They had a date with fate in Casablanca!|Nov. 26, 1942|102 Min.
Genre: Drama;Romance
Description: Set in December 1941, the film “Casablanca” follows Rick Blaine, an American expatriate who owns a nightclub and gambling venue called “Rick’s Café Américain” in Casablanca. The café draws a diverse crowd, including Vichy French officials, German officers, and refugees desperately seeking passage to the United States. Rick maintains a neutral stance publicly, yet his past reveals he was involved in gunrunning to Ethiopia during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War and fought for the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War.
The story intensifies when Ugarte, a petty criminal, boasts to Rick about possessing “letters of transit” obtained through killing two German couriers. These documents are highly valuable, as they allow unrestricted travel across German-occupied Europe and into neutral Portugal. Ugarte hands the letters to Rick for safekeeping but is later arrested by the corrupt local police captain, Louis Renault, and dies in custody without revealing their location.
The plot thickens with the arrival of Rick’s former lover, Ilsa Lund, accompanied by her husband, Victor Laszlo, a celebrated Czech Resistance leader. They need the letters to escape to America and continue Victor’s anti-Nazi efforts. Major Strasser, a German officer, arrives in Casablanca to prevent their departure. When Laszlo learns that Rick might possess the letters, he confronts him, but Rick refuses to part with them, hinting that Ilsa knows why.
A tense moment unfolds when Strasser leads German officers in singing a patriotic German song, prompting Laszlo to instruct the house band to play “La Marseillaise” in defiance. The film weaves themes of love, sacrifice, and moral dilemmas against the backdrop of war-torn Casablanca.
Cast director: Michael Curtiz
Cast actor: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, S.Z. Sakall, Madeleine Lebeau, Dooley Wilson
Original name: Casablanca