Local film critic Joe Leydon celebrates his late wife with 'Casablanca'

Ingrid Bergman with Humphrey Bogart in a scene from the classic 1942 film "Casablanca."

Local film critic/historian Joe Leydon has had a long history with the movie “Casablanca.”

He remembers first watching the movie on TV, back when he was growing up in New Orleans. During his years as the film critic for the long-gone local daily The Houston Post, he wrote about the film often. And he screened the movie for students when he taught film at University of Houston and Houston Community College.

When: 7:15 p.m. Aug. 27Where: The River Oaks Theatre, 2009 W. Gray St.Details: $16; 713-496-3456; theriveroakstheatre.com

But Leydon mainly remembers how it was a favorite of his wife, Anne, who passed away in May at age 77. Back in the day, they went on a date where they saw it on the big screen.

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“I met Anne in the early ‘70s, and we went to the Prytania Theatre [to see it],” said Leydon, who turns 74 on August 22nd, referring to the historic New Orleans theater that is still up and running.

On Aug. 27, Leydon will introduce a memorial screening of “Casablanca” at the River Oaks Theatre, the evening before what would’ve been their 50th anniversary. He approached artistic director Robert Saucedo about doing a screening that celebrated the movie and his late love.

“I said, ‘Look, I know you have all kinds of requests,’” he told Saucedo. “And Robert, God bless him, said, ‘Oh, yeah, this sounds great.’”

For the six of you who’ve never heard of director Michael Curtiz’s black-and-white 1942 tale of love and intrigue, Humphrey Bogart gives an iconic performance as Rick Blaine, a cynical American running a nightclub in the titular, Vichy-controlled Moroccan city during WWII. The former freedom fighter finds himself back in the game when Ilsa (the eternally radiant Ingrid Bergman), an old flame who broke Rick’s heart, enters his gin joint. She needs her ex to help her and her fugitive, resistance-leader husband (Paul Henreid), get outta Dodge before the Germans get to them.

Even if you haven’t seen the movie, you’ve certainly either seen or heard it referenced in movies, TV shows or other forms of entertainment, whether it’s dialogue that’s been quoted or misquoted (for the last time, no one says “Play it again, Sam”!) or memorable scenes such as the foggy finale, where Rick in a trenchcoat gives an immortal, impassioned speech to Ilsa before – SPOILER ALERT! – she boards a plane and takes off.

“Casablanca” continues to be one of the most influential (and most beloved) films of Hollywood’s Golden Age, picking up new generations of fans thanks to its timeless story of love, war, and the unlikely hero stuck in the middle. As Leydon once wrote when it played the River Oaks (then owned by Landmark Theatres) in 1992, as part of a 50th anniversary re-release: “It is a movie with the courage of its corniness, the strength of its shameless contrivance, the power of its pulp-fiction redemption. They don’t make them like this anymore …”

For Leydon and his wife, “Casablanca” became their movie. “It was one of those things where I’d say, ‘Anne, it’s on tonight on Turner Classic Movies. Let’s watch it.’ Or I’d be channel surfing and I’d say, ‘Anne, it’s ’Casablanca.’ It’s a magical movie.”

Even when they would have domestic squabbles, Leydon remembers how any animosity was squashed once they were watching “Casablanca.” “I'm sure anyone reading this will think, you know, if they have someone they love, they have certain movies where they can share these quotes, and they can share these scenes. And it's a cliché, but that's part of the magic of the movies.”

Leydon is looking forward to moviegoers young and old, whether they’re in love or just love watching love stories on the big screen, joining him in paying tribute to a cinema classic – and the woman he spent nearly half a century rewatching the movie with.

“This is how I am honoring her memory,” he said. “And I hope that people will want to share, not only a great movie, but a memory of a great human being.”