Casablanca (1942) is an Oscar-winning romance film set in the Vichy-controlled Moroccan city of Casablanca during World War II. The film was directed by Michael Curtiz and stars Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine and Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund. It focuses on Rick's conflict between, in the words of one character, love and virtue: he must choose between his love for Ilsa and doing the right thing, helping her and her Resistance leader husband escape from Casablanca to continue his fight against the Nazis.
Although it was an A-list movie, with established stars and first-rate writers, nobody involved with its production expected Casablanca to be anything out of the ordinary; it was just one of dozens of pictures being churned out by Hollywood every year. The film was a solid, if unspectacular, success in its initial release, taking advantage of publicity from the Allied invasion of North Africa. Despite a changing assortment of screenwriters frantically adapting an unstaged play to (barely) keep ahead of production, and Bogart attempting his first romantic lead role, it somehow all came together. The characters, quotations, and music have become iconic, and Casablanca has grown in popularity as time has gone by. It now consistently ranks near the top of lists of the greatest films of all time. (less info)