Casablanca (1942)

This is a love story and not a boots-and-bayonets saga, but it’s one of the greatest American films of all time. And it works so well because of the stakes involved, as the Nazis are the primary reason why Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) is rooted in his café in Casablanca and why Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) and Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) are on the lam and why they all come together in an exquisite script by Julius and Philip Epstein and Howard Koch. An unsung hero is director Michael Curtiz, who allows a patriotic fervor to bubble underneath as the love triangle unfolds but never lets it all get overcooked. And this film features one of the finest supporting casts ever, featuring Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and, of course, Dooley Wilson as Sam. While it is fictional, it helped to illustrate how the war touched places around the globe that had seemed like sanctuaries. “Casablanca” snagged Oscars for best picture as well as for its director and writers.