Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine. – Rick Blaine

I watched Casablanca for the second time last night. I know, I know, a dashing young gentleman such as myself should be watching football instead of a romantic drama, but hey, it’s a great movie. The best thing about old cinema is undoubtedly the dialogue. There wasn’t music over every second of film as there is now, and with all that impending dead silence, they had to fill it up with something. You actually have to pay attention to follow the storyline, and when you do, you’re rewarded with a bombardment of witty humor and amazing elocution. Perhaps I’m getting a bit carried away, but you can’t help waxing poetic when dealing with an accepted classic.

Trivia: The famous line, “Play it again, Sam.” is never actually said in the movie. Ilsa almost says it (“Play it once, Sam”) and Rick does as well, though less so (“If she can stand it, I can. Play it.”), but the exact words are never actaully uttered. Not unlike, incidentally, the fact that P.T. Barnum never actually said “There’s a sucker born every minute”.