Lessons On Movies.com
An ESL / EFL Online Gap-Fill Quiz on Casablanca

Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic film directed by Michael Curtiz. It has a star-studded that includes Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. The film was on Murray Burnett and Joan Alison's then-unproduced play Everybody Comes to Rick's. Warner Bros. bought the for $20,000, which was the most anyone in Hollywood had ever paid for an unproduced play. It is during World War II and focuses on a man torn between, in the words of one , love and virtue. He must choose his love for a woman, and helping her and her husband escape from the Vichy-controlled Moroccan city of Casablanca so that her husband can continue his against the Nazis.

Although it was an A- film, with established stars and first-rate writers, no one involved with its production expected Casablanca to be anything out of the . It was just one of hundreds of pictures by Hollywood every year. The film was a solid success in its run and did well at the box office. The movie won three Academy Awards in 1944, including Best Picture. Its characters, , and music have become , although one of the most closely associated with the film — "Play it again, Sam" — is a misquotation; Bergman’s character actually says: "Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By'." The film consistently near the top of lists of the greatest films of all time.