Casablanca

[Snappy]

In the movie Casablanca, Ilsa fixes flowers at the window while Rick opens champagne. She walks over and joins him.
Rick says, "Who are you really? And what were you before? What did you do and what did you think? Hus?"
Ilsa says, "We said 'no questions."
Rick says, "Here's looking at you, kid."

What does it mean by "Here's looking at you, kid."? Could you please paraphrase the expression. Who is the kid?

[bhaisahab]

In the movie Casablanca, Ilsa fixes flowers at the window while Rick opens champagne. She walks over and joins him.
Rick says, "Who are you really? And what were you before? What did you do and what did you think? Hus?"
Ilsa says, "We said 'no questions."
Rick says, "Here's looking at you, kid."

What does it mean by "Here's looking at you, kid."? Could you please paraphrase the expression. Who is the kid?

Ilsa is the "kid" and Rick is saying "We understand each other".

[gabber]

"Here's looking at you" is a drinking toast. Other drinking toasts are "Down the hatch<" "Cheers," "Here's mud in your eye," etc.

[konungursvia]

No, it is a particularly Rickian neologism here. Drinking toasts do often begin "here's to...." as in "Here's [a toast] to the Queen of Canada".

But in this case, Rick is saying "Here's a toast to just looking at your beauty, honey."

So he abandoned his question and agreed to enjoy the moment.

[BobK]

"Here's looking at you" is a drinking toast. Other drinking toasts are "Down the hatch<" "Cheers," "Here's mud in your eye," etc.

No, it is a particularly Rickian neologism here. Drinking toasts do often begin "here's to...." as in "Here's [a toast] to the Queen of Canada".

But in this case, Rick is saying "Here's a toast to just looking at your beauty, honey."

So he abandoned his question and agreed to enjoy the moment.

The two - seemingly diametrically opposed - answers are both right. Knowingly or unknowingly, people habitually quote the script when they're drinking a toast to just one person of the opposite sex; the scriptwriter unwittingly gave birth to an idiomatic usage. But 'Here's [a toast]' is more generally used for many other circumstances.

b