On this day, November 26, 1942, "Casablanca" was released.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Casablanca (film)



Theatrical release poster by Bill Gold

Release dates:
November 26, 1942 (Hollywood Theatre)
January 23, 1943 (United States)

Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, and starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Paul Henreid. Filmed and set during World War II, it focuses on an American expatriate (Bogart) who must choose between his love for a woman (Bergman) or helping her husband (Henreid), a Czech resistance leader, escape from the Vichy-controlled city of Casablanca to continue his fight against the Germans. The screenplay is based on Everybody Comes to Rick's, an unproduced stage play by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison. The supporting cast features Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Dooley Wilson.

{snip}

Knock On Wood - Dooley Wilson (Casablanca - 1942)
103,694 views Aug 5, 2013

Drops de Cinema
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103,694 views Aug 5, 2013

[murielm99]

1. Love that movie!

[brush]

2. One of my all-time favorite movies...along with...

Shawshank Redemption
Pulp Fiction
Godfather 1
Godfather 2
Good Fellas
Gilda
and Watch on the Rhine

Pls list yours.

[twodogsbarking]

3. My wife is Italian. Three of those are her favs. Good ones.

[Tetrachloride]

4. Guess Who's Coming To Dinner

Phenomenon
Dangal

to name 3

[Doc Sportello]

5. Both Bogey and Bergman were ambivalent about the movie

Recently read a bio of Bogart and early on they were dubious about Casablanca because they thought the script was "schmaltzy". But the script was improved and they agreed. The book said that Bogey and Bergman carried on an affair during filming, one of many for both.

As many know, a lot of of the supporting cast were refugees from Nazi Germany, including the evil Major Strasser who was played by Conrad Viedt. Ironically, Viedt was born in Germany but was an ardent anti-Nazi who married a Jewish woman.

Still my favorite movie of all time.

[thucythucy]

6. The only flaw in the movie

comes when Ilsa refers to Dooley Wilson as "the boy" playing the piano.

Even in an anti-fascist film, American racism had to take a bow.

Then too, am I the only one who finds the Claude Rains character deeply repulsive? Clever, yes, witty too. But this is a man who extorts desperate women, fleeing genocide, into exchanging having sex with him for a ticket out of hell. In real life such behavior would be slimy in the extreme.

Still and all, an amazing achievement. Not a wasted moment, and so many memorable scenes and lines.

Those involved really did catch lightning in a bottle.