GoKawiilPublished: Sep 9, 2026written by Thom Delapa, MA Cinema Studies, MA Social Sciences, BA Liberal Arts
Even filmgoers who have never seen the 1942 Humphrey Bogart/Ingrid Bergman Oscar winner have heard its famous lines quoted in countless spoofs, memes, and homages, both on and off the screen. So the next time you hear “Round up the usual suspects,” or “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine,” or the infinite variations on “I’m shocked, shocked, to find out that [fill in the blank] is going on here!” you must remember this: They all came from Casablanca.
Casablanca: The Road to Morocco
Original Warner Bros. poster for Casablanca.
When it came to production and release timing, Warner Bros. struck gold—and not just Oscar’s gold enamel. Co-written by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison, their 1940 play (Everybody Comes to Rick’s) was snapped up by the studio immediately after the December 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The next day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked for—and was granted—a declaration of war against Japan and, within days, its European “Axis” allies Germany and Italy.
Before Pearl Harbor, the U.S. was ostensibly neutral regarding the war already raging in Europe. But with America’s decisive entrance into both the European and Pacific fronts, Warner Bros. launched into action, armed with a 43-year-old supporting actor who had made his name playing heavies in the studio’s bread-and-butter 1930s gangster films. Humphrey Bogart would not only star in Casablanca, but his command performance would win him a first-class new contract, making him Hollywood’s highest-paid actor.
U.S. military map of Casablanca, French Morocco, in 1942. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Warners not only played the conquering hero at the 1942-43 Academy Awards (three Oscars including Best Picture), it went home a winner at the box-office, too. In production during the summer of 1942, the film’s late November New York City premiere astoundingly landed almost exactly when U.S. forces (under Gen. George S. Patton) marched into Casablanca following a cease-fire agreed to by the outmanned French “Vichy” army. With Germany’s blitzkrieg defeat of France in 1940, Paris and half the country fell under direct Nazi control, while French officials willing to collaborate with the Nazi occupation ruled the other half. The latter included France’s colonies in North Africa, including Morocco. Several hundred Vichy officials were executed as traitors following the war.
“The Same Old Story, a Fight for Love and Glory”
1947 Dutch cinema lobby display for Casablanca. Source: Wikimedia Commons
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