Casablanca (1942)
Directed by Michael Curtiz

Film Review

Just what is it that makes Casablanca such an enduring classic and the most popular romantic film drama of all time?  Is it the iconic pairing of Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman? Is it the seductive blend of romance, melodrama, intrigue and comedy?  Is it the stylish, highly atmospheric film noir look?  These all play a part, but probably what most makes Casablanca such a great film is that it deals with universal truths about the human condition, notions of love, virtue, honour and sacrifice, and in way that is refreshingly direct and easy to engage with.

For all the praise that is heaped on Casablanca, it is not without its flaws (although these are easily overlooked) and its production was beset with some major problems (famously, the screenwriters were still working on the ending whilst the film was being shot).  Yet Casablanca has an allure and a magic that almost defies description and which any self-respecting film executive would give his high teeth for.  It is a film which you can watch time and again and still be moved by, a film which rewards the eye, the intellect and the heart, a film which is the very embodiment of the cinema classic.  It is a rare thing indeed - a popular film which is also a masterpiece of cinematic art.

It's hard to know where Casablanca's greatness stems from.  Michael Curtiz's meticulous direction certainly plays a part - Curtiz was, after all, a director with a slew of classic films to his name, including The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), The Sea Hawk (1940) and Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), to name just three. The lead actors certainly deserve some credit.  In his first romantic lead, Bogart gives arguably his best performance, that of a man who struggles to contain a broken heart within a gradually crumbling shell of hard cynicism - a far cry from his previous hardboiled gangster portrayals in The Petrified Forest (1936) and The Roaring Twenties (1939).   Bergman has never looked so radiant and fragile as she does in this film.  Paul Henreid is the attractive third element in the ill-fated love-triangle and Conrad Veidt (famous for the German expressionist masterpieces Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari (1920) and Orlacs Hände (1924)) makes a deliciously villainous Nazi officer.  Most memorable is Claude Rains as the comically corrupt Captain Renault - his entertaining turn undercuts the melodrama beautifully without diminishing its impact.  Rains was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1944, whilst Bogart received a nomination for Best Actor.

And then there's Max Steiner intensely evocative score, which skilfully weaves in the film's most famous air, "As Time Goes By" at every opportunity.  It is this music, along with Arthur Edeson's film noir expressionist cinematography which lends the film its unforgettable mood of tension and oppression, with a note of very poignant lyricism.  Both Steiner and Edeson were nominated for Oscars for their work on this film, two of the eight nominations which resulted in three awards: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay.

Casablanca may be a great love story but it is also a pretty blatant propaganda film.  As was typical for a film made during WWII, it reminds its audience that there are some values which are worth making sacrifices for, that there are circumstances where we must put our cherished beliefs before the love for an individual.  The film makes the most shameless appeal to patriotism and heroism, most famously in the sequence where Laszlo strikes up a resounding chorus of La Marseillaise.  Yet, unlike many propaganda films, Casablanca's messages are universal, not specific to one place or time, and this is what gives the film's moral perspective an enduring impact.

The success of Casablanca has inspired many imitations and spin-offs.  Warner Brothers have made several attempts to cash in on its success; most notably it made two TV series with the same name, one in 1955 and one in 1983, and also a brilliant spoof cartoon entitled Carrotblanca (with Bugs Bunny taking Bogart's role).   The failure of these imitations to capture even a small fraction of the essence of the original 1942 film shows just how great that film really is.  The magic of Casablanca is eternal, as memorable as its frequently quoted (and misquoted) lines.  You've watched it before and you can watch it again, for old time's sake - we'll always have its bliss. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.  Here's looking at you, kid. Etc.

Film Synopsis

In December 1941, the Moroccan town of Casablanca is under French control and serves as a vital transit point for fugitives of Nazi aggression desperate to get to America.  Rick Blaine is the owner of one of the town's most popular nightclubs, Rick's Café Américain, which is frequented by refugees, Nazis, crooks and gamblers.  The crooked Ugarte asks Rick to look after some letters of transit (allowing free movement around Nazi controlled Europe), but he is arrested by the corrupt official Captain Louis Renault and dies before he can profit from them.  The next person to turn up at Rick's nightclub is Ilsa, the woman with whom he once had a passionate love affair in Paris.  It was this disappointment in love that has made Rick a hard and cynical man.  Ilsa is now married to Victor Laszlo, an important leader in the Czech resistance.  On learning that Rick has letters of transit in his possession, Ilsa begs him to hand them over to her so that she and her husband can escape to America.  Rick now realises just how much Ilsa meant to him and knows that he can never let her go...