Tag: classic film

Classic Films · Comedies

The Girl Can’t Help It

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Image: The Girl Can’t Help It, 1956

If you haven’t watched My Mom Jayne yet, STOP what you’re doing and go watch Mariska Hargitay’s stunning documentary right now!!! Then, after you’ve finished crying a river, check out one of Jayne Mansfield’s best performances in Frank Tashlin’s The Girl Can’t Help It (Disc).

Taken as a whole, the movie feels like a parody of itself. The producers knew Jayne was constantly compared to Marilyn Monroe in the press, so they got The Seven Year Itch’s Tom Ewell to play yet another schlub who miraculously catches the eye of a woman waaaaaay out of his league. The movie uses Jayne’s physique and exaggerated costumes to hilarious effect, with big chunks of ice melting as she walks down the street, and milk boiling over in the milkman’s hands. She swings those hips like Jessica Rabbit, as though her upper and lower halves aren’t even connected to the same body. Mansfield’s mob girlfriend character Jerri Jordan is reluctantly trying to break into the music business, which gives Tashlin an excuse to feature a ton of R&B artists from the time period. Acts such as Little Richard, Fats Domino, The Platters, and Eddie Cochran pop up in nightclubs and on television, and it’s wild to see the real people behind the voices I’ve come to know so well in my vinyl collection. But the greatest treat of all is Julie London, who plays “the one who got away”, appearing like a ghost to Tom Ewell’s agent character. Having owned Julie is her Name for many years, losing it, then somehow gaining it back from my deceased uncle’s estate, I feel like Julie’s ghost won’t leave me alone either.

Because boobs (and milk) are such a running gag in this movie, I had to do a cream-based drink. The cherry flavor is sweet like Jerri, and it feels like a frothy confection in a glass—a cocktail version of Jayne’s final pastel evening gown. While watching The Girl Can’t Help It, I recommend drinking a Cherry Jordan.

Cherry Jordan

1 oz Vodka

1 oz Cherry Heering

½ oz White Crème de Cacao

1 oz Heavy Cream

Maraschino cherry

Combine vodka, Cherry Heering, crème de cacao, and cream in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, then strain into a Nick & Nora glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Shot in glorious DeLuxe Color, The Girl Can’t Help It is a true feast for the eyes. The costumes and sets pop like a Powell & Pressburger picture, as if The Red Shoes had been directed by the guy who drew Looney Tunes. This movie is campy, fun, and surprisingly clever, and it’s the perfect way to celebrate a woman who was all these things, and more. Cheers!

Action/Adventure/Heist · Classic Films

Mutiny on the Bounty

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Image credit: Mutiny on the Bounty, 1935

For swashbuckling fun and a trip to Hollywood’s version of the South Seas, you can’t beat 1935’s Mutiny on the Bounty (Disc/Download). Pair it with a coconut-laced Tiki beverage and make believe you’re on the bow of a ship with the wind in your hair…or is that the hurricane gale of a revolution?

Starring Clark Gable as compassionate seaman Fletcher Christian, and Charles Laughton as corrupt bully Captain Bligh, this is a terrific adventure film full of high-stakes drama and ocean vistas. For me, the main selling point is Clark Gable in a low-cut blouse (the way it sets his shoulders off… oof), but it’s also super satisfying to watch a man with morals defeat someone rotten to the core. Christian’s mad as hell and he’s not going take it anymore!! The ultimate reward here is freedom from tyrannical dictators, and with any luck, this seaman and his blouses can retire in peace to a thatched hut and an endless supply of coconuts. Would that we all could.

Although this movie was made during the start of the Polynesian craze (both in Hollywood films as well as nearby Don the Beachcomber’s), this week’s drink hails from the 1970s. My version, while not 100% authentic, includes some of the flavors mentioned in the movie, such as Brandy and coconut, so I have to believe Donn Beach would approve. After all, it sells the fantasy! While watching Mutiny on the Bounty, I recommend drinking a classic Tradewinds cocktail.

TRADEWINDS

1 oz Black Spiced Rum

1 oz Brandy

1 oz Apricot Liqueur

1 ½ oz Coconut Cream

1 oz Lemon Juice

2 cups Crushed Ice

Combine all ingredients into a blender. Blend for about 5-10 seconds, then pour entire contents into a Pilsner glass. Garnish with a lemon wheel and inside-out cocktail umbrella to signal a strong wind!

After filming on Catalina wrapped, the sets were turned into a Tiki bar named Christian’s Hut, bringing the magic of the movie to life, one drink at a time. I like to imagine Clark Gable would have enjoyed a highball or two, while wearing one of those low-cut blouses. Cheers!

Classic Films · Comedies

Paper Moon

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Image credit: Paper Moon, 1973

If your summer plans include a road trip on a budget, then I’ve got just the movie for you. Paper Moon (Disc/Download) travels a long, hilarious path through the small towns of the American Midwest, fueled by hot dogs, whiskey, and get-rich-quick schemes. Forget baseball; grifting may as well be the national pastime of the good ole’ US-of-A.

Starring real-life father and daughter Ryan and Tatum O’Neal, Paper Moon is yet another Peter Bogdanovich classic that wouldn’t be nearly as special without the input of his ex-wife Polly Platt. Thanks to her, we have the precocious, stunningly good Tatum in the role of newly orphaned Addie, and it’s because of her performance the movie succeeds as well as it does. The way this little girl spars with her off-screen (and maybe onscreen??) dad is electric, and it’s a shame only Tatum won the Academy Award for this because Ryan turned in some amazing work too. If you like road movies set in 1930s rural America, such as O’ Brother Where Art Thou?, Sullivan’s Travels, and It Happened One Night, you’ll find a lot to love about Paper Moon. It’s a portrait of Americana, of people doing whatever they had to do to survive, yet not losing their heart along the way. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that Addie and Moses Pray (that name!!!) find their hearts, and it’s the big payoff neither of them expected.

Tatum O’Neal’s record of being the youngest competitive Oscar winner in history still stands, and if you haven’t seen pictures of this little girl in a mini tuxedo, I urge you to look it up. It’s even more remarkable that she was only eight years old when the movie began filming, especially considering she’d never acted before. She smokes cigarettes and spars with prostitutes like she’d been doing it her whole life (maybe she had… I still need to read her memoir). Anyway, let’s toast young Tatum with this Prohibition-era cocktail, the Ward 8.

Ward 8

2 oz Rye Whiskey

1/2 oz fresh-squeezed Orange Juice

1/2 oz fresh-squeezed Lemon Juice

2 tsp Grenadine

Maraschino cherries (garnish)

Shake whiskey, orange juice, lemon juice, and grenadine in a shaker with ice until chilled. Strain into a coupe or Nick & Nora glass. Garnish with cherries.

The production design, locations, and costumes of the film are all stunning, but of course they were with Polly Platt in charge. The movie is timeless because she made it so, placing it in a very specific era and place that would never show its age. To watch Paper Moon is to feel like you’re watching a movie made in the 1930s, when the scripts were sparkling, the stars were dazzling, and the road of cinema seemed to stretch on forever. Cheers!

Classic Films

Donovan’s Reef

LizLocke1 Comment
Image Credit: Donovan’s Reef, 1963

Perhaps the most pedigreed of my Tiki Month picks, this week’s film by legendary director John Ford will have you feeling like you just spent a weekend in The Enchanted Tiki Room.

At Christmas.

Does Disney do an overlay for this attraction at the holidays? If not, it’s a missed opportunity. Donovan’s Reef (Disc/Download) proves Tiki and Christmas go together like Dole Whip and rum.

Starring John Wayne, Lee Marvin, and Jack Warden as a trio of US Navy veterans who’ve emigrated to an island in French Polynesia, Donovan’s Reef gets its name from the bar owned by Wayne’s character. While it contains some nonsensical barroom brawls and unfortunate stereotyping, there’s also a thread of melodrama woven in through the character of Miss Dedham, a proper Boston woman who’s come to the island looking for her long-lost father. She’s in the dark about his philanthropic medical practice and her three half-siblings, and the complicated feeling of knowing your dad didn’t want to be a dad to you, but he did want to be a dad to these other kids (and a whole community of islanders), is a relatable sting for many folks even today. There’s a weight I didn’t expect to this “hangout movie”, even though I’d ultimately still describe it as a fun romp.

Although Donovan’s Reef is set on the fictional island of Haleakaloha, it was actually filmed on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. This seems like a great excuse to mix a cocktail I found in The Home Bar Guide to Tropical Cocktails by Tom Morgan and Kelly Reilly, the Kauai Island Jungle Sling.

Kauai Island Jungle Sling

1 oz White Rum

1 oz 12yr old Rum

¼ oz Yellow Chartreuse

¼ oz Pomegranate Liqueur

¼ oz Cointreau

½ oz Cherry Syrup

1 ½ oz Pineapple Juice

½ oz Lime Juice

Dash of Angostura Bitters

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with crushed ice. Shake to chill and combine, then pour entire contents into a tiki mug or tall glass. Garnish with fresh orchids (optional).

I might revisit this movie again over the holidays with a different cocktail (there are some cinnamon-flavored grogs and punches I’m excited to try out!), but the Kauai Island Jungle Sling is a great way to celebrate a mix of flavors coming together, just like the mix of nationalities in this movie. The church service seems extra-inclusive, as though all are welcome, no matter where they came from. What a lovely idea. Cheers!

Classic Films · Dramas

Only Angels Have Wings

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Image credit: Only Angles Have Wings, 1939

Those who follow the Cinema Sips Instagram account know I love spending Friday night with a cocktail, a pizza, and movie from my Uncle Len’s Criterion Closet. Several weeks ago, I posted about watching Only Angels Have Wings (Disc/Download) and was overwhelmed by the response I received from fans. After getting over my grievance that so many of y’all were holding out on me with your recommendation, I decided the best gift I could give to lovers of this Howard Hawks classic was a cocktail pairing.

Starring Cary Grant as the owner of an air mail service in the fictional South American port town of Barranca, Only Angels Have Wings is kind of like the TV show Wings, except you never really know if the pilots are coming back for episode 2.  The geography in this part of the world makes flying difficult, and planes are forced to travel blindly through thick banks of fog. Jean Arthur arrives on a banana boat (literally, a boat carrying bananas, not the bouncy, inflatable water activity for drunk spring breakers), and after charming a couple of the American pilots, this sunshine meets her grumpy match in the form of Cary Grant’s weathered airman Geoff. He’s got no time for flirting, and no interest in forming attachments when life is so precarious. Just ask his ex, played by a young Rita Hayworth. Of course Jean wears him down, and one bullet wound later, he’s ready to risk something even scarier than a dangerous flight: his heart.

The tropical setting of this movie lends itself nicely to a tiki-inspired cocktail, and lucky for us, Don the Beachcomber came up with an appropriately named one just a couple years after the film was made. While watching Only Angels Have Wings, I recommend drinking a Test Pilot.

Test Pilot

1 ½ oz Dark Rum

¾ oz Light Rum

½ oz Cointreau

½ oz Lime Juice

½ oz Falernum

1 dash Angostura Bitters

6 drops Pernod

Maraschino cherry (garnish)

Combine ingredients in a blender with a cup of ice. Blend for about five seconds, until the ice is crushed but not liquefied. Pour into rocks glass, add more crushed ice if needed, and garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Director Howard Hawks does a terrific job with the aerial sequences in this movie, but it’s the horrific bird strike that really had me on the edge of my seat. It’s easy to see why Only Angels Have Wings is so popular among classic film fans because not only is it great to look at, but it maintains a high level of suspense throughout. My friends in cinema, if you wanted me to fall in love with this movie, all you had to do was ask. Cheers!

Dramas

Reds

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Image credit: Reds, 1981

While working my way through Warren Beatty’s directorial filmography over the past year, one final film remained my personal Everest. Blame it on the absurdly long run time, blame it on a bad trip with Doctor Zhivago several years ago, but whatever the reason, Reds (Disc/Download) always seemed like a steep hill to climb. However, current events have finally inspired me to strap on my boots and hit play. Verdict: now is the perfect time to dive into a movie about political activism, revolutions, and why men can’t be trusted to run anything.

Starring Beatty as journalist John Reed, and Diane Keaton as his love interest and fellow writer/activist Louise Bryant, Reds is a sweeping epic about the rise and fall of the Communist movement on both the American and international stages. I won’t get into the nitty gritty of the Socialist Party, the I.W.W, or the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 because there’s just too much to wade through. What I do want to concentrate on are the relationships between the main characters and the fantastic performance by Keaton. She gives many of the film’s best speeches, particularly one in which she decries the toxic, doomed relationship between religion and politics. Her romance with Reed seems heavily founded on shared ideals rather than shared emotions, which explains why she’s able to have an affair with Eugene O’Neill (played wonderfully by Jack Nicholson). We may be expected to root for Beatty and Keaton, but in my opinion, it’s Nicholson and Keaton who have the real chemistry. Leave it to Nancy Meyers to recreate their white linen beach stroll in Something’s Gotta Give twenty years later; after all, she knows what women want.

When John Reed travels to Russia, he’s advised to try an appetizer of salted lemon. It sounds gross (particularly when paired with a raw onion!), but if he’d listened, we might have been spared the scene of Beatty’s scurvy-ridden gums. I’m not taking any chances this winter. While watching Reds, I recommend drinking a Dirty Lemon Martini.

Dirty Lemon Martini

2 oz Vodka

1 oz Dry Vermouth

1/4 oz Preserved Lemon Brine

Preserved Lemon slice (garnish)

Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice. Stir to chill, then strain into a glass. Garnish with a small sliver of preserved lemon.

Reds would have made a great limited series, and in fact I ended up splitting the movie into two nights of viewing. I complain frequently about bloated run times, but the truth is, you can’t tell the story of the Russian Revolution in two hours. I don’t even think you can tell it in three, though Warren certainly tries. Even though the events depicted here took place a century ago, that’s really not so long when you stop to think about it. Looking around at the anger, anxiety, and pessimism that I and so many others are feeling, it seems like no time has passed at all.

Action/Adventure/Heist · Classic Films

High Sierra

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Image credit: High Sierra, 1941

Ida Lupino is having a moment. An actress I’ve always enjoyed, as well as a director I’ve idolized since the first time I saw The Trouble With Angels, this trailblazing icon is finally getting her due thanks to a new biography by Alexandra Seros and a highlighted collection on the Criterion Channel. Before most of the Ida films leave the Channel at the end of this month, I’m making it my beeswax to watch as many as possible, including one of her best: High Sierra (Disc/Download).

Although this film is more often remembered as a star-making vehicle for Humphrey Bogart, Ida’s performance is equally memorable. Her character Marie starts out as the unsatisfied plaything of two inept criminals, but when Bogey enters the scene as infamous bank robber Roy Earle, she knows immediately which guy deserves her attention: the one with the brains. Pining for Earle, while he pines for a young, innocent girl with a club foot (just go with me here), Marie is the steady, loyal presence he needed all along. Although any romance with a thief on the run seems doomed, at least for a short time, this desperado forms a little family with a good woman and an even better dog.

Speaking of dogs, it’s the adorable terrier Pard who helps us realize Earle (and Bogey) are complex characters. They’re not strictly “the heavy”, but they’re not fully innocent either. A complex man deserves a complex blend of liquors, so that’s just what I’m serving up this week. While watching High Sierra, I recommend drinking a Desperado cocktail.

Desperado

1/2 oz Blanco Tequila

1/2 oz Bourbon

3/4 oz Cointreau

1/2 oz Lemon Juice

2 Dashes Angostura Bitters

2 oz Sparkling Wine

2 oz Sparkling Water

Orange Slice and Cherry (garnish)

Combine tequila, bourbon, Cointreau, lemon juice, and bitters in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, then strain into a highball glass filled with fresh ice. Top with sparkling wine and sparkling water, and stir gently. Garnish with an orange slice and cherry.

Part noir, part melodrama, part heist movie, High Sierra checks a lot of my favorite boxes. It’s definitely one I’ll be watching again and again, specifically any time I need to travel vicariously to a 1940s Sierra Nevada mountain resort. Meanwhile, I have more Ida Lupino movies to get through, classic film books to read, and a clever dog to spoil. Cheers!

Classic Films · Comedies

A New Leaf

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Image credit: A New Leaf, 1971

After a recent read of Carrie Courogen’s Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius, I’ve been working my way through all the creative breadcrumbs Miss May left throughout her time in Hollywood. Some, we’ll probably never know about until after her death. But others, like this week’s film A New Leaf (Disc/Download) are a smorgasbord of dark humor and wit, meant to be watched again and again.   

Written and directed by Elaine (her first time in the director’s chair), she also stars as botanist Henrietta Lowell, the target of broke playboy Henry (Walter Matthau) who is in search of a wealthy wife—a wife he also plans to kill, once her money becomes his. May’s Henrietta is sweet, trusting, and most importantly to Henry, the sole heiress to an immense fortune. If you like the movie Arthur, you’ll probably enjoy Matthau’s performance as a shameless snob who can’t imagine a world in which he can no longer afford lunch at Lutèce or custom-tailored suits. Yet there’s a heart under that elitist nonsense, one he doesn’t discover until he finds someone who’s even less capable of navigating the real world than he is. Henrietta has more money than she’ll ever need, but no desire or knowledge of how to manage it. And in that respect, they’re a perfect match. What one lacks, the other provides. All Henrietta needs to do is stay alive long enough for Henry to realize she’s the heart and purpose he’s been missing all these years.

Henrietta’s lack of life skills extends to the cocktail arena as well. When her suitor offers her a drink, she requests something called a Malaga Cooler, which is Mogen David kosher wine, lime juice, and soda. If you forget the recipe, it’s right there on the bottle! I’ve never had kosher wine before (it’s extra-sweet reputation precedes it), but I’m willing to give this a go. While watching A New Leaf, I recommend drinking a Malaga Cooler.

Malaga Cooler

2 oz Morgen David Wine

1 oz Lime Juice

1 oz Topo Chico sparkling water

Blackberry + Mint (garnish)

Combine wine and lime juice in a shaker with ice. Shake, and strain into a coupe glass. Top with sparkling water. Garnish with a blackberry and sprig of fresh mint.

I’m serving this up, the way they do in the movie, however if I were to make this again, I’d probably serve it over ice with a higher ratio of sparkling water. If Elaine has taught me anything, it’s that films and cocktails are never really finished. There’s always more tweaking to be done, at least until the studio sues for control, forcing you to go on the lam with the film canisters… but that’s a story for another time.  Cheers!

Classic Films

A Matter of Life and Death

LizLocke2 Comments
Image credit: A Matter of Life and Death, 1946

Following a brief hiatus over the holidays, Cinema Sips is back today with the question: what even is time? After a lackluster couple of weeks (honestly, more like fifty-two weeks) spent spinning my wheels, I’m starting to wonder if, like the main character in this week’s pick A Matter of Life and Death (Disc), I too have been visited by Conductor 71. Did the rest of the world stop in time, or did I?

If you’re shaking your head in confusion, then pause what you’re doing right now and go watch this Powell and Pressburger classic. The film features David Niven as a doomed British WWII bomber pilot who escapes a trip to the afterlife thanks to an accounting error from the great beyond and a thick English fog, plus Kim Hunter as the American radio operator who falls for him right before he bails from a burning plane without a parachute. Unfortunately, the higher ups realize their mistake and send an eighteenth century Frenchman to collect him from Earth, but Niv argues that it’s too late: he and the American girl are in love, and it’s not fair to punish her for their mistake. A trial is arranged in which he must argue the case that it’s possible for an American and an Englishman to fall in love at first sight, and while he takes a trip up the heavenly escalator to choose his defense attorney (options: Lincoln, Plato, and presumably Jesus), his mortal body is fighting a mysterious brain disorder. The film tackles a lot of big ideas, such as belief in the afterlife, immigration, xenophobia, and justice, but the biggest idea of all is that love conquers all; even death.

What makes this movie such a fantasy, even beyond its plot and themes, is the amazing Technicolor cinematography by Jack Cardiff. Switching between color for the Earthly scenes and black & white for the Other World, the result is a stunning display of visual achievement (in large thanks to the fantastic restoration efforts this film has benefited from over the years). Naturally, I took my cocktail cues from the vivid colors of Earth, as well as the frequent motif of a rose, which captures the tear of a woman terrified to lose the man she loves. While watching A Matter of Life and Death, I recommend drinking this Conductor 71 cocktail.

Conductor 71

1 1/2 oz Empress 1908 Gin

3/4 oz Cardamom Simple Syrup

3/4 oz Lemon Juice

7-8 drops Rosewater

3 oz Club Soda

Dried rose petals (garnish)

Combine gin, cardamom syrup, lemon juice, and rosewater in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, then strain into a glass filled with fresh ice. Top with club soda, and stir gently to combine. Sprinkle dried rose petals on the top.

This film may have started as a simple request from the British government to smooth over post-war relations between America and the UK, but I don’t think anyone could have predicted how profound and enduring it would turn out to be. It leaves me feeling as though I just spent a couple glorious hours in suspended animation, and now it’s time to wake up and move forward. I can’t think of a better film to watch at the start of a new year. Cheers!

Holiday Films

A Biltmore Christmas

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Image credit: A Biltmore Christmas, 2023

Time travel romance and Classic Hollywood are two surefire ways to get me interested in a story, but add a location that transports me back to a glorious summer vacation, and I’m officially hooked. I thought I couldn’t love any television holiday movie as much as I love The Spirit of Christmas, but then A Biltmore Christmas (Disc/Download) came along. At this point, it’s a tie.

Fans of the Cary Grant/Loretta Young/David Niven classic The Bishop’s Wife will probably recognize the fictional movie-within-the-movie our main character Lucy has been hired to reboot, in this case titled His Merry Wife! The lead actor in this 1940s holiday classic has Big Cary Grant Energy, and his character plays an angel sent down to earth to help his late wife find love again. Lucy doesn’t like the saccharine ending of the original film, but the studio doesn’t like the jaded tone of her new script, so they send her to the Biltmore Estate during the holiday season to find some inspiration. Once there, she tips over an hourglass and time travels to 1947, smack dab into the shooting of His Merry Wife! Masquerading as an extra, then an emissary from the studio, Lucy soon falls for actor Jack Huston (confusingly, not the Jack Huston, just… a fictional actor with the same name as a member of the Huston acting + filmmaking dynasty??). Jack doesn’t question her references to the Criterion and TCM, while Lucy’s surprisingly adept at sprinkling a few “bub”s and “old sport”s into their conversations. Unfortunately, she’s only there on a temporary Hourglass Time Travel Visa, and he’s scheduled to die in 1948. It’ll take a Christmas Miracle to work this one out!

One of the things that made my visit to North Carolina so special last summer was sampling the local products. I had the forethought to bring home a bottle of Biltmore Estate® Blanc de Noir, as well as a gin infused with rose petals grown in the Biltmore’s conservatory rose garden (from Chemist Spirits). If you’re looking to support some businesses in the hard-hit Western North Carolina region this holiday season, both companies ship! To celebrate A Biltmore Christmas, I recommend mixing up a Biltmore Sparkler.

Biltmore Sparkler

2 oz Chemist Spirits Biltmore Conservatory Rose Gin

¾ oz Lemon Juice

¾ oz Cinnamon Syrup

4 oz Biltmore Estate® Sparkling Wine

Dried lemon wheel (garnish)

Combine gin, lemon juice, and cinnamon syrup in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, then strain into a coupe glass. Top with sparkling wine, then garnish with a dried lemon wheel.

This drink is similar to a French ’75, but the addition of cinnamon syrup makes it feel particularly festive. Like Lucy, I enjoy taking a classic and putting a new twist on it! If you’re a fan of Somewhere in Time, if you’ve ever imagined what it would be like to sing a holiday duet with Cary Grant, or even if you just enjoy a super-random appearance by Star Trek’s Jonathan Frakes, give yourself the gift of A Biltmore Christmas this year. Cheers!