Category: Classic Films

Classic Films

A Kiss Before Dying

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Image: A Kiss Before Dying, 1956

If my beloved A Summer Place had taken a very different turn in the third act, it might have resulted in a version of this week’s Technicolor noir, A Kiss Before Dying (Disc/Download). I’m trading the windswept beaches of Pine Island for the desert vistas of Tucson to see what happens when a girl really gets in “trouble”.

Dropping us right into the melodrama, the film opens with a college student (Robert Wagner) who’s just found out his girlfriend (Joanne Woodward) is pregnant, and he is not happy about it. He promises to marry her, but secretly, he’s also checking out poison books from the library and skulking around the chemistry department. When she refuses to take the poisoned pills he gives her, he lures her to a rooftop on their wedding day. In a flash, the girlfriend goes splat, and the murderer coolly walks away. The rest of the movie is a cat-and-mouse game wherein the girlfriend’s sister starts asking questions, never realizing the man she’s begun dating is the same man who pushed her sister off a roof and made it look like a suicide. Robert Wagner is extremely good at playing a sociopath—someone akin to a charming conman from a Patricia Highsmith novel.  Except he’s no Ripley; the audience feels no sympathy for this guy.

My favorite scene in the movie occurs in the historic Pago Pago Lounge, a Tucson Tiki bar opened in 1947. I’ve seen pictures in various books, but it’s extra exciting to see it in a Hollywood production. I’m not sure what the characters have in their glasses, but I know I’ll be sipping on the bar’s eponymous drink, the Pago Pago Punch.

Pago Pago Punch

2 oz orange juice

1 ½ oz lime juice

1 ½ oz grapefruit juice

1 ½ oz honey syrup (1:1 ratio honey to water)

2 oz dark Jamaican rum

2 dashes angostura bitters

Place all ingredients in a shaker filled with plenty of crushed ice. Shake to chill, then pour entire contents unstrained into a pilsner glass. Garnish with a dried orange and swizzle stick.

Tiki bars are the perfect place to discuss murder because they usually involve dim lighting, soft music, and liquor to loosen your inhibitions. It makes sense they’d pop up in so many film noirs, and it’s always a pleasure to see these architectural touchstones of the Tiki movement come alive onscreen. A Kiss Before Dying invites us to escape into a world where bright Technicolor hides sinister plots, and the only safe place is next to a tropical fish tank, hunched over a cocktail. Cheers!

Action/Adventure/Heist · Classic Films

Hell’s Angels

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Image: Hell’s Angels, 1930

If you’ve seen Martin Scorsese’s 2004 Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator, then you’re likely somewhat familiar with this week’s pick, Hell’s Angels (Disc/Download). As a fun experiment, I decided to watch them both back-to-back, to see whether the backstage drama depicted in The Aviator resulted in a Hughes film that stands the test of time. Happily, or rather, unhappily for reasons we’ll get to later, I’m here to report it does.

The film begins with three college friends: German Karl, and two English brothers, Roy and Monte Rutledge. They think they’ve all got more carefree Oxford days ahead of them, but what none of them realize is that they’ll soon be fighting on opposite sides, both in World War I and in pursuit of the affections of a fickle young woman: a braless, flawless Jean Harlow. Roy and Monte both think they have a shot with her, but she’s only interested in having fun while she’s still alive to have it (a statement that would prove to be horribly prescient given the actress’s death from kidney failure at the age of twenty-six). Roy becomes disillusioned with love while Monte becomes disillusioned with military service, realizing too late he and his fellow fighter pilots are merely pawns for politicians and privateers. He wonders why he and his brother are putting their lives on the line in the night patrol when the people sending them to the battlefield are home safe in their beds. It’s in this skepticism of war that the movie stays current, nearly a hundred years later. I’d imagine there are a lot of military personnel and their loved ones asking this very same question right now.

I’ve been wanting to feature the Jean Harlow cocktail on Cinema Sips for a while, and Hell’s Angels is the perfect pairing because in this breakout role, Jean likes liquor, she likes men, and she’s not afraid to declare it. While watching Hell’s Angels, I recommend slipping into something more comfortable to enjoy the classic Jean Harlow cocktail.

Jean Harlow

1 ½ oz light white rum

1 ½ oz red sweet vermouth

1 dash orange bitters

Orange twist

Combine rum, vermouth, and bitters in a shaker with ice. Stir to chill, then strain into a coupe glass. Express the oils from the orange twist over the glass, then rest on the side.

Even if you think a war flick is not for you, Hell’s Angels is worth watching for its technical achievements alone. A silent film that had to be reshot for sound, it also mixes black & white footage with scenes in Multicolor processing, plus tinted frames. Not to mention the incredible (and dangerous) aerial stunts that took the lives of several pilots, and all those fluffy, precious clouds. This is a historical record of what was newly possible in cinema in the late-1920s/early-1930s, and also of what happens when one crazy guy just keeps throwing money at the problem. Cheers!

Classic Films · Dramas

Picnic

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Image: Picnic, 1955

In my professional opinion, summertime calls for fruity cocktails and shirtless classic film heartthrobs. This week’s film Picnic (Disc/Download) is full of hot people who can’t handle their passion or their liquor, and I think of it as a precursor to my other favorite movie in this hyper-specific genre, Splendor in the Grass. William Inge has always been the king of summer lust.

On first glance, the town in this movie gives me goosebumps because it looks so similar to where I spent my summers in rural Ohio. The actual location is Kansas, but it could be any Midwestern town where houses come with a big backyard, a nosy old woman or two, and a wholesome charm that makes you feel safe enough to ride a bike through the streets with no adult supervision. In Picnic, this wholesomeness contrasts with the dangerous new energy introduced by a handsome drifter (William Holden). He catches the eye of his old chum’s girlfriend (Kim Novak), and works an unmarried, old-maid school teacher (Rosalind Russell) into a drunken lather. Holden and Novak have amazing chemistry, and it makes sense why they’d both throw their lives down the drain for a chance at passion: a life without it would be no life at all.

The movie gets its title from the town’s Labor Day picnic, and what’s a picnic without a giant wall of watermelon?

This cocktail is summer in a glass, and it’s the perfect choice to cool you off when William Holden starts looking too damn hot. While watching Picnic, I recommend drinking this Watermelon Cosmo. 

Watermelon Cosmo

½ cup fresh watermelon juice

2 oz vodka

¾ oz Cointreau

½ oz lime juice

Mint sprig, fresh watermelon (garnish)

Pulse seedless watermelon cubes in a blender until you have about a cup. Strain through a fine mesh sieve, and put ½ cup strained juice in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Add vodka, Cointreau, and lime juice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a cube of fresh watermelon and a sprig of mint.

Picnic is a film that demands to be seen on the big screen, and until I get the opportunity to experience its full CinemaScope brilliance, the living room will simply have to do. No bugs, plenty of cocktails, and no chance of sunburn—my favorite kind of picnic. Cheers!

Classic Films · Comedies

Operation Petticoat

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Image: Operation Petticoat, 1959

What’s better than being trapped on a submarine with Cary Grant and Tony Curtis in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? Being trapped on a pink submarine with Cary Grant and Tony Curtis in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. This week, Blake Edwards makes military service look downright enjoyable in the 1959 romp, Operation Petticoat (Disc/Download).

We all have our favorite iterations of Cary Grant, but to me, the actor is at his best while playing a grumpy hero who is awkward around women. It’s not that he doesn’t know what to do with a woman; it’s that he doesn’t know what to do with a woman in this particular situation. It’s fun to see Cary try to squeeze past buxom actresses in the narrow, cramped hallways of a submarine, just as it’s fun to watch them wreak havoc on his calm, orderly operation. This navy commander simply wants to get through the South Pacific in one piece, but to do it, he needs every bra, girdle, and can of pink paint he can find. He also needs a man who knows how to get things, and since Morgan Freeman was unavailable, he’s stuck with playboy/petty thief Tony Curtis in dress whites.

When the crew runs out of time to cover their pink paint job with boring old grey, they act horribly embarrassed, but I think it’s fantastic. Why shouldn’t they have the prettiest sub in the fleet? While watching Operation Petticoat, I recommend drinking this boozy version of a “Pink Drink”, the Sea Tiger.

Sea Tiger

1 oz fresh lime juice

1 oz unsweetened coconut cream

2 oz pineapple juice

1 oz dragon fruit syrup

3 oz gold Puerto Rican rum

1 oz PAMA pomegranate liqueur

8 oz crushed ice

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend for five to ten seconds, then pour into a Tiki mug or glass. Garnish with a flower.

Something I love about this movie is how the female characters bring this submarine to life. Sure, it’s fun to watch Tony Curtis foil Cary Grant’s plans for a professional, by-the-book military operation, but it’s even more entertaining to watch a gaggle of pretty nurses send him into a tizzy. Turns out, pink really is his color. Cheers!

Classic Films · Musicals

Pal Joey

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Image credit: Pal Joey, 1957

I’ve never been a fan of musical theater, so you’ll have to forgive me for being late to the Rodgers & Hart party. It wasn’t until I watched Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon that I realized how many of my favorite tunes were penned by this legendary songwriting duo. In this week’s film Pal Joey (Disc/Download), we get to watch them performed by three Classic Hollywood stars at peak hotness: Frank Sinatra, Kim Novak, and Rita Hayworth.

If you enjoy showbiz musicals, then you’ll definitely enjoy this one about a scheming singer (Sinatra) who romances a wealthy widow (Hayworth) to build his dream nightclub, all while secretly falling in love with his chorus girl neighbor (Novak). Novak appears aloof before lighting up the screen in numbers like “My Funny Valentine”, while Hayworth is a haughty firecracker from start to finish. She’s supposed to be the villain in this love triangle, but I can’t help but respect the former stripper who has landed the role of respectable Nob Hill society woman, and isn’t eager to give it up. Sure, she dangles the nightclub “Chez Joey” over Sinatra’s head to get him into her bed, but one gets the sense she’s spent plenty of time being the powerless one in a relationship and enjoys having the tables turned. Sinatra’s Joey could easily come off as a spineless louse, but he’s so charismatic in these musical numbers, and in the way he teaches his dog to dunk a bagel in coffee (not good for the dog, but still quite cute), that I’m instantly charmed. I want Joey to be my pal by the end.

Much of the movie takes place in a nightclub that references San Francisco’s bygone red-light district, dubbed The Barbary Coast. I’ve been wanting to try this Prohibition-Era cocktail of the same name for a while, so let’s give it a shake. While watching Pal Joey, I recommend drinking a Barbary Coast.

Barbary Coast

1 oz scotch

½ oz gin

¾ oz white crème de cacao

¾ oz heavy cream

Grated nutmeg (garnish)

Shake liquid ingredients with ice, then strain into a chilled Nick & Nora glass. Dust with grated nutmeg.

I’ve got a trip to San Francisco coming up this summer, and now Pal Joey has me even more excited to take a cable car up those hills! I’ll be humming Rodgers & Hart’s “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered”, next to my funny valentine. Cheers!

Classic Films · Musicals

The Bamboo Blonde

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Image credit: The Bamboo Blonde, 1946

I’ve been looking for an excuse to put a terrific cocktail discovered in The Home Bar Guide to Tropical Cocktails on Cinema Sips, and a recent selection by the 2026 Turner Classic Movies Festival turned me on to the perfect pairing. Had I been able to attend the festival in person, The Bamboo Blonde (Disc/Download) would have definitely been on my watch list. But thanks to this drink, I may have had an even better experience at home!

I can always rely on the programmers at TCM to steer me toward delightful movies that don’t always get a lot of attention, and The Bamboo Blonde is the perfect example. Clocking in at just over an hour long, this film features a fun little romance between a nightclub singer (Frances Langford), and a secretly wealthy WWII bomber pilot (Ralph Edwards). In a lot of ways, it reminds me of the kind of picture Doris Day frequently made, where a (singing) woman falls in love with a man hiding his true identity from her. Langford assumes Edwards is merely a brave pilot she connected with one magical night in New York, but when she discovers he comes from a wealthy Bucks Co. family, she feels like she’ll never be good enough for him. She sabotages their relationship by performing a risqué number for the country club set, not realizing there’s nothing she could do to turn him off. He’s as smitten with the chanteuse as he is with the pin-up version painted on the side of his plane.

The Bamboo Blonde gets her stage name thanks to a bunch of horny sailors who could double as Mad Men. They come up with a catchy moniker for their new mascot, and soon the owner of her nightclub is selling every piece of branded crap he can stamp “Bamboo Blonde” onto. Let’s give her a toast with this Bamboo Splitter cocktail (from The Home Bar Guide to Tropical Cocktails).

Bamboo Splitter

1 ½ oz gin

1 oz honey syrup

½ oz Yellow Chartreuse

1 oz white grapefruit juice

3 muddled mint leaves

1 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice

Extra mint (garnish)

Muddle mint leaves in the bottom of a shaker with gin, honey syrup, Yellow Chartreuse, grapefruit and lemon juices. Add ice and shake to combine. Fill a lowball glass with fresh crushed ice, then strain drink into prepared glass. Garnish with fresh mint.

I’ll be sharing one or two more films I watched during my at-home TCM Fest this month, and though I had a fair bit of FOMO from seeing all my friends posting from Hollywood, it was admittedly great to have cocktails, food, and my dog with me through all these movies. Plus, no lines! If, like me, you’re on a budget, taking a weekend at home to watch a curated list of films is never a bad idea. Cheers!

Classic Films · Uncategorized

Dance, Girl, Dance

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Image: Dance, Girl, Dance, 1940

In an effort to watch more of trailblazing female director Dorothy Arzner’s work, I decided to check out the Lucille Ball-Maureen O’Hara showbiz farce Dance, Girl, Dance (Disc/Download). In this movie, there really is no star or stooge; only women trying to use whatever gifts they possess to get ahead in the cutthroat business of entertainment.

Even before the world fell in love with Lucy, Lucille Ball was already well on her way toward being the queen of physical comedy. As burlesque dancer Bubbles (later, Tiger Lily White), she uses her body to simultaneously turn men on and make them laugh. She has something special the other girls in her troupe don’t have, and whether you think her “oomph” should be overly valued or not is irrelevant. Society (read: men) have decided to place a high price on what Bubbles has. Even though Maureen O’Hara’s character Judy is technically more skilled, her skills don’t matter in this world where sex appeal is the currency. The same analogy could be made for all sorts of art forms (literary vs. commercial fiction, prestige drama vs. lowbrow comedy), and that’s how the movie stays relevant today. Creators either have “oomph” or they don’t, and if they don’t, they must carve out a niche where success comes from within, instead of from external validation. As someone who lacks “oomph”, I’ve learned this lesson the hard way.

A prime example of the difference between Ball and O’Hara’s characters occurs during the infamous hula scene. Their dance troupe is auditioning a for a New Jersey nightclub, and let’s just say the two women have very different interpretations of “hula”. The scene makes me want a Tiki beverage, but I can’t ignore the champagne cocktails imbibed throughout the rest of the movie. Let’s combine the two with this Tiny Bubbles cocktail!

Tiny Bubbles

1 sugar cube

6-7 drops Tiki bitters

5-6 oz champagne

Place a sugar cube in a coupe glass and soak with Tiki bitters. Top with Champagne.

Tiny Bubbles champagne cocktail

Maureen O’Hara has a great scene at the end where she finally gets fed up with a dance gig that isn’t bringing her an ounce of joy, and she tells off the leering men shouting during her performance. It’s a rare thing for a film of this time to call out misogyny and sexism, and I have to think this was Arzner’s influence. Surely this was the speech she wished she could give in person to studio heads and general audiences. Lucky for us, she put it on film so generations of women could sit back and applaud. Cheers!

Classic Films

Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image: Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, 1957

The latest issue of MovieJawn has just hit my mailbox, and praise the lord, it’s all about nuns! Inside, you’ll find my cocktail pairing for The Trouble with Angels, but here on Cinema Sips, I wanted to celebrate one of my other favorite nun pictures: Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (Disc/Download).

Thanks to its WWII South Pacific setting, this movie lends itself perfectly to a Tiki cocktail. Robert Mitchum plays Marine Corporal Allison, who washes up on a deserted island after being separated from his unit. Turns out, the island isn’t completely deserted because Sister Angela (Deborah Kerr) got there days before on a failed rescue mission. Her accompanying priest died, and now the marine and the nun are all alone. Just like Adam and Eve, as Mr. Allison drunkenly points out. There’s something about Deborah Kerr in a nun’s habit that tends to drive men wild (see also: Black Narcissus), and it doesn’t take long for Mr. Allison to fall hard. He professes his love for her, while she professes her love for Jesus. The kicker: she hasn’t even taken her final vows! She could chuck that purity ring off and get busy in the cave with Mitchum whenever she wants. I’m not religious (which perhaps makes me a biased heathen), but to me, there is no contest: I’d choose Mitchum, every time.

Watching Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison means getting swept up in all the “will they/won’t they” tension. Will Mr. Allison be this missionary’s downfall? Or will she resist? If you think it’s getting hot in that cave, better cool off with this Don the Beachcomber original, the Missionary’s Downfall.

Missionary’s Downfall

1 oz light rum

½ oz peach schnapps

½ oz fresh lime juice

1 oz honey syrup

¼ cup diced pineapple (I used frozen)

¼ cup fresh mint leaves, packed

¾ cup crushed ice

Combine all the ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth, then pour into a coupe. Top with more fresh mint.

MovieJawn Spring 2026 issue w/ Missionary’s Downfall

Shot in Technicolor with a jaunty soundtrack, this John Huston picture would make a great double feature with Father Goose. It takes a heavy topic like war and shows us it’s possible to find love, friendship, and connection amid untold atrocities. I laugh when Mitchum keeps calling Sister Angela “ma’am”, but I also clutch my heart when he risks death to steal a few cans of food from the Japanese. Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison is exactly the kind of movie I want for a Tiki pairing because there’s nothing better than a frosty cocktail and a hot man on this mid-century version of Temptation Island. Cheers!

*To find out more about MovieJawn, including subscription and Patreon options, visit: MovieJawn.com

Classic Films · horror

The Birds

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image: The Birds, 1963

I used to think my biggest fear in life was birds. The claws, the beaks, the unpredictability: all of it nightmare fodder.

Then came Birdfy.

Thanks to this incredible technological advancement, I now have a tiny camera in our backyard owl house which produces content more interesting and engaging than most of the Best Picture nominees. Have I officially entered my birding era?? One final test remains: watching Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (Disc/Download) without covering my eyes or hiding under a blanket.

Without Tippi Hedren’s iconic green suit, I might not have given The Birds a fair shot. But the Edith Head design is pure 1960s perfection, so I guess I can suffer through avian attacks in the name of fashion. Thankfully, Hedren doesn’t change her wardrobe for basically the entire movie. Don’t get me started on what kind of wacko buys a pair of lovebirds for a man she just met in a pet store, drives them sixty miles to his house on the coast, BREAKS INTO THE HOUSE to leave the birds, then decides to stay in his ex-girlfriend’s guest room without so much as a change of underwear. Like, what was the plan here??? This woman is wild. I’m not sure if her mere presence sends the local birds into a tizzy, or if it was the adorable green lovebirds (were they jealous of the flamboyance? mad about the gilded cage?), but something makes them want to commit murder. Hitchcock does a great job of building tension before each attack, starting with one bird, then two, then ten, then suddenly fifty or a hundred. They arrive faster than anyone expects, leaving the humans utterly defenseless. Tippi and her doomed green suit never stood a chance.

Brandy seems to be the liquor of choice for the shell-shocked residents of Bodega Bay, and there’s something lovely about the idea of snuggling up next to a fireplace in Northern California with a warming glass of spirits… as long as that fireplace doesn’t become an entry point for hundreds of murderous sparrows. While watching The Birds, I recommend drinking this riff on the Jungle Bird, the Bodega Bay Bird.

Bodega Bay Bird

2 oz brandy

¾ oz Campari

¾ oz simple syrup

1 oz lime juice

1 oz pineapple juice

Pineapple leaves (garnish)

Combine all ingredients except leaves in a shaker with ice. Shake well to chill, then strain into a glass filled with fresh ice. Garnish with more crushed ice on top, and pineapple leaves.

Bodega Bay Bird

I’m happy to report that my eyes remained open throughout this entire movie, even during the horrific scene where Tippi is pecked and scratched by live crows. Maybe it’s the fact that my nervous system has already been completely destroyed and desensitized after fifteen months (and counting) of American fascism, but somehow, a bunch of birds doesn’t seem that scary anymore. The owls picked a perfect time to move in. Cheers!

NOTE: If you’re a fan of physical media, I highly recommend this Alfred Hitchcock box set. It’s a great collection at a very reasonable price, and you’ll never again have to rely on the whims of tech oligarchs to watch your favorite Hitch flicks!

Classic Films · Musicals

Carmen Jones

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image: Carmen Jones, 1954

Sometimes, a movie couple is so electric, you don’t even need to hear what they’re saying in order to feel the chemistry. It happened for me this week with Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte in the Otto Preminger film Carmen Jones (Disc/Download), and although I admit to being left cold by the music and thin plot, these two actors started a five-alarm fire on that CinemaScope screen.

I’ve long been a fan of Harry Belafonte’s “Calypso” album, so don’t get me started about what a disappointment it was that his Carmen Jones singing voice was dubbed. In an alternate universe, he and Dorothy Dandridge put out a normal, non-operatic soundtrack album that matched the tone and setting of the film, and that soundtrack would have been a hit. Perhaps I need to put this movie on, turn the sound off, and crank up “Calypso” on the Hi-Fi? It certainly wouldn’t interfere with my love of the DeLuxe color costumes, or the sexy way Dandridge “untwists” Belafonte’s belt, or the way these two make even the worst flophouses look like romantic love shacks. She may not want to see this ex-fly boy cooped up, but I don’t mind it if he’s cooped up with her.

The thing I enjoy most about this movie is that it takes the French opera Carmen and plops it into the American South circa WWII. Not only is it great to see so much Black representation onscreen, but it also highlights women’s contributions to the war effort. Carmen works at a North Carolina parachute factory, so let’s toast her and Joe with this Caribbean Parachute cocktail.

Caribbean Parachute

1 1/2 oz light rum

1/2 oz Amaro Montenegro

3/4 oz lime juice

1/2 oz simple syrup

1 egg white

4 oz chilled tonic water

Add all ingredients except tonic water to a shaker. Shake vigorously until combined and frothy, then add ice. Shake again until chilled. Pour three ounces of tonic water into a Collins glass, then strain the contents of the shaker into the glass. Top with the rest of the tonic water, until the mixture foams up just past the rim of the glass. Garnish with a pineapple leaf (optional).

This is a gorgeous, fun cocktail, and perfect for those times when you’re running low on ice! I can absolutely picture Carmen drinking a few of these in that ramshackle nightclub with Husky Miller, dancing the night away in a pink dress and big gold hoops… while a Harry Belafonte album plays in the jukebox (just let me have my fantasy). Cheers!