Michael Curtiz · 1942 · exile

Michael Curtiz's 1942 classic. The film opens by tracing the refugee trail out of occupied Europe - Paris to Marseille, across the Mediterranean to Oran, then along the rim of Africa to Casablanca, where the desperate wait for exit visas to Lisbon and the New World. In Rick's Cafe Americain, a cynical American is asked to give up the letters of transit, and the woman who once left him.

1. 1
   Paris

   With the coming of the Second World War, the refugees of occupied Europe turn their eyes to the Americas - and the exodus begins in Paris, where Rick Blaine and Ilsa Lund part on the day the Germans march in.

2. 2
   Marseille

   The tortuous trail runs first to Marseille on the Mediterranean coast, the great embarkation port of the south, where those with papers, money or nerve enough look for a passage out of France altogether.

3. 3
   Oran

   Across the water to Oran in French Algeria, the crossing that puts the sea between the fugitives and the Gestapo - the fortunate travelling by ship, the rest by whatever will float and whoever will take their money.

4. 4
   Casablanca

   Then by train, by car and on foot along the rim of Africa to Casablanca, where the wait begins. In Rick's Cafe Americain the whole city bargains for exit visas, and the resistance leader Victor Laszlo arrives with Ilsa on his arm.

5. 5
   Lisbon

   Lisbon is the great embarkation point, and the letters of transit are the only certain way to reach it. On a fogbound airfield Rick makes his choice - and puts the woman he loves on the plane with another man.