Tag: Elsa Lanchester

Classic Films · Comedies

Blackbeard’s Ghost

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image: Blackbeard’s Ghost, 1968

Leave it to Walt Disney to predict the pirate Tiki bar craze way back in the 1960s. Sixty years later, Polynesian carvings and Japanese fishing lanterns are out; cobwebs and Jolly Rogers are in. Let’s lean into the swashbuckling trend with this week’s pick Blackbeard’s Ghost (Disc/Download).

Starring Peter Ustinov as the cursed pirate Blackbeard, and Dean Jones as the only person who can see his spirit in a haunted New England inn, Blackbeard’s Ghost was the last live action film Walt Disney personally oversaw before his death in 1966. I love that Dean Jones is paired again with Suzanne Pleshette (the two having previously worked together on another favorite The Ugly Dachshund), and even Elsa “The Bride” Lanchester appears as an elderly spinster trying to save the struggling inn. Beyond the stacked cast, the fantastic production design features a hotel made out of cobbled-together pirate ships, and it makes me wonder if the folks behind the Magic Kingdom’s Beak and Barrel lounge looked to this classic film when designing the space. Who wouldn’t want to drink rum with a bawdy pirate ghost before hitting up the Jungle Cruise?

As the characters of this movie quickly discover, if you can’t stop Captain Blackbeard’s morally and legally questionable hijinks, you may as well join him. To me, this means drinking all the rum via a Tiki cocktail that is perfectly pirate-themed and incredibly potent. While watching Blackbeard’s Ghost, I recommend making a Skull & Bones.

Skull & Bones

1 ½ oz 151-proof demerara rum

½ oz aged gold rum

¾ oz lime juice

½ oz passion fruit syrup

½ oz grenadine

6 drops Pernod

1 dash Angostura bitters

1 cup crushed ice

Pineapple leaf and cherry (garnish)

Combine liquid ingredients in a blender with ice. Blend at high speed for about five seconds. Pour into a mug or glass. Add more crushed ice to fill, and garnish with a pineapple leaf and cherry.

Blackbeard’s Ghost is such a fun movie, and it’s a great choice if you want to escape into a world of non-frightening spirits, witches, and fortune tellers. Cheers to making it through another October, and to all the cinematic ghosts that kept us laughing and imbibing.

Classic Films · horror

The Bride of Frankenstein

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image: The Bride of Frankenstein, 1935

Well, it’s here: my least favorite movie season. October is always a fraught time for someone who doesn’t like horror, and I often have difficulty finding seasonal movies that won’t keep me up at night. If you’re in a similar situation, don’t fret—I’ve found some delightful spooky flicks that are far more campy than creepy. Kicking things off is the James Whale 1935 classic, The Bride of Frankenstein (Disc/Download).

I came to this film thanks to a recent episode I recorded for Hollywood Kitchen about Elsa Lanchester. Playing both Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and The Bride, Lanchester is the perfect bookend to this story about a creature looking for a mate. As Frankenstein’s monster lumbers about the countryside, evading angry villagers, enacting revenge on the ones who hurt and betrayed him in the first movie, he is also searching for connection. He finds it in the form of a blind hermit who invites him in for a drink, a smoke, and a meal. Turns out, the Monster likes to party! He realizes he needs a more permanent companion and eventually partners with the evil Dr. Pretorious, who has his own plans to create new life. Dr. Frankenstein gets roped in once again, like an aging cop who’s “gettin’ too old for this shit”, and together, they rig up the lightning bolt lab to bring life to a mishmash of artificial organs and cadaver parts. The result? A bandaged Elsa Lanchester emerging off the operating room table, all wild hair and angry hissing. As all those Las Vegas Bride-themed slot machines now proclaim: she’s alive!!!!!

I enjoy this sequel even more than the 1931 original Frankenstein, mainly because it deals with the complexities of connection. The Monster doesn’t want to be alone anymore, but what is the true cost of a relationship? While watching The Bride of Frankenstein, I recommend drinking this Date with Death.

Date with Death

2 oz gin

1 oz lemon juice

1 oz Medjool date syrup

2 dashes walnut bitters

Dash of egg white

Combine gin, lemon juice, date syrup, bitters, and egg white in a shaker. Shake vigorously for about thirty seconds, then add ice. Shake for another thirty seconds, then strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a twist of lemon.

This cocktail is inspired by Elsa Lanchester’s Date Torte recipe, as prepared for Hollywood Kitchen. It combines all the flavors from the dessert, plus a splash of Pretorious’s favorite tipple: gin. As the Monster proclaims, “Drink… goooood!” Cheers, to a new world of gods and monsters.