SYNOPSIS

CASABLANCA is set in French occupied Morocco during World War II. Rick Blaine, owner of a local bar and gambling room, is hiding in Casablanca from a secret past and isolated in his bitterness‹the love of his life betrayed him.

Meanwhile, two powerful exit visas are stolen by Ugarte, a man involved in the black market. Ugarte asks Rick to hold them for him just before he is arrested. The local Vichy police captain, Louis Renault, makes a spectacle of the arrest to show Nazi officer, Captain Strasser he will make every effort to find the visas. Strasser is in Casablanca because Resistance leader Victor Laszlo is thought to be coming there to gain passage to America, and Strasser wants him stopped.

Laszlo and his companion, Ilsa, enter the bar and Ilsa recognizes the piano player, Sam. She asks him to play "As Time Goes By." Upon hearing the tune, Rick charges out to the piano where he sees Ilsa. In a flashback we learn that Rick and Ilsa fell in love in Paris. Before the Germans invaded, they were to leave the country and be married, but Ilsa did not show up at the train station. Ilsa tries to explain what happened, but Rick, still hurt and angry, won't listen.

Laszlo and Ilsa try to obtain their letters of transit, but Renault, cooperating with Captain Strasser, will not grant them. In desperation they try the black market and learn that Rick has the visas. Ilsa goes to Rick to ask for them. When he refuses, she threatens to shoot him. He responds, "Go ahead and shoot, you'll be doing me a favor." Ilsa crumbles as she admits to Rick that she is still in love with him. She explains that she was married to Laszlo when she met Rick but was told her husband was killed in a concentration camp. When she and Rick were to leave, she got word that Laszlo was alive and had escaped. She tells Rick she can't leave him again and begs him to help Laszlo escape. He agrees and arranges a meeting.

When the Lazlo and Ilsa arrive, Rick pretends he's going to turn in Laszlo but instead holds Renault at gunpoint until the Resistance leader can board the plane. Rick also sends off his true love, arguing that she needs to keep fighting beside her husband. The plane disappears into the fog and Captain Strasser arrives to take Rick to jail. Rick shoots the officer, and he and Renault decide to leave the country together.