Everybody comes to Rick’s Café in Casablanca—for drinks, gambling, intrigue, Sam’s (Dooley Wilson) piano, and most importantly, exit visas. The romance of Hollywood’s classical era is central to this seminal film, full of iconic stars including Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, and Habsburg Empire émigrés Paul Henreid and Peter Lorre. Émigré Michael Curtiz’s Oscar-winning direction of this Best Picture winner is as elegant as the endlessly quotable dialogue is witty, and (another émigré) Max Steiner’s nominated score incorporates the unforgettable “As Time Goes By.”

Director: Michael Curtiz. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains. 1943. 103 min. USA. B&W. English. 35mm nitrate.

Nitrate print courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art.

All film screenings of Vienna in Hollywood: Émigrés and Exiles in the Studio System are available here.