Editing Casablanca (film) (section)

== Plot ==
[[File:Principal Cast in Casablanca Trailer crop.jpg|left|upright=1.25|thumb|alt=Black-and-white film screenshot of several people in a nightclub. A man on the far left is wearing a suit and has a woman standing next to him wearing a hat and dress. A man at the center is looking at the man on the left. A man on the far right is wearing a suit and looking at the other people.|The principal cast in Casablanca, including (left to right) Paul Henreid (Victor Laszlo), Ingrid Bergman (Ilsa Lund), Claude Rains (Captain Louis Renault), and Humphrey Bogart (Rick Blaine).]]
[[File:Casablanca trailer (1942).webm|thumb|thumbtime=2:10|Original trailer]]
<!-- PER WP:FILMPLOT, PLOT SUMMARIES FOR FEATURE FILMS SHOULD BE BETWEEN 400 AND 700 WORDS. -->
In December 1941, American [[expatriate]] Rick Blaine owns a nightclub and gambling den in [[Casablanca]]. "Rick's Café Américain" attracts a varied clientele, including [[Vichy France|Vichy French]] and [[Nazi German]] officials, [[Refugee#World War II and UNHCR|refugees]] desperate to reach the still-neutral United States, and those who prey on them. Although Rick professes to be neutral in all matters, he [[Arms trafficking|ran guns]] to [[Second Italo-Ethiopian War|Ethiopia in 1935]] and fought on the [[Republican faction (Spanish Civil War)|Loyalist]] side in the [[Spanish Civil War]].

Petty crook Ugarte boasts to Rick of letters of transit obtained by murdering two German couriers. The papers allow the bearers to travel freely around [[German-occupied Europe]] and to [[Portugal during World War II|neutral Portugal]]. Ugarte plans to sell them at the club and persuades Rick to hold them for him. Before he can meet his contact, Ugarte is arrested by the local police under Captain Louis Renault, the unabashedly corrupt [[Prefecture of Police|prefect of police]]. Ugarte dies without revealing that Rick has the letters.

Then, the reason for Rick's cynical nature—former lover Ilsa Lund—enters his establishment. Spotting Rick's friend and house pianist, Sam, Ilsa asks him to play "[[As Time Goes By (song)|As Time Goes By]]". Rick storms over, furious that Sam disobeyed his order never to perform that song again, and is stunned to see Ilsa. She is accompanied by her husband, Victor Laszlo, a renowned fugitive [[Resistance in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia|Czechoslovak Resistance]] leader. A flashback reveals Ilsa left Rick without explanation when the couple were planning to flee as the German army neared [[Paris]], embittering Rick. Laszlo and Ilsa need the letters to escape, while German Major Strasser arrives in Casablanca to prevent that.

When Laszlo makes inquiries, Signor Ferrari, an underworld figure and Rick's friendly business rival, divulges his suspicion that Rick has the letters. Laszlo returns to Rick's café that night and tries to buy them. Rick refuses to sell, telling Laszlo to ask his wife why. They are interrupted when Strasser leads a group of German officers in singing "[[Die Wacht am Rhein]]". Laszlo orders the house band to play "[[La Marseillaise]]", and Rick allows it. Patriotism grips the crowd and everyone joins in, drowning out the Germans. Afterwards, Strasser has Renault close the club on a flimsy pretext: Renault is “shocked, SHOCKED to find out that gambling is going on in here” as a casino employee hands Renault his night’s winnings.

[[File:Casablanca, Trailer Screenshot.JPG|thumb|alt=Black-and-white film screenshot of a man and woman as seen from the shoulders up. The two are close to each other as if about to kiss.|Bogart and Bergman]]
Later, Ilsa confronts Rick in the deserted café; when he refuses to give her the letters, she threatens him with a gun but then confesses that she still loves him. She explains that when they met and fell in love in Paris in 1940, she believed her husband had been killed while attempting to escape from a [[Internment#Defining internment and concentration camp|concentration camp]]. When she learned that Laszlo was alive and hiding near Paris, she left Rick without explanation to nurse her sick husband. Rick's bitterness dissolves. He agrees to help, letting Ilsa believe she and Rick will stay together while Laszlo leaves Casablanca. When Laszlo unexpectedly shows up, having narrowly escaped a police raid on a Resistance meeting, Rick has waiter Carl spirit Ilsa away. Aware of Rick's love for Ilsa, Laszlo tries to persuade him to use the letters to take her to safety.

When the police arrest Laszlo on a trumped-up charge, Rick persuades Renault to release him by promising to set Laszlo up for a much more serious crime: possession of the letters. To allay Renault's suspicions, Rick explains that he and Ilsa will use the letters to leave for America. When Renault tries to arrest Laszlo as arranged, however, Rick forces him at gunpoint to assist in their escape. At the last moment, Rick makes Ilsa board the plane to [[Lisbon]] with Laszlo, telling her that she would regret it if she stayed, "Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life." Strasser, tipped off by Renault, drives up alone. When Strasser attempts to stop the plane and then draws a gun on Rick, the latter shoots him dead. Policemen arrive. Renault orders them to "round up the usual suspects." He suggests to Rick that they join the [[Free French]] in [[Brazzaville]]. As they walk away into the fog, Rick says, "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."