how was its initial response?
It received "consistently good reviews".
Casablanca (film)
"Casablanca" received "consistently good reviews". Bosley Crowther of "The New York Times" wrote, "The Warners ... have a picture which makes the spine tingle and the heart take a leap." He applauded the combination of "sentiment, humor and pathos with taut melodrama and bristling intrigue". 
who played the female lead in the 1942 film casablanca Ingrid Bergman who wrote its script? Howard Koch and who directed it? Michael Curtiz and who was the male lead in this? Humphrey Bogart
wiki:5423904
Casablanca (film) [SEP] Initial response
"Casablanca" received "consistently good reviews". Bosley Crowther of "The New York Times" wrote, "The Warners ... have a picture which makes the spine tingle and the heart take a leap." He applauded the combination of "sentiment, humor and pathos with taut melodrama and bristling intrigue". Crowther noted its "devious convolutions of the plot", and praised the screenplay quality as "of the best" and the cast's performances as "all of the first order". The trade paper "Variety" commended the film's "combination of fine performances, engrossing story and neat direction" and the "variety of moods, action, suspense, comedy and drama that makes "Casablanca" an A-1 entry at the b.o." "Film is splendid anti-Axis propaganda, particularly inasmuch as the propaganda is strictly a by-product of the principal action and contributes to it instead of getting in the way." The review also applauded the performances of Bergman and Henreid and noted that "Bogart, as might be expected, is more at ease as the bitter and cynical operator of a joint than as a lover, but handles both assignments with superb finesse." Some other reviews were less enthusiastic.