Casablanca (1943) Warner Bros. Director: Michael Curtiz Producer: Hal B. Wallis Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre. Awards ceremony: -16th Academy Awards: March 2, 1944. Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, California. Other films nominated for Outstanding Production this year: -For Whom The Bell Tolls. -Heaven Can Wait. -The Human Comedy. -In Which We Serve. -Madame Curie. -The More The Merrier. -The Ox-Bow Incident. -The Song Of Bernadette. -Watch On The Rhine. Plot summary: Rick Blaine (HUMPHREY BOGART) is an American who meets and falls in love with Ilsa Lund (INGRID BERGMAN) in France during the start of WWII. When he leaves France on a train she fails to show up as planned and writes him a letter telling him to forget her. He relocates in Casablanca (Morocco, but regarded as French soil) and opens a bar called 'Rick's Café Américain' and becomes an alcoholic. Some time later Ilsa shows up in Rick's bar along with her husband Victor Laszlo (PAUL HENREID) (whom Ilsa hadn't told Rick about, hence why she didn't leave France with Rick) and looking to obtain some letters that would allow them to leave Casablanca and settle in the war-neutral United States but the German Major Strasser is desperate to prevent that from happening. In the end Rick proves himself to be a gentleman and gives Ilsa and Victor what they need to assist in their freedom. Standout scene: When Victor asks the band to start playing the French National Anthem to drown out the German soldiers who are singing in the bar. Facts: -The 16th Academy Awards. -Nominated for 8 Academy Awards, it won 3: Picture, Director, Screenplay. Personal opinion: After suffering through one of the most utterly boring opening ten minutes of any film I have ever seen, I was hoping that the thing would pick up. It didn't. For a key character playing a pianist, and a supposedly famous tune that is associated with this film, it was embarrassing to see Dooley Wilson ('Sam') had absolutely no clue how to actually play the bloody instrument! He thinks that you just bang your fingers up and down anywhere on the piano and it creates the melody we are listening to? The film isn't awful but it certainly is not the 'masterpiece' that so many blind film fans say it is. Dull, with dull-looking sets and a great pedigree of a cast including Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, Petter Lorre.... and yet none of them stand out (although if I had to choose one it would be Rains). The final 15 minutes are good but the rest of it? Nuh. I really wanted to like this film, but so far (1927-1943) it is one of the most forgettable of all the Best Picture winners and I genuinely mean that! There was, however one scene that made me laugh out loud: when Claude Rains says how shocked he is that gambling is going on in Rick's place and one of the waiters comes up to him and hands him his winnings. Did it deserve the Oscar? NO. One of the most underwhelming and over-rated 'famous' films I have ever seen. 4/10

Review date: 17 February 2025