On the 26th of November 1942 “Casablanca” directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman premiered at Hollywood Theatre, NYC (Academy Awards Best Picture 1943).

Like many films now considered to be the greatest movies of all time – Casablanca was not an immediate hit.

In 1943  Casablanca was nominated for eight Academy Awards, and won three.

Every frame is a masterpiece. Every line delivered superbly. Famously a line closely associated with Casablanca—”Play it again, Sam”—is not spoken in the film.

In 1989, the film was one of the first 25 films selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. In 2005, it was named one of the 100 greatest films of the last 80 years by Time magazine (the selected films were not ranked) Bright Lights Film Journal stated in 2007, “It is one of those rare films from Hollywood’s Golden Age which has managed to transcend its era to entertain generations of moviegoers … Casablanca provides twenty-first-century Americans with an oasis of hope in a desert of arbitrary cruelty and senseless violence.”

The film also ranked at number 28 on Empire‘s list of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time, which said, “Love, honour, thrills, wisecracks and a hit tune are among the attractions, which also include a perfect supporting cast of villains, sneaks, thieves, refugees and bar staff. But it’s Bogart and Bergman’s show, entering immortality as screen lovers reunited only to part. The irrefutable [sic] proof that great movies are accidents.” Screenwriting teacher Robert McKee maintains that the script is “the greatest screenplay of all time”. In 2006, the Writers Guild of America, West agreed, voting it the best ever in its list of the 101 greatest screenplays.

The film has been selected by the American Film Institute for many of their lists of important American films.