Casablanca Overview:

Casablanca (1942) was a Drama - Romance Film directed by Michael Curtiz and produced by Hal B. Wallis and Jack L. Warner.

SYNOPSIS

Perennially at the top of every all-time-greats list, and indisputably one of the landmarks of the American cinema. Bogart is an American expatriate and war profiteer in WWII Morocco, content to merely run the Cafe Americain until love (in the form of a luminous Bergman) returns to his life and inspires him to stand up for the French Resistance. An accidental Hollywood masterpiece, it just gets better as time goes by.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

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Casablanca was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1989.

Academy Awards 1943 --- Ceremony Number 16 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best ActorHumphrey BogartNominated
Best Supporting ActorClaude RainsNominated
Best CinematographyArthur EdesonNominated
Best DirectorMichael CurtizWon
Best Film EditingOwen MarksNominated
Best Music - ScoringMax SteinerNominated
Best PictureWarner Bros.Won
Best WritingJulius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard KochWon
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BlogHub Articles:

Rick's Cafe and the Moral Maze: Love, War, and Choices in “Casablanca”

By Stephen Reginald on Apr 3, 2024 From Classic Movie Man

Rick's Cafe and the Moral Maze: Love, War, and Choices in “Casablanca” Guest blog post written by Stephen Galen EstevanWe all know the lines, we've probably seen the tearful goodbye a hundred times, but what truly sets this 1942 classic apart? It's not just the trench coat drama or ... Read full article


Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Paul Henreid have a date with fate in “Casablanca”

By Stephen Reginald on Dec 12, 2023 From Classic Movie Man

Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Paul Henreid have a date with fate in “Casablanca” Casablanca, the 1942 classic directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Paul Henreid is the third film to be shown in this continuing monthly series. Winner of t... Read full article


Cinemallennials: Casablanca (1942)?

By Annmarie Gatti on Sep 20, 2021 From Classic Movie Hub Blog

Cinemallennials: Casablanca (1942)? For those of you who are unfamiliar with Cinemallennials, it is a bi-weekly podcast in which I, and another millennial, watch a classic film that we?ve never seen before, and discuss its significance and relevance in today?s world. In this episode, I tal... Read full article


Play It Again, Max: Casablanca and the Battle over ?As Time Goes By?(Exclusive by Author Steven C. Smith)

By Guest Post on Jan 28, 2021 From Classic Movie Hub Blog

Casablanca and the Battle over ?As Time Goes By?(Exclusive by Author Steven C. Smith) By mid-1941, Max Steiner had already scored over thirty films at Warner Bros. since becoming that studio?s highest paid staff composer in 1937. Many of his projects had been prestigious and highly profitable.... Read full article


?La Marseillaise? Plays, as Rick, Ilsa and Refugees Find Their Footing in Casablanca (Guest Post)

By Guest Post on Nov 25, 2020 From Classic Movie Hub Blog

?La Marseillaise? Even more than the famous ?Here?s Looking at You? scene, the ?La Marseillaise? scene in Casablanca is the one scene in the film that evokes more emotion from audiences than any other, as it propels the narration in a new direction and reveals more about the characters than we pr... Read full article


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Quotes from

Rick: I don't like disturbances in my place.
[to the German officer]
Rick: Either lay off politics, or get out.


Rick: Don't you sometimes wonder if it's worth all this? I mean what you're fighting for.
Victor Laszlo: You might as well question why we breathe. If we stop breathing, we'll die. If we stop fighting our enemies, the world will die.
Rick: Well, what of it? It'll be out of its misery.
Victor Laszlo: You know how you sound, Mr. Blaine? Like a man who's trying to convince himself of something he doesn't believe in his heart.


Ilsa: When I said I would never leave you.
Rick: And you never will. But I've got a job to do, too. Where I'm going, you can't follow. What I've got to do, you can't be any part of. Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that.
[Ilsa lowers her head and begins to cry]
Rick: Now, now...
[Rick gently places his hand under her chin and raises it so their eyes meet]
Rick: Here's looking at you kid.


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Facts about

Venerable character actor Clarence Muse, who lost the role of Sam to Dooley Wilson, played the role in the 1955 TV series. Ludwig Stössel was promoted from the minor role of Leuchtag to the S.Z. Sakall part (renamed Ludwig), Marcel Dalio was elevated from the minor role of Emil, the croupier, to the Claude Rains role (renamed Renaud), and Dan Seymour was promoted from the small part of Abdul to Ferrari, the Sydney Greenstreet role.
"As Time Goes By" was written by lifelong bachelor Herman Hupfeld and debuted in 1931's Broadway show "Everybody's Welcome", sung by Frances Williams, It had been a personal favorite of playwright and high school teacher Murray Burnett who, seven years later, visited Vienna just after the Nazis had entered. Later, after visiting a café in south France where a black pianist had entertained a mixed crowd of Nazis, French and refugees, Burnett was inspired to write the melodrama "Everybody Comes to Rick's", which was optioned for production by Martin Gabel and Carly Wharton, and later, Warners. After the film's release, "As Time Goes By" stayed on radio's "Hit Parade" for 21 weeks. However, because of the coincidental musicians' union recording ban, the 1931 Rudy Vallee version became the smash hit. (It contains the rarely-sung introductory verse, not heard in the film.) Max Steiner, in a 1943 interview, admitted that the song "must have had something to attract so much attention".
The original unproduced play, "Everybody Comes to Rick's", was found by Irene Lee, who headed the story department at Warner Bros., on a trip to office of Jack Wilk, story editor for Warner East Coast operations in New York, where the typed script had sat for a year. It arrived at Warner Bros. Studios to be read as a potential film project on the day after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.
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Best Picture Oscar 1943











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National Film Registry

Casablanca

Released 1942
Inducted 1989
(Sound)




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Also directed by Michael Curtiz




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Also produced by Hal B. Wallis




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