We'll always have Washington Terrace

After the showing of Casablanca last night, I bumped into Barrie Robbins-Pianka who told me she had scored a hat trick last night in Middletown, attending three important events in a very busy Wednesday evening. Barrie had run in the Not Your Typical 5K Road Race on and around Main Street. She had attended a part of the contentious informational meeting about the proposed construction of an Army Reserve Training Center in Westfield, and she made it to the Goldsmith Family Cinema to see Casablanca.

I only made two out of three (knowing the Westfield contigent was a powerful voice in City Hall - and it was - the room overflowed despite the traffic issues downtown because of the road race).

At the Wesleyan film center, actor, and friend of Wesleyan, Edward Herrman gave some interesting insights into the film we were about to see. Herrman, who first saw the film in New York City in 1971, at a time he described as "most cynical" and full of antipathy for anything that was associated with "the establishment." To his own astonishment, in a revival movie house filled with marijuana smoke, he was among an audience who fell in love with a film that is admittedly romantic, idealist and, in fact, patriotic. Herrman read from screenwriter Howard Koch's book on the film (and who better than Herrman to read in his sonorous baritone), which seems to indicate that the film that emerged from a chaotic film process has turned into a classic which still works its magic on an audience.

And while this is one in a series of Ingrid Bergman films, Casablanca is undeniably Bogey's movie.

On this evening, laughter and applause filled the room. I sat rapt, thinking once or twice in amazement, that this old relic once again had me by the neck.

Here's looking at you kid.

A Casablanca Dining Experience in Middletown

In conjunction with the Summer Film Series honoring Ingrid Bergman, hosted by Wesleyan's Center for Film Studies, several downtown restaurants are offering "CineFare" or Pre-Fix menus before each Wednesday night showing, from 5:00 PM to 7:30 PM (show time is at 8:00 PM). Though little information is provided regarding exactly what menu choices are available, as a Middletown dining scene aficionado I feel compelled to suggest a dining experience for each screening, related in someway (I may have to stretch it a bit!) to the theme, setting, or plot of the movie.

Tonight's showing of Casablanca begs for French and Moroccan-inspired cuisine, which (luckily for me!) can easily be found at the Tavern at the Armory, a CineFare participating business.

The Tavern is located at the Inn at Middletown, 70 Main Street.
Call for reservations: (860) 854-8323.

Casablanca-Inspired Dinner Menu
Tavern at the Armory

Appetizer
Grilled Olive Oil Brushed Flatbread - with kalamata olive tapenade and roasted red pepper hummus

Moroccan cuisine is heavily influenced by its Mediterranean neighbors. The grilled multigrain flatbread and hummus provide a delicious nuttiness, and the subtle saltiness of the olive tapenade is the perfect accompaniment. This appetizer is huge (two hungry movie-goers may not even finish it!), delicious, and truly Mediterranean.

Entrée
Garam Masala Lamb Loin Chops - with chick pea and tomato salad, pomegranate-cumin glaze and cilantro-mint yogurt.

Staple spices in Moroccan cuisine, cumin and cilantro are bold flavors that compliment the country’s preferred meat, lamb, in this filling dish. The chickpea and tomato salad, also typical of Morocco, adds a sweet and refreshing element.

Dessert
Crème-Brulee Cheesecake
To finish the meal with a French twist, this creamy, light cheesecake has a sweet, crispy crème-brulee crust that would make a saint of even the most corrupt of Vichy French officials!

Wine Pairing: Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot go perfectly with lamb, and will stand up nicely to the entrée’s spices.

For extra cool points (and I use the term "cool" here loosely), wear a fedora and trenchcoat (men) or white gloves (women) and eat hurriedly, as if afraid of being caught. And I bet, if you ask really nicely (and tip equally as nicely), you can coerce the bartender into saying, as you walk in... "Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world..."

Stay tuned for next week’s downtown dining menu for the screening of Gaslight!

The fundamental things apply

Casablanca is one of the best stories ever told.

And it will be told again Wednesday evening, July 16, at 8 pm at the Goldsmith Family Cinema on Wesleyan's campus. It's part of a series honoring and featuring Ingrid Bergman. Actor Edward Herrman will provide an introduction before the film is screened.

I've loved the film since I first saw it, chopped to shreds and interrupted by commercials for the Veg-o-matic, or Wonderbread, on some afternoon movie series on TV.

The casting, including the magnificent supporting players (Sydney Greenstreet, Claude Raines, Paul Henreid, Dooley Wilson), is perfect. The story that Ronald Reagan was being considered as the original first choice for the role of Rick, is apocryphal, and was a fiction created by Reagan's publicity agent. George Raft was apparently considered, because he was lobbying Jack Warner for the role, but reliable sources say the rights to the script were purchased for Bogart. Ingrid Bergman was "borrowed" from David O. Selznick for the role of Ilsa.

The film was directed by the underrated Michael Curtiz (The Adventures of Robin Hood, Angels With Dirty Faces, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Life With Father, Mildred Pierce and many others), who reportedly traded directorial assignments with Howard Hawks. Curtiz was scheduled to shoot Sergeant York, and Hawks, Casablanca, and they agreed to take on each other's assignments.

And of course, there's the script. Originally written as a stage play (which was never produced) by high school teacher Murray Bennett, and called Everybody Comes to Rick's, it was purchased for a record $20,000. It was reworked simultaneously by the team of Julius and Philp Epstein (twin brothers), and Howard Koch. All the writers worked on the film, particularly the ending (which was in question until late in shooting), as it was being shot.

My favorite scene, still, is the "dueling anthems" scene in which drunken German officers begin singing Die Wacht Am Rhein and French expatriates stand to sing La Marseillaise, drowning the Germans out, and raising the hair on my neck, each time.

And then, there's that other song, As Time Goes By, a favorite of original writer Bennett, and lobbied against by the film score composer Max Steiner, it became a hit for Rudy Vallee, who had recorded his version in 1931.

The film will be shown, as are all others in the series, on archival 35mm prints.