What are you still doing here? I'm serious, go watch it.

This is one of the few films that will clearly exist for generations to come. It will be held as an example of cinema long after cinema, as we know it, has disappeared. It is not only a near perfect film, it is also one of the most approachable movies ever made. It offers such a wide banquet of emotion and plot elements that everyone should be able to find something they will appreciate about the film.

Reciting the plot seems a little redundant, it's feels a little like summarizing Hamlet, you should already know the story. Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) is a self-centered American expatriate who runs the successful Rick's Cafe under the shadow of Nazi occupation. Rick's former lover, the beautiful Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), arrives with her resistance leader husband Victor Laslow (Paul Henreid), they're looking for two papers of transit so they can escape capture. Closing in on the couple is Captain Renault (Claude Rains), a puppet of the Nazi government. Rick and Ilsa are forced to confront their lingering feelings and troubled past as the authorities close in.

There are few films that even compete with this masterwork. The entire cast displays one of the best collection of performances available on film. Even supporting cast members offers a number of memorable perfermances. Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman are absolutely enthralling in the leads as the conflicted lovers Rick and Ilsa. This is arguably the strongest example of on screen chemistry ever put to film. Put their chemistry together with one of the tightest, most quotable scripts ever written (penned by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch), this film is one of the rare works that everyone should experience. Life is short, this is one of the pleasures of this Earth you should endulge in at least once.


Related Reviews:
Humphrey Bogart movies
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
High Sierra (1941)


Other Critic's Reviews:
Celluloid Heroes
Roger Ebert

Labels: Claude Rains, film, Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, movie review, Peter Lorrie