She really loved Rick, but he was not in the same class..................
Rick, of course!
I would take Rick personally....
She loved them both, but in different ways. Laszlo was the idealist whom she loved & respected. Rick was the passionate, more physical lover. She probably wanted to stay with Rick, but new she was needed for something higher with Victor.
Rick: Last night we said a great many things. You said I was to do the thinking for both of us. Well, I’ve done a lot of it since then, and it all adds up to one thing: you’re getting on that plane with Victor where you belong.
Ilsa: But, Richard, no, I... I...
Rick: Now, you’ve got to listen to me! You have any idea what you’d have to look forward to if you stayed here? Nine chances out of ten, we’d both wind up in a concentration camp. Isn’t that true, Louie?
Captain Renault: I’m afraid Major Strasser would insist.
Ilsa: You’re saying this only to make me go.
Rick: I’m saying it because it’s true. Inside of us, we both know you belong with Victor. You’re part of his work, the thing that keeps him going. If that plane leaves the ground and you’re not with him, you’ll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.
Ilsa: But what about us?
Rick: We’ll always have Paris. We didn’t have, we, we lost it until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night.
Ilsa: When I said I would never leave you.
Rick: And you never will. But I’ve got a job to do, too. Where I’m going, you can’t follow. What I’ve got to do, you can’t be any part of. Ilsa, I’m no good at being noble, but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you’ll understand that.
[Ilsa lowers her head and begins to cry]
Rick: Now, now...
[Rick gently places his hand under her chin and raises it so their eyes meet]
Rick: Here’s looking at you kid.
Well, I have it on good authority that she was in mad love with Mr. Jewbacca, Sr., but it was not to be.
My father provided security for Ms. Bergman for some sort of promotional event in Israel, many decades ago. Spent several weeks with her. He called her his “shiksa crush”.
My dad said she was the second most beautiful woman in the world, second only to my mother.
She could also fire a rifle well, which greatly impressed him.
And she really did despise the Nazis, and loved Israel.
She was as bad as Rick...maybe worse, for he ended his role doing the right thing for her, not that thing that he wanted and could have had. She wanted it both ways: security and consistency AND a wild plaything. She was the more selfish of the two....
NAW, Ingrid Bergman, she’s INNOCENT!
Many years ago, there was a review that suggested a future where Victor would be teaching college and chasing coeds while Ilsa was involved in a “special friendship” with their pool boy. Rick, on the other hand would be operating a casino with the captain, happily unwed and grateful for how things turned out. Sam would have finally learned the intro of “As Time Goes By”.