Poster © Warner Bros. Pictures. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreDrama, Romance & War
RatedPG
Runtime1 hr 42 mins
ReleasedJanuary 23, 1943
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorMichael Curtiz
StarringHumphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid
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Casablanca (1942)
| ▶Stream It | ★The Numbers |
| 🎫Get Tickets | ✎Edit History |
| iIMDb Profile | %Rotten Tomatoes |
| WWikipedia | LLetterboxd |
| TTMDB | +Add to Top 8 |
| Casablanca's Details | |
| Genre | Drama, Romance & War |
| Rated | PG |
| Released | 11/26/1942 (Hollywood Theatre); 01/23/1943 (United States) |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 1 hr 42 mins |
| Budget | $1M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Based On | Everybody Comes to Rick's (play) by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Casablanca's Interests | |
| General | Letters of transit, piano bars, roulette tables, trench coats, Paris memories. |
| Music | Max Steiner, plus "As Time Goes By," the song Sam keeps getting asked to play. |
| Movies | The Maltese Falcon (1941). Bogart in a trench coat, take one. |
| Television | Turner Classic Movies. Basically its home address. |
| Heroes | Sam. The piano player who knows everything. |
| Casablanca's Crew | |
| Director | Michael Curtiz |
| Writers | Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch |
| Producers | Hal B. Wallis |
| Cinematography | Arthur Edeson |
| Music | Max Steiner |
| Edited By | Owen Marks |
| Production | Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. |
| Distributed By | Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. |
Two letters of transit run the whole plot of Casablanca, and apparently they can’t be canceled, questioned or even looked at too closely. Nobody in the movie seems to mind. I don’t either, honestly. Bogart’s Rick is the original guy who says he doesn’t care and then cares the most of anyone in the room. Ingrid Bergman walks into the café and the whole movie tilts. Claude Rains as Captain Renault is the funniest crooked cop ever put on film, shocked, shocked to find gambling going on. The one real weak spot is Paul Henreid’s Victor Laszlo, a hero so noble he’s basically a poster on the wall. Made for a reported $1 million, 99% with critics, 102 minutes and not one of them wasted. 9.6 from me, because every line still works and the ending is a clinic in doing the hard thing. $62 says you hit somebody with "here’s looking at you, kid" this week and they have no idea what you mean.
What works: Bogart and Bergman have chemistry you can feel through the screen, Claude Rains steals every scene, and the dialogue is still the sharpest of any romance.
What doesn’t: Victor Laszlo is so saintly he barely registers as a person, and the letters of transit fall apart as a plot device if you think about them for a second.
Who it’s for: Anyone who thinks black and white movies are homework. This one is a party.
Spoilers
Rick puts Ilsa on the plane to Lisbon with Laszlo instead of keeping her, shoots Major Strasser to cover the escape, and Renault lets it slide. The two of them walk off into the fog to start a beautiful friendship.
December 1941. Casablanca is packed with refugees trying to escape the war in Europe, and sooner or later everybody ends up at Rick's Café Américain. Owner Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) is cool, cynical and proud of sticking his neck out for nobody. Then a small-time hustler named Ugarte (Peter Lorre) leaves him two priceless letters of transit, and the one woman Rick never got over, Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman), walks into his club with her husband, resistance leader Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid). Michael Curtiz directs. One hundred two minutes, one song you will hum forever.
Anyone holding letters of transit. Rick sticks his neck out for nobody, but ask anyway.
Major Heinrich Strasserphoto: MGM-photo by Clarence Bull., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
| Humphrey Bogart | Rick Blaine |
| Ingrid Bergman | Ilsa Lund |
| Paul Henreid | Victor Laszlo. Henreid |
| Claude Rains | Captain Louis Renault |
| Conrad Veidt | Major Heinrich Strasser |
| Sydney Greenstreet | Signor Ferrari |
| Peter Lorre | Signor Ugarte |
| Curt Bois | the pickpocket |
| Leonid Kinskey | Sascha |
| Madeleine Lebeau | Yvonne |
| Joy Page | Annina Brandel |
| John Qualen | Berger |
| S. Z. Sakall (credited | S. K. Sakall) as Carl |
| Dooley Wilson | Sam |
| Marcel Dalio | Emil the croupier |
| Helmut Dantine | Jan Brandel |
| Gregory Gaye | the German banker |
| Torben Meyer | the Dutch banker |
| Corinna Mura | the guitar player |
| Frank Puglia | a Moroccan rug merchant |
| Richard Ryen | Colonel Heinze |
| Dan Seymour | Abdul the doorman |
| Gerald Oliver Smith | the Englishman whose wallet is stolen |
| Norma Varden | the Englishwoman whose husband has his wallet stolen |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +320 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $4.8M; Domestic box office $4.2M; Profit / loss (est.) +$879K; Rotten Tomatoes 99%; RT 99% (136 reviews); Metacritic 100 / 100; IMDb users 8.5 / 10 (662,855 votes); movie.guru score 9.8.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.