Casablanca

1942
PG
1h 42m

IMDb RATING

8.5/10

617K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

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A cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.A cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.A cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

8.5/10

617K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

1,090

See production info at IMDbPro

Top rated movie #45

Won 3 Oscars
- 14 wins & 11 nominations total

Carl
(as S.K. Sakall)

Madeleine Lebeau

Yvonne
(as Madeleine LeBeau)

Dooley Wilson

Joy Page

Annina Brandel

John Qualen

Berger

Leonid Kinskey

Sascha

Curt Bois

Pickpocket

Abdullah Abbas

Arab
(uncredited)

Enrique Acosta

Guest at Rick's
(uncredited)

Ed Agresti

Bar Patron
(uncredited)

Arnet Amos

French Soldier
(uncredited)
…

Best Picture Winners by Year

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List

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Many of the actors who played the Nazis were in fact European Jews who had fled Nazi occupation.

Goofs
(at around 37 mins) When Rick is getting drunk he ask Sam, "It's December 1941 in Casablanca, what time is it in New York?" After Sam replies, "My watch stopped," he goes on to say, "I'll bet they're asleep in New York. I'll bet they're asleep all over America." However, Rick is not referring to the actual time (noted by giving a month and year rather than a time) and is actually making reference to, in pre-Pearl Harbor America, most Americans are "asleep" when it comes to the war and fighting the Axis powers. This is an intentional attempt at a poetic reference, not a statement of fact.

Quotes
Captain Renault: What in heaven's name brought you to Casablanca?
Rick: My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters.
Captain Renault: The waters? What waters? We're in the desert.
Rick: I was misinformed.

Alternate versions
As late as 1974, the references to an extra-marital affair were banned in Ireland. The Irish cut got rid of two important sequences. First, after Ilsa tells Rick that she had left him after finding out that Viktor was still alive, the embraces and dialogue that followed were cut. Second, the emotional dialogue at the end of the film from Ilsa's line "You're saying that only to make me go" to Rick's line "What I've got to do, you haven't any part of". This led to Irish audiences' being bemused by the relationship between Rick and Ilsa, and often interpreting Rick's final speech beginning "I'm no good at being noble" as a reflection on the debilitating effects of war.

Connections
Edited into 77 Sunset Strip: The Secret of Adam Cain (1959)

Soundtracks
La Marseillaise
(1792) (uncredited)
Written by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle
Arranged by Max Steiner
Played during the opening credits
Sung by Madeleine Lebeau and others at Rick's
Variations played often in the score

User reviews1.5K

Review

Featured review

As time goes by, it's still one of the all-time greats...

While my personal Bogey favorite is still his Sam Spade in 'The Maltese Falcon', his cynical nightclub owner, Rick, in 'Casablanca', is also a standout. 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.

Nobody associated with the film guessed that it would become a screen classic, least of all its director, Michael Curtiz, the prolific WB director to whom it was just another assignment. It went on to win the Oscar for Best Film of 1943 with an award for Curtiz' taut direction.

Oddly enough, the film's memorable airport ending was written and conceived just shortly before filming wrapped up, with neither Bergman nor Bogart knowing whether or not she would leave him for husband Paul Henried. Wartime audiences loved the film. 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. Incredible nonsense!! As a matter of fact, the film's black and white cinematography was nominated for an Oscar!

Ingrid Bergman was at the peak of her radiant beauty in this one--and Bogey was firing on all six cylinders. Great chemistry!

As time goes by, we still have 'Casablanca'...