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A US One-Sheet poster from the promotion of Michael Curtiz's romantic war drama Casablanca. The pinnacle of Golden Age Hollywood and perhaps the greatest romantic drama to ever grace the silver screen, Casablanca is a classic that has stood the test of time. Starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, with brilliant support from Claude Rains, Paul Henreid, Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet, this war-time tale centres around cafe owner Rick Blaine (Bogart) who is quietly sitting out the war in French Morocco until his old flame Ilsa (Bergman) re-enters his life with her fugitive husband Victor Laszlo (Henreid). Nominated for eight Academy Awards and winning three, Casablanca has an enduring popularity, with any posters from its initial release being prized by collectors worldwide.

Designer Bill Gold said of this poster artwork: "My initial thoughts were to put together a montage showing all the characters depicted in the film. I wanted to have Humphrey Bogart in the foreground and Ingrid Bergman behind him looking on. I didn't want to give away their romance. The client loved it but said there was no excitement, so I put a gun in Bogart's hand."

This example is conservation linen-backed with fold-line restoration and a single drawing-pin hole in three corners, with the top-left hole being slightly bigger than the others. There are four staple holes along each side and a tiny amount of paper loss on the cross-folds. There are also a few areas of very light staining that were not addressed during restoration, and the linen has been cut to the edge but is not fraying. The poster has been stretched lengthways by 1 cm, which is not uncommon during the linen-backing process. Many of these issues are not very noticeable and the poster displays brilliantly. Dimensions: 69 cm x 105 cm (27" x 41.25")

Estimate: £15,000 - 30,000 M

View all lots from CASABLANCA (1942)