To an extent, the 1943 romantic film Casablanca is unprecedented.  It was adapted from an unproduced play, with Warner Bros. paying what was then the biggest fee paid for such a play for rights.  Only three of the film’s stars—Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid—are American.  Most significantly, despite it having highly regarded actors and writers at work, nobody expected the film to perform extraordinarily successful.  Now, Casablanca is nothing short of legendary, having won three Academy Awards.

The film was based on Murray Burnett and Joan Alison’s then-unproduced play Everybody Comes to Rick’s, and was adapted to the screen by twins Julius and Philip Epstein and Howard Koch.  Set in the Vichy-controlled Moroccan city of Casablanca during World War II, it centers on Rick Blaine (Bogart), an American expatriate who owns a café in the city.  He is somehow entrusted to documents that allow anybody to travel freely throughout German-controlled Europe—documents that are bought by his ex-lover Ilsa Lund (Bergman) and her husband Victor Laszlo (Henreid) for them to be able to go back to the United States.  He is then torn between giving her the documents, or letting their past get in the way.

Casablanca was directed by Michael Curtiz, with cinematography by Arthur Edeson and music by Max Steiner.  Most of the extras in the film were actual European exiles and refugees, providing for the intense emotional impact the film provided.  It premiered in New York on November 26, 1942, and was eventually released two months later; it earned $3.7 million dollars.  It eventually won three Oscars—Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay—and was nominated for another five, including Best Actor honors for Bogart.  It was selected by the National Film Registry for preservation in 1989, and was later named as the third greatest American film ever made, behind Citizen Kane and The Godfather.