Cascades of Doubt - Rick and Ilsa in Casablanca
December 1941: A stream of endless, desperate refugees fleeing Nazi-dominated Europe is flowing into Casablanca in neutral French Morocco hoping to get a passage to America. In the evening they all meet at "Rick's Cafe" whose mysterious owner Richard "Rick" Blaine seems to be a tough, cynical and world-weary man. Among the refugees are Victor Laszlo, an escaped underground leader who is being chased by the Gestapo, and his wife Elsa Lund who turns out to be none other than Rickâs long-lost love from a past in Paris that is suddenly evoked by a melody on the cafe piano. At that time Elsa left Rick without telling him any reasons in order to return to her husband whom she had believed to be killed in a German concentration camp. When they now meet in Casablanca their love is rising again and for a moment Elsa is ready to do what she couldn't do then: to leave her husband. Rick, however, decides that he has to sacrifice his love to the patriotism that still unites Elsa with Laszlo and help them to leave Casablanca by plane. Finally he himself will join the worldwide fight against the Nazi regime.
(after Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein)