Since its 1942 release, Casablanca has grown into such a legend that it almost transcends mere cinema. If Citizen Kane (1941) represents the pinnacle of artistic derring-do and Gone With the Wind (1939) epitomizes the colorful bombast of the American epic, then Casablanca is surely the film that defines the apex of Hollywood’s studio system. 

Academy Award winners Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman light up the screen. Rick Blaine (Bogart) owns a nightclub in Vichy-controlled Casablanca, frequented by refugees desperate to escape German domination. Despite the ever-present human misery, Rick manages to remain uninvolved in World War II now raging across Europe and Northern Africa. But all that changes when Ilsa Lund (Bergman) walks through the front door of Rick's club--Rick must now choose between a life with the woman he loves and becoming the hero that both she and the world need.​

Reviews
"Seeing the film over and over again, year after year, I find it never grows over-familiar. It plays like a favorite musical album; the more I know it, the more I like it. The black-and-white cinematography has not aged as color would. The dialogue is so spare and cynical it has not grown old-fashioned." – Roger Ebert