I first watched this movie on TV, some 40 years after it was first screened in cinemas.

I didn't like black and white movies at the time, saying "that's old". But I'd heard so much about the movie - a famous movie, so I decided to watch it.

I fell in love with it.

Click here to watch the trailer on IMDB.

I love this movie. I lost count how many times I've seen it. I have copies of it on VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, Digital download, special anniversary editions, the screen play, the history etc.

In 1992, it was the 50th anniversary of the movie. I was living in California at the time and the local cinema, one of the very old style ones: big with stall and circle seatings, was showing this movie again as part of the celebration. I had a rare chance to watch this wonderful movie in a real cinema - just like in the old days, when the movie was first screened. What an experience.

This movie has a lot to offer: drama, thriller, suspense, humour, patriotism, romance, love triangle, great music, memorable lines etc.

The plot is fairly simple: A loves B, B loves A, B is married to C, C loves B, C is a hero, A helps B and C escape the bad guys for the greater cause, A is the hero! Yay!

It was made and released during World War II and is about a resistance fighter hero, so there's a bit of propaganda and feel good inspiration motives.

Nothing wrong with that! At the end of the movie, we want to cheer for the good guys, boo the bad guys, and generally feel good. This is one of those movies.

I could describe the movie in detail but that would spoil the fun (and the plot).

I will, however, mention a few things from this movie that's worth paying attention to:

1) The music: Music (the soundtrack) is very important to movies. Without them, a movie will sound very boring. Most films use an original score, i.e. the composer writes original music to go with the scenes. Casablanca mostly uses variations of the theme of "As Time Goes By", "La Marseillaise" (the French national anthem) and a bit of "Deutschlandlied" (German national anthem) as the "background music".

The difference is original score can be boring and has no "tune" but you'd recognise Casablanca's score.

The song "As Time Goes By" was originally written in 1931 for a Broadway musical called "Everybody's Welcome" but now, the song "As Time Goes By" is associated with the movie "Casablanca" and vice versa.

And what a romantic song it is.

2) Clever storytelling and cinematography: The movie opens with an exotically North African flavour theme which quickly turned into the "La Marseillaise". The opening scene involved a narration to set the scene followed by a dramatic police chase. All capturing the audience's attention quickly.

It flowed quickly and smoothly and 9 minutes and 10 seconds into the movie, our hero, Rick Blaine, shows up.

The other two main characters of the movie, Ilsa and Victor, showed up at 25 minutes into the movie. That's 1/3 of the movie gone already!

But at the pace at which the story was being told, you don't feel it.

There was a scene at 18 minutes into the movie, when Rick and Captain Renault entered Rick's office. Rick went off screen to open a safe. We don't see him, but we see his SHADOW and hear him as he continued his conversation with Renault. Clever huh?

3) Famous lines: This movie has produced more quotable lines (and one famous quote which was NEVER uttered in the movie). Here are some:

"Here's looking at you, kid."

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

"We'll always have Paris."

"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the worlds, she walks into mine!"

"Round up the usual suspects!"

And the misquote:

"Play it again, Sam" - this line was never part of the movie. Ilsa, the beautiful Ingrid Bergman, said to Sam (played by Dooley Wilson): "Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By'."

The line I like the best: "I was informed you were the most beautiful woman ever to visit Casablanca. That was a gross understatement."

This movie also has humour peppered through out using ironies, sarcasms and witty conversations, which I will leave you to explore.

The DVD, blu-ray and iTunes versions of the movie comes with loads of extras, which gives you more information and insight into the actors and the making of the movie.

There are a lot of reasons why this movie was voted number 2 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest Movies.

I hope you'll take the time to discover (or re-discover) them.

Visit for more information about this movie and its stars.

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Tags: Claude Rains, Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet