Humphrey Bogart magic of Bogart and Bergman was the result of two actors working at their best, not any real-life sparks, though Bogart's perennially jealous wife assumed otherwise. Off the set, the co-stars hardly spoke. Bergman, who had a reputation for affairs with her leading men, later said of Bogart, "I kissed him but I never knew him." Because Bergman was taller, Bogart had blocks attached to his shoes in certain scenes. "Casablanca" won the 1943 Academy Award for Best Picture. Bogart was nominated for an Academy Award Best Actor in a Leading Role, but lost to Paul Lukas for his performance
Humphrey Bogart considered among his best performances, and many Bogart biographers and actress/writer Louise Brooks feel the role is the closest to the real Bogart of any he played. She wrote that the film "gave him a role that he could play with complexity, because the film character's pride in his art, his selfishness, drunkenness, lack of energy stabbed with lightning strokes of violence were shared by the real Bogart". The character even mimics some of Bogart's personal habits, including twice ordering Bogart's favorite meal of ham and eggs. Something of a parody of "The Maltese Falcon", "Beat the Devil" was their