16th Academy Awards · 1944
Casablanca
Directed by Michael Curtiz
“They had a date with fate in Casablanca!”
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The story
In Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.
What critics & audiences say
Tomatometer99%Fresh#1 of 98 winnersIMDb8.5662K votes#8 of 98 winners
Metacritic100/ 100#1 of 93 winners
TMDB8.1/ 10
Famous lines
Here's looking at you, kid.
Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.
Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Major Strasser has been shot. Round up the usual suspects.
Play it, Sam. Play As Time Goes By.
We'll always have Paris.
I am shocked—shocked!—to find that gambling is going on in here!
…it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.
Renault: And what in heaven's name brought you to Casablanca?
Rick: My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters.
Renault: The waters? What waters? We're in the desert.
Rick: I was misinformed.
If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.
Quotes via Wikiquote
Fun facts
- The famous line "Play it again, Sam" is never spoken in Casablanca. Ilsa actually says "Play it once, Sam, for old times' sake" and "Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By'."Wikipedia · Inaccuracies and a misquote
- The closing line "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship" was chosen by producer Hal B. Wallis after filming ended, and Humphrey Bogart was called back to dub it a month after shooting wrapped.Wikipedia · Writing
- "Here's looking at you, kid" was not in the draft screenplays; it has been attributed to a comment Humphrey Bogart made to Ingrid Bergman as she played poker between takes.Wikipedia · Writing
- Composer Max Steiner wanted to replace "As Time Goes By" with his own song, but Ingrid Bergman had already cut her hair short for For Whom the Bell Tolls and couldn't reshoot, so Steiner built the entire score around the tune instead.Wikipedia · Music
- The airplane in the final scene was a cardboard model, staged with little person extras walking around it to make it look full-size, with fog used to hide how unconvincing it looked.Wikipedia · Filming
- In 1982 writer Chuck Ross retyped the screenplay under its original title and sent it to 217 agencies. Only 33 recognized it as Casablanca, 41 rejected it outright, and three offered to represent it.Wikipedia · Popularity
- A 1952 West German release cut every scene with Nazis, and the dubbing turned resistance hero Victor Laszlo into a Norwegian atomic physicist pursued by Interpol. The uncut story didn't reach German audiences until 1975.Wikipedia · Irish and German cuts
- When Casablanca won Best Picture, studio head Jack L. Warner rushed to the stage ahead of producer Hal B. Wallis, who was blocked in by the Warner family. The humiliation led Wallis to leave Warner Bros. that April.Wikipedia · Awards and honors
- Dooley Wilson, who played the piano man Sam, was actually a drummer, not a pianist, so his piano playing was performed by Jean Plummer.Wikipedia · Music
- A 1957 screening at the Brattle Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was so popular that it started a tradition of showing Casablanca during Harvard's final exam week, helping keep the film alive in popular memory.Wikipedia · Popularity