Casablanca (1942)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Rick Blaine	Humphrey Bogart
Ilsa Lund	Ingrid Bergman
Victor Laszlo	Paul Henreid	½
Captain Louis Renault	Claude Rains
Major Heinrich Strasser	Conrad Veidt
Signor Ferrari	Sydney Greenstreet	-
Signor Ugarte	Peter Lorre
Sascha	Leonid Kinskey	-
Yvonne	Madeleine Lebeau	-
Annina Brandel	Joy Page	-
Berger	John Qualen	-
Sam	Dooley Wilson	-

Review

With Casablanca, dubbed "the best bad film of all time" by my late Lillehammer College film professor Søren Birkvad, the Hollywood studio system came into full fruition with its propensity for sniffing out societal trends and weave smooth melodrama around them. This is a rather character-heavy and talkative chamber piece set mostly in "Rick's Café" in Casablanca, Morocco over a few days and nights in December 1941. The city and said café are portrayed as a safe haven for various Europeans and Americans trying to escape the advancing Nazi forces, and when the German Major Heinrich Strasser (Conrad Veidt) arrives, the setting turns into a miniature peace conference with most major players represented. The nuanced political aspects of the picture are impressive, especially in light of the year of production. We even get to hear both German and French language. And although the film is far from polemical or hard-hitting, at least it makes an effort to remove patriotism and propaganda from the equation, an approach Hollywood would abandon for the next few decades after the war.

Still, like most studio era Hollywood films, Casablanca is at heart all about romance. As Ingrid Bergman drowns in Humphrey Bogart's disillusioned eyes, surrounded by a menagerie of one-dimensional but utterly enjoyable supporting characters, the film ticks all Hollywood boxes and achieves perfection in superficial melodrama. The slick production values and effective but underwhelming set decorations help solidify the impression. All is fair in love and war – even a film as brazen as Casablanca.