Casablanca is a wartime drama directed by Michael Curtiz, in which Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), is a cynical world-weary ex-patriate who runs a nightclub in French Morocco during the early stages of WWII.
Rick's cafe has become a kind of haven for
refugees seeking to obtain forged documents that will help them escape to
America and he is used to running the gauntlet between the local authorities
and the criminal fraternity,
But one day Isla Lund (Ingrid Bergman), a
former lover of Rick's, and her husband, a well known anti-fascist leader,
Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), show up to his cafe, and Rick faces a tough
decision, as events complicate his life.
Casablanca is a film with many special
moments, but chief among them is when the orchestra plays La Marsellaise and
Paul Henreid leads them and the rest of the non-Germans in the cafe in a
rousing rendition and 80 years later, I still get a thrill from the stirring
act of defiance.
It’s a fabulous film, a timeless classic, which
won the Oscar for Best Picture and best director for Michael Curtiz in 1943.
Both of these awards were due in no small part to the superb supporting cast of
Claude Rains (Captain Louis Renault), Conrad Veidt (Major Heinrich Strasser),
Sydney Greenstreet (Signor Ferrari), Peter Lorre (Ugarte), S.Z. Sakall (Carl),
Madeleine Lebeau (Yvonne) and Dooley Wilson as Sam
Casablanca will be seen and loved by filmgoers
for generations to come.
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