--- title: Casablanca at 75: Read 1942 Review of Bogart-Bergman Classic description: "Before the US seizure of Morocco handed Warner Bros. some of the most dazzling promotion in years, Casablanca was just an exotic location." canonical: https://time.com/5021428/casablanca-movie-1942-review/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-11-24T15:00:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2024-01-24T11:43:08.000Z article:section: History og:title: Read TIME's Original 1942 Review of 'Casablanca' og:description: "Mr. Bogart at last does the manly thing" og:url: https://time.com/5021428/casablanca-movie-1942-review/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb9ffb36a0a4dd288/6988e592196cf45cb0042b65/casablanca.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Casablanca og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read TIME's Original 1942 Review of 'Casablanca' twitter:description: "Mr. Bogart at last does the manly thing" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb9ffb36a0a4dd288/6988e592196cf45cb0042b65/casablanca.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read TIME's Original 1942 Review of _Casablanca_: 'Rick Is Still Trying to Get Over It'  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Updated: Jan 24, 2024 11:43 AM CUTPublished: Nov 24, 2017 3:00 PM CUT  Humphrey Bogart (1899 - 1957) and Ingrid Bergman (1915 - 1982) star in the Warner Brothers film 'Casablanca,' 1942. Humphrey Bogart (1899 - 1957) and Ingrid Bergman (1915 - 1982) star in the Warner Brothers film 'Casablanca,' 1942.Popperfoto / Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Updated: Jan 24, 2024 11:43 AM CUTPublished: Nov 24, 2017 3:00 PM CUT The long gap between the premiere and the main U.S. release date for _Casablanca_ was no accident. After all, when the [now-classic](http://entertainment.time.com/2012/11/23/the-best-movie-of-all-time-turns-70-heres-looking-at-you-casablanca/ "undefined") film premiered in New York City on Nov. 26, 1942 — 75 years ago this weekend — it was just weeks after American troops saw their first overseas combat in World War II’s Europe and North Africa campaign in, of all places, Casablanca. Suddenly, the movie’s title was in the news across the nation, so the picture was [hurried](https://books.google.com/books?id=JBHRxrM9u-oC&pg=PA41&dq=casablanca+movie+premiere+date+changed+after+invasion&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj6%5F5GH4LzXAhUE6GMKHaRiCsEQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=casablanca%20movie%20premiere%20date%20changed%20after%20invasion&f=false "undefined") into the theater. The[ fighting and intrigue](http://time.com/4542747/casablanca-allied-wwii-photos/ "undefined") in North Africa helped make the film newsworthy, but as TIME’s critic [noted](http://time.com/vault/issue/1942-11-30/page/96/ "undefined") upon its release, the timing wasn’t the only thing the movie had going for it: --- > “” --- As TIME’s Lance Morrow [rhapsodized](http://time.com/vault/issue/1982-12-27/page/82/ "undefined") when the movie hit 40 in 1982, even as the film acquired a timeless status, it remained forever linked to that moment in time when it was released. “About _Casablanca_ there clings a quality of lovely, urgent innocence. Those who cherish the movie may be nostalgic for moral clarity, for a war in which good and evil were obvious and choices tenable,” he wrote. “They may be nostalgic for a long-lost connection between the private conscience and the public world. _Casablanca_ was released three years before the real moment of the fall of the modern world: 1945\. That year, the side of good dropped nuclear bombs on cities full of civilians, and the world discovered Auschwitz. We have not yet developed the myths with which to explain such matters.” **Correction:** The original version of this article incorrectly described the first overseas World War II combat by American troops. Americans first fought in the Pacific, not in North Africa. 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