Category: Comedies

Comedies

Moonstruck

LizLocke2 Comments
Image credit: Moonstruck, 1987

As a writer, I try to give the people what they want. And if social media is any indication, the people want Moonstruck (Disc/Download). A movie I’ve always enjoyed, it wasn’t until a recent rewatch that I understood the power of this romantic comedy. You want positive feedback? Announce that you’re watching Moonstruck and wait for all the people to chime in to say how much they looooove Moonstruck. And they will chime in because this movie is just that delightful.

Starring Cher as a widowed Brooklyn bookkeeper who lives with her Italian-American family and is suddenly juggling the affections of two brothers, Moonstruck succeeds because of two things:

  1. The fantastic script by John Patrick Shanley
  2. Nicolas Cage

All of the actors in this are brilliant, but Cage has the most difficult role. He has to be angry, slightly unhinged, sporting a wooden hand, yet somehow sexy enough for a smart, mature woman like Cher’s character Loretta to give him the time of day. Sexy enough for the audience to give him the time of day. Spoiler: he’s all that and then some. This guy is a wounded wolf who wears his vulnerability on his sleeve, particularly when Loretta graces him with her presence at the opera. The moment she removes her coat and he thanks her for taking the time to look nice for their date, I absolutely swoon. If your partner doesn’t acknowledge you and look at you the way Ronny looks at Loretta, you’re with the wrong person.

Because Loretta comes from a big Italian family, food and wine are the backbone of so many Moonstruck scenes. For a celebratory occasion, only a little bubbly will do. I love a good spritz, particularly one that uses the Italian liqueur Amaro. You could try the Sicilian variety Averna in honor of Ronny and Johnny’s “dying” mother, or you could go authentic Brooklyn by picking up a bottle of Forthave Spirits Marseille Amaro. Either way, you’re in for a treat. While watching Moonstruck, I recommend drinking a “That’s Amaro!”

That’s Amaro!

2 oz Amaro

3 oz Prosecco

1 oz Soda Water

Lime Wheel garnish

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

Watching Moonstruck always makes me feel like I just spent the night having dinner with family. There’s a familiarity to these characters and the way they interact that transcends cultural backgrounds. I may not have grown up in a multi-generational household, and as a child most of my access to fettuccini and manicotti was through Stouffer’s, but the happiness and frustration of being with people who know you better than you know yourself is universal. As is, apparently, our love for this movie. Cheers!

Comedies

Defending Your Life

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image credit: Defending Your Life, 1991

Picture the concept: you’re dead, BUT you can eat whatever you want without gaining an ounce of weight. You like broccoli? How about smothering it in cheese sauce? Big fan of shrimp? Here’s thirty of them! Pie? We’ve got nine of those—one for every day you’re in purgatory! Defending Your Life (Disc/Download) may be a smart, poignant romantic comedy, but it’s also one of the best foodie films to come out of Hollywood. When you’re planning your Thanksgiving menu this week, be sure to make some room for this Albert Brooks classic (and wear your stretchiest pants).

I remain grateful to The Criterion Collection for introducing me to so many of Brooks’ films this year, and while I love them all, I can’t help but be disappointed that he didn’t make more. This charming, insecure, curly haired man is everything I want in a romantic hero. The chemistry between recently deceased ad exec Daniel (Brooks) and the altruistic woman he meets in the afterlife (Meryl Streep) is off-the-charts sexy, and I wish every onscreen couple would take a lesson in flirting from these two. Daniel has to prove that he’s not going to let fear run his life before he can move on to the next astral plane with Streep, and if he doesn’t, he’ll be sent back to Earth- a miserable place where people only use 3% of their brain (these days, post-pandemic, we may be down to 2%).

Although Daniel is forced to relive difficult moments from his past while “on trial”, this Judgement City waiting room really isn’t too bad. There are bowling alleys and comedy clubs and tons of all-you-can-eat buffets. And did I mention there are no such things as calories? Since this week is Thanksgiving, and this is the only week of the year in which heavy cream is sitting in my fridge, it seems like a good time to go all out with a cocktail. While watching Defending Your Life, I recommend drinking this White Rein-Carnation.

White Rein-Carnation

2oz Vodka

¾ oz Peach Schnapps

1 oz Lemon Juice

1 oz Orange Juice

1 oz Heavy Cream

1 Egg White

1 oz Soda Water

Fresh Mint and Orange Twist (Garnish)

Combine all ingredients except soda water and garnish in a shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a glass, then pour back into the shaker to “dry shake” without ice for another ten seconds, until frothy. Double strain the mixture into a chilled collins glass, and top with soda water. Garnish with fresh mint and orange twist.

One of my favorite moments is when a waiter asks Daniel if he likes pie, and with the unabashed excitement of a small child, he replies, “I love pie!” I love pie too, but fear of hastening my own death keeps me from having it every day. However, Thanksgiving is the one time of year when you’re supposed to let go of the fear and give into pleasure. Where we can have the pie, and the cheese sauce, and the cocktail with the heavy cream, cholesterol be damned. Tomorrow, the fear will creep back in, but today, we feast. Cheers!

Comedies

The Player

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image credit: The Player, 1992

With the historic 2023 Hollywood writer’s strike thankfully coming to an end, it seems fitting to watch a movie where a screenwriter comes to an “arrangement” with a Hollywood studio exec, and in effect gets the final word. Robert Altman’s The Player (Disc/Download) is a fun satire of the industry, where pitches get made on the fly, stars wander in and out of the frame, and power is fleeting. What did it take to get a movie greenlit in 1992? Apparently, Julia Roberts and a happy ending.

I always love movies and television shows where stars play a version of themselves, and The Player is chock full of cameos from people like Burt Reynolds, Cher, Jack Lemmon, and Buck Henry (just to name a few of the 60+ celebrities parading through, both major and minor). This speaks to the idea that Los Angeles is a “company town”, and even though the Classic Hollywood studio system may be long gone, there’s still a lingering hierarchy in place. Actors are close to the top of the food chain, while screenwriters are unfortunately down at the bottom. Producers and execs? They’re at the very top. Tim Robbins is fantastic as hotshot studio exec Griffin Mill, playing the role with a pitch-perfect note of smarmy insincerity. The plot transitions into a comedic noir when Griffin inadvertently murders a screenwriter he thinks has been sending him death threats (a twist straight out of the classic film posters lining his office walls), and he quickly has to pivot from a man who has everything, to a man who has everything to lose.

With so many Hollywood locations used in the filming of this, it shocked me that The Ivy wasn’t one of them. Growing up in the ’90s, I thought this restaurant behind the white picket fence was where all the big deals happened. At least, that’s what People magazine led me to believe! Altman may have skipped it, but that doesn’t mean we have to. While watching The Player, I recommend drinking The Ivy Gimlet.

The Ivy Gimlet

3 oz Vodka

1 oz Lime Juice

1 oz Simple Syrup

6-8 fresh mint leaves

Lime Wheel

Prepare glass by rubbing a lime wheel around the rim, then dip in sugar. Fill with crushed ice, then set aside. In a metal shaker, muddle mint with lime juice and simple syrup. Add vodka and a few ice cubes, and shake until chilled. Pour entire contents of shaker into prepared glass. Garnish with lime wheel and more fresh mint.

When Griffin says at one point, “I was just thinking what an interesting concept it is to eliminate the writer from the artistic process,” one wonders if today’s execs saw this film as a roadmap to where the industry might be headed next. As ludicrous as some of these pitches in The Player are, I’d give anything to see these types of original movies on offer at the local cineplex. Without existing IP, how does anything get greenlit now? The sad fact is, most of the time, it doesn’t. Movies: now, more than ever… a repackaging of something you’ve already seen before.

Classic Films · Comedies

It Happened to Jane

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image credit: It Happened to Jane, 1959

In times of uncertainty, I often ask myself—What Would Doris Do? Brought low by the summer doldrums, I recently embarked on a complete Doris Day re-watch, starting with Romance on the High Seas, ending with With Six You Get Eggroll, and covering everything in between. The hope is that her smile will make me smile. Maybe seeing her pluck and tenacity in the workplace will get me back to work. After the publication of my novel Follow the Sun, I’ve been at loose ends, not sure where I go from here. I climbed the mountain, came back down, and… now what? I just start over from scratch? Climb another mountain? Climb every mountain?

In this week’s pick It Happened to Jane (Disc/Download), Doris does just that. Her husband has died, leaving her with two small children and a lobster business to run. She has her best friend Jack Lemmon on hand to lend support, but he’s too scared to admit he harbors romantic feelings for her, and she’s too busy trying to restart her life to see what’s been right in front of her all along.  There’s a great David & Goliath storyline as Lemmon and Day battle the big bad railroad tycoon (Ernie Kovacs) whose budget cuts have resulted in a train full of rotten lobsters, and in our current era of workers facing off against greedy CEOs, the plot feels quite contemporary. As usual, Doris triumphs with her signature mix of talent, strength, and vulnerability, making us believe that everything’s going to be okay in the end. That’s why her movies and her star persona endure—because we’re all looking for that brand of hope. If she can make it through the Warner Brothers years, with terrible parts in terrible movies (ahem, Tea for Two), to get to It Happened to Jane and Pillow Talk, maybe I can make it through this weird time of having a published book on the shelf (admittedly, a book not many have heard of), coupled with a tremendous amount of anxiety about whether there will be a second one someday. If Doris Day can find love with Jack Lemmon and save her lobster business, maybe I can pull myself out of bed and write something bigger than a blog post.

Speaking of Jack Lemmon, I’m very grateful that his last name lends itself so well to citrus cocktail puns. Plus, I can always count on him to lift my spirits in much the same way Doris does. However bad my day is, however many lemons the universe has served up, Jack can turn it around. Well, Jack Lemmon and a cocktail. While watching It Happened to Jane, I recommend drinking this Lemmon-Drop.

Lemmon-Drop

2 oz Luxardo Limoncello

2 oz Vodka

1 oz Simple Syrup

1 oz Fresh Lemon Juice

Lemon twist for garnish

Combine limoncello, vodka, simple syrup, and lemon juice in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

By my calculations, I’ll be done with the Doris Day re-watch around January 2024. Hopefully by then, I’ll have absorbed her wisdom and possess a clearer idea about where I’m headed next. Maybe I’ll begin to view starting over as an exciting thing instead of a scary thing. Lord knows, Doris had to do it plenty of times both in her personal life and on the screen. In the end, she was okay. She had a great life full of laughter and dogs and bicycle rides through Beverly Hills. Those early Warner Brothers films were merely a blip in her autobiography. So for now I’ll just say, “Que sera, sera.” What will be, will be.

Classic Films · Comedies

Here Comes Mr. Jordan / Heaven Can Wait / Down to Earth

LizLockeLeave a comment

This week, I’d like to tell you a story about a really special movie that got remade over and over again. Once upon a time, there was a play called “Heaven Can Wait”. Columbia Pictures decided they wanted to turn this comedy about the afterlife into a feature-length film, but they didn’t have the rights to the title. Those were already snapped up by Twentieth Century-Fox. So they made a picture called Here Comes Mr. Jordan in 1941. Then in 1943, Fox released a movie called Heaven Can Wait (covered here on Cinema Sips), unrelated to the play, but still a comedy about the afterlife. Still with me? Okay, good. Then we skip ahead to 1978, when Warren Beatty decided to make his version for Paramount Pictures, and lucky Warren, he got to use the original play’s title Heaven Can Wait. Fast forward to 2001, when the Weitz Bros. made their version as a vehicle for Chris Rock, giving it the title Down to Earth (which was actually the name of Columbia’s 1947 sequel to Here Comes Mr. Jordan, but let’s not even go there). This week, I’m watching all three movies: Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), Heaven Can Wait (1978) and Down to Earth (2001). What is it about this story that has Hollywood reincarnating it every thirty years or so? Let’s pour a drink and find out.

The basic plot shared by all three films is that a guy on the cusp of success suddenly dies in a freak accident. When he gets to Heaven, he protests, saying his time wasn’t up yet. The angels check their records, and… yeah- he’s right! His time wasn’t up! The grim reaper made a mistake. So, they send the soul back down, but unfortunately his body has already been destroyed. That means he has to find a new body, one that hasn’t been discovered as deceased yet. The best candidate they find is a wealthy jerk, notorious for screwing over the less-fortunate. At first the soul wants nothing to do with this body, but then he sees a beautiful woman who’s been harmed by the millionaire. By taking this body, he can help her. Hilarity ensues when the millionaire suddenly turns into a kindhearted philanthropist and decides to pivot his career toward the original soul’s chosen one. In Here Comes Mr. Jordan it’s a boxer, in Heaven Can Wait it’s an NFL quarterback, and in Down to Earth it’s a comedian. The only problem is that this millionaire has a target on his back, so the original soul has to jump again into another body, after he’s already made the girl of his dreams fall in love with body #2. Will she still know him? Will destiny prevail? Can this soul have the future it was always meant to have, in whatever body it inhabits? Are the loved ones we’ve lost still out there somewhere, even though it seems impossible? These are the big questions being posed by this story, and they’re questions I personally find fascinating. It’s no wonder Hollywood does too.

In Here Comes Mr. Jordan, boxer Joe Pendleton complains about being taken out right when he was “in the pink”. Meaning, his physical form was tip-top, and exactly where it needed to be for him to win a championship. This seems like as good an excuse as any to crack open a bottle of my new favorite gin, Beefeater Pink Strawberry. I’m not normally a fan of fruity flavored spirits, but this one is something special. I love it mixed with grapefruit tonic and a splash of grapefruit juice, which actually pairs pretty well with the “Gin and Juice” scene in Down to Earth! While watching these “Heaven Can Wait” adaptations, I recommend drinking this In the Pink cocktail.

In the Pink

2 oz Beefeater Pink Strawberry Gin

4 oz Pink Grapefruit Tonic (I like Fentimans)

1 oz Grapefruit Juice

½ oz Lime Juice

Fresh Strawberry, Mint, Lime Twist for garnish

Build drink in a tumbler with ice, stirring gently to combine. Garnish with fresh mint, strawberry, and lime twist.

Research tells me this story was adapted again into a made-for-TV movie starring Tara Lipinski, but sadly Ice Angel seems to have vanished into the television ether. If I had to pick my favorite version, it’s an extremely tough choice, but I supposed I’d go with 1978’s Heaven Can Wait. The cast is a who’s who of beloved stars (Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, James Mason, Dyan Cannon, Charles Grodin, even screenwriter Buck Henry!), and the understated comedic script co-written by Elaine May speaks to me slightly more than the others. However, you really can’t go wrong with any of these movies. If you worry we’ve come to the end of the road, don’t be scared—I’m sure we’ll get another version in approximately five to ten years. Cheers!

*If you feel like going on your own movie binge, here’s a link to all three on Amazon:

Here Comes Mr. Jordan (Disc/Download)

Heaven Can Wait (Disc/Download)

Down to Earth (Disc/Download)

Action/Adventure/Heist · Comedies

Ocean’s Thirteen

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image credit: Ocean’s Thirteen, 2007

If you’re in the mood to watch a greedy, orange-tinted thug finally experience some consequences, you could certainly watch the evening news, OR you could watch the delightful finale to Soderbergh’s Ocean’s trilogy, Ocean’s Thirteen (Disc/Download). Campy and colorful with plenty of late-1960s style cues, this movie takes a lot of twists and turns but pulls it together by the end. From this crew, I’d expect nothing less.

After taking Europe by storm, Ocean’s guys head back to Las Vegas for a job that’s less about profit, and more about revenge. King of the Strip—aka King of Big Glasses—Reuben (Elliott Gould) has suffered a heart attack brought on by the evil dealings of rival casino boss Willy Bank (Al Pacino), and the group is on a mission to make sure Willy’s big opening is an epic fail. Utilizing their entire arsenal of tools (scent gags, fake noses, fake mustaches, bed bugs, food poisoning, earthquakes, loaded dice, minor explosions, slot machine-hacking, etc.), Ocean’s team pulls off both an elaborate heist and a giant f-you to Bank. It’s probably no coincidence that the film also features a labor dispute at a Mexican plastics factory because this entire trilogy has always been about redistribution of wealth. Whether it’s Terry Benedict, or The Night Fox, or Willy Bank, the common villain is a man with too much money and power who needs to be taken down a notch. Or, millions of notches.

Speaking of the plastics factory, I hate to see a perfectly good bottle of tequila sacrificed as a Molotov cocktail, when it could have been used in a real cocktail! Let’s get that gold cocktail glitter back out this week to mix up a drink that’s perfect for Bank’s gilded palace. While watching Ocean’s Thirteen, I recommend drinking a No Dice cocktail.

No Dice*

1 oz Blanco Tequila

1/4 oz Yellow Chartreuse

1/4 oz Cointreau

1 oz Lime Juice

1/2 oz Simple Syrup

1 egg white

Edible Glitter (for garnish)

Combine Tequila, Yellow Chartreuse, Cointreau, lime juice, simple syrup, and egg white in a shaker without ice. Shake well to combine, then add ice. Shake again for another 15-20 seconds, then strain into a chilled coupe glass. Dust with edible glitter.

*Adapted from a recipe in Tequila Cocktails by Brian Van Flandern

These Ocean’s movies are so satisfying because the good guys always come out on top, and they always take care of the people who helped them along the way. There are major and minor players, but each of them gets a fair cut. And the bad guys? Well, they never really suffer too much, but they’re certainly unhappy and inconvenienced by the end. I’d still count that as a win. Cheers!

Comedies

Raising Arizona

LizLocke2 Comments
Image Credit: Raising Arizona, 1987

If this unrelenting summer has you down, then pour a drink and prepare to laugh yourself silly at Raising Arizona (Disc/Download). A movie I didn’t initially “get”, it’s gotten funnier with each successive re-watch, particularly once I was lucky enough to see it on the big screen. There are some films that benefit from zero distractions and real-time audience reactions, and this screwball heist comedy is one of them.

Starring Nicolas Cage as convicted felon Hi, and Holly Hunter as his beloved wife (and booking officer) Ed, Raising Arizona is among the many Coen Brothers films with clear Preston Sturges influences. The plot follows the “ordinary man thrust into extraordinary circumstances” archetype when an infertile Hi and Ed get the harebrained idea to kidnap one of the Arizona Quintuplets and raise him as their own. This is followed by some impressive camerawork by cinematographer (and future Men In Black director) Barry Sonnenfeld in the nursery, as Hi juggles babies and tries to choose “the best one”. While I normally find babies in movies (and in life) to be pretty tedious, clever editing endears the Arizona quints to my cold heart. Plus, they give Nicolas Cage an excuse to run through a grocery store with a pack of Huggies under one arm and a pair of panty-hose compressing his Woody Woodpecker hairstyle, and for that I am truly grateful.

When the weather gets so hot that you start to feel like you live in a tin can plopped into the desert, that’s when you know it’s time to cool off with a cocktail. While watching Raising Arizona, I recommend drinking this riff on a classic, the “Hi” & Dry.

“Hi” & Dry

2 oz Whiskey

3 oz Canada Dry Ginger Ale

2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Rosemary Sprig & Dried Orange for garnish

Combine whiskey, ginger ale, and bitters in a glass filled with a large ice cube. Stir gently to combine, and garnish with a rosemary sprig and dried orange wheel.

With a memorable score that features plenty of yodeling, plus over-the-top line deliveries from Cage and Hunter, plus a mulleted Frances McDormand pushing childhood immunization (yay vaccines!), Raising Arizona has crawled its way up the ladder of my favorite Coen Brothers movies. Before you make the mistake of thinking this is just another ridiculous movie about ridiculous people, I suggest you sleep on it. Cheers!

Comedies

The Big Chill

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image credit: The Big Chill, 1983

If you ever get nostalgic for 1960s music and political ideology, then definitely check out this movie… set in the 1980s? This week, Cinema Sips is diving into The Big Chill (Disc/Download), which is unfortunately not about frozen cocktails. Rather, it’s about recapturing the joy and camaraderie of youth, and rocking out to classic Motown hits. Sign me up!

I’ll admit, when I first watched The Big Chill as a teenager, I didn’t get it. All these whiny middle-aged people having affairs and trying to make jogging a thing—not my cup of tea. But as an adult who is now squarely in the age range of these characters, I enjoy it a lot more. I don’t think you can really “get” The Big Chill until you’ve experienced grief, and/or drifted away from the friends you had in college. You have to have lost something before you can find it in this movie. Jeff Goldblum is the standout in an ensemble cast of college buddies reuniting at a funeral, and if you thought he was charismatic in Jurassic Park, you will enjoy him even more in this. They gave his character all the best lines, and the best drugs. 

This group of mourners seem to go through an awful lot of white wine, which is understandable given all the issues they’re still working out. Impotence, loneliness, infidelity, depression- pass the Sauvignon Blanc. You could certainly keep it simple with a bottle of wine, or you could mix it into something perfect for long conversations around the coffee table. While watching The Big Chill, I recommend drinking a Heard It Through the Grapevine cocktail.

Heard It Through the Grapevine

3 oz Dry White Wine

1 oz Ginger Liqueur

1 oz Lemon Juice

3 dashes Orange Bitters

2 oz Ginger Beer

Lemon/Basil Garnish

Combine wine, ginger liqueur, lemon juice, and orange bitters in a shaker with ice. Stir to combine, then strain into a glass filled with a large ice cube. Top with ginger beer, and garnish with a lemon wheel and sprig of basil.

There’s something that happens when you reach your thirties and forties, when you start losing people at a rate you never could have fathomed ten years earlier. Suddenly it’s parents, grandparents, friends, aunts, uncles, etc. The wedding circuit is replaced with the funeral circuit. We start gathering and taking stock, wondering when it will be us in that box, and what will people say about the life we’ve led? Wondering if this will be the last time we see any of these fellow mourners again. Maybe a movie about frozen cocktails would have been a little more uplifting, but The Big Chill gives me the community, and the perspective, I didn’t know I needed. Cheers!

Comedies

Pink Flamingos

LizLocke2 Comments
Image credit: Pink Flamingos, 1972

Everyone should grow up with a fun uncle; one who lets you watch and read inappropriate things, encourages you to stay up late, and treats you like an adult even if you’re still in elementary school. He might wear Birkenstocks year-round, or perhaps Hawaiian shirts, and he definitely enjoys good food, good conversation, and good movies. My fun uncle was named Len, and sadly, he left this world far too soon. Len’s film collection was unparalleled, and I recently embarked on the complicated task of organizing his Criterion titles and distributing them to good homes. For reference, Len had the entire Collection, including every spine released before his death in December 2022. Several hundred went into my personal library, so it feels appropriate to celebrate Len and his final, incredible donation to my life with one of his favorites—Pink Flamingos (Disc).

I can’t remember if I first watched John Waters’ magnum trash opus on Uncle Len’s ancient TV set, or if I rented it later in my hometown. However, I’m certain Len was the one who first clued me in to this movie’s existence. I probably asked about the Divine magnet on his fridge, and he probably countered with the story of watching Pink Flamingos at a midnight screening in the 1970s with Mink Stole in attendance. One got the feeling that Len had a personal connection to this movie, and re-watching the Criterion edition now, I can see why. It’s made for people on the fringes of society, or maybe just the ones who wanted to march to the beat of their own drums. They didn’t follow the rules, and they didn’t wait for permission. One look at Divine’s strut down a Baltimore sidewalk, and you instantly understood—this person is weird, and in this universe, “weird” is a good thing. As a teenager, I loved Pink Flamingos for its unapologetic rejection of society’s (and cinema’s) norms. In my own life, I longed for the confidence of a Maryland drag queen.

I’m not sure what Babs Johnson served at her birthday party (apart from Amyl Nitrite poppers), but given her mama’s obsession with the Egg Man, I’ll bet an egg-white cocktail would have gone over well. While watching Pink Flamingos, I recommend drinking a Special Delivery cocktail.

Special Delivery

2 oz Gin

1 oz Pineapple Juice

½ oz Lime Juice

½ oz Grenadine

Egg White

Combine all ingredients in a shaker without ice. Shake vigorously for thirty seconds, then add ice. Shake again until chilled, then strain into a coupe glass.

“Special Delivery”

“Shock cinema” isn’t normally my bag, but I have a lot of respect for directors with a unique voice. Watching a John Waters movie feels like a tiny act of rebellion in and of itself, and even as a middle-aged adult, I can’t help but worry my mom’s going to walk in, shake her head, and ban the movie from the house. Thankfully, I had an Uncle Len in my life, who told me it’s okay to be different. It’s okay to like the weird stuff. “Weird” is a good thing. Cheers!

Classic Films · Comedies

The Women

LizLocke2 Comments
Image credit: The Women, 1939

The d-i-v-o-r-c-e train chugs along this week with one of my all-time favorite classic film comedies, George Cukor’s The Women (Disc/Download)! Featuring an entirely female cast and adapted by screenwriters Anita Loos and Jane Murfin from Clare Boothe Luce’s play, this film is an incredibly clever take on the upper echelons of New York society. From the nail salon to the Reno boardinghouse, these ladies come with sharp claws, sharper tongues, and fabulous clothes. When “Gowns and Fashion Show by Adrian” appears in the opening credits, you know you’re in for a good time.

If you’re looking for a shining example of Golden Age star-power, look no further than The Women. The entire cast reads like a who’s who of the Max Factor appointment book. Frequent Cinema Sips readers know I love a soap opera, so naturally I adore this tale of unfaithful spouses and society gossip. Norma Shearer brings a tough elegance to the character of Mary, who finds herself at the center of a cheating scandal involving her husband and a perfume counter girl (Joan Crawford), but it’s the fast-talking Rosalind Russell who gets the great lines and even greater fashions. From a blouse covered in glittery eyes to headpieces that defy gravity, she’s the one to watch. Oddly, this black & white movie is interrupted by a long Technicolor fashion show sequence, which is jarring and fantastic all at the same time. I love the clothes, I just… don’t know what they’re doing there? I probably would have cut the scene in favor of more Reno time because Mary gains a terrific group of gal pals on the train to Nevada. I wanted more time with them, more lazy days on the ranch, more Marjorie Main as the salty boardinghouse owner- just more!

As Olga the loose-lipped manicurist will attest, Jungle Red is the color for nails. I decided to make a Spritz twist on the classic Jungle Bird cocktail because it’s appropriately named, appropriately colored, and good for those hot Reno days spent waiting for Buck Winston to call. While watching The Women, I recommend drinking a Jungle Cat.

Jungle Cat

1 ½ oz Campari

¾ oz Pineapple Gum Syrup

3 oz Sparkling Wine

1 oz Soda Water

Lime Slices

Combine Campari and pineapple syrup in a shaker without ice. Shake well to combine, then pour into a glass filled with ice. Top with sparkling wine and soda water, and garnish with lime slices.

I love that this movie includes several different reasons for the Reno Divorce because it shows how complicated marriages (and their dissolutions) can be. There’s the reluctant divorce, the resigned divorce, even the aborted divorce! But in the end, I don’t even care what happens to the men in their lives- I just want these women to get the good apartment, maybe get a new Adrian gown, and most of all, get revenge. Cheers!