Tag: classic film

Action/Adventure/Heist · Classic Films

Hell’s Angels

LizLockeLeave a comment
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

LizLockeLeave a comment
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 · Musicals

The Bamboo Blonde

LizLockeLeave a comment
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

LizLockeLeave a comment
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 · Comedies

My Man Godfrey

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image: My Man Godfrey, 1936

I don’t know about you, but I could really use a Godfrey: a charming, steadying presence who brings me breakfast in the morning, makes me cocktails at night, does the dishes, and generally takes care of all life’s pesky details so I can focus on being fabulous. Because I’m not wealthy enough to afford a real-life Godfrey, I must make do with the fictional one in My Man Godfrey (Disc/Download).

As one of the most iconic screwball comedies of the 1930s, My Man Godfrey plays the grumpy/sunshine romance trope to perfection. William Powell stars as Godfrey, a “forgotten man” (read: homeless) who is plucked off an East River garbage dump as part of a gross high-society scavenger hunt. At first he resists the idea of going to a fancy soiree at the Ritz as someone’s “prize”, but then, when he realizes he could ensure the ditsy, pretty Irene Bullock (Carole Lombard) triumphs over her awful sister Cornelia, he relents. It’s an opportunity to tell off the 1%, but it’s also a chance to help a stranger. And Godfrey, it turns out, thrives on being helpful. After winning the trophy, Irene hires him to be the new Bullock family butler, a task not for the sensitive or soft. Godfrey runs the gauntlet of spoiled, hysterical women, and manages to come out the other side with his dignity intact. What the women who order him around don’t realize, however, is that Godfrey is one of them! He’s secretly a wealthy trust-fund baby who’s already rejected the life of the rich and idle. And this is how Godfrey stays one step ahead of everyone throughout the whole movie—he knows their game, and he’s already won it.

A great butler is one who anticipates your every need before it even enters your head. Morning coffee? Check. Stock tips? Check. Scathing comeback for your bitchy sister? Check. Let’s toast Godfrey with this Prohibition-era cocktail that’s perfect for a man born to serve, the Leave It to Me.

Leave It to Me

1 ½ oz gin

1 tsp raspberry syrup

1 tsp lemon juice

¼ tsp maraschino liqueur

Fresh raspberry (garnish)

Combine gin, raspberry syrup, lemon juice, and maraschino liqueur in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, then strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a fresh raspberry.

After Godfrey leaves the Bullock family, he opens a swinging nightclub called The Dump. Not only does it give jobs to other “forgotten men”, but it also provides housing for them! Now that’s what I call true service (and possibly, the greatest name for a bar, ever). Cheers!

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

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 · 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!