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The Plot of our Theme “the 1942 Movie Classic “Casablanca”:
"So... Here is looking at you kid."
In December 1941, American expatriate Rick Blaine owns an upscale nightclub and gambling
den in Casablanca. "Rick's Café Américain" attracts a varied clientele, including Vichy
French and German officials, refugees desperate to reach the still-neutral United States, and those
who prey on them. Although Rick professes to be neutral in all matters, he ran guns to Ethiopia
during its war with Italy and fought on the Loyalist side in the Spanish Civil War.
Petty crook Ugarte boasts to Rick of "letters of transit" obtained by murdering two German couriers.
The papers allow the bearers to travel freely around German-controlled Europe and to neutral
Portugal and are priceless to the refugees stranded in Casablanca. Ugarte plans to sell them at
the club, and asks Rick to hold them. Before he can meet his contact, Ugarte is arrested by the
local police under the command of Captain Louis Renault, the unabashedly corrupt Vichy prefect
of police. Ugarte dies in custody without revealing that he entrusted the letters to Rick.
Then the reason for Rick's bitterness—former lover Ilsa Lund—enters his establishment. Spotting Rick's
friend and house pianist, Sam, Ilsa asks him to play "As Time Goes By." Rick storms over, furious
that Sam disobeyed his order never to perform that song, and is stunned to see Ilsa. She is
accompanied by her husband, Victor Laszlo, a renowned fugitive Czech Resistance leader. They
need the letters to escape to America to continue his work. German Major Strasser has come to
Casablanca to see that Laszlo fails.
When Laszlo makes inquiries, Ferrari, a major underworld figure and Rick's friendly business rival,
divulges his suspicion that Rick has the letters. Privately, Rick refuses to sell at any price, telling
Laszlo to ask his wife the reason. They are interrupted when Strasser leads a group of officers in
singing "Die Wacht am Rhein" ("The Watch on the Rhine"). Laszlo orders the house band to play
"La Marseillaise". When the band looks to Rick, he nods his head. Laszlo starts singing, alone at first,
then patriotic fervor grips the crowd and everyone joins in, drowning out the Germans. Strasser
has Renault close the club.
Ilsa confronts Rick in the deserted café. When he refuses to give her the letters, she threatens him
with a gun, but then confesses that she still loves him. She explains that when they met and fell in
love in Paris in 1940, she believed her husband had been killed attempting to escape from a
concentration camp. While preparing to flee with Rick from the imminent fall of the city to the
German army, she learned Laszlo was alive and in hiding. She left Rick without explanation to nurse
her sick husband. Rick's bitterness dissolves. He agrees to help, letting her believe she will stay with
him when Laszlo leaves. When Laszlo unexpectedly shows up, having narrowly escaped a police
raid on a Resistance meeting, Rick has waiter Carl spirit Ilsa away. Laszlo, aware of Rick's love for
Ilsa, tries to persuade him to use the letters to take her to safety.
When the police arrest Laszlo on a minor, trumped-up charge, Rick persuades Renault to release
him by promising to set him up for a much more serious crime: possession of the letters. To allay
Renault's suspicions, Rick explains that he and Ilsa will be leaving for America.
When Renault tries to arrest Laszlo as arranged, Rick forces him at gunpoint to assist in their
escape. At the last moment, Rick makes Ilsa board the plane to Lisbon with Laszlo, telling her that
she would regret it if she stayed—"Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the
rest of your life." Strasser, tipped off by Renault, drives up alone. Rick shoots him when he tries to
intervene. When policemen arrive, Renault pauses, then orders them to "round up the usual
suspects." He suggests to Rick that they join the Free French in Brazzaville. As they walk away into
the fog, Rick says,
Rick: "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship"
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