Tag: Humphrey Bogart

Classic Films · Comedies · Holiday Films · Uncategorized

We’re No Angels

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Image: We’re No Angels, 1955

If you want to get me excited to watch a movie, all you have to do is tack on VistaVision before the opening credits. Paul Thomas Anderson has been bringing the format back into the zeitgeist with his 2025 release One Battle After Another, but there are so many classic films that benefited from its vivid colors and wide aspect ratio. One of these is the 1955 Christmas movie, We’re No Angels (Disc/Download), starring Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov, and Aldo Ray as a trio of escaped convicts on Devil’s Island.

I confess, I had to look up Devil’s Island on a map to see what kind of setting we were dealing with. Turns out, it’s solidly in what I like to call “Rum Country”, off the coast of French Guiana in the Atlantic ocean. In 1895, our three main characters escape from the island’s penal colony and take refuge in a general store. They convince the manager to let them fix the roof, with the intention of robbing him blind. But then, they get sucked into the manager’s family affairs, soon realizing they enjoy selling unnecessary junk to customers, cooking a (stolen) Christmas dinner, and menacing some evil relatives. But the true MVP of this movie is Adolphe the snake, who has no lines, but is the most integral to the plot. An honorary “fourth angel”, he’s judge, jury, and executioner all in one.

Because of the film’s tropical setting, I’m inclined to make a Tiki cocktail. There’s a great scene of a woman buying a bottle of Chartreuse for her Christmas celebration, and if you can find some these days, that’s reason enough to throw a party. While watching We’re No Angels, I recommend drinking A.C. Davidge’s 1949 classic, the Palm Breeze.

Palm Breeze

½ oz lime juice

½ oz dark Jamaican rum

½ oz white crème de cacao

¾ oz yellow Chartreuse

1 tsp grenadine

Gummy snake (suggested garnish)

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, then strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a gummy snake.

It’s fun to watch these tough guys get into the holiday spirit on a tropical island, and for that reason, I think We’re No Angels would make a great double feature with Donovan’s Reef. Just remember to keep the rum flowing and watch your wallet…  

Cheers!

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 · Dramas

Key Largo

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Key Largo
Image credit: Key Largo, 1948

Consider this my pick for a classic lockdown screening. Whether it’s a virus or a natural disaster that has you stuck inside your home, you can watch Key Largo (Disc/Download) and feel a little bit better about your current situation. One, if you’re reading this, then you probably have easy access to alcohol. Two, you’re most likely not trapped inside the house with a murderous band of gangsters. And three, air conditioning is now standard in a way it wasn’t in the ‘40s. Score one for the present day.

I’ll admit, it was a catchy yacht rock song that drove me to watch this film. Bertie Higgins’ ‘Key Largo’ always puts me in the mood for frozen drinks and a captain’s hat. Havin’ it all, like Bogie and Bacall sounds pretty great, doesn’t it? Well, after watching this film, I’m going to label the song false advertising. 1940s Key Largo does not look like a place I want to sail away to. Humphrey Bogart spends most of his time under a fresh slick of forehead sweat, as he tries to be the smart, capable hero in a hotel held hostage. Lauren Bacall is there to make heart eyes at him, which is sweet, but ultimately unhelpful. Truly, it’s only the drunken gangster’s moll (Academy Award-winner Claire Trevor) who shows any real gumption. Somebody get this lady another drink please!

Speaking of drinks, the Hotel Largo has a pretty paltry cocktail list. We’re talking scotch and… scotch. Just watching them drink it WITH NO ICE makes me hot. Let’s cool off with this Key Lime Colada.

Key Lime Colada

2 cups ice

2 ½ oz dark spiced rum

1 ½ oz Key Lime Juice (From 3 key limes)

1 ½ oz Pineapple Juice

3 oz Cream of Coconut

Combine all ingredients in a blender, and blend until smooth. Pour into a hurricane glass, and garnish with a slice of fresh lime.

Key Lime Colada

Tropical film noir is a new genre for me, and I really thought I’d miss seeing the gorgeous colors of the Florida Keys. But as the movie progressed, I started to enjoy the shadows of the palmetto leaves on the curtains, the black, menacing ocean, and the reflection of light on the bar glasses. Lockdown never looked so sexy. Cheers!

 

Classic Films

Casablanca

LizLocke1 Comment

Casablanca
Image credit: Casablanca, 1942

You Must Remember This…… No, this is not a cocktail tribute to Karina Longworth’s stellar podcast (though, that’s not a bad idea!). Rather, it’s a long-overdue post on one of the greatest romances in the history of cinema. I’m a sucker for tragic love and glamorous gin joints, so of course, Casablanca (Disc) is a perfect fit for Cinema Sips.

Starring Humphrey Bogart as a salty bar owner in 1940’s French-Morocco, Casablanca is a stirring testament to the power of cinematic storytelling during wartime.  The sets of this film remind me of an Epcot pavilion—almost too perfect to be real, but I would still move in tomorrow. To live above Rick’s Café, enjoying the piano stylings of Sam, watching expatriates wrangle visas to the United States while sipping on a cocktail or a glass of champagne—the image is so clear, I can even picture the satin dress I’d wear. Ingrid Bergman brings all the angst to this picture as the beautiful woman caught between her husband and former lover, both good men, and both hopelessly devoted to her. This is a love triangle for the ages, one that can only end in heartbreak for someone. Maybe their problems don’t amount to a “hill of beans” in their crazy world, but to me, there’s nothing insignificant about the ecstasy and agony of love.

There are so many wonderful cocktail moments in this film that it’s difficult to focus on just one. I love it when Rick’s floozy ex-girlfriend requests French ‘75s Nora Charles-style (line ‘em up!), but Bogey also does some fairly admirable sulking over a bottle. Let’s celebrate this bygone era of classy gin joints with a twist on an old favorite, the Moroccan ’75.

Moroccan ‘75

1 oz gin

½ oz lemon juice

½ oz Blood Orange syrup

½ oz Cointreau

2 oz Champagne

Combine gin, lemon juice, blood orange syrup, and Cointreau in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a coupe glass. Top with Champagne.

Moroccan 75

When I think of Casablanca, I picture champagne bottles, coupe glasses, and beautiful people using evening gowns and tuxedos to disguise their desperation. This film is an example of how perfect cinema can be, when all the elements come together in just the right way. Here’s looking at you, Hollywood— you were great once, and I think you can be again.  Cheers!