Did you know how it would end?
1940-50s Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQHhQlj8i5dotFJl59gM2R0DW8hFkFTJH
1960s Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQHhQlj8i5dorCvtMHpADNPESdOswQPUN

Sometimes old movies are called "timeless" I don't think it's ever been more true than this movie.

Thumbs up if you understand the symbolism of Louis dropping the bottle of water in the bin at the end.

"...no one is to blame, so I demand no explanation..."
Wow. Lazlo is such a class act.

My favorite scene in the movie is the singing of La Marseillaise. It's at that moment that we first see how powerful Victor can be. Up until then, we only knew of his reputation. To add to it, most of the actors were Europeans who had fled the Nazis. In particular, Madeleine Lebeau, who played Yvonne, had fled France in 1940 and went to Lisbon, where she and her husband (who played the croupier) obtained visas to Chile. They stopped in Mexico on their way there, where it was discovered that the visas were forged. They were stuck until they got temporary Canadian passports, which they used to get to the U.S. The similarity of Yvonne's story to her own was not lost on Madeleine Lebeau. Her tears in that scene were real. And in the context of the story, Victor's actions reminded Yvonne that she was French, and that cozying up to the Germans would be a betrayal of her country (just as the Vichy collaborators had betrayed France).

Humphrey Bogart was in so many great movies: The Petrified Forest, High Sierra, The Maltese Falcon, To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Key Largo, The African Queen, The Caine Mutiny, Sabrina. To me, he's the epitome of a movie star.

Ingrid Bergman was a great actress, and was one of the true beauties of classic Hollywood. Some of her best movies are Gaslight, Spellbound, and Notorious. Unfortunately, her career was derailed because she had an affair with an Italian director while married to someone else, and the bad publicity made Hollywood producers reluctant to cast her. If such a thing happened today, I doubt there would be such a strong reaction by the American public.

Actress Isabella Rossellini is Ingrid Bergman's daughter.

I'm glad that you commented that Casablanca isn't just a romance. As Rick said, "The problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world."

"Why is it that when Bogey drinks in the daytime, he looks sophisticated, but when I do it, all I hear is 'Get off our little league field'!? - Bill Corbett

So many reasons why this one is always so near the top of “best films of all time” lists.

A year before this, three of these actors -- Bogart, Peter Lorre, and Sydney Greenstreet -- were in "The Maltese Falcon". Another classic that's worth seeing.

Peter Lorre is an institution all to himself, an iconic voice and an incredible actor, despite getting sidekick and horror roles mostly. His debut was in the German film, "M", as a serial killer being hunted by the police and organized crime.

Movie Fact: many of the actors who played the Nazis were in fact German Jews who had escaped from Nazis.
Such as actor Conrad Veidt, who played Maj. Strasser, who was well known in the theatrical community in Germany for his hatred of the Nazis, and his friendship with Jews (his wife was Jewish.)

The scene where the French patrons sing La Marseillaise is even more emotional when you realize so many of the actors in the scene are refugees from Europe who fled to escape the Germans.  A brilliant scene.

"The Germans wore grey. You wore blue."

I hadn't caught that line before, but for some reason I love it.

In college I used to organize a weekly movie night, and when our venue was about to close, I went out of my way to get my hands on a copy of Casablanca. (This was before streaming.) We had about twice the usual crowd, and it was super-unruly... until the film began. Everyone laughed and was moved at exactly the right times. At the closing line, they cheered. Aaand then suddenly the room went back to being rowdy and unruly. But for those roughly two hours, I'm telling you they were spellbound.

Of all the Youtube Channels in all the sites in all the world, Jen has to come streaming onto this one.

My uncle, who died before I was born, was a B-26 bomber pilot. He had flown all of his required missions, was grounded, scheduled to go home, got married to an English girl, was on his honeymoon when he was called back in to service for D-Day. He was given a "green" crew & shot down over Paris. His flight jacket caught fire & he burned while parachuting to the ground. He was in a hospital for a week or so before he died on the day that the allies entered Paris. The Germans had fled several days before taking all of the medical supplies including any pain meds with them. The French buried him in a private cemetery in Paris. A co. rep. for North Amer. Aircraft tracked down where he was buried & sent his body home to Texas. I wound up enlisting in the USAF & volunteering for service in Vietnam. This movie has effected many people who were effected by WWII.

The very Definition of a Classic Film.  It's charming, funny, romantic, exciting, mysterious and witty.  A perfect film.

I really like the subtle character arc of the Police Chief going from a vain, corrupt official working with the Nazis to regaining his patriotism and quite literally putting the Vichy Regime (basically the part of the French Republic that wasn't occupied because they allied themselves with the Axis) in the trash. It mirrors Rick's Arc nicely.

Also, I disagree: This is a love story, but it's a tragic love story.

You weren't watching closely enough; we saw him hide the papers in the piano.

It helps to know that the screenplay for Casablanca is based on an unproduced play that was written a few years earlier before the United States had entered World War II. So, the whole idea of the American Rick Blaine being neutral in all political matters was a commentary/metaphor for the U.S.'s position while War raged in Europe. By the time the movie was made, the U.S. had entered the War - actually I believe the play landed on the desk of one of the executives at Warner Brothers Studios only a few days or weeks after the bombing at Pearl Harbor and Warner Brothers quickly went ahead with making it into a movie.

I recall hearing that none of the cast knew the outcome because the script was still being written even as filming was happening. Ingrid didn't know which man she would end up with, so, she was told to play it right down the middle. It worked, because it wasn't clear to any of us watching. The "start of a beautiful friendship" line was even added in post since it hadn't been written yet for filming.

This is my favorite movie of all time. It is perfection.
Everytime I watch it, I still feel it will end differently.

❤