"Casablanca" by Michael Curtiz: a review

Limited released in 1942, staring Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine and Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund, Casablanca is one of the most famous classic movies of all time. Think of this movie as an antique. It was nominated for six Oscars and won three. There is talk of a remake staring Madonna as Ilsa, but really, why tamper with perfection?

The setting of this early World War II movie is the city of Casablanca, located in the Morocco, Africa. American ex-patriate Rick Blaine’s café is the gathering place for many people fleeing Europe. Rick is entrusted with some papers that will allow two people to leave the country, which is over run with Nazis.

One time love, Ilsa Lund, arrives with her husband, Victor Laszlo. The spark between Rick and Ilsa is rekindled, especially when Ilsa asks Sam, the piano player to “Play it Sam. Play ‘As Time Goes By’”, which was their song years before in Paris. Out of love for Ilsa, Rick agrees to help her and her husband escape using the official documents he has.

Ilsa believes that she will remain with Rick, but she asks him to think for her. He replies, “All right, I will. Here’s looking at you, kid.” As Ilsa’s husband boards the plane, Rick makes her get on the plane, telling her she would eventually regret staying, “Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life.”

Rick and the local police Captain Louis Renault must flee together into the fog at the end of the movie when Rick says, “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”