran. Murderer and possible accomplices headed for Casablanca. Round up all suspicious characters and search them for stolen document. IMPORTANT. The French police, not the Germans, have the jurisdiction and authority to investigate the crime that occurred in Unoccupied France, a neutral country.

During a round-up of suspects by police gendarmes in the city, the precarious situation of a collection of refugees (those in European clothing in Casablanca) is set up by a few short scenes: The open-air city market, a scene of intrigue, is teeming with black marketeers, smugglers, thieves, spies, double agents and refugees who desperately seek to obtain tickets (exit visas) on the daily plane to neutral Lisbon. During a roundup by the French police, one fleeing civilian suspect (Paul Andor) with expired identification papers who refuses to halt is shot in the back and falls dead beneath a wall poster (Je Tiens Mes Promesses Mem Celles Des Autres - "I Keep My Promises, Just as I Keep the Promises of Others") of Marshal Philippe Petain, the dictatorial French head of state in Vichy France. The suspect dies clutching a resistance handbill bearing the Cross of Lorraine symbol - revealing his membership in the Free France Organization headed by Petain's arch rival, General Charles De Gaulle.

The camera pans down from an etched-stone slogan above a doorway: "Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite" (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity), the slogan of the French Republic - an outdated, tarnished sign that hadn't yet been replaced by the Vichy Government. The many suspects are herded into a police-station building bearing the sign: "Palais de Justice." At an open-air cafe, a dark, wiry pickpocket (Curt Bois) preys on an English couple, stranded in the Vichy-controlled area. As he informs them that the "scum of Europe has gravitated to Casablanca" and warns them to "be on guard" for "vultures," he lifts the gentleman's wallet. An arriving plane flies over the rooftop sign of Rick's Cafe Americain as a crowd of refugees covetously watches it pass overhead.

Among many faces that turn skyward and yearn for freedom in the Americas, a Bulgarian couple, Jan Viereck (Helmut Dantine) and Annina Brandel (Joy Page) hopefully wonder aloud: "Perhaps tomorrow, we'll be on the plane." But the refugees are mistaken - it is not the single-engined, high-winged plane from Lisbon, the gateway city, but one with a swastika bringing the new German Nazi/Gestapo commander Major Heinrich Strasser (Conrad Veidt). The Gestapo Major is ready to assist in the investigation of the murdered German couriers and pressure the French Police to do their duty. In the honor guard of assembled dignitaries, the Nazis exchange "Heil Hitlers" with outstretched arms. Then, the local Vichy puppet Chief (Préfet de Police), the sophisticated Capitaine Louis Renault (Claude Rains) with his police cap tilted jauntily, already identified by the pickpocket as a Parisian womanizer who takes advantage of "beautiful young girl(s)" among the refugees, greets the disdainful and arrogant German Nazi: Renault: Unoccupied France welcomes you to Casablanca. Strasser: Thank you, Captain.

It's very good to be here...(Renault introduces his aide Lt. Casselle, and is brusquely intruded upon by Italian Capt. Tonelli.) You may find the climate of Casablanca a trifle warm, Major. Strasser: Oh, we Germans must get used to all climates, from Russia to the Sahara. But perhaps you were not referring to the weather. Renault: What else, my DEAR Major? Renault assures him that everything is being done to find the murderer of the two German couriers with their valuable letters of transit: "Realizing the importance of the case, my men are rounding up twice the usual number of suspects." The witty Prefet of Police informs him that the suspected killer's identity is known, and that his arrest is being staged, in Strasser's honor, later that night at Rick's Cafe Americain - a gambling den.

Renault states that the cafe is the center of everything that happens in Casablanca, in a tribute to the film's source: "Everybody Comes to Rick's." [Later flashbacks reveal that Rick left Paris in June of 1940 - remarkably, he was able to set up a prosperous cafe/casino in only 18 months.] The scene quickly dissolves to the cafe that evening - at one edge of the airport runway. An airport's beacon light sweeps across the exterior of the cafe - resembling a prison's circular searchlight to emphasize the forced confinement of everyone in the city. Below a lit sign Rick's Cafe Americain, a Moroccan doorman lets the guests into the fashionable, upscale club. When the door opens, the smoky, Moorish atmosphere of the Cafe Americain is revealed.

For a crowd of varied nationalities, black pianist Sam (Arthur "Dooley" Wilson) jauntily sings and plays big band swing music typical of the 40s: "It Had To Be You" and "Shine." [In reality, Wilson was not a piano player but a drummer, so his piano pieces were played off-camera by a studio pianist, and he faked the piano-playing.] The camera eavesdrops on various groups found at different tables to introduce the activities of those stranded in Casablanca. Refugees attempt to escape from Nazi pursuit, hidden by the jovial, hectic and festive atmosphere in the cafe. Shady deals are being made by greedy black marketeers and the desperate, hopeful clientele of all classes and races speaking in various accents. One man bemoans the endless waiting to leave Casablanca: "Waiting, waiting, waiting. I'll never get out of here. I'll die in Casablanca." A woman sells her smuggled diamonds in a glutted market to a Moor: "But can't you make it just a little more, please?" She accepts 2,400 in Moroccan francs (about $72) as the price.

In hushed tones, others make secretive travel arrangements to get out: "The trucks are ready. The men are waiting." At another table, a man tells a second man about escaping on the fishing smack Santiago: "It leaves at 1:00 tomorrow night, here from the end of the Medina. Third boat...and bring 15,000 francs - in cash. Remember, in cash." The camera quickly pans by two Chinese refugees speaking an Oriental language to each other. In a private gambling room, Carl (S. Z. Sakall, mis-typed in the credits as S. K. Sakall), the genial German headwaiter tells one of the affluent female customers that Rick, the uncaring and sole proprietor/owner of the cafe, doesn't socialize or accept invitations to sit with the clients. Class distinctions are non-existent among those living in the chaotic world of the 1940s: Carl: Madame, he never drinks with customers. Never. I have never seen it. Female companion: What makes saloonkeeper so snobbish? Gentleman: Perhaps if you told him I ran the second largest banking house in Amsterdam. Carl: The second largest?

That wouldn't interest Rick - the leading banker in Amsterdam is now the pastry chef in our kitchen -- Gentleman: We have something to look forward to. Carl: -- and his father is the bellboy! Cynical, disillusioned, embittered, self-centered, and an exiled loner, Richard "Rick" Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) makes a delayed entrance in the film - in a foreground closeup, only his hand is first viewed scrawling/scribbling a signature of authorization/approval across a check for an advance of 1,000 francs: "OK - Rick." Then, the camera reveals the objects in front of him - an ashtray with a smoldering cigarette, an empty glass, a chess board, and a pen. It slowly follows his arm up to his immaculate white tuxedo to his sober face as he drags on his cigarette. Presiding over the gambling tables in the gaming room, Rick drinks and sits by himself, playing a solitary game of chess. His main functions in the casino are to sign checks and vouchers and to occasionally break up fights. Expressionless, he has learned how to survive and be vigilant in the hostile environment.

Moments later after a commotion develops at the entryway to the private gaming room, Rick argues with a pompous, bullying German banker (Gregory Gaye) who has been denied access. The cafe owner stands firm and pre-empts the bumptious, indignant customer from presenting his calling card - and he demonstrates his anti-German dislike by ripping it up. Refusing to be intimidated, Rick doesn't explain the reason for refusing to do business with him - just a cryptic conversation to deflate him and dispose of him: Rick: Your cash is good at the bar. German: What? Do you know who I am? Rick: I do. You're lucky the bar's open to you. German: This is outrageous. I shall report it to the Angriff. Italian-born Guillermo Ugarte (Peter Lorre), a slimy North African black market dealer in extra-legal items, weasels his way into the gambling room.

He nervously observes Rick's anti-German insult, questions the evasive American's origins - and his cynicism, and then expresses sympathy for the "two German couriers" that were murdered: Ugarte: You know, Rick, watching you just now with the 'Deutschebank' [the German banker], one would think you'd been doing this all your life. Rick: Oh, what makes you think I haven't? Ugarte: Oh, nothing. But when you first came to Casablanca, I thought... Rick: You thought what? Ugarte: What right do I have to think?..(hypocritically) Too bad about those two German couriers, wasn't it? Rick: (disparagingly) They got a lucky break. Yesterday, they were just two German clerks. Today, they're the Honored Dead. Ugarte: You are a very cynical person, Rick, if you forgive me for saying so. Rick: I forgive you. Rick is contemptuous of Ugarte's "cut-rate" business of selling exit visas for half of Renault's price - and Ugarte senses it, with a sad tone.

Ugarte explains his plan to leave Casablanca once and for all: Ugarte: You despise me, don't you? Rick: Well, if I gave you any thought, I probably would. Ugarte: But why? Oh, you object to the kind of business I do, huh? But think of all those poor refugees who must rot in this place if I didn't help them. Well that's not so bad, through ways of my own, I provide them with exit visas. Rick: For a price, Ugarte, for a price. Ugarte: But think of all the poor devils who can't meet Renault's price. I get it for them for half. Is that so parasitic? Rick: I don't mind a parasite. I object to a cut-rate one. Ugarte: Well, Rick, after tonight, I'll be through with the whole business, and I'm leaving finally, this Casablanca. Rick: (quipping) Who'd you bribe for your visa, Renault or yourself?

Ugarte shows Rick two non-rescindable French General-signed letters of transit out of Casablanca that allow their possessor to travel without a regular passport or visa. [The pronunciation of the General's name is muffled - whether the irrevocable letters of transit were signed by General Charles DeGaulle or General Maxime Weygand, the military-Vichy commander in French N. Africa, is in question. Weygand would be the more accurate and likely one to issue irrevocable letters of transit - although they probably never existed.] His display of the visas insinuates that he killed the German couriers. His plan is to sell them and make a fortune - "more money than even I have ever dreamed of." Chain-smoking nervously, small-time operator Ugarte trusts only Rick and explains his criteria with an ironic compliment: "You know Rick, I have many a friend in Casablanca, but somehow, just because you despise me you are the only one I trust." Ugarte temporarily entrusts the letters of transit with the trustworthy cafe proprietor.

Ugarte hopes that Rick admires him: "Rick, I hope you are more impressed with me now, huh?" With a slight sneer on his face, Rick tells Ugarte that he has heard a rumor that the two murdered German couriers were carrying letters of transit - implying that Ugarte was involved in their demise. Ugarte commiserates sarcastically: "Oh, I've heard that rumor too. Poor devils." Rick compliments Ugarte: "Yes, you're right, Ugarte. I am a little more impressed with you," referring to Ugarte's bold murders to get the exit visas, as well as a little disgust that he would have gone so far. Rick hides the two priceless letters of transit for him, secretly stashing them in the club's upright piano while Sam sings and plays: "Who's Got Trouble? - Knock on Wood" - the song title provides commentary that is pregnant with meaning. The king of the Black Market and rival Blue Parrot cafe proprietor, a large-figured Senor Ferrari (Sydney Greenstreet), enters the cafe. Immediately after the song ends, the white-suited, large man offers to buy the cafe - an offer that he has made (and had rejected) numerous times.

Rick isn't interested in selling, so Ferrari offers instead to buy the contract of Rick's piano player Sam (Dooley Wilson in his film debut), and then criticizes Rick for his "isolationist" policy: Rick: It's not for sale. Ferrari: You haven't heard my offer. Rick: It's not for sale at any price. Ferrari: What do you want for Sam? Rick (looking down and with understatement): I don't buy or sell human beings. Ferrari: Too bad. That's Casablanca's leading commodity. In refugees alone, we could make a fortune, if you work with me through the black market. Rick: Suppose you run your business and let me run mine. Ferrari: Suppose we ask Sam. Maybe he'd like to make a change? Rick: Suppose we do. Ferrari: My dear Rick, when will you realize that in this world, today, isolationism is no longer a practical policy? Sam is asked about his loyalties, and steadfastly wishes to remain with Rick ("I like it fine here"). Rick is ultimately detached from politics. Rick is also divorced from romantic associations and commitment.

At the bar, a cute, infatuated French bargirl Yvonne (Madeleine LeBeau) confrontationally begs for his interest, but his alcoholic mistress no longer figures in his life: Yvonne: Where were you last night? Rick: That's so long ago, I don't remember. Yvonne: Will I see you tonight? Rick: I never make plans that far ahead. Rick orders his crazy Russian bartender Sascha (Leonid Kinskey) not to serve Yvonne any more drinks, and then orders Sascha to call for a cab to get her to leave quietly and go home. Outside, the rejected, drunken mistress tells him: "What a fool I was to fall for a man like you." After putting her in the cab with Sascha, he turns and sees Renault relaxing on the front patio terrace at one of the outdoor tables. The opportunistic police Capitaine Renault, who enjoys a social friendship with Rick, has witnessed her send-off. He resents Rick's easy way with women and wryly observes that maybe his chances with the discarded Yvonne will now improve: How extravagant you are - throwing away women like that. Some day they may be scarce.

Oh, I think now I shall pay a call on Yvonne, maybe get her on the rebound, huh? Rick politely calls Renault promiscuous: "When it comes to women, you're a true democrat." Casablanca (1942) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC In Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications. Director: a list of 21 titles created 18 Sep 2012 a list of 28 titles created 05 Feb 2013 a list of 32 titles created 03 Mar 2013 a list of 27 titles created 4 months ago a list of 49 titles created 1 month ago Search for " Casablanca " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site?

Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Won 3 Oscars. Another 4 wins & 8 nominations. See more awards » Videos Following the death of a publishing tycoon, news reporters scramble to discover the meaning of his final utterance. Director: Orson Welles A Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run, and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother. Director: Alfred Hitchcock A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbours from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder. Director: Alfred Hitchcock A hapless New York advertising executive is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive. Director: Alfred Hitchcock A criminal pleads insanity after getting into trouble again and once in the mental institution rebels against the oppressive nurse and rallies up the scared patients. Director: Milos Forman A San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend's wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock Directors: Victor Fleming, George Cukor, and 1 more credit » Stars: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Thomas Mitchell A jury holdout attempts to prevent a miscarriage of justice by forcing his colleagues to reconsider the evidence. Director: Sidney Lumet When an open-minded Jewish librarian and his son become victims of the Holocaust, he uses a perfect mixture of will, humor and imagination to protect his son from the dangers around their camp. Director: Roberto Benigni An insane general triggers a path to nuclear holocaust that a war room full of politicians and generals frantically try to stop. Director: Stanley Kubrick A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent-film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity. Director: Billy Wilder A bounty hunting scam joins two men in an uneasy alliance against a third in a race to find a fortune in gold buried in a remote cemetery. Director: Sergio Leone Edit Storyline In World War II Casablanca, Rick Blaine, exiled American and former freedom fighter, runs the most popular nightspot in town. The cynical lone wolf Blaine comes into the possession of two valuable letters of transit.

When Nazi Major Strasser arrives in Casablanca, the sycophantic police Captain Renault does what he can to please him, including detaining a Czechoslovak underground leader Victor Laszlo. Much to Rick's surprise, Lazslo arrives with Ilsa, Rick's one time love. Rick is very bitter towards Ilsa, who ran out on him in Paris, but when he learns she had good reason to, they plan to run off together again using the letters of transit. Well, that was their original plan.... Written by Gary Jackson <garyjack5@cogeco.ca> See All (148) » Taglines: As big and timely a picture as ever you've seen! You can tell by the cast it's important! gripping! big! See more » Genres: Rated PG for mild violence | See all certifications » Parents Guide: 23 January 1943 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Everybody Comes to Rick's See more » Filming Locations: Did You Know?

Trivia The French dialogue between Yvonne and the French officer translates as: French Officer: "Hey you, you're not French to go out with a German like that!" Yvonne: "What are you butting in for?" French Officer: "I am butting in..." Yvonne: "It's none of your business!" See more » Goofs Major Strasser's airplane has Nazi markings on the left side, but not the right side of the plane. See more » Quotes [first lines] Narrator : With the coming of the Second World War, many eyes in imprisoned Europe turned hopefully, or desperately, toward the freedom of the Americas. Lisbon became the great embarkation point. But, not everybody could get to Lisbon directly, and so a tortuous, roundabout refugee trail sprang up - Paris to Marseilles... across the Mediterranean to Oran... then by train, or auto, or foot across the rim of Africa, to Casablanca in French Morocco. Here, the fortunate ones through money, or ...

[...] (Greenwich, CT United States) – See all my reviews "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. They are great parts besides, very multilayered and resistant to stereotype, and both actors give career performances in what were great careers. 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.

Renault, the police prefect in Casablanca who is played by Claude Rains with a wonderful subtlety that builds as the film progresses. Theirs is a relationship of almost perfect cynicism, one-liners and professions of neutrality that provide much humor, as well as give a necessary display of Rick's darker side before and after Ilsa's arrival. But there's so much to grab onto with a film like this. You can talk about the music, or the way the setting becomes a living character with its floodlights and Moorish traceries. 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. Renault is "trustworthy," and that, if she does "a bad thing" to secure her husband's happiness, it would be forgivable.

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. "Casablanca" is not only exceptionally well-paced but incredibly well-shot, every frame feeling well-thought-out and legendary without distracting from the overall story.

Curtiz was a product of the studio system, not a maverick like Welles or Chaplin, but he found greatness just as often, and "Casablanca," also a product of the studio system, is the best example. It's a film that reminds us why we go back to Hollywood again and again when we want to refresh our imaginations, and why we call it "the dream factory." As the hawker of linens tells Ilsa at the bazaar, "You won't find a treasure like this in all Morocco." Nor, for that matter, in all the world. 263 of 315 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes SparkNotes: Casablanca: Context SparkNotes Table of Contents Plot Summary The director of Casablanca, Michael Curtiz, was born in Budapest, Hungary, in the late 1800s. He began making films there in 1912, but left Hungary in 1919 because of political unrest.

After leaving Hungary, he became a prolific filmmaker in Europe, primarily in Austria, and in 1926 the head of Warner Brothers’ Burbank, California studio, Jack Warner, asked him to come to Hollywood. Over the course of his career, Curtiz made almost one hundred films for Warner Brothers, including musicals, detective stories, and horror films. Curtiz never mastered the English language, though, and his cast and crew, disgruntled by Curtiz's stubbornness and mean streak, often made fun of his linguistic mistakes, calling them "Curtizisms." Casablanca was released in 1942, and it was an immediate success, despite Warner Brothers' fears that it would fail. The film was nominated for eight Oscars and won three, including Best Director for Curtiz. Despite the award, Curtiz never really received credit for the film's remarkable achievements. Critics viewed Curtiz as a skilled technician, but they had little praise for his artistic sensibilities. Curtiz's other films never garnered much recognition, and even the success of Casablanca was not enough to elevate his reputation. Most of Casablanca's numerous fans wouldn't be able to identify its director by name.

Casablanca has become a legend in large part because of its two leading actors, Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, who play Rick Blaine and Ilsa Lund, respectively. Bogart's and Bergman's portrayals of Rick and Ilsa's tortured reunion and separations are as stunning now as they were in 1942. Yet both Bogart and Bergman proved to be difficult participants in Casablanca. Bogart acted in four other movies in 1942, and Casablanca was far from his favorite. Bergman took the part of Ilsa only because she was initially denied a role she really wanted, the female lead in Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. When she was eventually chosen for that film, she stopped thinking about Casablanca, prompting the envious Paul Heinreid, who plays Victor Laszlo, to denigrate her as a careerist "tiger." Other parts of the making of Casablanca are also sobering and pedestrian. The movie was filmed in a period of less than three rushed months, the actors didn't like each other or the director, and the screenwriters reworked the script on the fly.

The film was one of many that Warner Brothers made during the summer of 1942, and it was hardly the most expensive or the one they anticipated to become a major hit. In short, the film was just another Hollywood studio production, a chaotic collaboration whose various parts might or might not come together successfully. Of course, its parts did come together successfully—magnificently—but a few happy accidents are also responsible for the film's tremendous popularity and classic status. For example, composer Max Steiner created an original song to replace "As Time Goes By," a song he hated, but the scenes were not re-filmed because Bergman had already had her hair cut for her role in For Whom the Bell Tolls. Likewise, the screenplay for Casablanca evolved out of a play entitled Everybody Comes to Rick's, which was written in 1941, before the United States entered World War II. The play has a clear anti-Nazi slant, just as Casablanca does, but prior to Pearl Harbor, a movie studio in the neutral United States would probably not have made such a political movie. In this respect, the timing was perfect.

Casablanca is an unusual World War II movie in that it isn't overly propagandistic—in other words, it doesn't go overboard in preaching about the justness of the cause and the certainty of victory. In 1942, the U.S. was suffering in the Pacific, and Allied victory seemed far from certain. Casablanca captures this unique moment in America's part in the conflict, when the nation was fully at war but not yet fully indoctrinated in a war ideology. Throughout the film, the war's outcome is uncertain, and Casablanca is a place of anxiety and uncertainty. This uncertainty lends the movie a genuine tension and renders the political activities of Laszlo and Rick all the more heroic. Just the title of the film is enough to conjure up visions of a distant, longed-for past. Though perhaps not the greatest of the old Hollywood black-and-white films—that honor would probably fall to Citizen Kane-—Casablanca may be the most loved. When someone says, "They don't make movies like they used to," it is a good bet that Casablanca is the film they're measuring against the disappointing present.

Unlike many other great successes, Casablanca's popularity is well deserved. The film is deeply intelligent and functions both as a political allegory about World War II and a timeless romance. While many critics respect the film for the former achievement, the film's overwhelming popularity rests squarely on the latter, and Casablanca remains one of the greatest love stories in movie history. More Help SparkNotes: Casablanca: Character List Character List Richard "Rick" Blaine - Played by Humphrey Bogart The owner of Rick's Café Americain and the film's protagonist. When we first meet Rick, he is a jaded bar owner in Casablanca who wears a dour expression as he drinks and plays chess alone. He constantly proclaims his freedom from all bonds, be they political or personal. After Ilsa enters the picture, he undergoes a considerable change. In a flashback, we see Rick in Paris. He is in love with Ilsa and visibly happy, and he is devastated when she doesn't show up at the train station.

Rick never turns back into the lighthearted lover he was in Paris, but he does overcome his cynicism and apathy to become a self-sacrificing idealist, committed to helping the Allied cause in World War II. Ilsa Lund - Played by Ingrid Bergman A Norwegian beauty who is Victor Laszlo's wife and Rick's former lover. A devoted wife, Ilsa refuses an exit visa when Laszlo is unable to obtain one as well, saying she prefers to wait with him and leave Casablanca together. In Paris, Ilsa had fallen in love with Rick, because at the time she had believed Laszlo was dead. When she learned her husband was still alive, she sent a note to Rick at the train station, saying she could never see him again. Despite her obvious commitment to her husband and her confessions of love to Rick both in Paris and later in Casablanca, she rarely displays much passion. Ultimately, the letter may be the best insight into her personality. She can be so cold and distant that reading her true thoughts or feelings can be almost impossible. Victor Laszlo - Played by Paul Henreid A Czech nationalist writer and anti-Nazi partisan.

Laszlo is a committed political leader who sees defeating the Nazis as his raison d'ètre. He endured time in a concentration camp, but he remains enthusiastic, courageous, and outspoken. Victor is a devoted husband to Ilsa and is willing to sacrifice himself to ensure her safety. Captain Louis Renault - Played by Claude Rains Vichy France's prefect of police in Casablanca. If Laszlo represents pure political idealism, Louis represents the very opposite—unscrupulous cynicism. Louis, like the Vichy government he serves and represents, has given up caring about right and wrong, and his only loyalty is to the winning side. (The Vichy government cooperated with the Germans during World War II.) Louis is a hypocrite, castigating Rick for allowing gambling in his bar just as he pockets his earnings for the evening. Despite his self-serving behavior and seeming amorality, Louis is always a good friend to Rick and shows signs of being a decent person at heart. At the end of the movie, this seed of decency blooms into genuine political action, as he refuses to arrest Rick and decides to join his friend in exile from Casablanca.

Louis approaches everything with wit, and many of the film's best lines are his. Major Heinrich Strasser - Played by Conrad Veidt A Nazi commander sent to Casablanca to capture Laszlo. Strasser is a stereotypical Nazi villain, ruthlessly cruel and robotically efficient. From the moment of his arrival in Casablanca, he is all business, immediately inquiring about the murderers of the German couriers. He is willing to resort to cruelty in punishing his enemies and is determined to prevent Laszlo from leaving Casablanca at all costs. Unlike Nazis depicted in other films, Strasser is never overtly sadistic. Despite his unpleasant demeanor, he is always civil and polite. Signor Ferrari - Played by Sydney Greenstreet The owner of the Blue Parrot. Like Rick's Café Americain, the Blue Parrot is a Casablanca bar, though it is noticeably less popular. At the beginning of the film, Ferrari offers to buy Rick's Café and the services of the pianist Sam. Rick initially refuses both offers, but when he decides to leave Casablanca, he does sell out to Ferrari.

In addition to running the Blue Parrot, Ferrari is involved in the Casablanca black market and sells, among other things, exit visas. Although Ferrari is mostly concerned with making money, he is at heart a good person, which he demonstrates when he suggests that Laszlo approach Rick about the letters of transit. Ugarte - Played by Peter Lorre A member of Casablanca's criminal underworld. Ugarte's business is selling letters of transit to refugees. He may be helping them escape to Lisbon, but his aim is profit, not charity. Ugarte murders the German couriers to obtain the valuable letters of transit, which he plans to sell to Laszlo for a considerable fee. He is arrested before he can complete the sale. Yvonne - Played by Madeleine LeBeau A French woman who hangs out at Rick's. At the beginning of the movie, Yvonne is Rick's neglected, miserable lover. After being ignored by Rick one night, she shows up at the bar with a German soldier the very next evening. Her one redeeming moment comes during the singing of "La Marseillaise," when she shows herself to be a loyal patriot.

Sam - Played by Dooley Wilson The pianist at Rick's Café. Sam is a warm-hearted, agreeable musician and a fiercely loyal friend to Rick. In Casablanca, he is Rick's only link to the past, since the two were together in Paris as well. When Rick drinks himself into a depressive stupor, he generally wants to be alone, but he doesn't seem to mind Sam's presence. At times, Sam seems like Rick's older brother or guardian. He looks out for Rick by trying to deny Ilsa's request that he play "As Time Goes By," and he cautions Rick about drinking too much. While Sam is a vivid presence in the scenes in which he is featured, his character is never fully developed. Annina Brandel - Played by Joy Page A young Bulgarian newlywed who desperately wants to escape to America. Mrs. Brandel comes to Rick to ask about Louis's reliability. Louis has offered to give her and her husband exit visas to leave Casablanca in exchange for sexual favors, and she fears that this is their only option. Her plight brings out the idealist in Rick, who arranges for Mr.

Brandel to win big at the roulette table, scoring enough money to purchase the exit visas. In this way, Rick allows the Brandels to leave Casablanca with their marriage uncorrupted. Jan Brandel - Played by Helmut Dantine Annina's husband, who wants to escape to America with his wife. Unaware that Louis has made Annina a proposal, Mr. Brandel believes that the only hope of escaping Casablanca is by winning big at the roulette table. Because of Rick's generosity, this is exactly what happens. Berger - A Norwegian member of the Casablanca underground. Carl - Played by S. Z. Sakall A waiter at Rick's Café. Carl is an amiable staff member who also participates in the Casablanca anti-Nazi underground. He sees through Rick's cynicism and considers him a decent, generous man. Sacha - Played by Leonid Kinskey The bartender at Rick's Café. Sacha is more playful, nosy, and cynical than Carl, but like his coworker, he is a member of the underground and can see Rick's essential generosity and goodness. Pickpocket - Played by Curt Bois A Casablanca street criminal.

The pickpocket reveals the seedy, street-hustling, outlaw nature of Casablanca. He warns people to be careful and alert, then leaves with their wallets. Singer - Played by Corinna Mura A guitarist and singer at Rick's. The singer's performances entertain customers, and they also give them cover to make black market purchases and obtain illegal exit visas. Laszlo and Berger are able to discuss such a sale during her performance. Abdul -

Question: Who was the female lead in the film "Casablanca"?
Answer: Ingrid Bergman