The classic and much-loved romantic melodrama Casablanca (1942), always found on top-ten lists of films, is a masterful tale of two men vying for the same woman's love in a love triangle. The story of political and romantic espionage is set against the backdrop of the wartime conflict between democracy and totalitarianism. [The date given for the film is often given as either 1942 and 1943. That is because its limited premiere was in 1942, but the film did not play nationally, or in Los Angeles, until 1943.]

With rich and smoky atmosphere, anti-Nazi propaganda, Max Steiner's superb musical score, suspense, unforgettable characters (supposedly 34 nationalities are included in its cast) and memorable lines of dialogue (e.g., "Here's lookin' at you, kid," and the inaccurately-quoted "Play it again, Sam"), it is one of the most popular, magical (and flawless) films of all time - focused on the themes of lost love, honor and duty, self-sacrifice and romance within a chaotic world.

Woody Allen's Play It Again, Sam (1972) paid reverential homage to the film, as have the lesser films Cabo Blanco (1981) and Barb Wire (1996), and the animated Bugs Bunny short Carrotblanca (1995). The line "Play it again, Sam" appeared in the Marx Brothers' A Night in Casablanca (1946). Clips or references to the film have been used in Play It Again, Sam (1972), Brazil (1985), My Stepmother is an Alien (1988), and When Harry Met Sally (1989).

Directed by the talented Hungarian-accented Michael Curtiz and shot almost entirely on studio sets, the film moves quickly through a surprisingly tightly constructed plot, even though the script was written from day to day as the filming progressed and no one knew how the film would end - who would use the two exit visas? [Would Ilsa, Rick's lover from a past romance in Paris, depart with him or leave with her husband Victor, the leader of the underground resistance movement?] And three weeks after shooting ended, producer Hal Wallis contributed the film's famous final line - delivered on a fog-shrouded runway.

The sentimental love story, originally structured as a one-set play, was based on an unproduced play entitled Everybody Comes to Rick's by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison - the film's original title. Its collaborative screenplay was mainly the result of the efforts of Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch. In all, six writers took the play's script, and with the models of Algiers (1938) and Only Angels Have Wings (1939) to follow, they transformed the romantic tale into this quintessential classic that samples almost every film genre.

Except for the initial airport sequence, the entire studio-oriented film was shot in a Warner Bros. Hollywood/Burbank studio. Many other 40s stars were considered for the lead roles: Hedy Lamarr, "Oomph Girl" Ann Sheridan, French actress Michele Morgan, and George Raft.

[It's an 'urban legend' that Ronald Reagan was seriously considered for a role in the film. The Warner Bros. publicity office famously planted a pre-production press release in The Hollywood Reporter on January 5, 1942 (it was also released to dozens of newspapers across the country two days later), stating that Reagan would co-star with Ann Sheridan for the third time in Casablanca (1942) - in order to actually encourage support for the soon-to-be-released film Kings Row (1942) with the two stars.]

And pianist Sam's role (portrayed by "Dooley" Wilson - who was actually a drummer) was originally to be taken by a female (either Hazel Scott, Lena Horne, or Ella Fitzgerald). The lead male part went to Humphrey Bogart in his first romantic lead as the tough and cynical on-the-outside, morally-principled, sentimental on-the-inside cafe owner in Casablanca, Morocco. His appearance with co-star Ingrid Bergman was their first - and last. As a hardened American expatriate, Bogart runs a bar/casino (Rick's Cafe Americain) - a way-station to freedom in WWII French-occupied Morocco, where a former lover (Bergman) who previously 'jilted' him comes back into his life. She is married to a heroic French Resistance leader (Henreid). Stubbornly isolationist, the hero is inspired to support the Resistance movement and give up personal happiness with his past love.

The Hollywood fairy-tale was actually filmed during a time of US ties with Vichy France when President Roosevelt equivocated and vacillated between pro-Vichy or pro-Gaullist support. And it was rushed into general release almost three weeks after the Allied landing at the Axis-occupied, North African city of Casablanca, when Eisenhower's forces marched into the African city. Due to the military action, Warner Bros. Studios was able to capitalize on the free publicity and the nation's familiarity with the city's name when the film opened.

It played first as a pre-release engagement on Thanksgiving Day, 1942 at the Hollywood Theater in New York. [On the last day of 1942, Roosevelt actually screened the film at the White House.] Its strategic timing was further enhanced at the time of its general release in early 1943 by the January 14-24, 1943 Casablanca Conference (a summit meeting in which Roosevelt broke US-Vichy relations) in the Moroccan city with Churchill, Roosevelt, and two French leaders - DeGaulle (the charismatic Free French leader) and General Henri Giraud (supportive of Marshal Petain). [Note: Stalin declined the invitation to attend the so-called 'Big Three' Conference.]

The big-budget film (of slightly less than $1 million), took in box-office of slightly more than $4 million. It was considered for eight Academy Awards for the year 1943. [Actually, it should have competed against Mrs. Miniver (1942) (the Best Picture winner in the previous year), since it premiered in New York in November of that year. However, because it didn't show in Los Angeles until its general release that January, it was ineligible for awards in 1942, and competed in 1943.] The nominations included Best Actor (Humphrey Bogart), Best Supporting Actor (Claude Rains), Best B/W Cinematography (Arthur Edeson, known for The Maltese Falcon (1941)), Best Score (Max Steiner, known for Gone With the Wind (1939)), and Best Film Editing (Owen Marks). The dark-horse film won three awards (presented in early March of 1944): Best Picture (producer Hal B. Wallis), Best Director, and Best Screenplay. Bogart lost to Paul Lukas for his role in Watch on the Rhine. And Bergman wasn't even nominated for this film, but instead was nominated for Best Actress for For Whom The Bell Tolls (and she lost to Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette). Bogart had made three other films in 1943: Sahara, Action in the North Atlantic, and Thank Your Lucky Stars.

The Story

At the film's beginning, the credits are displayed over a political map of Africa. In the first five minutes of footage, the introductory details are succinctly communicated by a stentorian narrator. Over a crude, slowly-spinning globe and a zoom-in shot toward Western Europe, a doom-laden, ominous voice-over, similar to the March of Time newsreel narrations [by Westbrook Van Voorhis], explains the turbulent Nazi takeover of Europe, the coming of World War II, and the frenetic stream of political refugees (superimposed over the globe) from persecution out of Hitler's besieged Europe to Vichy France and North Africa:

With the coming of the Second World War, many eyes in imprisoned Europe turned hopefully or desperately toward the freedom of the Americas. Lisbon became the great embarkation point. But not everybody could get to Lisbon directly...

A three-toned relief map of the land mass of Axis-occupied Europe spins into the frame, showing the opposing sides in the conflict:

Light Tone: Allied Powers: Great Britain, the British Empire, and her allies (including the Soviet Union)

Middle Tone: Neutral Nations: Sweden, Switzerland, Eire (Ireland), Spain, and Portugal. Unoccupied and neutral zones include the southern portion of France and French North Africa (Tunisia, Algeria, and French Morocco)

Dark Tone: Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, their allies (Hungary, Rumania, Slovakia, Croatia), and conquered territories (Belgium, The Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, and parts of Poland, Luxembourg, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia). Northwestern France is German occupied

European refugee trails and torturous escape routes are developing - a bold line is drawn from the city of Paris to Marseilles in Vichy France. The line finally reaches to Casablanca on the coast of neutral French Morocco, the setting for the film, where refugees (unless they are wealthy or influential enough to acquire quick-exit visas) are victimized by predatory, corrupt Vichy bureaucrats:

And so a torturous, round-about refugee trail sprang up. Paris to Marseilles, across the Mediterranean to Oran [in Algeria], then by train or auto or foot across the rim of Africa to Casablanca in French Morocco. Here the fortunate ones through money or influence or luck might obtain exit visas and scurry to Lisbon, and from Lisbon to the New World. But the others wait in Casablanca, and wait and wait and wait.

The camera descends from a mosque into the crowded, stucco-walled coastal city of Casablanca, a way station city (an upscale concentration camp) technically ruled by neutral Unoccupied France - located out of war-torn Europe. The story is set in early December 1941 in a city (and cafe), in a dangerous, far-off locale that is a microcosm of the wartime world.

More important details regarding the setting and characters are telescoped very precisely and economically - information about the theft of transit letters, the political and social situation in pro-Vichy Casablanca, the arrival of the Nazi commandant and his friendship with the self-satisfied Vichy policeman, the crucial daily flights to Lisbon, and the central importance of Rick's Cafe.

[The film's opening montage was created by Don Siegel, later known for Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and Dirty Harry (1971).] In a medium closeup shot, a French-accented police officer reads a teletype report to all officers (over the radio) about the Tuesday, December 1, 1941 murder of two German couriers and the theft of official important documents they were carrying:

To all officers. Two German couriers carrying important official documents murdered on train from Oran. Murderer and possible accomplices headed for Casablanca. Round up all suspicious characters and search them for stolen document. IMPORTANT.

The French police, not the Germans, have the jurisdiction and authority to investigate the crime that occurred in Unoccupied France, a neutral country.

During a round-up of suspects by police gendarmes in the city, the precarious situation of a collection of refugees (those in European clothing in Casablanca) is set up by a few short scenes:

The open-air city market, a scene of intrigue, is teeming with black marketeers, smugglers, thieves, spies, double agents and refugees who desperately seek to obtain tickets (exit visas) on the daily plane to neutral Lisbon.

During a roundup by the French police, one fleeing civilian suspect (Paul Andor) with expired identification papers who refuses to halt is shot in the back and falls dead beneath a wall poster (Je Tiens Mes Promesses Mem Celles Des Autres - "I Keep My Promises, Just as I Keep the Promises of Others") of Marshal Philippe Petain, the dictatorial French head of state in Vichy France. The suspect dies clutching a resistance handbill bearing the Cross of Lorraine symbol - revealing his membership in the Free France Organization headed by Petain's arch rival, General Charles De Gaulle.

The camera pans down from an etched-stone slogan above a doorway: "Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite" (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity), the slogan of the French Republic - an outdated, tarnished sign that hadn't yet been replaced by the Vichy Government. The many suspects are herded into a police-station building bearing the sign: "Palais de Justice."

At an open-air cafe, a dark, wiry pickpocket (Curt Bois) preys on an English couple, stranded in the Vichy-controlled area. As he informs them that the "scum of Europe has gravitated to Casablanca" and warns them to "be on guard" for "vultures," he lifts the gentleman's wallet.

An arriving plane flies over the rooftop sign of Rick's Cafe Americain as a crowd of refugees covetously watches it pass overhead. Among many faces that turn skyward and yearn for freedom in the Americas, a Bulgarian couple, Jan Viereck (Helmut Dantine) and Annina Brandel (Joy Page) hopefully wonder aloud: "Perhaps tomorrow, we'll be on the plane."

But the refugees are mistaken - it is not the single-engined, high-winged plane from Lisbon, the gateway city, but one with a swastika bringing the new German Nazi/Gestapo commander Major Heinrich Strasser (Conrad Veidt). The Gestapo Major is ready to assist in the investigation of the murdered German couriers and pressure the French Police to do their duty. In the honor guard of assembled dignitaries, the Nazis exchange "Heil Hitlers" with outstretched arms. Then, the local Vichy puppet Chief (Préfet de Police), the sophisticated Capitaine Louis Renault (Claude Rains) with his police cap tilted jauntily, already identified by the pickpocket as a Parisian womanizer who takes advantage of "beautiful young girl(s)" among the refugees, greets the disdainful and arrogant German Nazi:

Renault: Unoccupied France welcomes you to Casablanca.Strasser: Thank you, Captain. It's very good to be here...(Renault introduces his aide Lt. Casselle, and is brusquely intruded upon by Italian Capt. Tonelli.) You may find the climate of Casablanca a trifle warm, Major.Strasser: Oh, we Germans must get used to all climates, from Russia to the Sahara. But perhaps you were not referring to the weather.Renault: What else, my DEAR Major?

Renault assures him that everything is being done to find the murderer of the two German couriers with their valuable letters of transit: "Realizing the importance of the case, my men are rounding up twice the usual number of suspects." The witty Prefet of Police informs him that the suspected killer's identity is known, and that his arrest is being staged, in Strasser's honor, later that night at Rick's Cafe Americain - a gambling den. Renault states that the cafe is the center of everything that happens in Casablanca, in a tribute to the film's source: "Everybody Comes to Rick's." [Later flashbacks

reveal that Rick left Paris in June of 1940 - remarkably, he was able to set up a prosperous cafe/casino in only 18 months.]

The scene quickly dissolves to the cafe that evening - at one edge of the airport runway. An airport's beacon light sweeps across the exterior of the cafe - resembling a prison's circular searchlight to emphasize the forced confinement of everyone in the city. Below a lit sign Rick's Cafe Americain, a Moroccan doorman lets the guests into the fashionable, upscale club. When the door opens, the smoky, Moorish atmosphere of the Cafe Americain is revealed. For a crowd of varied nationalities, black pianist Sam (Arthur "Dooley" Wilson) jauntily sings and plays big band swing music typical of the 40s: "It Had To Be You" and "Shine." [In reality, Wilson was not a piano player but a drummer, so his piano pieces were played off-camera by a studio pianist, and he faked the piano-playing.]

The camera eavesdrops on various groups found at different tables to introduce the activities of those stranded in Casablanca. Refugees attempt to escape from Nazi pursuit, hidden by the jovial, hectic and festive atmosphere in the cafe. Shady deals are being made by greedy black marketeers and the desperate, hopeful clientele of all classes and races speaking in various accents.

One man bemoans the endless waiting to leave Casablanca: "Waiting, waiting, waiting. I'll never get out of here. I'll die in Casablanca."

A woman sells her smuggled diamonds in a glutted market to a Moor: "But can't you make it just a little more, please?" She accepts 2,400 in Moroccan francs (about $72) as the price.

In hushed tones, others make secretive travel arrangements to get out: "The trucks are ready. The men are waiting."

At another table, a man tells a second man about escaping on the fishing smack Santiago: "It leaves at 1:00 tomorrow night, here from the end of the Medina. Third boat...and bring 15,000 francs - in cash. Remember, in cash."

The camera quickly pans by two Chinese refugees speaking an Oriental language to each other.

In a private gambling room, Carl (S. Z. Sakall, mis-typed in the credits as S. K. Sakall), the genial German headwaiter tells one of the affluent female customers that Rick, the uncaring and sole proprietor/owner of the cafe, doesn't socialize or accept invitations to sit with the clients. Class distinctions are non-existent among those living in the chaotic world of the 1940s:

Carl: Madame, he never drinks with customers. Never. I have never seen it.Female companion: What makes saloonkeeper so snobbish?Gentleman: Perhaps if you told him I ran the second largest banking house in Amsterdam.Carl: The second largest? That wouldn't interest Rick - the leading banker in Amsterdam is now the pastry chef in our kitchen --Gentleman: We have something to look forward to.Carl: -- and his father is the bellboy!

Cynical, disillusioned, embittered, self-centered, and an exiled loner, Richard "Rick" Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) makes a delayed entrance in the film - in a foreground closeup, only his hand is first viewed scrawling/scribbling a signature of authorization/approval across a check for an advance of 1,000 francs: "OK - Rick." Then, the camera reveals the objects in front of him - an ashtray with a smoldering cigarette, an empty glass, a chess board, and a pen. It slowly follows his arm up to his immaculate white tuxedo to his sober face as he drags on his cigarette. Presiding over the gambling tables in the gaming room, Rick drinks and sits by himself, playing a solitary game of chess. His main functions in the casino are to sign checks and vouchers and to occasionally break up fights. Expressionless, he has learned how to survive and be vigilant in the hostile environment.

Moments later after a commotion develops at the entryway to the private gaming room, Rick argues with a pompous, bullying German banker (Gregory Gaye) who has been denied access. The cafe owner stands firm and pre-empts the bumptious, indignant customer from presenting his calling card - and he demonstrates his anti-German dislike by ripping it up. Refusing to be intimidated, Rick doesn't explain the reason for refusing to do business with him - just a cryptic conversation to deflate him and dispose of him:

Rick: Your cash is good at the bar.German: What? Do you know who I am?Rick: I do. You're lucky the bar's open to you.German: This is outrageous. I shall report it to the Angriff.

Italian-born Guillermo Ugarte (Peter Lorre), a slimy North African black market dealer in extra-legal items, weasels his way into the gambling room. He nervously observes Rick's anti-German insult, questions the evasive American's origins - and his cynicism, and then expresses sympathy for the "two German couriers" that were murdered:

Ugarte: You know, Rick, watching you just now with the 'Deutschebank' [the German banker], one would think you'd been doing this all your life.Rick: Oh, what makes you think I haven't?Ugarte: Oh, nothing. But when you first came to Casablanca, I thought...Rick: You thought what?Ugarte: What right do I have to think?..(hypocritically) Too bad about those two German couriers, wasn't it?Rick: (disparagingly) They got a lucky break. Yesterday, they were just two German clerks. Today, they're the Honored Dead.Ugarte: You are a very cynical person, Rick, if you forgive me for saying so.Rick: I forgive you.

Rick is contemptuous of Ugarte's "cut-rate" business of selling exit visas for half of Renault's price - and Ugarte senses it, with a sad tone. Ugarte explains his plan to leave Casablanca once and for all:

Ugarte: You despise me, don't you?Rick: Well, if I gave you any thought, I probably would.Ugarte: But why? Oh, you object to the kind of business I do, huh? But think of all those poor refugees who must rot in this place if I didn't help them. Well that's not so bad, through ways of my own, I provide them with exit visas.Rick: For a price, Ugarte, for a price.Ugarte: But think of all the poor devils who can't meet Renault's price. I get it for them for half. Is that so parasitic?Rick: I don't mind a parasite. I object to a cut-rate one.Ugarte: Well, Rick, after tonight, I'll be through with the whole business, and I'm leaving finally, this Casablanca.Rick: (quipping) Who'd you bribe for your visa, Renault or yourself?

Ugarte shows Rick two non-rescindable French General-signed letters of transit out of Casablanca that allow their possessor to travel without a regular passport or visa. [The pronunciation of the General's name is muffled - whether the irrevocable letters of transit were signed by General Charles DeGaulle or General Maxime Weygand, the military-Vichy commander in French N. Africa, is in question. Weygand would be the more accurate and likely one to issue irrevocable letters of transit - although they probably never existed.] His display of the visas insinuates that he killed the German couriers. His plan is to sell them and make a fortune - "more money than even I have ever dreamed of." Chain-smoking nervously, small-time operator Ugarte trusts only Rick and explains his criteria with an ironic compliment: "You know Rick, I have many a friend in Casablanca, but somehow, just because you despise me you are the only one I trust."

Ugarte temporarily entrusts the letters of transit with the trustworthy cafe proprietor. Ugarte hopes that Rick admires him: "Rick, I hope you are more impressed with me now, huh?" With a slight sneer on his face, Rick tells Ugarte that he has heard a rumor that the two murdered German couriers were carrying letters of transit - implying that Ugarte was involved in their demise. Ugarte commiserates sarcastically: "Oh, I've heard that rumor too. Poor devils." Rick compliments Ugarte: "Yes, you're right, Ugarte. I am a little more impressed with you," referring to Ugarte's bold murders to get the exit visas, as well as a little disgust that he would have gone so far. Rick hides the two priceless letters of transit for him, secretly stashing them in the club's upright piano while Sam sings and plays: "Who's Got Trouble? - Knock on Wood" - the song title provides commentary that is pregnant with meaning.

The king of the Black Market and rival Blue Parrot cafe proprietor, a large-figured Senor Ferrari (Sydney Greenstreet), enters the cafe. Immediately after the song ends, the white-suited, large man offers to buy the cafe - an offer that he has made (and had rejected) numerous times. Rick isn't interested in selling, so Ferrari offers instead to buy the contract of Rick's piano player Sam (Dooley Wilson in his film debut), and then criticizes Rick for his "isolationist" policy:

Rick: It's not for sale.Ferrari: You haven't heard my offer.Rick: It's not for sale at any price.Ferrari: What do you want for Sam?

Rick (looking down and with understatement): I don't buy or sell human beings.Ferrari: Too bad. That's Casablanca's leading commodity. In refugees alone, we could make a fortune, if you work with me through the black market.Rick: Suppose you run your business and let me run mine.Ferrari: Suppose we ask Sam. Maybe he'd like to make a change?Rick: Suppose we do.Ferrari: My dear Rick, when will you realize that in this world, today, isolationism is no longer a practical policy?

Sam is asked about his loyalties, and steadfastly wishes to remain with Rick ("I like it fine here"). Rick is ultimately detached from politics.

Rick is also divorced from romantic associations and commitment. At the bar, a cute, infatuated French bargirl Yvonne (Madeleine LeBeau) confrontationally begs for his interest, but his alcoholic mistress no longer figures in his life:

Yvonne: Where were you last night?Rick: That's so long ago, I don't remember.Yvonne: Will I see you tonight?Rick: I never make plans that far ahead.

Rick orders his crazy Russian bartender Sascha (Leonid Kinskey) not to serve Yvonne any more drinks, and then orders Sascha to call for a cab to get her to leave quietly and go home. Outside, the rejected, drunken mistress tells him: "What a fool I was to fall for a man like you." After putting her in the cab with Sascha, he turns and sees Renault relaxing on the front patio terrace at one of the outdoor tables. The opportunistic police Capitaine Renault, who enjoys a social friendship with Rick, has witnessed her send-off. He resents Rick's easy way with women and wryly observes that maybe his chances with the discarded Yvonne will now improve:

How extravagant you are - throwing away women like that. Some day they may be scarce. Oh, I think now I shall pay a call on Yvonne, maybe get her on the rebound, huh?

Rick politely calls Renault promiscuous: "When it comes to women, you're a true democrat."

As they chat, it is revealed that they are looking down the main runway of the Casablanca airport. The Lisbon-bound plane takes off over their heads. [Unrealistically, it couldn't be seen from the cafe - the airport is six miles away!] Renault asks Rick if he wishes to be on the plane on his way to America, speculating about why Rick hasn't returned there on Pan American Airways' airborne BoeingClipper seaplane from Lisbon:

Renault: You would like to be on it?Rick: Why? What's in Lisbon?Renault: The Clipper to America.

As Ugarte did earlier, the French prefet pries, with jest and jocularity, by asking questions about Rick's mysterious and intriguing past. He speculates that Rick has been exiled because he is guilty of either a spiritual-religious robbery, adultery, or murder. But Rick again wryly dodges and evades his questions with understated wit, confirming that he transgressed in all three ways. He only admits to seeking refuge in Casablanca to find health - mostly through inward solitude, brooding and a quest to forget his melancholy past:

Renault: I've often speculated why you don't return to America. Did you abscond with the church funds? Did you run off with a Senator's wife? I like to think that you killed a man. It's the romantic in me.Rick: It's a combination of all three.Renault: And what in Heaven's name brought you to Casablanca?Rick: My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters.Renault: The waters? What waters? We're in the desert.Rick (laconically): I was misinformed.

Rick is summoned into the cafe by his croupier Emil (Marcel Dalio), who apologizes for losing 20,000 francs to one of the betting customers.

In the cafe, Renault warns Rick that there is soon going to be some excitement that evening - a murderer [Ugarte] is about to be seized and arrested at the gaming tables for the killing of the two German couriers. Knowing that Renault is referring to Ugarte, Rick vacillates for a moment about where his loyalties lie, as Renault reminds him: "If you are thinking of

warning him, don't put yourself out. He cannot possibly escape." With a well-known line, Rick resolutely states his private withdrawal and isolationism from World War II intrigues (and his personal disengagement from each of the characters he has dealt with so far - the cafe's customers, the Deutschebank German, Ugarte, Ferrari, Yvonne, and Renault). After the delivery of Rick's line, Renault approves of his "wise foreign policy" to defensively keep to himself and to thwart any intrusions:

I stick my neck out for nobody.

In his upstairs apartment above the cafe, Rick is also told that Major Strasser of the Third Reich will be an "important guest" at the cafe during the time of the arrest, as Renault boasts competitively: "a little demonstration of the efficiency of my administration." Renault advises Rick to be careful and not be tempted to accept a "fortune" from someone rumored to have enough cash to purchase an exit visa:

Renault: Rick, there are many exit visas sold in this cafe, but we know that you've never sold one. That is the reason we permit you to remain open.Rick: I thought it was because I let you win at roulette.Renault: That is another reason. There is a man (who's) arrived in Casablanca on his way to America. He will offer a fortune to anyone who will furnish him with an exit visa.Rick: (with a flat, disinterested tone) Yeah? What's his name?Renault: Victor Laszlo.

A well-known Czechoslovakian Resistance leader and freedom fighter, Victor Laszlo, who escaped from a German concentration camp, will be arriving imminently. Renault is surprised that Rick's expression changes with the mention of Laszlo's name - Rick is "impressed" - knowing of his great reputation, his escape, and his flight from Nazis all over Europe: "He succeeded in impressing half the world." However, Renault has orders that he must fulfill - counter to Rick's admiration: "It's my duty to see that he doesn't impress the other half. Rick, Laszlo must never reach America. He stays in Casablanca." Rick speculates about the fate of Laszlo: "It'll be interesting to see how he manages.... - his escape."

Renault believes that for Laszlo, Casablanca "is the end of the chase." Rick proposes a 20,000 franc wager, betting whether Laszlo will succeed in getting out of Casablanca. Renault asks for a smaller bet of 10,000 francs [during the war, this amount was less than $1,000] on these grounds:

I'm only a poor corrupt official.

The bet is transformed - in Renault's favor, when he announces that Laszlo has a traveling companion - a mysterious "lady" - and taking her along will require two exit visas [It isn't revealed publicly until much later on in the film that Victor Laszlo and the lady are married]:

Renault: No matter how clever he is, he still needs an exit visa, or I should say, two.Rick: Why two?Renault: He is traveling with a lady.Rick: He'll take one.Renault: I think not. I have seen the lady and if he did not leave her in Marseilles or in Oran, he certainly won't leave her in Casablanca.Rick: Well, maybe he's not quite as romantic as you are.

Rick wonders why Renault suspects him of assisting in the Czechoslovakian's escape. The crafty Renault confronts Rick [who he calls Ricky throughout the film] about his checkered past and his idealistic inclinations toward championing lost causes. Renault's points make Rick visibly uneasy and uncomfortable - he unconvincingly admits that his motives are only monetary:

Renault: Because my dear Ricky, I suspect that under that cynical shell, you're at heart a sentimentalist...Oh, laugh if you will, but I happen to be familiar with your record. Let me point out just two items. In 1935, you ran guns to Ethiopia. In 1936, you fought in Spain on the Loyalists' side.Rick: And got well paid for it on both occasions.Renault: The winning side would have paid you much better.Rick: Maybe.

[An opportunist from America, Rick arranged and then supplied guns to the Ethiopians after their country was invaded by Italy in 1935, thereby breaking President Roosevelt's 1935 Neutrality Law. Afterwards, not wishing to return to the US for

possible prosecution, he 'fought' for the Loyalist government in the Spanish Civil War in 1936 against Franco, when the Germans and Italians supported the Franco-led Nationalist rebels. After the conflict was over in 1938, Rick chose to go to Paris instead of returning to America.]

Renault has a questionable yet pragmatic political alliance with the "influential" Gestapo:

I don't interfere with them and they don't interfere with me. In Casablanca, I'm master of my fate. I am Captain...

Major Strasser's arrival interrupts their conversation - downstairs, Carl tells Renault that he has already offered the Gestapo official one of the best tables - one close to the ladies: "I have already given him the best - knowing he is German and would take it anyway." Renault introduces the Nazi Major to the pleasures found at Rick's Cafe - French wine and a tin of Russian caviar.

In the cafe's gambling room, Ugarte - the man thought to have murdered the couriers, is detained at the roulette table by French gendarmes. Rick stands by stonily and ignores Ugarte's squirming, desperate pleas after he fires his gun four times at the police officers and flees to Rick for protection, squealing: "But Rick, hide me, do something, you must help me, Rick!" When Ugarte is dragged away, Rick repeats his non-committal, cold, tough-guy stance to an offended customer:

I stick my neck out for nobody.

The successful display of the French's swift detainment of the criminal pleases Renault immensely.

When the disturbance dies down, Rick is introduced by Renault (with his typical sarcasm) to Major Strasser and stern-faced Herr Heinze of the Third Reich: "We are honored tonight, Rick. Major Strasser is one of the reasons the Third Reich enjoys the reputation it has today." Strasser probes into Rick's background and his allegiances, believing that Rick's neutrality is a cover for his anti-Nazi activities. Strasser informally interrogates him about his opinion of the German military machine's potential, but Rick maintains his neutral stance:

Strasser: What is your nationality?Rick (evasively): I'm a drunkard. (Laughter.)Renault: And that makes Rick a citizen of the world.Rick: I was born in New York City if that'll help you any.Strasser: I understand that you came here from Paris at the time of the occupation.Rick: Well, there seems to be no secret about that.Strasser: Are you one of those people who cannot imagine the Germans in their beloved Paris?Rick: Not particularly my beloved Paris.Heinze: Can you imagine us in London?Rick: When you get there, ask me.Renault: Diplomatist.Strasser: Well, how about New York?Rick: Well, there are certain sections of New York, Major, that I wouldn't advise you to try to invade.Strasser: Uh, huh. Who do you think will win the war?Rick: I haven't the slightest idea.Renault: Rick is completely neutral about everything. And that takes in the field of women, too.Strasser: You are not always so carefully neutral? We have a complete dossier on you.

Strasser summarizes the contents of Rick's Gestapo file - his reasons for being a permanently-exiled expatriate are not explained:

Richard Blaine, American, age 37, cannot return to his country - the reason is a little vague.

The dossier has made Strasser and the Gestapo knowledgeable about what Rick did in Paris and why he left. Strasser pleasantly reassures Rick that the Germans will not broadcast the news of his estranged background. Looking over Strasser's dossier on him, Rick is not disconcerted and asks impertinently: "Are my eyes really brown?" Strasser repeats that his main goal in Casablanca is to find any resistance followers who could be of help to "enemies of the Reich" - including escaped Underground leaders such as Victor Laszlo. During the informal questioning by the Major, Rick expresses no interest in personally aiding refugees - particularly Victor Laszlo:

Rick: My interest in whether Victor Laszlo stays or goes is purely a sporting one.Strasser: In this case, you have no sympathy for the fox, huh?Rick: Not particularly. I understand the point of view of the hound, too.

Strasser describes how Laszlo became an enemy of the Reich by defiant Resistance activities in Paris and because of three clever escapes. On the other hand, Rick assures Strasser of his strict and absolute political neutrality regarding the war. He excuses himself to leave the table to take care of business as a saloonkeeper:

Strasser: Victor Laszlo published the foulest lies in the Prague newspapers until the very day we marched in, and even after that, he continued to print scandal sheets in a cellar.Renault: Of course, one must admit he has great courage.Strasser: I admit he's very clever. Three times he slipped through our fingers. In Paris, he continued his activities. We intend not to let it happen again.Rick: Excuse me, gentlemen. Your business is politics. Mine is running a saloon.

Rick prefers to wait for World War II to end, although he deceives himself - he still conceals (like the hidden exit visas) some anti-Fascist bitterness behind his cafe entrepreneurship. Renault shows his friendly affection for Rick, assuring the Major: "You have nothing to worry about Rick."

Just then, the pursued, lean French-Resistance leader, Czechoslovakian Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), and his beautiful "companion," the radiant but furtive Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman), enter Rick's cafe and gambling house. She is wearing an elegant, pure and noble, well-tailored white dress [as she does in almost every scene] and he is in an off-white suit. After announcing authoritatively: "I reserved a table. Victor Laszlo," the couple are led to a seat at their reserved table - their white outfits contrast sharply to the dark-black uniform of the headwaiter. Sam and Ilsa appear to recognize each other - with trepidation - as she passes by, keeping in step with Laszlo. [He begins playing Love For Sale on the piano. Is she already suspicious that Rick and Sam have both ventured into N. Africa together after she passed under the lit sign of the cafe that identified Rick as the owner?] When seated, Laszlo mentions in a hushed voice that he is looking for Ugarte. Ilsa is visibly nervous, and her first words convey fear of both her past and their present danger: "I feel somehow we shouldn't stay here." The Resistance leader remains courteous, but the seasoned Resistance leader bears a small two-inch scar over his right eye, the result of his recent escape and flight across Europe.

A Norwegian Underground ally and contact named Berger (John Qualen) identifies himself to Laszlo with his ring bearing the Cross of Lorraine. The shadow of Capitaine Renault's head appears on the wall behind Ilsa, and she cuts short Laszlo's illicit conversation: "Victor!" He quickly diverts their conversation when Renault approaches and welcomes the "distinguished...visitor" to Casablanca - and then flatters the gracious Ilsa:

Renault: I was informed you were the most beautiful woman ever to visit Casablanca. That was a gross understatement.Ilsa: You're very kind.

Renault orders champagne and caviar: "A bottle of your best champagne and put it on my bill." Laszlo objects, but Renault explains: "It's a little game we play. They put it on the bill. I tear up the bill. It is very convenient."

Ilsa asks Renault about the piano player's background ("the boy who is playing the piano"). She learns that Sam came from Paris with Rick, the owner of the cafe - and she is also informed that Renault has repressed homosexual feelings for Rick himself:

Renault: He came from Paris, with Rick.Ilsa: Rick? Who's he? [She doesn't recognize Rick's name - in the past, she knew 'Rick' as 'Richard.']Renault: Mademoiselle, you are in Rick's and Rick is, uh...Ilsa: Is what?Renault: Well, Mademoiselle, he's the kind of man that - (he points to his own chest), well, if I were a woman, and I were not around, I should be in love with Rick. But what a fool I am talking to a beautiful woman about another man. (She reacts with a pleasing smile toward Laszlo.)

When Major Strasser approaches, Laszlo refuses to stand and let Strasser sit at his table - an act of defiance that could cost him his freedom:

Laszlo: I'm sure you'll excuse me if I'm not gracious. But you see Major Strasser, I'm a Czechoslovakian.Strasser: You were a Czechoslovakian. Now you are a subject of the German Reich.Laszlo (rising confrontationally): I've never accepted that privilege and I'm now on French soil.

After exchanging a few bitter, offensive and hostile words to each other, Strasser demands a discussion of "the matters arising from your presence on French soil," and orders Laszlo to be questioned at the Prefet's office the next morning at ten - "with Mademoiselle." Victor is worried: "This time, they really mean to stop me." Likewise, Ilsa is dreadfully fearful of their precarious situation: "Victor, I'm afraid for you." At the bar while drinking champagne cocktails, Laszlo is dismayed when told by Berger that the source of their exit visas, Ugarte, has already been taken into police custody, after his arrest for murder earlier that evening in the cafe. Berger invites Laszlo to the next evening's Underground resistance meeting.

While Laszlo is gone, Ilsa summons Sam, an old acquaintance from "a long time" before. He wheels over his piano next to her table - as he warily remembers how long it has been: "I never expected to see you again...A lot of water under the bridge." In her beautiful Scandinavian accent, she innocently entices him to play "some of the old songs." Ilsa asks about Rick while Sam nervously plays Avalon - a song that isn't one of the old ones she wants to hear. Loyal and dedicated to Rick, the piano player knows that she can bring hurt and heartache again - he politely admonishes her to leave Rick alone ("You're bad luck to him"). Sam tries to divert and evade all references to Rick, but she sees through his lies and persists in consciously summoning Rick back into her life [later on, Ilsa contradicts herself, telling Rick - "I wouldn't have come if I'd known that you were here"):

Ilsa: Where is Rick?Sam: I don't know. I ain't seen him all night.Ilsa: When will he be back?Sam: Not tonight no more. He ain't comin'...He went home.Ilsa: Does he always leave so early?Sam: Oh, he never..., well, he's got a girl up at the Blue Parrot. He goes up there all the time.Ilsa: (She turns away and reaches for her champagne glass.) You used to be a much better liar, Sam.Sam: Leave him alone, Miss Ilsa. You're bad luck to him.

In one of the film's classic scenes, the radiant-faced, enraptured, sensual Mademoiselle persuades him to play a favorite old love song - As Time Goes By. [The song, composed by Herman Hupfeld, not Steiner, was written for a 1931 Broadway revue titled Everybody's Welcome]:

Ilsa: Play it once, Sam, for old times' sake.Sam: I don't know what you mean, Miss Ilsa.Ilsa: (whispered) Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By.'Sam: Why, I can't remember it, Miss Ilsa. I'm a little rusty on it.Ilsa: I'll hum it for you. (Ilsa hums two bars. Sam starts to play - without singing the lyrics. She presses him to sing.) Sing it, Sam.

After remaining deferential, Sam is finally disarmed by her alluring charm and gives into her persistent requests. He sings the chorus, as the breath-taking Ilsa listens - and remembers a past love affair - with tears welling up in her eyes:

You must remember thisA kiss is just a kissA sigh is just a sighThe fundamental things applyAs Time Goes By.And when two lovers wooThey still say, 'I love you'On that you can relyNo matter what the future bringsAs Time Goes By.

As Sam plays and sings, Ilsa is transformed by the passion of the moment. The song unlocks a nostalgic flood of joyful memories of the longings she had for a past love - she is perhaps fearful of her own reactions and of seeing Rick

again. A petulant-looking, disturbed Rick hears Sam playing and singing the forbidden song and angrily strides over to the piano to chastise him for playing a tune that recalls Paris:

Sam, I thought I told you never to play...

And then the music pauses - and Rick is startled and dumbfounded by the sight of Ilsa - they exchange a long, shocked look, the first time they have seen each other after many years. Sam quickly stacks his piano bench on top of the piano and wheels it away.

Shortly after, they are interrupted by the presence of Capt. Renault and Laszlo coming from the bar. Rick suppresses his feelings in his formal introduction to the "Mademoiselle," treating her like a stranger. Ilsa interrupts Renault's formal courtesies and personally introduces "Mr. Laszlo" to Rick. To Renault's surprise, Rick joins them for a drink, departing from his normal solitary style: "Well, a precedent is being broken." Although taken aback by Ilsa's appearance, Rick generously compliments Laszlo on his freedom-fighting efforts - he is notably impressed by the Czech's exceptional accomplishments:

Laszlo: This is a very interesting cafe. I congratulate you.Rick: And I congratulate you.Laszlo: What for?Rick: Your work.Laszlo: Thank you. I try.Rick: We all try. You succeed.

Watchful and curious, Renault probes into Rick's and Ilsa's past awareness of each other - during their last meeting:

Renault: I can't get over you two. She was asking about you earlier, Rick, in a way that made me extremely jealous.Ilsa: (to Rick) I wasn't sure you were the same. Let's see, the last time we met was -Rick (finishing her sentence) La Belle Aurore.Ilsa: How nice. You remembered. But of course, that was the day the Germans marched into Paris.

In alternating close-ups of their faces, Rick (staring intently at her) and Ilsa (sporting an irrepressible smile) discuss the last time they saw each other during the final days of unconquered Paris, at La Belle Aurore, another bistro. [She was Rick's ex-lover from an affair in Paris just before the Germans occupied the city.] He recollects back - with faint anguish:

Rick: Not an easy day to forget.Ilsa: No.Rick: I remember every detail. The Germans wore grey. You wore blue.Ilsa: Yes. I put that dress away. When the Germans march out, I'll wear it again.Renault: Ricky, you're becoming quite human. I suppose we have to thank you for that, Mademoiselle.

Because it is late and there is a curfew, Victor and Ilsa must leave. When Rick takes the check, Renault exclaims again: "Another precedent gone. This has been a very interesting evening." As they walk away from the cafe towards a cab, Victor asks her what she knows about Rick:

Victor: A very puzzling fellow, this Rick. What sort is he?Ilsa: (non-chalantly, while looking straight ahead) Oh, I really can't say, though I saw him quite often in Paris.

She passes through a shadow as she tells this half-truth. They meet up with Renault, who reminds them of their appointment with him the next day in the Prefet's office. As they step into their cab, a close-up shows Renault's sinister face, illuminated as he smokes a cigarette. His ambiguous reaction to their arrival and presence in Casablanca is underlined by shadows and light.

Later that night after the cafe has closed and the streets are deserted, Rick despairs in his darkened establishment about Ilsa, chain-smoking cigarettes and drinking bourbon heavily. Sam senses trouble and suggests that his emotionally-numb "Boss" go home to bed. Rick obstinately tells Sam that he's "waiting for a lady" - expecting Ilsa to return to him. He agonizes over her appearance: "She's coming back, I know she's coming back." [With a curfew, the airport beacon light combing the exterior, and the threats to Victor Laszlo's life, it is unlikely that she would risk a late-night visit.] Sam senses trouble and suggests that they "take the car and drive all night" to avoid her in Casablanca, "get drunk," or "go fishing and stay away until she's gone." Sam refuses to leave, knowing Rick's deep depression as his employer associates Ilsa's

appearance after their affair to his own isolationism and to uncaring, neutral, non-interventionist Americans who are "asleep" and unaware of the rise of Fascism elsewhere - with its accompanying pain and lonely agony:

They grab Ugarte. Then she walks in. Well, (that's) the way it goes. One in, one out...(To Sam) It's December 1941 in Casablanca. [This is a retrospective warning about Pearl Harbor] What time is it in New York?...I bet they're asleep in New York. I bet they're asleep all over America.

Distraught over past painful memories being re-activated, he pounds his fist down on the table:

Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.

Rick angrily orders a repeat performance from Sam at the piano of As Time Goes By:

Rick: What's that you're playin?Sam: Oh, just a little somethin' on my own.Rick: Well, stop it! You know what I want to hear.Sam: No, I don't.Rick: You played it for her, you can play it for me.Sam: Well, I don't think I can remember...Rick: If she can stand it, I can. Play it!

As variations of As Time Goes By play, the camera blurs into a dissolve from his face into a flashback - it takes him back to memories of happier times in a whirlwind romance with Ilsa in pre-Occupation Paris where they were in love before the German invasion. It is a bittersweet account of their ill-fated time together. He revisits the past to resist the explanation that he knows she will bring for her betrayal of him in Paris. He is still in love with her and feeling rejection after she abandoned him, her beloved, in Paris without explanation.

In an open car, the in-love couple motor through the city by the Arche de Triomphe and down the Champs Elysee, and then into the French countryside. They also take a boat down the Seine River with the Eiffel Tower in the distance. In Ilsa's Parisian hotel, Rick pops a champagne cork and they sip champagne while vowing never to ask about their pasts:

Rick: Who are you really and what were you before? What did you do and what did you think, huh?Ilsa: We said no questions.

When they toast each other and clink their glasses, Rick utters his classic line for the first time:

Here's looking at you, kid.

Under a glittering, rotating mirrored ball, they dance in a Paris nightclub. [The tune Perfidia plays in the background - a Mexican song about love and betrayal, with music and lyrics by Milton Leeds and Alberto Domínguez.] Afterwards, an unattached Ilsa tosses a coin in the air and admits that her former lover [Victor Laszlo] is thought to be dead:

Ilsa: A franc for your thoughts.Rick: In America, they bring only a penny. I guess that's about all they're worth.Ilsa: But, I'm willing to be overcharged. Tell me.Rick: And I was wondering...Ilsa: Yes.Rick: Why I'm so lucky, why I should find you waiting for me to come along?Ilsa: Why there is no other man in my life?Rick: Uh, huh.Ilsa: That's easy. There was. And he's dead.Rick: I'm sorry for asking. I forgot we said no questions.Ilsa: Well, only one answer can take care of all our questions. (She approaches his lips for a kiss.)

But the Germans begin their devastating advance on Paris and intrude upon their love affair. Quick cuts show documentary newsfilm of the Nazi encroachment/Anschluss with troops, tanks and planes during their love affair. On June 11, 1940, in an outdoor, street-side cafe, the Cafe Pierre in the Montmartre district of Paris, Rick purchases a newspaper, the Paris-soir and the lovers read of the news of the Nazis' approach:

Paris Ville Ouverte: Ordre D'EvacuationAvis a la Population

Lache Agression - L'Italie nous Declare La Guerre

[Paris is an Open City: The Population is Advised to Evacuate. The Cowardly Aggression (German advance) - Italy Declares War on Us.]

They hear a report from a truck with mounted loudspeakers of the fast-breaking news and Rick knows it is time for him to get out of town. They discuss the jeopardy he is in - as an anti-Fascist - that has already earned him the wrath of the Gestapo for his "record":

Rick: Nothing can stop them now. Wednesday [June 12, 1940], Thursday [June 13, 1940], at the latest, they'll be in Paris. [The Germans actually entered Paris on Friday, June 14, 1940.]Ilsa (frightened): Richard, they'll find out your record. It won't be safe for you here.Rick (smiles): I'm on their blacklist already, their roll of honor.

At La Belle Aurore in Paris, Sam plays As Time Goes By as Rick pours a glass of champagne for Ilsa: "Henri [the proprietor] wants us to finish this bottle, and then three more. He says he'll water his garden with champagne before he'll let the Germans drink it." The drinks "take the sting out of being occupied" for a short moment. Rick then offers his familiar toast: "Here's looking at you, kid." Gestapo loudspeakers in the street interrupt them, announcing the German's arrival the next day. At the window, Ilsa suffers in despair at the news:

Ilsa: They're telling us how to act when they come marching in. With the whole world crumbling we pick this time to fall in love.Rick: Yeah, it's pretty bad timing. Where were you, say, ten years ago?Ilsa: Ten years ago? Let's see, yes, I was having a brace put on my teeth. Where were you?Rick: Looking for a job.

As they embrace and kiss at the open window, artillery fire is heard off in the distance. Ilsa is startled:

Was that cannon fire or is it my heart pounding?

Based upon his past familiarity with gun-running and arms-dealing, Rick knows exactly what caliber of artillery and the distance away it is being fired: "Ah, that's the new German 77, and judging by the sound, only about thirty-five miles away - and getting closer every minute." Because there is a "price" on Rick's head and his life is in danger, Ilsa pleads with him to leave Paris. Rick suggests that they flee together on the 5 o'clock train from Paris to Marseilles ahead of the German invaders. She promises to meet him at the station - and then Rick nonchalantly proposes getting married in Marseilles, but Ilsa thinks that's rushing it: "That's too far ahead to plan." Rick jokes that the engineer could marry them on the train. She is emotionally overwhelmed by his request and expresses her love for him in the midst of the "crazy world":

I love you so much. And I hate this war so much. Oh, it's a crazy world. Anything can happen. If you shouldn't get away, I mean, if something should keep us apart, wherever they put you and wherever I'll be, I want you to know that...

They express their passionate feelings in the flashback scene's climax. An emotionally-intoxicated Ilsa initiates the kiss, moving up to meet Rick's lips as they sit together, abandoning herself to him in a kiss - specially requested:

Kiss me. Kiss me as if it were the last time.

The camera moves to reveal that Ilsa's fist has dropped and tipped over her champagne glass - symbolizing the strength of her anger at fate - and the end of her happy times with Rick. The onset of World War II is brilliantly juxtaposed with the split in their personal relationship.

The flashback dissolves to the crowded Paris train station before their planned flight to Marseilles, where Rick waits for Ilsa at four minutes to five. Sam delivers a cryptic note of farewell that Ilsa left for him after she checked out of her hotel. Raindrops, like tears, spatter and smear Ilsa's parting words in the rain-drenched, blurry farewell note to him:

Richard,

I cannot

go with you or ever

see you again. You

must not ask why.

Just believe that I

love you. Go, my darling,

and God bless you.

Ilsa

Sam forcibly pushes a devastated Rick onto the departing train, propelling him away from danger and from his aborted love affair with the woman he idolized. Rick crumples the fateful letter and tosses it down as the train pulls away. [From there, Rick went on to Casablanca, with Sam, where he established an American-style nightclub and became its saloonkeeper in 18 month's time.]

At the end of his reminiscing, the camera pans from left to right, locating a drunken, dozing Rick sitting at a cafe table in the right foreground and knocking over his glass of bourbon. The camera repositions him on the left when suddenly, the door to the closed cafe opens, seen in the far distance in the middle of the screen. The lighting in the next black-and-white image is stunningly effective. There, spotlighted in a shaft of light (almost as if in Rick's dream or memory), Ilsa appears wearing a white coat and scarf. As he expected, she has come to him, but she heightens his resentful feelings by telling him that she wouldn't have come if she had known he was in Casablanca. She approaches and attempts to speak to him, but he is sarcastic and refuses to listen to her explanations or her sympathy. His morbid self-pitying and bitterness is too great to allow him to listen. Rick wallows unresponsively:

Rick: Why did you have to come to Casablanca? There are other places.Ilsa: I wouldn't have come if I'd known that you were here. Believe me, Rick. It's true. I didn't know.Rick: It's funny about your voice how it hasn't changed. I can still hear it: 'Richard dear. I'll go with you anyplace. We'll get on a train together and never stop.'Ilsa: Please don't. Don't Rick! I can understand how you feel.Rick: Huh! You understand how I feel. How long was it we had, honey?Ilsa: I didn't count the days.Rick: Well I did. Every one of them. Mostly, I remember the last one. The wow finish. A guy standing on a station platform in the rain with a comical look on his face, because his insides had been kicked out.Ilsa: Can I tell you a story, Rick?Rick: Does it got a wow finish?Ilsa: I don't know the finish yet.Rick: Go on and tell it. Maybe one will come to you as you go along.

With tears in her eyes, Ilsa attempts to explain her past history - something she had kept from him earlier. She was just a young girl new to Paris from her Norwegian home in Oslo when at the house of some friends, she met a "very great and courageous man. He opened up for her a whole beautiful world full of knowledge and thoughts and ideals." He was an idealistic man whom she worshipped as an heroic father figure - with infatuation that she interpreted as love ("...she looked up to him, worshipped him, with a feeling she supposed was love"). But Rick's anger and rude sarcasm halts her, and blocks her from continuing. He denigrates his once, dearly-beloved girlfriend to the level of a promiscuous and loose slut:

Yes, it's very pretty. I heard a story once. As a matter of fact, I've heard a lot of stories in my time. They went along with the sound of a tinny piano, playing in the parlor downstairs. 'Mister, I met a man once when I was a kid,' they'd always begin. Well, I guess neither one of our stories is very funny. Tell me, who was it you left me for? Was it Laszlo or were there others in between? Or aren't you the kind that tells?

Ilsa, with a tear running down her cheek and without a further word, leaves Rick slumped down and collapsed on the table with his head in his hands.

The next morning at the Prefet's de Police's office [Wednesday, Dec. 3, 1940], the suspicious Strasser and fence-straddling Capitaine Renault discuss Rick's connection to Ugarte:

Strasser: I strongly suspect that Ugarte left the letters of transit with Mr. Blaine. I would suggest you search the cafe immediately and thoroughly.Renault: If Rick has the letters, he's much too smart to let you find them there.Strasser: You give him credit for too much cleverness. My impression was that he's just another blundering American.Renault: But we mustn't underestimate American blundering. (Innocently) I was with them when they 'blundered' into Berlin in 1918. [The date should more accurately be 1919.] (Strasser nonchalantly coughs at the thought.)

When Victor and Ilsa arrive, Strasser tells Victor, "an escaped prisoner of the Reich," that he will definitely not receive an exit visa out of Casablanca. Strasser attempts to intimidate the defiant, elusive resistance leader: "So far, you have been fortunate enough in eluding us. You have reached Casablanca - it is my duty to see that you stay in Casablanca." Laszlo doesn't intimidate easily: "Whether or not you will succeed is, of course, problematical."

Strasser offers them another option that would allow the two of them to leave for Lisbon the next day - all Victor has to do is to betray the names of his fellow Underground Resistance leaders throughout Europe and "you will have your visa in the morning." Amused, Renault contemptuously utters the next line: "And the honor of having served the Third Reich!" Laszlo eloquently denounces the Major and refuses to be bribed by the preposterous offer. He is arrogantly unafraid of Nazi threats:

If I didn't give them to you in a concentration camp, where you had more persuasive methods at your disposal, I certainly won't give them to you now. And what if you track down these men and kill them? What if you murdered all of us? From every corner of your Republic, thousands would rise to take our places. Even Nazis can't kill that fast.

Threateningly, Strasser informs Laszlo that no one could take his place "in the event anything unfortunate should occur to you." Strasser adds that Ugarte is dead - and Renault admits that there was foul play involved: "I'm making out the report now. We haven't quite decided whether he committed suicide or died trying to escape." After the two have left ("undoubtedly...to the black market" to obtain a visa), another "visa problem" is presented to Renault - the police chief straightens his tie and responds: "Show her in."

Rick visits the Blue Parrot Cafe, so that Major Strasser has a "chance to ransack my place." There, he meets with Senor Ferrari, a dealer in black market items ("He pretty near has a monopoly on the Black Market"). Ferrari is seen escorting a couple out of his office [in a subplot involving an attractive Bulgarian refugee named Annina and her husband], suggesting to them that they see Capitaine Renault. With small beady eyes emphasizing his cynical craftiness, Ferrari suspects that the late Ugarte left the valuable exit visas with Rick and offers to help Rick unload them at a profit:

Ferrari: There's something I want to talk over with you, anyhow. (He hails a waiter) The bourbon. Ah. The news about Ugarte upsets me very much.Rick: You're a fat hypocrite. You don't feel any sorrier for Ugarte than I do.Ferrari: Of course not. What upsets me is the fact that Ugarte is dead and no one knows where those letters of transit are.Rick: Practically no one.

Rick learns the real value of the letters of transit from their conversation - he claims that he's a "poor businessman" who needs them more than Ferrari, plays ignorant about their whereabouts, and refuses to deal (and be a "partner"). As Rick leaves, he passes Victor who is on his way in to meet with the corrupt marketeer, pointing out: "Senor Ferrari's the fat gent at the table." In the market bazaar outside the cafe, Rick encounters Ilsa who is shopping-bargaining for fabric while Victor is in the Blue Parrot. He apologizes for his drunken denunciation of her unfaithfulness the previous night, but she coldly rejects his explanation this time (Her statement toward the bazaar keeper "I'm not interested" could easily have been directed toward Rick). He blames his confusion on the 'bore-bun' he was drinking: "Your story had me a little confused...Why did you come back? To tell me why you ran out on me at the railway station?" Although he is sober, Ilsa doesn't wish to explain her behavior, because she sees how he has changed. It will be better for her to leave Casablanca and never see him again:

Last night, I saw what has happened to you. The Rick I knew in Paris I could tell him, he'd understand. But the one who looked at me with such hatred - I'll be leaving Casablanca soon and we'll never see each other again. We knew very little about each other when we were in love in Paris. If we leave it that way, maybe we'll remember those days and not Casablanca. Not last night.

Although she adamantly wants to put their entire relationship behind her, he tells her to visit him again at his apartment above the saloon, now that he's "not running away," "settled," and awaiting her return. He expects her to lie to Laszlo as she lied to him:

Walk up a flight. I'll be expecting you. All the same, someday you'll lie to Laszlo - you'll be there.

But then she reveals the well-kept secret that Victor was her husband all along, even in Paris: "No, Rick. No, you see, Victor Laszlo's my husband and was, even when I knew you in Paris." Abruptly, Ilsa walks away from a subdued, speechless and stunned Rick. It is his first knowledge that she was married during their aborted affair in Paris [She was apparently unfaithful, although she sincerely believed that her 'husband' was dead].

Victor and Ilsa helplessly ask for assistance from Senor Ferrari in leaving Casablanca. With wide and innocent eyes this time, he tells them that Ilsa will be the only one able to leave and he may be able to help smuggle her out.

As leader of all the illegal activities in Casablanca, I'm an influential and respected man, but it would not be worth my life to do anything for Monsieur Laszlo. You, however, are a different matter.

During their conversation, Victor's goal changes to one of acquiring an exit visa for Ilsa, not for himself, and Ilsa responds that she is uncertain about abandoning him: "You mean for me to go on alone?" Word has gotten around that it is too risky to find an exit visa for Victor, because frankly, "it would take a miracle to get you out of Casablanca, and the Germans have outlawed miracles." They decide that Ilsa will not go alone ahead of Victor to America (because he never abandoned her in the past), and that they will continue searching for two exit visas.

As they part and thank Ferrari for his time, Ferrari is "moved" (altruistically) to shrewdly suggest that Ugarte left the stolen letters of transit with Rick:

I observe that you are in one respect a very fortunate man, Monsieur. I am moved to make one more suggestion, why, I do not know, because it cannot possibly profit me. Have you heard about Senor Ugarte and the letters of transit?...Those letters were not found on Ugarte when they arrested him...I'd venture to guess that Ugarte left those letters with Monsieur Rick...He's a difficult customer, that Rick. One never knows what he'll do or why, but it is worth a chance.

Later at Rick's Cafe that evening, most of the characters already introduced in the film arrive. Renault apologizes to Rick for the destructive havoc the Vichy policy created in the search of the cafe: "I told Strasser that he wouldn't find the letters here. But I told my men to be especially destructive. You know how that impresses Germans?" In their exchange, Renault boldly asks whether Rick has the letters:

Renault: Rick, have you got those letters of transit?Rick: Louis, are you pro-Vichy or Free French?

As they talk, Rick's ex-girlfriend Yvonne walks into the cafe on the arm of a uniformed German officer, her new gentleman friend. The swing band is playing You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby. Rick and Renault both notice her arrival - as the couple walks past their table, she turns and glares at Rick:

Rick: So Yvonne's gone over to the enemy.Renault: Who knows? In her own way, she may constitute an entire second front.

Yvonne's boyfriend orders a French 75 drink at the bar, a drink named after a 75 mm French cannon weapon. Rick decisively breaks up a fight "disturbance" that erupts between the German officer and a uniformed Frenchman at the bar: "...in my place, you either lay off politics or get out."

Seated shortly after with Strasser, Renault reveals his adaptable political leanings:

Strasser: I'm not entirely sure which side you're on.Renault: I have no conviction, if that's what you mean. I blow with the wind, and the prevailing wind happens to be from Vichy.Strasser: And if it should change?Renault: Well, surely the Reich doesn't permit that possibility.Strasser: You are concerned about more than Casablanca. We know that every French province in Africa is honey-combed with traitors waiting for their chance, waiting, perhaps, for a leader.

Renault: A leader - like Laszlo?Strasser: Umm, mmm.

Each of the characters in the film have their own complex story to tell - beyond the story of Rick and Ilsa. A youthful ("under-age") and innocent, newly-married Bulgarian woman, Annina Brandel (Joy Page), a refugee desperate for exit visas to America for her husband Jan Viereck (Helmut Dantine) and herself [seen in the passing shot of the plane's arrival earlier in the film, in the outer offices of Renault's police station, and at Ferrari's place], pleads with Rick for guidance while he drinks. Her first concern is whether Renault can be trusted:

Annina: What kind of a man is Captain Renault?Rick: Oh, he's just like any other man, only more so.Annina: No, I mean - is he trustworthy? Is his word...?

Rick senses that Renault set her up to ask him the loaded question. She tells him that Jan is at the roulette table, where he has been unsuccessfully trying to raise the money for their exit visas. Because they have no money, Renault will give them exit visas without the usual financial bribe if she has sex with him. With the purest of intentions, she would sacrifice herself to save her husband. She makes a heartfelt plea for advice and for tacit approval to sin and be forgiven:

Annina: We come from Bulgaria. Oh, things are very bad there, Monsieur. The devil [dictatorial Tsar Boris III] has the people by the throat. So, Jan and I we - we do not want our children to grow up in such a country.Rick: (He rubs the center of his forehead with two fingers.) So you decided to go to America.Annina: Yes. But we have not much money and...traveling is so expensive and difficult. It was much more than we thought to get here. And then Captain Renault sees us, and he is so kind. He wants to help us.Rick: Yes, I'll bet.Annina: He tells me you can give us an exit visa, but, but we have no money.Rick: Does he know that?Annina: Oh yes.Rick: And he's still willing to give you a visa?Annina: Yes, monsieur.Rick: And you want to know...Annina: Will he keep his word?Rick: He always has.Annina: Oh! (relieved) Monsieur. You are a man. If someone loved you very much, so that your happiness was the only thing that she wanted in the world, but she did a bad thing to make certain of it, could you forgive her?Rick: Nobody ever loved me that much.Annina: And he never knew. And the girl kept this bad thing locked in her heart. That would be all right, wouldn't it?Rick: You want my advice.Annina: Oh yes, please.Rick: Go back to Bulgaria.Annina: Oh, but if you knew what it means to us to leave Europe, to get to America. Oh, but if Jan should find out. He is such a boy. In many ways, I am so much older than he is.Rick: Yes, well, everybody in Casablanca has problems. Yours may work out.

Ilsa and Victor arrive at Rick's cafe on their second night in Casablanca - Ilsa wears a dark, paisley-patterned dress. Rick greets them courteously and observes that Sam's playing must bring memories of Paris in "happier days" to Ilsa. She confirms that it does, and requests a table close to Sam's piano: "Could we have a table close to him?" Laszlo adds: "And as far away from Major Strasser as possible." Rick takes care of seating arrangements even though "the geography may be a little difficult to arrange." He asks that Sam play Ilsa's "favorite tune" - As Time Goes By.

Taking pity on Annina's plight and to save the young girl from the predatory Renault, Rick saunters into the gambling room. At the roulette table, Rick advises Jan to bet on a particular number to win: "Have you tried 22 tonight?" He fixes the wheel with his croupier Emil (Marcel Dalio) (obviously something Rick has done before). In a suspenseful scene, in a series of reaction shots - from Rick and Jan to Annina to the croupier to Renault - the number comes up twice, keeping Annina's honor intact from Renault. Carl (and later Sascha) both admire what Rick has done to help preserve the young girl's innocence. Rick tells Jan to cash in his "couple of thousand," enough for what Renault charges for an exit visa: "Cash it in, and don't come back." With overwhelming gratitude, Annina affectionately hugs Rick in public, and his stiff embarrassment shows. The young couple present their needed funds to a chagrined Renault, who quickly makes the connection to Rick - suspiciously labeling him "a rank sentimentalist." The powerful Renault's potential seduction of another refugee has been cheated and thwarted by Rick's charm:

Renault: Why do you interfere with my little romances?Rick: Put it down as a gesture to love.Renault: I'll forgive you this time but I'll be in tomorrow night with a breathtaking blonde. And it'll make me very happy if she loses.

[Rick's discussion with Annina and the outcome of the couple's dilemma foreshadows his own decisions at the end of the film regarding Ilsa - he will enter into politics ('stick his neck out') without admitting that he has - and only allow "a gesture to love" to reveal his deep-seated human decency.]

Laszlo is worried about his prospects for escape, and confidentially talks to Rick in his cafe office, offering him a fortune in francs (200,000) for the exit visas. Rick is also unmoved and disinterested by Laszlo's plea to continue his crusading work - he claims that his a-political stance and his soured opinion, support and dedication to the Cause forbids him from yielding up the exit visas:

Laszlo: You must know it's very important I get out of Casablanca. It's my privilege to be one of the leaders of a great movement. Do you know what I've been doing? Do you know what it means to the work - to the lives of thousands and thousands of people that I be free to reach America and continue my work.Rick: I'm not interested in politics. The problems of the world are not in my department. I'm a saloon keeper.Laszlo: My friends in the Underground tell me that you've got quite a record. You ran guns to Ethiopia. You fought against the Fascists in Spain.Rick: What of it?Laszlo: Isn't it strange that you always happen to be fighting on the side of the underdog?Rick: Yes, I found that a very expensive hobby too, but then I never was much of a businessman.Laszlo: Are you enough of a businessman to appreciate an offer of a hundred thousand francs?Rick: I appreciate it, but I don't accept it.Laszlo: I'll raise it to two hundred thousand.Rick: My friend, you could make it a million francs or three. My answer would still be the same.Laszlo: There must be some reason why you won't let me have them [the exit visas].Rick: There is! I suggest that you ask your wife.Laszlo: I beg your pardon.Rick: I said, 'Ask your wife.'Laszlo: My wife?

At that moment, downstairs in the cafe, they hear male voices. With Major Strasser, German soldiers have taken over Sam's piano and are singing a German Nazi songDie Wacht am Rhein ("The Watch on the Rhine"):

Lieb Faterland, magst ruhig sein [Dear land of ours, no fear be thine]Lieb Faterland, magst ruhig sein [Dear land of ours, no fear be thine]Test steht und treu die Wacht, Die Wacht am Rhein [The watch stands true, the watch on the Rhine]

Rick and Laszlo emerge from the office, looking down at the patrons with dead-pan, detestable expressions. Laszlo passes by a table (where Ilsa sits) and strides over to the orchestra. He defies the Germans by ordering the band to play the French anthem La Marseillaise. Responding to a nod of approval from Rick, the uncertain conductor leads them in playing a rousing, triumphant rendition of the French national anthem, presented below:

Allons enfants de la Patrie, Le jour de gloire est arrivéContre nous de la tyrannie, L'étendard sanglant est levéL'étendard sanglant est levé, Entendez-vous dans nos campagnesMugir ces féroces soldats? Ils viennent jusques dans vos bras.Egorger vos fils, vos compagnes.

Refrain (Chorus)Aux armes citoyensFormez vos bataillonsMarchons, marchonsQu'un sang impurAbreuve nos sillons

In a memorable, melodramatic duel of anthems sung in opposition, the Germans are drowned out by the Free French audience as the accelerated rhythmic editing increases the scene's intensity as it builds toward its climax. Everyone at the

cafe pours their hearts into the singing of the song, except for two individuals - Rick and Ilsa. In two closeups, she gazes at Victor in a state of awe, fear and prideful admiration, forgetting to sing. Yvonne, who has been sitting at the bar with her German officer, shouts: "Vive la France!" at its stirring conclusion amidst wild applause.

With the inspiration of Laszlo's bold, patriotic, revolutionary act and Rick's consenting order, Major Strasser is thoroughly embarrassed and considers both a dangerous threat. Outrages, he promptly instructs Renault to punish the cafe's patrons and close down Rick's place before storming out, on the convenient grounds that people are having "much too good a time." Rick protests to French gendarmes, but to no effect. Reluctantly, Renault closes the saloon, hypocritically blaming it on illegal gambling:

Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here.Croupier: Your winnings, sir.Renault: Oh. Thank you very much. Everybody out at once.

Renault is handed his gambling winnings by the croupier as he finishes his pronouncements.

Confronting Ilsa without Laszlo at her side, Major Strasser (with a lascivious and sinister look) intimidates Ilsa and threatens her with Laszlo's death unless the resistance leader returns to occupied France "under safe conduct" from himself. Bravely and steadfastly, she questions the validity or safety of his guarantee. As he parts, the stern Major offers two alternatives for Victor Laszlo - explained bluntly: (1) placement in a "concentration camp" by French authorities, or (2) death.

My dear Mademoiselle, perhaps you have already observed that in Casablanca, human life is cheap. Good night, Mademoiselle.

Back in their hotel room, Laszlo boldly prepares to "carry on" and leave for an Underground resistance meeting: "It isn't often a man has a chance to display heroics before his wife." His behavior indicates that he has deduced that Ilsa's and Rick's past relationship in Paris affects Rick's decision to give them the visas. Ilsa learns that an intransigent Rick cannot be convinced to sell the exit visas with sentiment or money:

Ilsa: Did he give any reason?Victor: He suggested I ask you.Ilsa: Ask me?Victor: Yes. He said, 'Ask your wife.' I don't know why he said that.

After she evades giving an answer to the question, he empathizes with Ilsa and asks her about her time in Paris with Rick when he was detained in a concentration camp:

Victor: Were you lonely in Paris?Ilsa: Yes, Victor, I was.Victor: I know how it is to be lonely. Is there anything you wish to tell me?Ilsa: No, Victor, there isn't.Victor: I love you very much, my dear.Ilsa: Yes, yes I know.

Then with sparkling glimmers of tears in her eyes, Ilsa decides to take matters into her own hands and go see Rick to obtain the letters: "Victor, whatever I do, will you believe that I..." [Her words to him paraphrase the final statement made to Rick in the rain-soaked letter: "Just believe that I love you."] Her sentence is interrupted - Laszlo expresses his faith in her: "You don't even have to say it. I'll believe." As he departs for the meeting, he gives her a pair of passion-less kisses on her right cheek.

Later that evening, Ilsa appears and waits - her second late-night appearance - in the shadows of Rick's dark, upstairs apartment. When he enters, he turns on the light, revealing her figure in the room [she has gone "up a flight" and "come around" just as he predicted to her outside the Blue Parrot]. He tells her not to affectionately call him "Richard" again as in their Paris days. He is suspicious that she is interested only in the letters of transit he has hidden when she appeals to him to remember the Cause of freedom and put aside his jealousy:

Rick: Your unexpected visit isn't connected by any chance with the letters of transit. It seems as long as I have those letters, I'll never be lonely.

Ilsa: You can ask any price you want, but you must give me those letters.Rick: I went all through that with your husband. It's no deal.Ilsa: I know how you feel about me, but I'm asking you to put your feelings aside for something more important.Rick: Do I have to hear again what a great man your husband is? What an important Cause he's fighting for?Ilsa: It was your cause too. In your own way, you were fighting for the same thing.

She begs him for the visas he possesses for "any price" [would she offer the 'price' that Annina was willing to give Renault?] - documents that would enable them to fly to neutral Lisbon and then on to America. Rick steadfastly refuses to help, denying that he ever aspired to the same Causes that "Victor Laszlo," the political institution and symbol, champions. She accuses him of being a self-pitying coward:

Rick: I'm not fighting for anything anymore except myself. I'm the only Cause I'm interested in.Ilsa: (after a significant pause) Richard. Richard, we loved each other once. If those days meant anything at all to you...Rick: I wouldn't bring up Paris if I were you. It's poor salesmanship.Ilsa: Please, please listen to me. If you knew what really happened. If you only knew the truth.Rick: I wouldn't believe you no matter what you told me. You'd say anything now to get what you want.Ilsa (scornfully): You want to feel sorry for yourself, don't you? With so much at stake, all you can think of is your own feeling. One woman has hurt you and you take your revenge on the rest of the world. You're a, you're a coward and a weakling. (She breaks down sobbing.) No. Oh Richard, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, but, but you, you are our last hope. If you don't help us, Victor Laszlo will die in Casablanca.Rick (stonily): What of it? I'm gonna die in Casablanca. It's a good spot for it. (He turns away to light a cigarette.)

When reasoning fails, she also turns away. When he turns back, she is tremblingly threatening him with a gun, desperate for him to give up the letters. Rick, not caring if he lives or dies without her love, suicidally steps toward her and calls her bluff:

Ilsa: All right, I tried to reason with you. I tried everything. Now I want those letters. Get them for me.Rick: I don't have to. I got 'em right here.Ilsa: Put them on the table.Rick: No.Ilsa: For the last time, put them on the table.Rick: If Laszlo and the Cause mean so much to you, you won't stop at anything. All right, I'll make it easier for you. Go ahead and shoot. You'll be doing me a favor.

When Rick is willing to give up his life, she realizes how much he was hurt by her abandonment. Ilsa's emotions crumble and she cannot shoot. She wavers and then drops the threatening pretense - and the gun:

Richard, I tried to stay away. I thought I would never see you again, that you were out of my life.

She turns away toward the window with tears in her eyes, and then falls into his arms. He has triggered a rekindling of their old affection and she succumbs to his powerful, admirable love. She admits that she was committed to him in Paris, and that she suffered immense pain when she had to leave him and separate. Deluded about her love for the responsible and respectable Laszlo, she suddenly realizes how much she has always loved Rick and still loves him - ending her tender words with a passionate, authentic kiss:

The day you left Paris, if you knew what I went through. If you knew how much I loved you, how much I still love you.

After some time passes [audiences are left to presume what happens between them on this fateful night - was there further physical intimacy?], Ilsa tells him the unrevealed truth of what really happened in Paris and explains the reason she apparently betrayed Rick:

Laszlo was her husband and she was in fact married even when she knew Rick in Paris. Her husband went to Prague and was arrested. After months of waiting for word of him, she was informed that he

had been shot in a concentration camp escape attempt. Then she met Rick in Paris and fell in love: "I was lonely. I had nothing, not even hope. Then I met you."

Her marriage with Laszlo had been kept a secret: "Victor wanted it that way. Not even our closest friends knew about our marriage. That was his way of protecting me. I knew so much about his work. And if the Gestapo found out I was his wife, it would be dangerous for me and for those working with us."

And then she learned Laszlo was alive the day of their scheduled departure from Paris. With Victor being hidden in a freightcar on the outskirts of Paris, he was so ill that Ilsa had to cancel her plans to leave Paris with Rick to help her husband regain his health: "He was sick. He needed me."

Ilsa knew that she couldn't tell Rick why she remained: "I knew you wouldn't have left Paris and the Gestapo would have caught you."

She also had to remain true to her marriage vows and choose her husband over her lover.

After Rick has heard Ilsa's explanation, he still wonders about the present. Lacking the strength to ever leave Rick again, Ilsa completely submits her will to Rick and promises she will go anywhere and do anything for him. She will arrange for Victor's safe passage - Rick can help get him out of Casablanca with a letter of transit. Caring for Victor's safety and his Cause, Ilsa asks if Rick will still help Victor:

Rick: But it's still a story without an ending. What about now?Ilsa: Now? I don't know. I know that I'll never have the strength to leave you again.Rick: And Laszlo?Ilsa: Oh, you'll help him now, Richard, won't you? You'll see that he gets out? Then he'll have his work, all that he's been living for.Rick: All except one. He won't have you.

Ilsa hides her face in Rick's shoulder, concealing her inner shame at her passionate feelings for him. Although Ilsa knows that she is doing wrong and that her decision violates all her high ideals, honor, and vows of marriage, she can't help herself. Confused but passionately in love with Rick, she re-pledges her love and consents to living there in Casablanca with Rick. She asks that Rick help her be strong in regards to Victor and think for both of them. She capitulates to Rick - willing to sacrifice herself to him in a loving, but adulterous/common-law relationship:

Ilsa: I can't fight it anymore. I ran away from you once. I can't do it again. Oh, I don't know what's right any longer. You have to think for both of us. For all of us.Rick: All right, I will. Here's looking at you, kid.Ilsa: I wish I didn't love you so much.

In a disturbance downstairs in the darkened, closed cafe, Carl arrives with Victor, who has been wounded in the police raid on the Resistance meeting. After going to investigate from the upstairs balcony, Rick privately instructs Carl to take "Miss Lund" to her hotel room through a side door so that Laszlo won't know of their meeting. As Carl sneaks Ilsa away, Rick engages Laszlo in a conversation and a drink to stall for time - and hears again of the Czech's firm belief in the "good" of the Cause.

Rick: Don't you sometimes wonder if it's worth all this? I mean, what you're fighting for.Laszlo: You might as well question why we breathe. If you stop breathing, we'll die. If we stop fighting our enemies, the world will die.Rick: And what of it? It'll be out of its misery.Laszlo: Do you know how you sound, Mr. Blaine? Like a man who's trying to convince himself of something he doesn't believe in his heart. Each of us has a destiny - for good or for evil.Rick: I get the point.Laszlo: I wonder if you do. I wonder if you know that you're trying to escape from yourself, and that you'll never succeed.Rick: You seem to know all about my destiny.

Laszlo does know of their mutual love for "the same woman" - a love for which no one is to blame. Without a need to seek vindictive revenge or find an explanation, he suggests, in his own self-sacrificial offer, that Rick use the letters of transit to take Ilsa away from Casablanca to a safe location - as a favor to him. He would remain in Casablanca and take his chances. Incredulous, Rick is impressed by Laszlo's self-less caring, virtuous trust and devoted love for her:

Laszlo: I know a good deal more about you than you suspect. I know, for instance, that you are in love with a woman. It is perhaps a strange circumstance that we both should be in love with the same woman. The first evening I came into this cafe, I knew there was something between you and Ilsa. Since no one is to blame, I, I demand no explanation. I ask only one thing. You won't give me the letters of transit. All right. But I want my wife to be safe. I ask you as a favor to use the letters to take her away from Casablanca.

Rick: You love her that much?Laszlo: Apparently, you think of me only as a leader of a Cause. Well, I am also a human being. Yes, I love her that much.

Moments later, French gendarmes, presumably at Major Strasser's instigation, burst in through the cafe doors and arrest Laszlo on a "petty charge," as Rick intones: "It seems that destiny has taken a hand."

In the Police Capitaine's office the next morning [December 4, 1941], Rick tries to convince Renault to let Laszlo go, now that he knows that Ilsa loves him. He then reveals that he has the letters of transit - and - that he plans to leave Casablanca and run off to Lisbon with her - without Gestapo or police interference:

I intend using them myself. I'm leaving Casablanca on tonight's plane. The last plane...I'm taking a friend with me, one you'll appreciate...Ilsa Lund. That ought to put your mind to rest about my helping Laszlo escape, the last man I want to see in America.

The normally unflappable Capitaine chain-smokes relentlessly throughout the scene, highlighting the tension. In addition to stealing away unimpeded with Laszlo's wife (a scandalous act that is tantalizingly fascinating to Renault), Rick further wants to put Laszlo away for good in another German death camp. He schemes and orchestrates a deal with Renault to promote good will with Strasser. The deal would be to frame Laszlo on a bigger charge (of possessing the letters of transit) that would betray the Resistance leader to the police and keep him "in a concentration camp for years. It would be quite a feather in your cap, wouldn't it?" Renault catches himself while agreeing: "Germany, uh, Vichy would be very grateful."

Rick plots to have Renault release Laszlo from jail a half an hour before the Lisbon-bound plane departs. Then, Laszlo could be lured to Rick's cafe and arrested there as he is presented with the stolen letters of transit. The charge would be as an accessory to the couriers' deaths - "criminal grounds on which to make the arrest. You get him, and we get away. The Germans at last will be just a minor annoyance." Although Renault has misgivings, he agrees to the scheme - one that would bring him Strasser's approval and gambling gain. Obviously, the scheme benefits Renault's standing: (1) He recovers the letters of transit, (2) He is praised by Strasser for arresting Laszlo, and (3) He wins the 10,000 franc wager with Rick:

Renault: There's still something about this business I don't quite understand. Miss Lund, she's very beautiful, yes. But you were never interested in any woman.Rick: She isn't just 'any woman.'Renault: I see. How do I know you'll keep your end of the bargain?Rick: I'll make the arrangements right now with Laszlo in the visitor's pen.Renault: Ricky, I'm gonna miss you. Apparently, you're the only one in Casablanca who has even less scruples than I.

In the Blue Parrot, Rick arranges to sell his cafe to Ferrari to prepare for his departure to Lisbon (and America) with Ilsa. Rick is assured that all his employment agreements with his workers (Abdul, Carl, and Sascha) will remain the same and Sam will receive "twenty-five percent of the profits").

In the last scene in Rick's closed cafe, Rick is studying the letters of transit. Renault arrives with a loud set of knocks on the door. The sound of a car pulling up alerts them to Laszlo and Ilsa arriving by taxi. Renault hides concealed out of sight in Rick's office. As Victor pays the cab driver, Ilsa rushes in ahead of her husband, and speaks privately to Rick - as As Times Goes By is reprised on the soundtrack. She is worried that Victor hasn't been told:

Ilsa: Richard, Victor thinks I'm leaving with him. Haven't you told him?Rick: No, not yet.Ilsa: But it's all right. You were able to arrange everything?Rick: Everything is quite all right.Ilsa: Oh, Rick.Rick: We'll tell him at the airport. (prophetically) The less time to think, the easier for all of us. Please trust me.Ilsa: Yes, I will.

[The dramatic question is: Will Rick use the letters for himself and his lost love? Renault believes that Rick and Ilsa will be using them. Victor recently offered to buy the letters of transit to send Ilsa ahead to safety in Lisbon and America ("use the letters to take her away from Casablanca"). However, now he thinks he is leaving with his wife. Ilsa was told in Rick's apartment that Rick can help Victor get out of Casablanca with a letter of transit. In any event, Ilsa believes that she will be partnered with Rick.]

Laszlo enters the cafe and thanks Rick profusely for his efforts to help. He also gratefully offers to pay Rick for the letters, but Rick refuses his payment: "Keep it. You'll need it in America."

Rick: You won't have any trouble in Lisbon, will you?Laszlo: No, it's all arranged.

Renault arrests Laszlo after Rick gives him the letters to fill in the names: "Victor Laszlo, you are under arrest on a charge of accessory to the murder of the couriers from whom these letters were stolen." At first, Rick is standing between Ilsa and Victor. After Renault's threat, the horrified Ilsa moves instinctively to her husband's side, crossing behind Rick and leaving him on the outside. Painfully, Rick realizes that Ilsa belongs to Victor and that she should leave with him - otherwise, she will regret her decision. Renault informs them of Rick's betrayal:

Oh, you're surprised about my friend, Ricky. The explanation is quite simple. (flippantly and delightedly) Love, it seems, has triumphed over virtue.

But then Renault finds that Rick has again turned the tables - as he turns toward Rick, he sees a gun pointed at his midsection: "Not so fast, Louis. Nobody's gonna be arrested - not for a while yet." With a firm warning, Rick forces Renault - at gunpoint - to phone the airport:

Rick: And remember, this gun is pointed right at your heart.Renault: (quipping) That is my least vulnerable spot.

Renault informs airport officials to expect and grant safe passage for two passengers with letters of transit from Casablanca to Lisbon ("There's to be no trouble about them"). Unbeknownst to Rick, he has craftily dialed Major Strasser's number and alerted him to the escape. Strasser receives the call in his German Commission of Justice office where a portrait of Adolf Hitler hangs on the wall behind him. Realizing there is trouble, Strasser orders Heinze to get his car, and then phones the office of the Prefet of Police and orders a squad of police to meet him at the airport - at once.

In the airport's hangar in the film's final departure scene, the plane is readied to take off in ten minutes in the misty fog: "Visibility: one and one half miles. Light ground fog. Depth of fog approximately five hundred. Ceiling unlimited." Rick, Renault, Laszlo, and Ilsa drive up in a government vehicle. Wearing a hat and trenchcoat (in which he conceals a gun in his right hand), Rick orders Renault to have an orderly get Laszlo's luggage and load it on the plane. As Laszlo walks away to make luggage arrangements, Rick orders Renault to write the names of the marriedcouple - the names are Mr. and Mrs. Victor Laszlo - on the letters of transit.

[It is by his own choice that Rick changes his mind about who will be leaving Casablanca. Rick chooses to renounce Ilsa to Victor, not because he is weak or has nothing to offer, but because her work for the Cause with him is too important to sacrifice - and because she has to remain with her legal husband.]

Bewildered, Ilsa protests Rick's change in plans, as the film's theme song plays softly in the background:

Ilsa: But, why my name, Richard?Rick: Because you're getting on that plane.Ilsa: I don't understand. What about you?Rick: I'm staying here with him [Renault] 'til the plane gets safely away.Ilsa: No, Richard. No. What has happened to you? Last night...Rick: Last night, we said a great many things. You said I was to do the thinking for both of us. Well, I've done a lot of it since then and it all adds up to one thing. You're getting on that plane with Victor where you belong.Ilsa: (protesting) But Richard, no, I've...Rick: Now, you've got to listen to me. Do you have any idea what you've have to look forward to if you stayed here? Nine chances out of ten we'd both wind up in a concentration camp. Isn't that true, Louis?Renault: I'm afraid Major Strasser would insist.Ilsa: You're saying this only to make me go.

Rick: I'm saying it because it's true. Inside of us, we both know you belong with Victor. You're part of his work, the thing that keeps him going.

Rick betrays Ilsa with the same reasoning she had used to betray him earlier in Paris at the train station - the greater Cause represented by Laszlo. In a supreme moment of romantic self-sacrifice and nobility while maintaining his dignity and self-esteem, he affirms his love for her - by urging her to leave Casablanca with her husband and the precious letters of transit that Renault is counter-signing:

Rick: If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it.Ilsa: No.Rick: Maybe not today, and maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life.Ilsa: What about us?Rick (romantically): We'll always have Paris. We didn't have - we'd - we'd lost it until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night.Ilsa: When I said I would never leave you...Rick: And you never will. I've got a job to do too. Where I'm going, you can't follow. What I've got to do, you can't be any part of.

For Rick, no sacrifice (political or romantic) is too noble or great for their idealized Parisian love - and where he must go (to jail or into exile again?) she cannot "follow":

Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that. (She drops her head tearfully. He touches her chin and raises it to gently bolster her up.) Now, now. Here's looking at you, kid.

When Laszlo returns and explains that everything is in order, he insists that Rick not "explain anything." Rick overrules Victor and tells him that Ilsa had visited him the night before - but only to beg for the letters. He claims that she pretended to be in love with him and he "let her pretend." [Although they actually consummated their love for each other, his statement clears her of any adulterous guilt. In his fabricated explanation, she came to him to strengthen her marriage and save her husband.]

She tried everything to get them, and nothing worked. She did her best to convince me that she was still in love with me, but that was all over long ago. For your sake, she pretended it wasn't, and I let her pretend.

Rick vindicates Victor's faith in him - Laszlo responds sympathetically that he accepts and understands Rick's explanation regarding his wife's faithfulness. He is presented with the exit visas, and then shakes Rick's hand as a new member of the committed and collective Pan-European underground movement: "Welcome back to the fight. This time, I know our side will win."

Through the dense airport fog, the plane's engine propellers begin to spin. By her husband's side, Ilsa compassionately looks one final time at Rick and bids him a goodbye:

Good-bye, Rick. God Bless You.

As Ilsa and Victor walk across the runway to board the plane for Lisbon, a tear sparkles in Ilsa's eye - she is numb as she accompanies her husband back into their unfulfilling relationship (in a romantic sense) - and Victor notices her expression. Rick is left standing alone on the edge of the runway. Renault chastises Rick's romanticism and 'fairy tale' sentimentality for giving an unwilling Ilsa back to Victor. [Ilsa obliged and left with Laszlo because of her love for Rick.] Renault promises him that he will be arrested. Yet Rick still holds a gun in his pocket - until the plane leaves:

Renault: Well, I was right. You are a sentimentalist...What you just did for Laszlo, that fairy tale you invented to send Ilsa away with him. I know a little about women, my friend. She went, but she knew you were lying.Rick: Anyway, thanks for helping me out.Renault: I suppose you know this isn't going to be very pleasant for either of us, especially for you. I'll have to arrest you, of course.Rick: As soon as the plane goes, Louis.

A determined Major Strasser breathlessly rushes into the airport hangar and is informed that Victor Laszlo is on the departing airplane. Without heeding Rick's warning: "I was willing to shoot Captain Renault, and I'm willing to shoot you," Strasser attempts to halt the plane on the runway - he runs to a phone to connect to the radio tower. Rick orders him to put the phone down as Strasser grabs the receiver. The Nazi leader pulls out a gun with his other hand and fires a shot at Rick - who must in self-defense shoot him. Strasser crumples to the hangar floor - dead.

A carload of gendarmes pulls up. In the distant background, the plane is taxi-ing and turning on the runway. Five policemen run up to the amoral Capitaine Renault who announces climactically:

Major Strasser has been shot.

In a tense, dramatically effective moment, there is a long pause. Renault first looks at Rick and then back at the gendarmes. [Will he side with Rick or protect the status quo?] Renault indicates that he will not arrest Rick, delivering a famous command to his men:

Round up the usual suspects.

[The catchphrase was used for the title of a 90s film featuring a police identity lineup, The Usual Suspects (1995).] Knowing that there are no witnesses, Renault overlooks Rick's crime and the police carry away Strasser's body. Rick looks back at his French friend with a half-smile. "La Marseillaise" begins to play slowly on the soundtrack. Next to a stand-up desk, Renault picks up a bottle of Vichy water and opens it:

Renault: Well, Rick, you're not only a sentimentalist, but you've become a patriot.Rick: Maybe, but it seemed like a good time to start.Renault: I think perhaps you're right.

He pours the Vichy water into a glass, but then sees its label. With a look of disgust, he quickly drops the bottle into a trash basket and kicks it over. [His act symbolizes his open rejection of Vichy France's appeasement of the German Nazi government and support for the anti-Nazi Allied cause.]

Then, in the fog, they watch the plane ascend into the air for neutral Lisbon. Renault suggests to Rick a way out of Casablanca - join the Free French at Brazzaville, but Rick reminds him that the offer can't be in exchange for cancelling their wager:

Renault: It might be a good idea for you to disappear from Casablanca for a while. There's a Free French garrison over at Brazzaville [in French Equatorial Africa]. I could be induced to arrange a passage.Rick: My letter of transit? I could use a trip. But it doesn't make any difference about our bet. You still owe me ten thousand francs.Renault: And that ten thousand francs should pay our expenses.Rick (quizzically) Our expenses?

[Will Renault join Rick in the resistance movement as a fellow patriot, accompanying Rick to Brazzaville?]

Rick walks off with Capitaine Renault across the wet runway into the mist, as they discuss what they might do together with the 10,000 francs [$300] - the payment due on their earlier bet over whether or not Laszlo would get out of Casablanca. The closing in the fog brings another great classic line [dubbed in later] as Rick tells Renault that they have forged a new alliance:

Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Their new partnership is underscored with the triumphant sounds of La Marseillaise.