Casablanca (film)

This article is about the 1942 American film. For the 2019 Egyptian film, see Casablanca (2019 film). For the similarly titled 1951 French film, see Casabianca (film).
"Here's looking at you, kid" redirects here. For other uses, see Here's Looking at You Kid.

Casablanca
Black-and-white film screenshot with the title of the film in fancy font. Below it is the text "A Warner Bros. – First National Picture". In the background is a crowded nightclub filled with many people.
Theatrical release poster by Bill Gold
Directed byMichael Curtiz
Screenplay by
Based on
Produced byHal B. Wallis
Starring
CinematographyArthur Edeson
Edited byOwen Marks
Music byMax Steiner
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Release dates
  • November 26, 1942 (1942-11-26) (Hollywood Theatre)
  • January 23, 1943 (1943-01-23) (United States)
Running time
102 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$878,000[3]–$1 million[4][5]
Box office$3.7[6]–6.9 million[4]

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) and helping her husband (Henreid), a Czechoslovak 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.

Warner Bros. story editor Irene Diamond convinced producer Hal B. Wallis to purchase the film rights to the play in January 1942. Brothers Julius and Philip G. Epstein were initially assigned to write the script. However, despite studio resistance, they left to work on Frank Capra's Why We Fight series early in 1942. Howard Koch was assigned to the screenplay until the Epsteins returned a month later. Principal photography began on May 25, 1942, ending on August 3; the film was shot entirely at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California, with the exception of one sequence at Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles.

Although Casablanca was an A-list film with established stars and first-rate writers, no one involved with its production expected it to stand out among the many pictures produced by Hollywood yearly.[7] Casablanca was rushed into release to take advantage of the publicity from the Allied invasion of North Africa a few weeks earlier.[8] It had its world premiere on November 26, 1942, in New York City and was released nationally in the United States on January 23, 1943. The film was a solid, if unspectacular, success in its initial run.

Exceeding expectations, Casablanca went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, while Curtiz was selected as Best Director and the Epsteins and Koch were honored for Best Adapted Screenplay. Its reputation has gradually grown, to the point that its lead characters,[9] memorable lines,[10] and pervasive theme song[11] have all become iconic, and it consistently ranks near the top of lists of the greatest films in history. In 1989, the United States Library of Congress selected the film as one of the first for preservation in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Roger Ebert wrote, "If there is ever a time when they decide that some movies should be spelled with an upper-case M, Casablanca should be voted first on the list of Movies."[12]

  1. ^ Ebert, Roger (September 15, 1996). "Great Movies: Casablanca". RogerEbert.com. Archived from the original on August 11, 2015. Retrieved August 14, 2015. Bogart, Bergman and Paul Henreid were stars, and no better cast of supporting actors could have been assembled on the Warners lot than Peter Lorre, Sidney Greenstreet, Claude Rains and Dooley Wilson
  2. ^ "Casablanca (U)". Warner Bros. British Board of Film Classification. December 17, 1942. Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved September 20, 2013.
  3. ^ Schatz, Thomas (1999). Boom and Bust: American Cinema in the 1940s. University of California Press. p. 218. ISBN 978-0-520-22130-7.
  4. ^ a b Warner Bros financial information in "The William Schaefer Ledger". See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television (1995) 15:sup 1, 1–31 p. 23 doi:10.1080/01439689508604551
  5. ^ "Casablanca". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved October 14, 2019.
  6. ^ "Top Grossers of the Season". Variety. January 5, 1944. p. 54. Archived from the original on March 17, 2017.
  7. ^ Ebert, Roger (September 15, 1996). "Casablanca (1942)". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on February 28, 2010. Retrieved March 18, 2010.
  8. ^ Stein, Eliot (May 1995). "Howard Koch, Julius Epstein, Frank Miller Interview". Vincent's Casablanca. Archived from the original on April 30, 2008. Retrieved June 11, 2008. Frank Miller: "There was a scene planned, after the ending, that would have shown Rick and Renault on an Allied ship just prior to the landing at Casablanca, but plans to shoot it were scrapped when the marketing department realized they had to get the film out fast to capitalize on the liberation of North Africa."
  9. ^ Smith, Briony; Wallace, Andrew. "The demise of dating: Two writers square off on their favourite fictional dating men". Elle Canada. Archived from the original on September 27, 2013. Retrieved December 1, 2012.
    - "How Hollywood (Fictionally) Won World War Two". Empire. August 4, 2011. Archived from the original on October 3, 2013. Retrieved December 1, 2012.
  10. ^ Jones, Emma (February 13, 2012). "Guess the movie quote: How well do you know classic romantic films?: Casablanca". MSN Entertainment Canada. Archived from the original on April 12, 2013. Retrieved December 1, 2012.
    - Doyle, Dee (June 5, 2008). "Best Movie Lines That Have Stuck In Pop Culture". starpulse.com. Archived from the original on January 12, 2013. Retrieved December 1, 2012.
    - "Round up the usual suspects", for example, has been incorporated in the titles of business, sociology and political science Archived December 12, 2015, at the Wayback Machine articles.
  11. ^ Beckerman, Jim. "Clifton's crazy connection to 'Casablanca'". North Jersey. Retrieved April 15, 2020.
    - "Casablanca As Time Goes By Piano Up For Sale". Sky News. Retrieved April 15, 2020.
  12. ^ Roger Ebert. "Ten Greatest Films of All Time". Chicago Sun Times.