Casablanca the film premiered on Nov. 26, 1942. Just prior from Nov. 8th to the 16th was the execution of Operation Torch, the Allied (combined Anglo-American) invasion of Vichy French held territories in North Africa. The Center and East Task Forces landed around Oran and Algiers in Algeria while the bulk of the forces landed in Morocco near Casablanca.

At the time this was the first major ground combat operation by US forces in the North African/European theater, representing a combined amphibious and airborne landing of tens of thousands of troops. Fighting was fairly limited against Vichy French forces and the Allies fairly quickly took control while making a deal with French Admiral Darlan (who by chance was in North Africa at the time), making him head of the civil government in Vichy French territories in North Africa in exchange for cooperation with the Allies. This was a controversial move as it represented a snub for Free French forces and Darlan was seen as a German collaborator.

After the deal was struck Allied control of French North Africa was a fait accompli. Within hours Germany put into action existing plans to occupy Vichy France (Case Anton) and within 2 days there were German and Italian tanks and troops throughout all of France except for the port city of Toulon where the French fleet was stationed. Initially Toulon was not to be occupied but tensions were high and the situation was quite fluid and rapidly evolving with a great deal of uncertainty with shifting allegiances in Vichy French forces and questions about who would do what (the Germans and Italians, the British, etc.) On the 19th the Germans attacked the port of Toulon and Vichy French forces fought back, executing on Hitler's plan to capture the French fleet and turn it over to the Italians. The pitched battle ran for days until on the 27th German forces broke through to the harbor and began boarding vessels. The French began sinking, scuttling, and sabotaging their fleet, ultimately taking out 77 vessels including nearly all of the larger naval ships, denying the Germans possession of the French fleet.

By the time of the film's premier (which was before all of the fallout from the invasion of Toulon had played out) the whole world had come to know about the place of Casablanca. The Operation Torch landings had become one of the first successful efforts by Anglo-American ground forces to dramatically alter the progression of the war, especially as they coincided with British victories in Egypt with the 2nd Battle of El Alamein. At the time the war had seen primarily only losses and stalemates on the ground in Western Europe and North Africa. Additionally, the fallout from Operation Torch resulting in the effective end of Vichy France and in the military occupation of all of France represented a significant change in the tenor of the war to one of even greater seriousness, highlighting the Germans in particular as even greater villains.

All of those things would have been on the minds of the American public as they watched the film for the first time. When they did so they would know where Casablanca was and what it represented, they would understand the complexities (moral and political) of the Vichy French government, and they would understand the precarity of the situation in Morocco and in France. They would also have a greater appreciation of what German soldiers represented and of how German occupation of France would play out beyond the tragedy of German troops in Paris but the end of any corner of France as a non-occupied territory. And too they would see the film not just through the lens of the plot itself but also through contemporary news, which would apply a degree of optimism and hope beyond what was present when it was filmed. From the club patrons defiantly singing La Marseillaise (having no clue that in a year the area would be under Allied control) to Ilsa's escape to Rick and Renault's plan to join the Free French at the end, all of it would hit harder against the recent geopolitical backdrop. Indeed, somehow even the main story element of Rick's "Cafe Americain" as a refuge amidst the chaos of early WWII Morocco parallels the real life historical events of American forces swooping in as the "saviors" and "liberators" of Vichy French North Africa. The film makers could not have engineered a better backdrop for the premiere.