Casablanca is a classic 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, set during World War II in Casablanca, Morocco. The film stars Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine, a cynical American expatriate who runs a nightclub in Casablanca, and Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund, a former lover of Rick's who shows up at his club with her husband, Victor Laszlo, a Czech resistance leader on the run from the Nazis. The film also features supporting performances from Claude Rains, Paul Henreid, and Conrad Veidt, among others.

The film follows Rick and Ilsa as they navigate their complicated past and confront their feelings for each other against the backdrop of the war and the arrival of the Nazi Major Strasser in Casablanca. As the situation in the city becomes more and more tense, Rick must decide whether to use his connections and resources to help Victor and Ilsa escape to America or to put his own interests first.



Screenplay

Howard Koch
Casablanca, Script and Legend
London, 1992


Books with substantial mentioning of Casablanca

David Thomson
Moments that made the movies
London, 2014

John White and Sabine Haenni (eds.)
Fifty Key American Films
London and New York, 2009

David Thomson
Have you seen?, A personal introduction to 1,000 films
New York, 2008

Jürgen Müller
Movies of the 40s
Köln, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Paris, Tokyo, 2005

Roger Ebert
The Great Movies
2003

Tom Pendergast, Sara Pendergast (eds.)
International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, 1. Films
Detroit/New York/San Francisco/London/Boston/Woodbridge, CT, 2000

Peter W. Engelmeier (ed.)
Icons of film, The 20th century
Munich; New York, 2000

Danny Peary
Alternate Oscars, One Critic's Defiant Choices for Best Picture, Actor, and Actress - From 1927 to the Present
New York, 1993

Neil Sinyard
Classic Movies
London, 1993

Peter van Gelder
Offscreen Onscreen, The inside stories of 60 great films
London, 1990

Danny Peary
Cult Movies, The Classics, the Sleepers, the Weird, and the Wonderful
New York, 1989

Sidney Rosenzweig
Casablanca and Other Major Films of Michael Curtiz
Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1982

Joe Morella, Edward Z. Epstein and John Griggs
The Films of World War II
Secaucus, New Jersey, 1973

Lawrence J. Quirk
The Films of Ingrid Bergman
Secaucus, NJ, 1970

David Zinman
50 Classic Motion Pictures, The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of
New York, 1970

Clifford McCarty
Bogey, The Films of Humphrey Bogart
New York, NY, 1965

Books with an entry on Casablanca

Michael F. Keaney
Film Noir Guide, 745 Films of the Classic Era, 1940-1959
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London, 2003

Larry Langman & David Ebner
Encyclopedia of American Spy Films
New York & London, 1990

Paul Michael, editor in chief. James Robert Parish, associate editor
The American movies reference book, The sound era
Englewood Cliffs, N.J.,, 1969

Articles on Casablanca

Richard Raskin, Casablanca and United States Foreign Policy, in: Film History, vol. 4, 1990 pp. 153-164

Simon Braund, The Secret Lives of Casablanca, in: Empire, nr. 273 (March), 2012 pp. 114-119

Articles with substantial mentioning of Casablanca

Olly Richards, The Top 10 Romantic Gestures, in: Empire, nr. 245 (November), 2009 pp. 184-185