Casablanca Bogart and Bergmann, 1942

Released in 1942, just after Pearl Harbor.  Black and White.  Rick Blaine, played by Humphrey Bogart, is running a nightspot in Vichy France controlled Morocco.  The Nazi’s are muscling in on this nearly orphaned French colony after they defeated and occupied France in 1940.  Rick’s Café Americain has an American jazz band, brass and piano, fine dining, and casino gambling.  Rick’s place is full of refugees from the Nazi’s all trying to get to America, where the streets are paved with gold, and the Nazi’s cannot reach.  Rick looks all sorts of American, wearing a tan trench coat and a Fedora hat. 

   Into Rick’s café walks Ilsa Lund, played by Ingrid Bergman, looking like a million dollars.  Ilsa is Rick’s old flame.  They were to flee Paris by train just ahead of the Nazi takeover of Paris.  They were to rendezvous at the railroad station.   Ilsa never shows.  Heartbroken, Rick is dragged on board the train by his trusty retainer and band leader Sam.  When Ilsa arrives at Rick’s café in Morocco she is sporting a tall handsome Resistance hero, Victor Lazlo, as a husband.  For the rest of the movie we watch Rick and Ilsa come to terms with the situation.  We see slippery Vichy chief of police, Captain Louis Renault, played by Claude Rains, maneuver between the Nazis, Vichy France, Rick, Victor Lazlo, and assorted low lifes.  We hear classic movie lines such as “Round up the usual suspects.” and “Play it again Sam.” and “Here’s looking at you Kid.”

  One of the best flicks old Hollywood ever made, a flick for grownups, rather than teenaged boys.  Eighty years have gone by and it still works.  I just finished sorting and inventorying my collection of VHS tapes and decided to watch this classic last night.  My aging VHS player still works.