Casablanca

Casablanca (1943) was made without anyone believing they were doing something special. It was one of dozens of films Warner released that year. The Second World War. Casablanca in Morocco is where people fleeing Europe wait for passage to America. Rick runs a nightclub and is on nobody's side. Then Ilsa walks in; they were together in Paris and she left him one day without explanation. She is with her husband, a known figure in the anti Nazi resistance. The script was still being written during shooting. The actors worked from daily pages, and Ingrid Bergman has said she did not know which man she would end up with, so she had to play it leaving both possibilities open. That uncertainty is visible on screen and it serves the film. The most quoted line is never spoken in it. Nobody says play it again, Sam. As Time Goes By was not written for the film either; it dates from 1931. The studio considered cutting it and could not, because Bergman had cut her hair for another film and the scenes could not be reshot. The letters of transit are legal nonsense and the film never tries to explain them; their function is to move the characters. It won three Oscars including Best Picture. It runs 102 minutes, in black and white. Good for: classics, wartime romance, and film history. Less good for: the pacing is old fashioned, it is in black and white, and some supporting characters are written to the stereotypes of their period.