Casablanca was one of the most popular motion pictures in American film history. The romantic melodrama starred Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. It was first shown publicly in 1942 and officially released in 1943.
Casablanca is set in the Moroccan city of Casablanca during the early years of World War II, which began in 1939. The central characters are a cynical American adventurer named Rick Blaine (Bogart) and a European woman named Ilsa Lund (Bergman), his former sweetheart. Rick operates the popular Rick’s Cafe in the city, which is under Nazi occupation. Casablanca is a mixture of a love story between Rick and Ilsa and intrigue between the Nazis and French freedom fighters.
The film is noted for vivid performances by such supporting actors as Sydney Greenstreet, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, and Peter Lorre. Dooley Wilson plays Sam, the piano player at Rick’s Cafe. Wilson sings the movie’s theme song, “As Time Goes By.” Bergman asks the piano player to “Play it, Sam,” a famous line often misquoted as “Play it again, Sam.”
The film was based on an unproduced play called Everybody Comes to Rick’s. The movie was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won as best picture. Michael Curtiz won the Academy Award as best director. Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch shared an Academy Award for their screenplay. The success of Casablanca also raised Bogart from gangster roles to one of Hollywood’s top romantic leading men.
