Category: Classic Films

Classic Films · Dramas

Love Affair

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image: Love Affair, 1939

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired. Now that the holiday hosting is nearly finished, all I want to do is lay on the sofa with a cocktail and a comfort watch. Even though Love Affair (Disc/Download) was a new-to-me pick in 2025, it’s a film that’s been retold so often, it feels like an old friend at this point. Or perhaps, an old lover.

Starring Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne as a pair of star-crossed paramours who meet aboard a cruise ship, Leo McCarey’s original film sparkles in a different way than his remake An Affair to Remember. The dialogue seems looser, more natural, with Dunne and Boyer sharing flirtatious banter as they enter a romance that seems impossible from the start. She’s a nightclub singer, he’s a playboy who dreams of painting, and as is the case for so many young creatives, two struggling artists put together do not equal one lavish champagne budget. But nevertheless, they decide to try. They shrug off the relationships of convenience like a mink stole on a warm summer day and agree to meet six months later at the top of the Empire State Building. I think you know where this goes, so I won’t rehash the ensuing melodrama, but boy, does it make my heart clench. I don’t know if men “get” this movie, but I definitely do.

While on the cruise, the lovers try in vain to stay away from serious topics, trying to keep everything “beautiful and bubbling like pink champagne”. Life, as they find out, doesn’t work that way. But in movies, we can wish for it anyway. While watching Love Affair, I recommend drinking this Pink French ’75.

Pink French ’75

1 oz pink gin

1 oz simple syrup

3/4 oz fresh lemon juice

Pink Champagne

Lemon twist (garnish)

Pour gin, simple syrup, and lemon juice into a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, then strain into a champagne flute. Top with pink Champagne, and garnish with a lemon twist.

If wishes are the dreams we make when we’re awake, then my wish for 2026 is that we all carve out time for more pink champagne moments. Life can be heavy, hard, and full of disappointment, but that just makes it even more essential to celebrate the tiny wins and joys where we can. Reality may not be beautiful and bubbly all the time, but for the length of a classic comfort watch, it can be. Cheers!

Classic Films · Comedies · Holiday Films · Uncategorized

We’re No Angels

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image: We’re No Angels, 1955

If you want to get me excited to watch a movie, all you have to do is tack on VistaVision before the opening credits. Paul Thomas Anderson has been bringing the format back into the zeitgeist with his 2025 release One Battle After Another, but there are so many classic films that benefited from its vivid colors and wide aspect ratio. One of these is the 1955 Christmas movie, We’re No Angels (Disc/Download), starring Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov, and Aldo Ray as a trio of escaped convicts on Devil’s Island.

I confess, I had to look up Devil’s Island on a map to see what kind of setting we were dealing with. Turns out, it’s solidly in what I like to call “Rum Country”, off the coast of French Guiana in the Atlantic ocean. In 1895, our three main characters escape from the island’s penal colony and take refuge in a general store. They convince the manager to let them fix the roof, with the intention of robbing him blind. But then, they get sucked into the manager’s family affairs, soon realizing they enjoy selling unnecessary junk to customers, cooking a (stolen) Christmas dinner, and menacing some evil relatives. But the true MVP of this movie is Adolphe the snake, who has no lines, but is the most integral to the plot. An honorary “fourth angel”, he’s judge, jury, and executioner all in one.

Because of the film’s tropical setting, I’m inclined to make a Tiki cocktail. There’s a great scene of a woman buying a bottle of Chartreuse for her Christmas celebration, and if you can find some these days, that’s reason enough to throw a party. While watching We’re No Angels, I recommend drinking A.C. Davidge’s 1949 classic, the Palm Breeze.

Palm Breeze

½ oz lime juice

½ oz dark Jamaican rum

½ oz white crème de cacao

¾ oz yellow Chartreuse

1 tsp grenadine

Gummy snake (suggested garnish)

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, then strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a gummy snake.

It’s fun to watch these tough guys get into the holiday spirit on a tropical island, and for that reason, I think We’re No Angels would make a great double feature with Donovan’s Reef. Just remember to keep the rum flowing and watch your wallet…  

Cheers!

Classic Films

Written on the Wind

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image: Written on the Wind, 1956

In my house, it’s just not fall until I’ve watched at least one Douglas Sirk movie. No other director does changing leaves and soaring orchestral scores quite like the master of women’s pictures, and Written on the Wind (Disc) is a prime example of his iconic style. By the end of this movie, I’m ready to pop the collar on my flannel shirt and find the nearest picturesque pond.

Written on the Wind is a natural fit for Cinema Sips because somebody is holding a cocktail in nearly every scene. Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone play spoiled boozehound siblings, while Rock Hudson and Lauren Bacall try to temper the siblings’ wild ways. Rock loves Lauren, Lauren loves Robert, Dorothy loves Rock, Robert loves liquor, and this quadrangle is one delicious Texas soap opera. Rock is maybe the hottest geologist to ever set foot on an oil rig, and it’s easy to see how Dorothy Malone’s character Marylee could self destruct over her unrequited love for him. She has all the best scenes in the movie, leaning over cars and divans with a glass in her hand like the world bores her to death. But it’s all a front: she’s just a lonely girl who wants her brother’s best friend to view her as more than a kid sister. And in Rock’s case, she’ll be waiting forever.

Robert Stack makes his last drunken stand on a pint of corn whiskey, and since I happen to have a jar that’s been waiting for just such a scene, it seems like a good time to use it. Maybe if I drink enough, I won’t shudder at the part where he swings the door wide open on a windy night, allowing ALL THE LEAVES TO BLOW INSIDE. The absolute horror! While watching Written on the Wind, I recommend drinking this Cinnamon Apple Mule.

Cinnamon Apple Mule

1 ½ oz Sugarland Shine Dynamite Cinnamon moonshine

1 oz spiced apple cider

1 oz lime juice

4 oz ginger beer

Dried lime wheel

Build drink over ice, stirring to combine. Garnish with a dried lime wheel.

It wouldn’t be a Douglas Sirk picture without stunning costumes and sets, and Written on the Wind‘s are certainly gorgeous. At one point, Robert Stack flies Lauren Bacall down to Miami on a whim and stocks her hotel room with every gown, evening bag, and cosmetic she could possibly need. I was rooting for her to marry him right then and there, morals be damned, but this classy dame made him wait another twenty-four hours. He may be an alcoholic mess, but the man has good taste. Cheers!

Classic Films

The Blue Gardenia

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image credit: The Blue Gardenia, 1953

Happy Noirvember to all who celebrate! Since most of the classic film community is spending this month watching private investigators, ragged newsmen, alcoholics, and suspicious dames, I’m getting in on the action with the terrific Tiki noir, The Blue Gardenia (Disc/Download). What makes a “Tiki Noir”, you ask? Well, when the main character drinks too many Pearl Divers and wakes up next to a dead body, I think that qualifies.

Set in 1950s Los Angeles, The Blue Gardenia incorporates the Tiki culture that was all the rage at the time by setting a pivotal scene in a South Seas restaurant at the corner of Hollywood and Vine. Switchboard operator Norah Larkin is enjoying a solo birthday when she opens a letter from her Korean soldier sweetheart, only to find she’s been dumped. Depressed, she accepts an invitation to dinner at the hippest spot in town from a man she doesn’t know. The Blue Gardenia is pretty much my dream movie bar, complete with peacock chairs, Cantonese food, and Nat King Cole on the piano. As she gets blackout drunk in the Coral Room, a lecherous Raymond Burr makes his move. He convinces her to come back to his place, attempts to have his way with her, and in all the chaos and confusion (thanks to Fritz Lang’s skilled direction and lighting), we know somebody gets knocked out, we know there’s a metal fireplace poker, but we don’t know who does what to whom. When Norah wakes up and sees her dead date, she has no idea: is she a killer, or an innocent person in the extremely wrong place at the wrong time?

The drink served at the Blue Gardenia is called a Polynesian Pearl Diver, but it doesn’t look like any Pearl Diver I’ve ever seen (see my Goonies post as example). This one has the traditional Navy Grog ice cone, and what looks like a rum floater on top. I assume Don the Beachcomber was not a technical advisor here, but it looks like a tasty concoction nonetheless. While watching The Blue Gardenia, try my interpretation of this film’s lethal cocktail, the Polynesian Pearl Diver.

Polynesian Pearl Diver

1 ½ oz gold Puerto Rican rum

½ oz Demerara rum

¾ oz Gardenia Mix*

1 oz orange juice

¾ oz lime juice

1 dash Angostura bitters

¾ oz Kraken dark spiced rum (floater)

Ice cone (garnish)

Lime wheel and cherry (garnish)

Insert an ice cone with straw into a glass and fill surrounding area with crushed ice. Set aside. Blend gold rum, Demerara rum, gardenia mix, orange juice, lime juice, and bitters with 4 oz crushed ice in a blender or drink mixer. Strain contents through a wire mesh sieve into prepared glass. Top with a floater of Kraken dark spiced rum, and add a lime wheel and cherry for garnish.

*Gardenia Mix:

1 oz honey

1 oz unsalted butter

1 tsp cinnamon syrup

½ tsp Allspice liqueur

½ tsp vanilla syrup

Put all ingredients in a bowl, and whip vigorously until smooth and creamy.

Anne Baxter seems to love this one- a little too much!

Beyond the terrific Tiki cocktail plot point, I adore this movie because parts of it are reminiscent of a Golden Girls episode. Norah lives with two other women, one a “Blanche” type going out on the town every night, the other a bookish, whipsmart “Dorothy”. I guess that makes Norah the “Rose”: dumb enough to go out with a man she hardly knows and drink a pint of rum. These girls are always there for each other, through bad dates, broken engagements, tough days at the telephone switchboard, and murder charges. Now that’s what I call being a friend. Cheers!

Classic Films · Comedies

Arsenic and Old Lace

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image: Arsenic and Old Lace, 1944

Before watching the beloved classic Arsenic and Old Lace (Disc/Download), I never would have believed any one movie could contain so many random topics such as serial killers, the Panama Canal, plastic surgery, Niagara Falls, etc. Frank Capra has made me a believer in the oddball, the screwball, and heck, even baseball! Let’s pour a drink and unpack this weird, wonderful film.

Cary Grant starts the movie at the NYC marriage license bureau, about to get hitched to the loveliest girl-next-door, Elaine. Ironically, he is also the author of a book about why men should never get married. Before Mortimer can leave town on his honeymoon, he first has to check in with his elderly aunts to share the good news. While at their home, he discovers the dead body they stashed in the window seat, still awaiting its proper burial in the basement. The aunts have been poisoning their lodgers for years, and Mortimer’s brother has been aiding and abetting, under the delusional persona of Teddy Roosevelt. He thinks all the victims died of Yellow Fever while digging the Panama Canal, which apparently runs through their Brooklyn basement. Things get weirder still when a Frankenstein look-alike shows up at the house, who turns out to be psychotic eldest brother Jonathan. He’s accompanied by plastic surgeon Dr. Einstein (the always-creepy Peter Lorre), and yet another dead body in the trunk of his car. Cary Grant is the glue that keeps this madcap story from going completely off the rails, and even though his performance is about as broad and hammy as I’ve ever seen from him, he’s the level-headed one in a family of lunatics.

My favorite part of the movie is every time Teddy makes a run up San Juan Hill, shouting, “CHARGE!!!” as he dashes up the staircase. Before he gets carted off to the Happy Dale mental asylum, let’s toast him with this appropriately named classic cocktail that’s probably a little safer than the aunts’ elderberry wine. While watching Arsenic & Old Lace, I recommend drinking a Roosevelt.

Roosevelt

1 ¾ oz dark rum

½ oz dry vermouth

¼ oz orange juice

1 barspoon simple syrup

Orange Twist

Combine dark rum, vermouth, orange juice, and simple syrup in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, then strain into a chilled coupe. Express the orange peel over the glass, then use as a garnish.

This is a perfect movie for Halloween because not only does it take place on October 31st, but there’s a delightfully spooky cemetery, a Boris Karloff look-a-like, and a lot of unexpected visitors knocking on the door. If you’re looking for more of a treat than a trick, give Arsenic and Old Lace a watch. Cheers!

Classic Films

Captain Blood

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image: Captain Blood, 1935

From the title alone, it may seem like this week’s film Captain Blood (Disc/Download) is a perfect Scary Movie watch. Turns out, this is not a tale of vampire seamen. Rather, it’s the swashbuckling adventure flick starring Errol Flynn and Olivia DeHavilland, and it’s the perfect way to celebrate the release of A Star is Scorned, the terrific Classic Hollywood-era romance from one of my favorite authors, Maureen Lee Lenker!

If you think classic film stars cosplaying the 1600s can’t be sexy, think again. Captain Blood enters the movie as Dr. Peter Blood, making him not just a Hot Pirate, but also a Hot Doctor. He gets sold into white slavery after being convicted of treason, all for the crime of treating an injured man who rebelled against the petulant, cruel King James II. As he explains so perfectly, his loyalty is to his fellow man, not his king.

Same, Dr. Capt. Blood, same.

Once his slave ship lands in the West Indies, he begins an enemies-to-lovers romance with Arabella (Olivia DeHavilland) that spans several islands and regime changes. Blood finally manages to escape his bondage when Spanish pirates attack and leave their boats unattended for a night a drunken revelry. After this, the doctor goes full-on buccaneer, amassing doubloons and flying the Jolly Roger. There are sword fights, cannon blasts, and even a peg leg or two, as his path leads him toward new enemies, and old loves.

I use blood orange cordial in a lot of drinks this time of year, and it’s a great option when fresh blood oranges are out of season. This cocktail uses rums from some of the places Capt. Blood sails to during the course of the movie, which really makes the settings come alive. While watching Captain Blood, I recommend drinking a Bloody Grog cocktail.

Bloody Grog

½ oz grenadine

½ oz blood orange cordial (I use Liber & Co.)

2 oz Jamaican pot-still rum

½ oz Overproof 151 rum

½ oz Allspice Dram

1 oz lime juice

1 dash Peychaud’s bitters

Garnish: blood orange wheel and fresh mint

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, and strain into a glass filled with fresh ice. Garnish with a blood orange wheel and fresh mint.

In Lenker’s latest novel, the main character Flynn Banks is just as dreamy as Errol Flynn, and comes complete with a trained monkey named Rallo (if you were a Marcel fan during the heyday of Friends, then you’ll be as excited as I am about this detail!). The scenes of sword fighting are super fun, and Flynn’s California beach house is giving big Mildred Pierce vibes. If you watch Captain Blood and need more classic Hollywood romance and adventure in your life, definitely give this book a read. Cheers!

Classic Films · Uncategorized

The Night of the Hunter

LizLocke2 Comments
Image credit: The Night of the Hunter, 1955

Happy Scary Movie Season to all you brave cinemagoers! I like to do a month of spooky, supernatural, and chilling features every October, and this week, we’re starting with a truly nightmarish classic film. Pull the covers all the way up to your chin and leave a light on for this week’s pick, The Night of the Hunter (Disc/Download).

In Charles Laughton’s single, brilliant directorial outing, Robert Mitchum stars as a murderous preacher who targets women in rural communities. After getting locked up and hearing his cellmate talk about some stolen money, he makes his way to the death-row inmate’s family under the guise of spiritual counsel. Shelley Winters plays yet another gullible lady taken in by a handsome face (see also: A Place in the Sun), while her two kids remain more suspicious of the charismatic preacher.  They alone hold the knowledge of where their father hid the money, and after their new stepdad disposes of their mom with a knife to the throat, they must outrun this psycho before he kills them next. The children set off down the Ohio river in an old rowboat, barely eating or sleeping as they try to stay one step ahead of Mitchum. Finally, they wash up on Lillian Gish’s property, and she takes the orphans in, protecting them as only a feisty old woman with a shotgun can do. Mitchum’s tattooed hands spell the words “Love” and “Hate”, and the movie’s suspense builds as we wait to see which one will triumph. Will it be the monster in the basement, clawing at their ankles, or will it be the strong maternal figure who walks with them in the sunlight?

The movie’s river journey is incredibly haunting, due to the scale of the woodland creatures in the foreground of the frame, and the melancholy song sung by the little girl, Pearl. This variation on a French Pearl cocktail evokes the American South through its inclusion of Herbsaint, an anise-flavored New Orleans liqueur popular in many spooky cocktails. While watching The Night of the Hunter, I recommend drinking a Pearl River.

Pearl River

2 oz Gin

¼ oz Herbsaint

¾ oz Lime Juice

¾ oz Simple Syrup

Fresh Mint

Lime and mint sprig (garnish)

Muddle a few leaves of mint with lime juice and simple syrup in the bottom of a shaker. Add Herbsaint, Gin, and ice to the shaker, and shake to chill and combine. Double strain into a coupe glass and garnish with a lime wheel and mint sprig.

The reason this film feels so powerful to me is that we all remember the feeling of being kid, and realizing the adults couldn’t always protect you. I’ve relived it again this year, as those I once turned to for comfort have fallen prey to the fearmongering, false prophecy, and grift of a dangerous charlatan. I want to scream, and cry, and ask:

“Why don’t you believe he’s hurting me?”

“Why won’t you protect me?”

“Why can’t you see through the lies?”

But the scary thing is (and this is really scary): I don’t think anyone is coming to save me. I don’t know if there’s a Lillian Gish out there, pure of heart and brave beyond measure, waiting at the end of the river. I’m starting to feel like the one of the kids in the rowboat, tired and afraid.

Classic Films · Musicals

Cabaret

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image: Cabaret, 1972

Every June, July, and August, The Paramount Theatre in Austin, TX does three months of revival programming and cranks their air conditioning down. Waaaaaaay down. Just like a rouged Joel Grey and his beautiful orchestra, my Summer Classic Film Series went out on a high note with 1972’s Cabaret (Disc/Download). A perfect finale to a season of stellar cinema, this musical masterpiece mirrors the joy and inclusivity of my favorite movie theater, as well as the frighting world outside its doors.

I’m a big fan of Bob Fosse as film director, and his trademark elements of sexy dance numbers, quick editing, and dreamy cinematography are a perfect match for this tale of the final hedonistic days of the Weimar Republic. Part of what makes Cabaret so emotionally engaging is that the audience understands what’s coming, even when the characters don’t. We know the slow creep of fascism is headed for Berlin, just as we know the days of public and private freedoms are numbered. Cabaret is proof that there have always been people who don’t conform to the traditional ideas of gender and sexuality, there have always been artists and intellectuals who push boundaries, and they will continue to exist, no matter how hard the intolerant try to erase them.

In the care of Fosse, this film often feels like a hallucination. Joel Grey floats through Berlin’s Kit Kat Klub like a nimble sprite welcoming us to the land of “anything goes”. Liza Minnelli as Sally Bowles sings her heart out, staring off into her own version of Oz, allowing the audience to feel like part of this hopeful dream. Let’s toast this magical place with a cocktail similar to one I enjoyed at the Paramount, the Poet’s Dream.

Poet’s Dream

1 oz Gin

1 oz Dry Vermouth

½ oz Bénédictine

2 dashes Orange Bitters

Lemon twist

Combine gin, vermouth, Bénédictine, and bitters in a shaker with ice. Stir to chill, then strain into a Nick & Nora glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Like its twenty-first century audience, the characters of Cabaret all seem to be hurtling toward a violent, uncertain end. We don’t know what will become of Sally, the Master of Ceremonies, and the Kit Kat Klub. We don’t know if Brian will be safe in England once the bombing starts. We don’t know if Fritz and Natalia will be sent to a concentration camp. And maybe that’s why Cabaret feels like such an essential film for these times. It’s a rallying cry to live it up while we can because nobody knows what the future holds. Cheers!

Classic Films · Comedies

Beach Blanket Bingo

LizLocke1 Comment
Image: Beach Blanket Bingo, 1965

Despite an enduring love of Gidget, 1960s swimwear, and rear projection scenes, the Frankie Avalon/Annette Funicello beach movies somehow never made it to the top of my watch list. Luckily, this cinema oversight has been corrected this week with the fifth “Beach” movie in the series, Beach Blanket Bingo (Disc/Download).

Like Ryan Gosling’s Ken, as far as I can determine, Frankie Avalon’s job in the 1960s was “beach”. What a gig! There were many gorgeous girls prancing around him in bikinis, but none as charming as Annette. She had oodles of charisma, along with an unflappable comb-over hairstyle that could survive wind, waves, and even a skydiving helmet. I love the mermaid side character in BBB, with Lorelai acting as a precursor to Daryl Hannah’s “Madison” in Splash. It’s a shame the romance between the mermaid and her beachbum lover Bonehead gets interrupted time and again with the antics of a middle-aged motorcycle gang masquerading as adolescents. Honestly, if this movie had been nothing more than mermaid rescues and drinks at the local bar with Frankie and Annette singing their hits, I would have been a happy viewer. Who needs skydiving and lame kidnapping plots when you have “beach”???

Although the sexcapades of these teenagers seem pretty chaste by today’s standards, there’s a surprising amount of double entendre and suggested nudity. We’re left to imagine what may have happened during Bonehead’s date with the mermaid, which results in the loss of her dress by the end of the night. For this reason, it seems like a great time to mix up the classic eighties resort drink, a Sex on the Beach.

Sex on the Beach

1 ½ oz Vodka

½ oz Peach Schnapps

½ oz Chambord

1 ½ oz Orange Juice

1 ½ oz Cranberry Juice

Add the vodka, peach schnapps, Chambord, and cranberry juice to a hurricane glass. Fill with ice. Top with orange juice, and garnish with a cherry and cocktail umbrella.

Like other 1960s teen movies, the cameos in this are incredible. Paul Lynde as the scheming music manager, Don Rickles as the nightclub owner, and even Buster Keaton as an aging pervert! The plot doesn’t make sense, but it doesn’t need to. As long as you’re okay with a film based entirely around shimmying teens and retro bikinis, you’ll do just fine. Cheers!

Classic Films · Dramas

The Sandpiper

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image: The Sandpiper, 1965

Summer is in full swing, which means I’m in the mood for for melodrama at the beach. Vincente Minnelli’s The Sandpiper (Disc/Download) is a perfect choice because it features two people who defined the word “drama” in the 1960s: Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

Having abandoned their spouses to hook up with one another during the filming of Cleopatra, Burton and Taylor were already a married couple by the time they made The Sandpiper. However, that didn’t stop them from capitalizing on their reputation as scandal-plagued adulterers. They were among the most photographed celebrities of the 1960s, so whether The Sandpiper was a good movie or a bad one was of no consequence; it was always going to make money. Thankfully, the film has a lot to offer, such as beautiful Big Sur scenery, Elizabeth Taylor’s enviable beach house, forbidden love, and even Charles Bronson playing a hippie sculptor. Taylor’s character of a single mom who is single by choice was a bold stance for the time period, and even though her son is included in a long list of movie children I loathe, I enjoy the film’s feminist leanings. Liz can be an artist or a mother or whatever the hell she wants to be; men are of no consequence to her ambitions.

For all you lovers of melodrama, rest assured there is a wonderfully taboo romance between this bohemian mom and the married Episcopalian priest in charge of her son’s new boarding school. Richard Burton was the quintessential “Hot Priest” before Fleabag coined the term, so let’s celebrate him with this spicy spritz perfect for summer on the California coast. While watching The Sandpiper, I recommend drinking a Hot Priest cocktail.

Hot Priest

1 Jalapeño pepper, sliced into rounds

4 oz Rosé wine

½ oz Lime juice

2 oz Sparkling Water

In the bottom of a wine glass, muddle 1 jalapeño slice (omit if you don’t want it extra-spicy). Add ice, then pour in the Rosé and lime juice. Top with sparkling water, and garnish with 2-3 jalapeno slices.

It’s hard to imagine any movie couple surpassing the unique chemistry of Liz and Dick in The Sandpiper, not only because of their physical attractiveness, but because the audience gets to feel like they’re witnessing something secret. We’re brought into their relationship for the length of two hours, and it’s gorgeous and complicated and doomed. But oh, when it was good, it was amazing. Cheers!