The Most Popular Classic Film Ever Made

Casablanca has to be the most popular Classic film ever made, It is set in unoccupied Africa during the early days of World War 11. An American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen consequences.

The film was directed by Michael Curtiz [an Hungarian Jewish emigre] and stars Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine and Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund. It focuses on Rick's conflict between,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.

The score was written by Max Steiner, who was best known for the musical score for Gone with the Wind.

World War II has engulfed Europe, reaching all the way to Rick Blaine’s Cafe Americain in French-held Morocco.This upscale nightclub and gambling den attracts a mixed clientele of Vichy French and Nazi officials, refugees and thieves. The Nazis have overrun France and are heading into its unoccupied possessions in Africa – and all kinds of people are trying to escape them by way of Casablanca. The plot revolves around “letters of transit” [Ugarte (Peter Lorre), a petty criminal, arrives in Rick's club with the letters of transit he obtained by killing two Germancouriers.} that will provide safe passage by air to Lisbon, and then to America, a rare and precious commodity indeed. The papers allow the bearer to travel freely around German controlled Europe.

Ugarte plans to make his fortune by selling them to the highest bidder, who is due to arrive at the club later that night. However, before the exchange can take place, Ugarte is arrested by the local police under the command of Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains), a corrupt Vichy official who accommodates the Nazis. Unbeknown to Renault and the Nazis, Ugarte had left the letters with Rick for safekeeping. because "...somehow, just because you despise me, you are the only one I trust."

In the meantime Blaines ex lover, Ilsa Luind[Inrdid Bergman] arrives with her husband VictorLaszio [Paul Henreid] to purchase the letters. When Ilsa first met and fell in love with Rick in Paris, she believed her husband had been killed in a concentration camp. Upon discovering that he had in fact escaped, she left Rick abruptly without explanation and returned to Laszlo. After the club closes, Ilsa returns to try to explain, but Rick is drunk and refuses to listen.

The next night Laszlo speaks with him privately, but Rick refuses to part with the letters, telling Laszlo to ask his wife for the reason. They are then interrupted when a group of Nazi officers, led by Major Strasser (Conrad Veidt), begins to sing "Die Wacht am Rhein", a German patriotic song. Infuriated, Laszlo orders the house band to play "La Marseillaise". When the band leader looks to Rick for guidance, he nods his head. Laszlo starts singing, alone at first, then long suppressed patriotic fervor grips the crowd and everyone joins in, drowning out the Germans. In retaliation, Strasser orders Renault to close the club.

Laszlo is arrested on a petty charge. Rick convinces Renault to release him, promising to set him up for a much more serious crime: possession of the letters. Rick then double crosses Renault, forcing him at gunpoint to assist in the escape. Then Rick makes Ilsa board the plane with her husband. Major Strasser drives up but he is shot by Rick. Renault saves Rick's life by telling them to "round up the usual suspects." He then recommends that he and Rick leave Casablanca. They disappear into the fog with one of the most memorable exit lines in movie history:"Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

Casablanca is now ranked among the greatest cinematic achievements of all time.I have never seen a film where the chemistry works so well among all of the actors. This is definitely the most popular classic film ever made.