Casablanca

I was wondering about a topic for today ─ and then it hit me over the head like the proverbial ton of bricks.

My Favorite Granddaughter Allie and I were sitting in my Chevy Suburban at 5 a.m. yesterday in a holding area at Philadelphia’s International Airport. She’d arrived on an earlier flight and we were waiting for my Favorite Daughter Stevie. Her flight just landed and she was waiting for her luggage to reach the gate. So we had about 15 minutes to kill.

We started talking about movies and Allie surprised me by telling me she recently watched Casablanca. Wow, I hadn’t seen that movie in a long, long time.

When Claude Rains wasn’t in Hollywood making movies he lived in West Chester. I went to West Chester State College and every time we walked past his house on Church Street somebody would say, “Hey, that’s Claude Rains’ house.”

On a side note, his pompous-assed son was constantly on campus but rarely talked to any of us commoners.

Peter Lorre was a huge star when I was growing up ─ an excellent actor with 111 acting credits in both movies and TV.

First a quick geography lesson.

The movie’s set in the city of Casablanca during the early stages of World War II ─ which makes the period to be around 1940. Casablanca is part of French Morocco on the northeastern tip of Africa. In fact, a peninsula juts up and sits right across the narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Mediterranean Sea. And right across that strait sits the trademark for the Prudential Insurance Company ─ the Rock of Gibraltar.

And now back to our show.

Humphrey Bogart plays a feisty American ex-patriot who runs Rick’s Café Americain in Casablanca, a nightclub frequented by shady characters ─ many of whom are trying to obtain forged paperwork that would allow them to escape from Morocco and go to America.

One day Bogey’s ex-lover Ingrid Bergman shows up with her fugitive husband and she wants Bogey to help them escape to the U.S. That places Bogey between the Rock of Gibraltar and a hard place. Unforeseen circumstances arrive, of course, and Bogey and Bergman suddenly face excruciating decisions.

At least three famous quotes came from the movie … “Play it again, Sam.” … “We’ll always have Paris.” … and “Here’s looking at you, kid.”

I’m America’s Best Crime Writer – Barry Bowe – & I approve this message.

My first book – Born to Be Wild – was published in 1992 and is still selling on Amazon & Kindle. it’s a true story about certain members of the Warlocks motorcycle gang.

The story took 21 years to play out with many twists & turns. It’s an amalgam of Sons of Anarchy and Breaking Bad – but these outlaw bikers make the Sons look like Cub Scouts.