"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine," says Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine in the Casablanca. That ‘gin joint’ was Rick’s Café Americain, and who wouldn’t want to belly up to that bar and tell Sam to ‘play it again!’
Unfortunately, you can’t. Rick’s Café Americain was a fictional gin joint (although Rick’s Café Casablanca, a bar/café in Morocco developed by former American diplomat Kathy Kriger, makes a pretty good substitute). The truth is, there are a multitude of famous bars, pubs, and taverns made famous by the movies that simply don’t exist outside of the filmmaker’s imagination. Here are a few of our favorites.
The Prancing Pony – Technically an inn located in the village of Bree, The Prancing Pony was possessed of a very pleasant common room. It was in this very room where the Hobbits, Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, Meriadoc (Merry) Brandybuck and Peregrin (Pip) Took, encounter the ranger known as Strider (later to be revealed as Aragorn, son of Arathon– High King of Gondor. The most intriguing thing about the Prancing Pony is, it was the place where Merry and Pip learned that beer comes in a pint! (The Lord of the Rings- The Fellowship of the Ring)
The Ink & Paint Club – If you want to get into this exclusive underground dive, you’ll need the password: “Walt Sent Me.” Walt, of course, being the immortal Walt Disney. The Ink & Paint Club was the ultra cool watering hole for the animated denizens of Toontown. And it’s where Jessica Rabbit performed her famous torch song, “Why Don’t You Do Right?” She’s not really bad; she’s just drawn that way. (Who Framed Roger Rabbit)
The Kit Kat Klub – Berlin. 1929. Avant-Garde culture is juxtaposed against the rise of the Nazi regime. Life is a Cabaret, my friend! The bar is seedy, but the M.C. the waiters and especially the cabaret girls are as intoxicating as the ever-flowing booze. It’s a bar for those who like to live dangerously. (Cabaret)
The Slaughtered Lamb – If you find yourself backpacking across the moors of Yorkshire, and you come across a pub called “The Slaughtered Lamb” around sundown, do yourself a favor, settle down for a pint, then find a room for the night. Particularly if there happens to be a full moon. It’s rumored that there be werewolves wandering about. But don’t expect the locals to tell the truth about such goings-on. (An American Werewolf in London)