Casablanca

Casablanca (1942) starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid. A strong candidate for best Hollywood picture of all time, Casablanca won three Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Bogart stars as Rick Blaine, who owns Rick's American Cafe in Casablanca during the early years of World War II. Much to his surprise, who should walk through the door but his lost love Ilsa (Bergman) with her husband, Victor Laszlo (Henreid). Victor is a top leader in the underground resistance movement against the Nazis, and he and Ilsa are trying to escape to Lisbon and then to America. At first Rick is in no mood to help them, but later, after he hears the whole story, things turn around and he gets to deliver one of the greatest speeches ever. (Subtitles are provided, but the closed captions are more readable.) Grade: A