“We’ll always have Paris,” Humphrey Bogart consoles Ingrid Bergman with those words in the classic film “Casablanca” after he tells her that he will not leave that place with her and that she must accompany her husband, anti-Nazi leader Victor Lazlo, because he needs her support and presence to continue his struggle against the Nazis. The two had previously been lovers, and had spent time in Paris before it fell to the Germans during the Second World War, and like most couples, they had fond memories of their time together in the City of Light. And the recently installed New York Times Paris Bureau chief, Roger Cohen, has recently written an evocative article in which he wrote “perhaps the most famous line in a movie was wrong” as the coronavirus lockdown has resulted in empty chairs and tables that he encounters in abandoned boulevards and blank small chalkboards that previously advised cheerful Parisians of the tasty fare that awaited them at the numerous cafes that grace that romantic city. Bogart plays a seemingly cynical American expatriate, Rick Blaine, who operates Rick’s Bar in Casablanca, a city in a French colony in North Africa that has swelled with thousands of refugees who have fled the Nazi advance through Europe who are now stateless and have nowhere else to go. “ I don’t stick my neck out for anybody,” Blaine states on several occasions, but when an arrogant Nazi colonel arrives in Casablanca and puts pressure on the French colonial officials there to arrest the recently arrived Victor Lazlo, who had previously escaped from German captivity, he reveals his true colors. The film is known for its witty dialogue , and one of its more memorable lines, “round up the unusual suspects,” served as a title for a film.
The iconic Poncan Theatre in Ponca City has hosted a variety of events, both live and on film after its opening in 1927, and in the early decades of the last century vaudeville acts that included actors such as Will Rogers and the formidable Ethel Barrymore performed on its stage. Perhaps the most intriguing performers who have graced it’s floor boards are the ghost hunters who have gone there in pursuit of long dead spirits and it may be that some of their findings may have much in common with the techniques used by the magicians and illusionists who appeared there decades ago as part of the vaudeville circuit. And the Poncan Theatre will show “Casablanca” on its screen on Valentines Day this year, and the community of Ponca City and neighboring communities romantics will be in attendance and many of them will be dressed in attire from that era in accordance with the suggestion of the theatre’s managers. It is probable that many of the classic lines from that movie will be repeated in Ponca City after the showing and that people there will be viewing more of Humphrey Bogart’s films.
Against the Grain 