Casablanca

Casablanca, an acknowledged Hollywood classic, perfectly combines romance, intrigue, suspense and excitement with two great stars at their peak and the sheer professionalism of Warner Bros. film making at its best. The result is a movie which still justifies The New York Times' description as 'A picture which makes the spine tingle and the heart take a leap'. Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, in their only film role together, are superb. Bogart, playing the cynical owner of Rick's Cafe whose cynicism is melted by his reunion with his old flame Bergman so that he helps her and her French Resistance hero husband to escape from the Nazis won an Oscar nomination for a performance that etches indelibly into the memory. And Bergman was never more beautiful or heart - breakingly emotional. The supporting cast, too, could not have improved, particularly Oscar nominated Claude Rains as the Police Chief, Conrad Veidt's archetypal Nazi Sidney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and SZ Sakall while Dooley Wilson, playing As Time Goes By, earned himself a secure place in cinema history. Casablanca deservedly won Oscars for Best Film, for Michael Curtiz's impeccable and sensitive direction and for its screenplay and nominations for Max Steiner's score and Arthur Edeson's marvellous cinematography. But it is far more than the sum of its parts. It remains a film which, as The Guardian noted, is 'bulging with acting talent and breathless dramatic momentum'. © Warner Bros. Pictures Inc