Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. A jewel-encrusted minaret soars over the thronged North African metropolis, like a stone sentinel directly above the city’s frenetic souk heaving with wartime humanity. Below that sacred skyscraper seemingly every nationality is represented either behind or in front of goods-laden market stalls, nudging and weaving their way through what passes for its central passageway or loitering over coffee at al fresco Parisian-style corner cafes.
Humphrey Bogart, Claude Rains, Paul Henreid and Ingrid Bergman at Rick’s Cafe in a scene from Casablanca. Credit: Alamy This is the stirring opening scene of Casablanca, the classic 1942 film which some consider, along with Citizen Kane , the greatest film ever made. But, as astonishingly accomplished as the opening black-and-white shot is, the viewer, as time goes by, must remember this: a kiss may well be just a kiss and a sigh may just be a sigh, yet in terms of Tinsel Town the fundamental myths almost always apply.
Casablanca, the Moroccan city, not the movie, has since the release of Casablanca, the film not the city, struggled to meet the impossible expectations of visitors. As you may or may not be aware, not a single scene of Casablanca , starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, was shot on location in what is now Morocco’s largest and most important city. Frankly, Bergman and Bogie’s masterpiece is a bit bogus, since Casablanca was film.