Tag: Beefeater Pink

Children's · Classic Films

Pollyanna

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image credit: Pollyanna, 1960

Sometimes, it can be challenging to play the “glad game”. I’ve been thinking about this recently as I approach the one-year anniversary of my novel Follow the Sun being published. I look back on those photos of my launch party and my smiling face as I finally saw my book on a shelf, and I want to go back in time and tell this person: enjoy it because this might be the only day you’ll feel like you’re “enough”. As I wrestle with my thoughts about a book that never really found its audience, and contemplate getting back on the roller coaster again, I think about what Richard Egan says in this week’s pick Pollyanna (Disc/Download): “What this girl really needs is a good shot in the arm of hope.”

In Disney’s first venture into live-action cinema, Hayley Mills plays the perpetually sunny orphan Pollyanna, who is sent to live with her rich spinster aunt Polly. In a town full of jaded, disgruntled people, this little girl is a bright light of positivity. She convinces Agnes Moorehead that it’s far too early to be picking out a coffin, she shows Adolphe Menjou that his knowledge of refracted light is actually really cool, and she helps Jane Wyman find a second chance at love with Richard Egan. With a cast like this, and a heavy dose of melodramatic music, I’m a little shocked this film was not directed by Douglas Sirk. It feels very Sirk, with a dash of Frank Capra. Just like George Bailey, Pollyanna will realize that when the chips are down, and her little white-stocking’d legs are paralyzed after a bad fall off the roof, it’s her community who’s really there for her. They are what she can be glad about, just like I’m glad for mine.

One thing I can say about Harrington (sorry, “Gladtown”) is that the residents really like their ice cream. I didn’t even know ice cream was such a thing at the turn of the century, let alone variations like Sorbet and Frappes! This week, let’s enjoy this sweet pink riff on the Strawberry Frappe, a Ladies Aid.

Ladies Aid

2 oz Beefeater Pink Gin

1 scoop Vanilla Ice Cream

3/4 oz Lemon Juice

1/4 cup Milk

3-4 Strawberries, sliced

3/4 cup crushed ice

Strawberry (garnish)

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into a glass with one large ice cube, and garnish with fresh strawberry.

I am all too aware of how many wonderful manuscripts never make it out of an agent’s slush pile, and therefore I’ll always be glad mine miraculously made it through the gauntlet of luck, timing, and craft to land with a major publisher who put so much care into the editorial and design process (not to mention the stellar audiobook version, which totally made me cry happy tears!!!). I am also glad that the wonderful people who did read Follow the Sun have reached out with their positive reactions and let me know my work meant something to them. I’m glad I still have this blog, which brings me so much joy and stress-relief week after week. I’m glad that by publishing this book, I saw my Cinema Sips community grow even more, because as it turns out, people who like to read also like movies and cocktails. I’m glad I have people in my life encouraging me to try, try again. Maybe, just maybe, I’m playing the game after all. Cheers!

Classic Films · Foreign · Musicals

The Young Girls of Rochefort

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image credit: The Young Girls of Rochefort, 1967

If you need a little cinema help to fight the grey skies of winter, then you’ll definitely want to check out this week’s pick, the 1967 French musical The Young Girls of Rochefort (Disc/Download). With a color palette straight out of my fantasies (so much pink!!!!!), fun choreography, and even the inclusion of classic Hollywood musical star Gene Kelly, this confection of a movie will have you longing for French fries, cocktails, and candy-colored days in France.

Starring real-life sisters Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac as singing twins Delphine and Solange, Jacques Demy’s follow-up to The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is the perfect antidote to that bittersweet tragedy. These girls are fun, carefree, and want nothing more than to go to Paris, fall in love, and pursue their artistic ambitions. Delphine wants to be a dancer, Solange a composer, and unfortunately Rochefort is just too small of a pond. They can’t spend all their days in caftans, gazing out the windows of their pink apartment, lamenting their boredom.  They’ve got to put on matching hats and dresses and get out into the big, bright world! Luckily, Gene Kelly arrives, ready to make Solange’s dreams come true, while Delphine pines for a painter she’s never actually met. Truthfully, this film is full of near misses, right up to the very end. It keeps me yearning for that happy ending, almost as much as I yearn for their wardrobes. And boy, do I yearn.

One of the highlights of this movie, for me, is the twins’ mother’s French fry stand. It sits in the center of the town square, designed with gorgeous Mid-Century Modern details, and by all appearances seems to serve nothing but French fries, coffee, and cocktails. If someone gave me an unlimited amount of money and told me to go make whatever I wanted in the world, I would build an exact replica of this French fry stand. My city would cheer, and I’d be a hero. Unfortunately, I do not have an unlimited budget, so I’ll have to settle for frozen fries and this Gemini Gimlet in my “nice, but not Young Girls of Rochefort Girls nice” Mid-Century Modern home.

Gemini Gimlet

2 oz Pink Gin

1 oz Elderflower Liqueur

½ oz Lime Juice

½ oz Simple Syrup

Lemon Twist

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a twist of lemon.

You could certainly make this drink with your favorite clear gin, but I think Beefeater’s Pink Strawberry gin gives it a little more of a Demy flair. I could absolutely picture Delphine sipping one of these at an outdoor table while she fends off the advances of traveling carnies and speculates about the town serial killer. Besides, if you’re the kind of person who dreams, wouldn’t you rather do it in color? Cheers!

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)