Casablanca, Nest of Spies

Casablanca 1942. While French Police Chief Maurice Desjardins is busy having careless fun with some loose girls, members of the French Resistance kill a man at the harbor and steal his briefcase full of important documents from the Third Reich. At an apartment building in the distance, Andre Kuhn watches the whole operation through his powerful binoculars. He is posing as a businessman but actually working as a spy for the Germans a fact totally ignored by his live-in girlfriend Teresa Villar, a beautiful Spanish singer who works at El Dorado Night Club. Andre telephones Max von Stauffen, the head of German Intelligence in Casablanca, to inform him of what he has just witnessed. Max tells him to stay put until he arrives in order to get the information personally but, by the time he reaches Andres apartment, he finds him dead with a gun shot on his temple.

Directed by Henri Decoin, Casablanca, Nest of Spies leans on a strong ensemble — Sara Montiel, Maurice Ronet, Franco Fabrizi — to carry a story that balances spectacle with character.

The film landed with audiences for its craft and performances, and remains one of the most talked-about drama titles of 1963.