Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic film drama directed by Michael Curtiz and based on Murray Burnett and Joan Alison’s unproduced stage play Everybody Comes to Rick’s . The film stars Humphrey Bogart , Ingrid Bergman , and Paul Henreid ; it also features Claude Rains , Conrad Veidt , Sydney Greenstreet , Peter Lorre , and Dooley Wilson . Set duringWorld War II, it focuses on an American expatriate, who has a Czech resistance leader, escape from the Vichy -controlled city of Casablanca to continue his fight against the Nazis .
Story editor Irene Diamond conv. Producer Hal B. Wallis to purchase the film in the January 1942 issue. Brothers Julius and Philip G. Epstein were originally assigned to write the script. HOWEVER, DESPITE studio resistance, They left to Work is Frank Capra ‘s Why We Fight series in early 1942. Howard E. Koch Was assigned to the screenplay up to the Epsteins returned a month later. Principal photography began on May 25, 1942, ending on August 3; the film was shot entirely at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank , Californiawith Van Nuys Airport in Van Nuys, Los Angeles .