Casablanca

Released: November 26, 1942

Studio: Warner Bros.

Genre: romance

Box Office (numbers in millions)

Domestic: 1.72 Worldwide: ?

Adjusted for Inflation:

Domestic: 346.00 Worldwide: ?

Directing: Michael Curtiz

Screenwriting: Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Paul Henreid

Review:

This is “one of the most famous films of all time” ^VD “and indisputably one of the landmarks of the American cinema.” ^FS It is “achingly nostalgic, clear cut, ruthlessly well plotted – and a film which has triumphantly withstood the test of time.” ^T98 “The only movie that could rival the average Shakespeare play for number of lasting phrases contributed to everyday speech.” ^ML

It was also “the definitive romantic picture of Hollywood’s Golden Age.” ^TV “Only Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind could rival Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman as cinema’s greatest pair of star-crossed lovers.” ^TV Bogart is a jaded, American expatriate running a nightclub in Nazi-occupied Morocco. Former lover Ilsa Lund (Bergman), “who mysteriously left him in Paris, returns to his life and inspires him to stand up for the French Resistance with her husband Victor Laszlo (Henreid).” ^FS

“What began as an unproduced play called Everybody Comes to Rick’s would eventually become the best-loved wartime romance in Hollywood history. But first there were rewrites – lots of them. Casablanca was shot sequentially because the script changed continually throughout filming. You’d never know it now: Every word seems as inviolable as sacred text.” ^TV

In addition, “Rains is marvelous as dapper police chief, and nobody sings ‘As Time Goes By’ like Dooley Wilson.” ^LM Casablanca also has “one of the best endings ever caught on film.” ^VD “In the final scene in the fog at the airport, [Rick] dutifully and nobly sacrifices his love for [Ilsa] – ‘We’ll always have Paris.’” ^FS