May 15 ~  Of All the Gin Joints Casablanca: Script and Legend

"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine." ~ Humphrey Bogart

Casablanca The gin joint is Rick's Café Américain, the most popular spot in town. The woman is lsa (Ingrid Bergman). The man is Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart). The film is Casablanca (1942), one of the greatest motion pictures of all time. 

With one of the greatest love songs, As Time Goes By (Lyrics and music by Herman Hupfeld):

"You must remember this;
A kiss is still a kiss,
A sigh is just a sigh -
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by."

"I stick my neck out for nobody," said Bogart's character, the hard-drinking, tough cynic who loved and lost his great love Ilsa in Paris years earlier. 

Isa and Rick are in the midst of World War II. Defeating the Nazis is more important then their needs or wants. "Oh, it's a crazy world. Anything can happen...Kiss me. Kiss me as if it were the last time," the beautiful Ilsa urgently begged...

Be still my beating heart.

It's impossible to imagine any other actors playing the lovers, but producer Hal B. Wallis' nearly hired Ronald Reagan and Ann Sheridan for the roles of Rick and Ilsa. The classic film won three Oscars, including Picture, Director, and Screenplay (Julius & Philip Epstein and Howard Koch).

"The more you see it the more the whole film gains resonance," raved reviewer Roger Ebert. "Seeing the film over and over again, year after year, I find it never grows over-familiar. It plays like a favorite musical album; the more I know it, the more I like it."

Here's looking at you, kid.