Film

Casablanca

Name: Casablanca
Genre: Drama, Romance
Released: 1943
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt

Casablanca is the wartime romance against which all others get measured: a bar, a cynical American who swears he sticks his neck out for nobody, and a lost love who walks back in holding letters of transit that could save two lives or wreck three. It's brisk, quotable, and glamorous in a way that never feels dated. For anyone who assumes old Hollywood is slow or stiff, this one still moves like a thriller.

TMDb rating

8.1

If you liked this

The Third Man1949

Same shadowy fatalism and appointment on foreign soil, only the city is postwar Vienna and the old friend he's chasing turns out to be the villain. Orson Welles's entrance is one of cinema's great reveals.

But Colder and more cynical than Casablanca—no warm goodbye here, just betrayal and a zither score that gets under your skin.

Notorious1946

Ingrid Bergman plays the flip side of Ilsa—a woman asked to sacrifice her heart for a cause—while Hitchcock turns the romance into a slow-burn thriller with real dread underneath it.

But More paranoid and claustrophobic than romantic; if you wanted the warmth of Rick's café, this is much colder company.

To Have and Have Not1945no page yet

Bogart in a nearly identical role—expat, bar, war closing in—except this time he falls for a real-life future wife, and their chemistry practically sets the screen alight.

But Looser and jokier than Casablanca, with a plot that wanders; it trades urgency for banter and doesn't mind.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Grand Illusion1937

It predates Casablanca by six years and quietly invented its moral universe—the idea that honor and friendship can cross enemy lines even as nations go to war. Renault's gentlemanly corruption owes it a debt.

Renoir's WWI prisoner-of-war drama treats German and French officers with more nuance and mutual respect than almost any war film since, down to a captor who admires his prisoner's class.

But Silent-era pacing by comparison, subtitled throughout, and its gentlemanly restraint can feel remote next to Casablanca's romantic fireworks.

The Maltese Falcon1941

The film that made Bogart's weary, one-step-ahead persona iconic in the first place—watch it and you'll see Rick Blaine's DNA already fully formed two years earlier.

But Pure detective noir with no wartime romance or grand sacrifice—just greed, murder, and a very heavy statuette.

Brief Encounter1945

A quieter, more devastating cousin—two ordinary people falling in love they know they must abandon, carrying the same ache of doing the right thing at terrible personal cost.

But Small-scale and domestic where Casablanca is grand and geopolitical; nobody's fighting fascism, just their own hearts, on a train platform.

Gone with the Wind1939

If you want the scale turned all the way up—war, ruin, an impossible love affair spanning years—this is the genre's granddaddy, made just a few years earlier.

But Nearly four hours long, and its treatment of the antebellum South is a serious, unavoidable problem for modern viewers.

Roman Holiday1953

A lighter cousin: a princess and a reporter fall for each other knowing duty will end it, echoing Casablanca's bittersweet insistence that love sometimes has to lose.

But It's a breezy romantic comedy at heart, with none of the wartime stakes or the shadow of fascism.

The African Queen1952

Bogart again, grizzled and self-interested until love and a greater cause drag him into action—this time against German gunboats in Africa, with Katharine Hepburn steering the boat.

But Played more for adventure and comedy than smoky romantic tragedy; it's a rollicking ride, not a heartbreak.

Foreign Correspondent1940

Hitchcock's own take on a world sliding into war, following an American reporter in Europe who stumbles onto a conspiracy—same anxious urgency, made while the war's outcome was still unknown.

But Talkier and less romantic, and its rousing final speech is far more openly a call to arms than Casablanca ever allows itself.

Porco Rosso1992

Same character built from different parts: a cynical, grounded ex-hero hiding out between the wars, who only re-engages with the world—and fascism—when someone he cares about is threatened.

Miyazaki's bounty-hunter pig pilot lives in Adriatic exile, drinking and refusing to fight fascists, until love and honor drag him back in—gorgeous, funny, and surprisingly wistful for a family film.

But It's animated and largely comic in tone; anyone expecting Casablanca's smoky gravity will find this considerably lighter and stranger.

Pearl Harbor2001

It takes the same skeleton—a woman forced to choose between two men as war closes in, ending in a bittersweet airfield goodbye—and inflates it into maximalist spectacle.

If you ever wondered what Casablanca's love triangle looks like with a $140 million budget, CGI battleships, and zero restraint, this delirious blockbuster is the answer nobody asked for.

But By most accounts not a good film—overlong, corny, and shameless in exactly the ways Casablanca is disciplined.