Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Triple Oscar winning classic movie with all star cast.
What is there that a reviewer can say about "Casablanca" which is new? Surely just about everyone has now seen this film and everybody knows the plot which is set during World War Two at a night club owned by American Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) in Casablanca frequented by many dubious characters of all nationalities. Just to complicate matters in walks Ilsa Lund Laszlo (Ingrid Bergman), his ex lover from years before who had abandoned him. She is now married to resistance leader Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) on the run from the Germans. Bogart can help by supplying them with the vital transit papers they desperately need to escape to America but is he willing to do that when his policy has always been "I stick my neck out for nobody"?One of the great Warner Bros. films of the forties - possibly the most productive decade in the history of Hollywood .... and how about all those "classic lines"? It is very unlikely that any other movie contained as many quotable lines as can be found in "Casablanca". Here are just a few of my many favourite lines from the film: Humphrey Bogart: "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine". Ingrid Bergman: "Play it Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By'." Bogart: "You played it for her, you can play it for me .... if she can stand it, I can. Play it". Bogart: "Here's looking at you, kid". Bogart: "The problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world". Claude Rains: "Major Strasser has been shot. Round up all the usual suspects". Bogart: "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship". The film is worth seeing over and over again just to hear Bogart uttering those unforgettable lines in his inimitable style. And of course to enjoy that celebrated song by Dooley Wilson - "As Time Goes By". "Casablanca" featured one of those all star casts that only come along once in a lifetime - Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, S.Z. Sakall, and Dooley Wilson. (The first choice of leading players was to have been Ronald Reagan, Ann Sheridan and Dennis Morgan but if this proposed casting had gone ahead I doubt if the film would have received the cult following it has today!). "Casablanca" won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director (Michael Curtiz) and Best Screenplay (Julius and Philip Epstein). It also had nominations for Best Actor (Bogart), Best Supporting Actor (Claude Rains), Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing and Best Score. I was really sorry that Bogart didn't receive the award for Best Actor but he was recognised some years later when he won the Best Actor Award for "The African Queen".
Rating: - Here's Looking At Casablanca Again
Casablanca is one of the most beloved films in movie history. It is a timeless classic that has crossed over from mere entertainment into pure Americana. Lines like "here's looking at you kid" and "play it again Sam" are part of our lexicon and "As Time Goes By" is practically as famous as the movie itself. Humphrey Bogart is dashing as club owner Rick Blaine and Ingrid Bergman is luminous as his former paramour Ilsa Lund who comes back into his life with her husband Victor Laslzo played by Paul Henreid. This sets up a love triangle that famously concludes on the airstrip. Director Michael Curtiz won the 1943 Best Director Oscar for his work and the film won the Oscar for Best Picture as well as writers Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch picking up the Oscar for Best Screenplay for one of the most memorable screenplays of all time.
Rating: - Intrigue, corruption, love and tension in every scene
This 1942 film is a classic, and rightly so. Staring Humphrey Bogart,
Ingrid Bergman and Paul Heinreid, it was originally just another one
of the more than 50 films turned out each year by each of the major
studios that dominated Hollywood in those days. It's release
coincidentally coincided with the Nazi occupation of France, and its
theme and its timeless love story caught the public's
imagination.Casablanca in French Morocco is under French rule and
one of the places in the world where refuges can get safe passage
visas to go on to Lisbon and eventually to America and freedom. It is
seething with intrigue and corruption. Humphrey Bogart is an
ex-patriot American citizen who runs Rick's Cafe, where much of the
commerce takes place. Peter Lorre is a smuggler, Sidney Greenstreet
is a black marketeer, and Martin Dooley is the piano player known as
Sam. When, one evening Ingrid Bergman comes in to the cafe on the
arm of her husband, Paul Heinreid, and asks the piano player to
"play it Sam", he reluctantly plays "As Time Goes
By." This melody which is played throughout the movie, is the
glue that defines the romance. There's electricity between the
lovers. There's intrigue and double dealing. Something exciting
happens in each scene. And the acting is so good that it brought me
right into Casablanca. The story is always clear. The danger is
always there. The tension sizzles. One particularly meaningful
scene was when some Nazi soldiers gather round the piano and sing an
ominous song to the "Fatherland". It makes everyone in the
Rick's cafe very uncomfortable. That's when Paul Heinried instructs
the orchestra to play the French national anthem, the
"Marseilles". Everyone starts to sing. The Nazis are
silenced. The music takes over. I found my eyes filled with
tears. The video I rented included a "made for TV program"
that featured interviews with some of the original writers and
recollections from people working on the set at the time. There was
an interview with the man who did the music. He said that when he
wrote that into the script he actually felt tears running down his
face. It was the same powerful emotion that I felt too. The movie
was shot in black and white. It was also shot in a studio in
Hollywood. The airplane scene used a cardboard cutout of a plane and
hired midgets dressed as mechanics. Shot from a distance and through
a fog it was realistic and served the same kind of purpose of
today's video imaging and special effects. Of course all the
principals are dead, but their celluloid images in a timeless classic
film lingers on.
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