Casablanca was rushed into release to take advantage of the publicity from the Allied invasion of North Africa a few weeks earlier …The film was a solid, if unspectacular, success in its initial run.
Exceeding expectations, Casablanca went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, while Curtiz was selected as Best Director and the Epsteins and Koch were honored for Best Adapted Screenplay. Its reputation has gradually grown, to the point that its lead characters,[8] memorable lines,[9] and pervasive theme song[10] have all become iconic, and it consistently ranks near the top of lists of the greatest films in history.
The dialogue is simply fantastic in this film throughout. It’s definitely in my top 5.