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Romeo and Juliet

Posted on May 29, 2023 by LizLocke
Image credit: Romeo and Juliet, 1968

Picture the scene: it’s the mid-90s, you’re in middle school English class, and the teacher has just wheeled in the bulky cart with the huge TV and VCR. She fiddles with the input, frantically pressing buttons, until finally, miraculously, that swooping Nino Rota score fills the air. Lord, was there anything better than a movie day in school?? Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet (Disc/Download) will always be a fond English class memory for me, even though I happened to watch it the same year Baz Luhrmann’s fantastic fever dream came out. I love both versions, but if you’re looking for true authenticity of time period and setting, you can’t beat this 1960s classic.

Starring Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey as our titular star-cross’d lovers, this adaptation is like a sumptuous trip to Renaissance Italy. Shot on location in Tuscan villages, watching it makes you feel like you just stepped into a Botticelli painting. The costumes are incredible, with expertly tailored velvets, brocades, and silks, in addition to sculptural headpieces and masks at the Capulet ball. I also love the “cat-like” hat Michael York wears as Tybalt “Prince of Cats”, in addition to the mere casting of York, who’s always struck me as having a particularly feline face. It’s the visual details that make this movie special, in addition to the theme popularized by Mancini. When that tenor comes out to sing “A Time for Us”, I still get goosebumps. Sure, Luhrmann’s version made the text more accessible to modern audiences, but there’s something to be said for watching this production of Shakespeare’s play the way he probably envisioned it while writing. In fair Verona, where he laid his scene.

Speaking of Verona, I decided to make a cocktail of the same name because it fits quite well with the tone of this movie. Strong, a little sweet, and perfect for sipping slowly. While watching Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet, I recommend drinking a Verona cocktail.

Verona

2 oz Gin

1 oz Amaretto

1/2 oz Sweet Vermouth

1/4 tsp Lemon Juice

Orange slice for garnish

Combine gin, amaretto, sweet vermouth, and lemon juice in a mixing tin with ice. Stir until chilled, then strain into an old-fashioned glass filled with one large ice cube. Garnish with an orange slice.

I love that Zeffirelli cast relatively unknown actors for these roles, and I’m not going to lie- my Jordan Catalano-loving heart definitely swooned over Leonard Whiting the first time I saw him, with his tights and eyelashes-for-days. This movie has a timeless quality to it because these actors will always be impossibly gorgeous, the sets and costumes will always look authentic, and the words of Shakespeare will always be immortal. I’m forever grateful for those English class “movie days”, and only hope that future generations get to experience the thrill of a good adaptation like I did. Cheers!

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A New Kind of Love

Posted on May 22, 2023 by LizLocke
Image credit: A New Kind of Love, 1963

It’s such a delight when, after nearly forty years on this planet, and thousands of movies watched, you find a new-to-you classic that features everything you happen to adore. A New Kind of Love (Disc/Download) was a delightful discovery for me this week, for it contains literally all my favorites: 1960s fashion, gorgeous people jetting off to Europe, copious amounts of alcohol, witty dialogue, and Thelma Ritter.

Starring Paul Newman as a womanizing reporter and Joanne Woodward as a “tomboy” department store buyer who makes her living knocking off the top couturiers, this delightful comedy skewers the business of high fashion while still celebrating its glamour. This movie must have been an absolute ball for costume designer Edith Head, particularly in the scene where designer looks are translated into burlesque costumes. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen Paul Newman slowly unraveling a pearl onesie off a stripper. The plot is a little less progressive than I’d like (Woodward feels she has to doll herself up at the Elizabeth Arden salon in order to attract a man, Paul Newman mistakes the “new-and-improved” version for a high-class prostitute, chaos ensues…), but it’s still fun to watch this madly-in-love couple pretend that they’re not madly-in-love for a couple of hours. We know what’s behind all those winks and smirks.

As part of Woodward’s glow-up, she takes part in the St. Catherine’s Day celebration where unwed maidens parade through the streets of Paris. Let’s join in this party (it actually looks like a lot of fun!) with my sparkling version of the classic Maiden’s Prayer cocktail, featuring a splash of pink champagne. Zsa Zsa would approve!

Maiden’s Prayer

1 oz Gin

½ oz Cointreau

½ oz Orange Juice

¼ oz Lemon Juice

2 oz Pink Champagne

Orange Twist

Combine gin, Cointreau, orange, and lemon juices in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a coupe glass. Top with pink champagne, and a twist of orange.

The true MVP of this movie (and pretty much every movie on her resume) is Thelma Ritter. All this woman wants is to eat some onion soup with the boss she’s had a crush on for years, in a dress that doesn’t cut off her oxygen supply. She shouldn’t have to rely on sponge rubber to get the job done—Thelma is fabulous in any city, in any decade, in any outfit. Cheers! 

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Come September

Posted on May 16, 2023 by LizLocke
Image credit: Come September, 1961

If you’re looking for a 1960s romp through Italy, look no further than the Rock Hudson/Gina Lollobrigida classic Come September (Disc/Download). It may be about thirty minutes too long, it may operate on a premise that makes no sense, but in terms of adorable dresses, catchy songs, and Rock looking quite dashing on a Vespa, this is a fun cinema vacation.

In Come September, Rock plays a wealthy businessman who decides to visit his Ligurian coast mansion in September. However, he soon discovers that his butler (Walter Slezak) has secretly turned his house into a hotel during the off-season. Rock arrives to find it full of teenage girls, including the always-delightful Sandra Dee. Rather than kick them out, he… lets them stay? I’m still not sure why, other than to give us lots of “grumpy Rock” scenes, followed by “stern father-figure Rock” scenes, but nevertheless, it’s Rock with a house full of ladies. Then his Italian lover (Gina Lollobrigida) shows up for a roll in the hay, but somehow, she’s stuck rooming with Sandra Dee and subject to bed checks by the girls’ chaperone. Again, no idea why. Bobby Darin then arrives with a car full of guys (including a very young Joel Gray), but Rock makes them sleep on the front lawn in a tent. If you haven’t figured it out yet, this movie is bonkers, but somehow, it works.

There’s one memorable scene where Rock drinks Bobby Darin’s crew under the table, and brandy is the weapon of choice. Let’s pretend we’re sipping a cocktail on the veranda of his mansion, watching the chaos unfold. While viewing Come September, I recommend drinking an Italian Stinger.

Italian Stinger

1 ½ oz Brandy

1 ½ oz Galliano

Orange Twist

Combine brandy and Galliano in a glass filled with ice, stirring gently to combine. Top with a twist of orange.

This would be the movie that introduced Bobby Darin to Sandra Dee, and after marrying in real life, they would go on to make two more equally delightful sixties rom-coms together. Now that’s the kind of “Multiplication” I can get behind. Cheers!

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Blow-up

Posted on May 8, 2023 by LizLocke
Image credit: Blow-up, 1966

In my 1960s-set novel Follow the Sun, there’s one movie that gets mentioned more than any other: Antonioni’s Blow-up (Disc/Download). This is no accident. For a book that celebrates the style, fashion, photography, and sexual freedoms of the era, this film captures those themes better than any other. It’s a movie about looking without seeing, and one that feels as revelatory now as it probably did then. Movies, and audiences, would never be the same again.

Like an art-house Hitchcock film, Blow-up follows a successful London photographer who inadvertently witnesses a murder in the park, capturing the minutes just before and after the crime with his camera lens. Thomas (David Hemmings) thinks he’s photographing two people in the midst of an afternoon tryst, but after the woman (Vanessa Redgrave) harasses him and then tries to seduce him to get the film back, and a strange man is seen walking around his car, he gets suspicious. Blowing up the negatives, he begins to see what his eyes failed to register in the moment: there was another person there; a person with a gun. After that, Thomas starts to unravel. He doesn’t know what to do with this information, or if it’s even real. He may be witness to a potential murder, but London is still swingin’ all around him. Pencil-thin models are parading around in their colorful, sculptural clothes, Jeff Beck is smashing his guitar, and Jane Birkin shows up for an audition and a three-way tryst amid his purple seamless backdrop. The scenes of Thomas examining his photos are such a contrast to the debauchery of the rest of the film that it creates an incredible tension. Only by standing still can he (and we) start to see what was right in front of him.

Purple is such a prominent color in this movie that I naturally had to make a purple cocktail. This drink is made with one of my favorite British botanical gins (Plymouth), along with violet liqueur to give it a nice coloring. You could also use Empress 1908 Gin if you want to go full purple. While watching Blow-up, I recommend drinking an Aperture cocktail.

Aperture

2 oz Plymouth Gin

1/2 oz Velvet Falernum

1/2 oz Creme de Violette

3/4 oz Pink Lemon Juice

Lemon Twist (for garnish)

Mint (for garnish)

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

If you appreciate sixties fashion, then you’ll love this film as much as I do. Watching Verushka slide across the screen in her slinky sequined black dress that leaves almost nothing to the imagination captures the sexual freedom of the era every bit as much as later scenes that were much more explicit in nature. When I decided to make one of my Follow the Sun characters a minor player in this cinematic masterpiece, it was done with reverence for both the film and the beautiful women populating it. Part of the fun of writing a book set in another time period is imagining what it was like to exist in that era. Blow-up, with its mod clothes, strange, dreamlike plot, and haunting jazz score by Herbie Hancock, is a movie that lets the imagination run wild. Cheers!

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Hairspray

Posted on May 1, 2023 by LizLocke

Image credit: Hairspray, 1988

There have been several iterations of John Waters’ tale of racial integration in 1960s Baltimore, but this week I feel like watching the most “Divine” one of them all. That’s right, we’re going back to the original (Disc/Download) in order to learn how to tease our hair, do The Bird, and tell our racist elders to take a hike.

Starring Ricki Lake as iconic plus-sized heroine Tracy Turnblad, Hairspray is one of the many movies of my childhood that got me interested in the sixties. The dresses, the bouffants, the music—I loved it all. As a kid, I was intrigued by the concept of ironing one’s hair (like literally ironing it on a board!), and the confusing ritual of teenagers watching other teenagers dance live on TV. I suppose the concept mostly died out with MTV’s The Grind, but maybe it continues on YouTube? Someone under the age of 35 will have to investigate. For now, I enjoy the retro charm of Tracy and Link on the Corny Collins show, her fashion makeover at the Hefty Hideaway, and the greatest stage mom of them all, Edna Turnblad.

If there’s one thing Mr. Pinky knows how to do, it’s create a haven for full-figured gals. I wish this shop existed in real life- with the same dresses!! Let’s celebrate this dream retail destination with a pastel Pinky’s Margarita.

Pinky’s Margarita

2 oz Silver Tequila

1 oz Cointreau

3/4 oz Lime Juice

3/4 oz Cranberry Juice

Lime Wedge for garnish

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a glass filled with fresh ice. Garnish with a lime wedge. (Optional: Salt Rim)

This movie makes me nostalgic for one of my all-time favorite shows, American Dreams. It was cancelled too early, but the memories of this gloriously soapy, fictionalized version of Dick Clark’s American Bandstand remain. As we’re celebrating all things 1960s this summer with the release of my upcoming novel Follow the Sun, make a little space for Tracy and her gravity-defying hair. Cheers!

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A Room With a View

Posted on April 24, 2023 by LizLocke
Image credit: A Room With a View, 1985

Spring has sprung, my orchid is blooming, and you know what that means—it’s time to watch a gorgeous movie about travel. I get the itch to watch beautiful people gallivant through Europe around the same time every year, and while this normally takes the form of yet another Talented Mr. Ripley viewing, this week I decided to abandon Mongibello to venture up the coast and inland to Firenze. A Room With a View (Disc/Download) is a Merchant Ivory masterpiece that will have you longing for sun-soaked days staring at the Duomo and passionate kisses among the flowers.

Like Helena Bonham Carter as Lucy Honeychurch, I was nineteen the summer I lived in Florence, Italy. I still remember laying on my lumpy twin bed in a tiny, rented flat, reading E.M. Forster’s classic novel, swatting mosquitos and waiting for my George to appear. My view was not of the Arno, but of terracotta rooftops and other peoples’ laundry. Still, at the time it felt romantic.  The thing I loved about the book then, and still love about the movie now, is how it portrays the emotions of frustration, desire, and indecision. Lucy wants to rebel against the life prescribed for her, but she doesn’t have the faintest idea how to do that, or what she wants as an alternative. Then somebody comes along to shake things up, providing the catalyst for the fire inside her. I love angsty stories about women in their late-teens/early-twenties because it’s such a fraught but important time. This is when the big decisions get made, when the forks in the road appear. I love the direction this story eventually takes because although Lucy does choose one of her suitors, she chooses herself first. Isn’t that how every great love story should begin?

If you’re looking for a cinema vacation, this film provides a perfect one. From crowded Florentine squares, to the rolling hills of Fiesole, to the bucolic villages of England, this whole movie is a sun-dappled work of art. However, my favorite scenes are the ones set in Florence, which is why I’m pouring a refreshing spritz cocktail, perfect for sipping on a balcony of the Pensione Bertolini. While watching A Room With a View, I recommend drinking this Elderflower Spritz.

Elderflower Spritz

½ oz St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur

Fresh Mint

4 oz Prosecco

2 oz Club Soda

Muddle mint with St. Germain in the bottom of a glass. Let it sit for a few minutes, then add ice. Top with Prosecco and club soda, stirring gently to combine.

Speaking of elder, Maggie Smith does a terrific job in this as Lucy’s spinster-cousin and chaperone Charlotte, and I adore Judi Dench as the saucy romance novelist they meet in Italy. A Room With a View is a movie world to get lost in, and that feels pretty good right now. Summer, and all its adventures, will be here before we know it. Cheers!

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The Nice Guys

Posted on April 17, 2023 by LizLocke
Image credit: The Nice Guys, 2016

If you like the comedy of The Big Lebowski, the 1970s So-Cal production design of Inherent Vice, and the heat between Russell Crowe and Kim Basinger in L.A. Confidential, then you’ll adore The Nice Guys (Disc/Download) as much as I do. A movie that made it onto my Top 5 List several years ago, it’s only gotten funnier and better with age.

Starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe as private investigators in Los Angeles circa 1977, this Shane Black film is the neo-noir buddy cop movie I never knew I needed. Gosling and Crowe are hilarious together, and though the plot meanders (as it does in most noirs), the chemistry between these two makes you want to keep watching. March and Healy are on a quest to investigate the death of porn star activist Misty Mountains, which takes them from rollicking sex-fueled parties in the Hollywood Hills, to a fabulous airport hotel bar (sign me up for a drink at the Flight Deck!), to an auto show full of Detroit’s finest land sharks. The period details in this film are fantastic, and you can almost taste the smog and polyester through the screen. This isn’t Bogey’s LA, or even The Dude’s—this city belongs to a couple of guys just trying to do right by the little old ladies and teen girls who need their help.

There’s nothing like a car crash in the first five minutes to pull me into a story, and this one has a doozy. As Misty lays sprawled over the crash site, boobs akimbo, gasping, “How do you like my car, big boy?” the tone is officially set. Let’s celebrate this stellar opening with a Scotch Mist cocktail.

Scotch Mist

½ cup Crushed Ice

2 oz Scotch

Lemon twist

Pack the ice into a glass, and pour the scotch over the ice. Twist a lemon peel across the top, then drop in.

Classic film fans will probably recognize this as Lauren Bacall’s drink of choice in 1946’s The Big Sleep, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyed in the 1970s. After all, strong cocktails and private dicks are two things that’ll never go out of style on the big screen. Cheers!

P.S.- if you’re looking for more Film Noir cocktail pairings, be sure to order a copy of Eddie Muller’s fantastic book, Noir Bar!

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Apollo 13

Posted on April 3, 2023 by LizLocke
Image credit: Apollo 13, 1995

If you’ve been looking for an excuse to use up that jar of Tang you’ve had sitting in the back of your pantry, then today’s your lucky day because Cinema Sips is headed to the moon with Apollo 13 (Disc/Download)!  Part disaster flick, part character drama, part ode to late 1960s patterned wallpaper, this movie is about working the problem, one roll of duct tape at a time.

I remember watching this as a tween, right around the time that our school took a field trip to the National Air and Space Museum. Very quickly, I became obsessed with all things astronaut. The freeze-dried ice cream! The Corvette Stingrays! The crew cuts! The tape decks populated by Norman Greenbaum and Jefferson Airplane! What a time to be alive. Modern spaceflight feels almost dull; a status symbol for aging bald men and their billions of dollars. But back in the sixties, it was brave test pilots up above the atmosphere, trying to stay alive in broken down hunks of metal with heat shields held on by an old belt. The Apollo 13 disaster will always be a riveting story because it’s about humans trying to stay alive under impossible conditions. Everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong, but somehow, this ship made it home. We didn’t have the internet, we didn’t have fancy gadgets, and back then, computers took up an entire room. But we didn’t need any of that- all it took was good old engineering and a whole lot of courage.

Although it existed before the Gemini missions, Tang became popular after it was marketed as the astronaut’s drink-of-choice. A powdered mix, it gave a semblance of orange juice up in space where supplies (and fresh produce stands) were limited. I think it works quite well in a margarita, so while you’re watching Apollo 13, I recommend drinking a Moonshot Margarita.

Moonshot Margarita

2 oz Reposado Tequila

1 oz Cointreau

1 oz Lime Juice

1 Tsp Tang

Orange garnish

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, then strain into a glass filled with ice. Garnish with a dehydrated orange.

The cast of this movie is great, and it certainly cemented Tom Hanks as the actor you’d most like to have with you in a crisis. But for me, the unsung hero of Apollo 13 is Bill Paxton as Fred Haise. Suffering from a UTI, eating frozen hot dogs, listening to his Hank Williams tape slowly die—you really feel the misery of space travel through his performance. I shall think of him every time I gaze upon the constellation Urinus. Cheers!

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Now, Voyager

Posted on March 20, 2023 by LizLocke
Image credit: Now, Voyager 1942

Bette Davis, plus a cruise ship, plus some of the Casablanca cast? On the surface, Now, Voyager (Disc/Download) seems like a slam dunk for me. But as I would soon find out, there is such a thing as too much melodrama, and this movie crosses the invisible line.

Based on the novel by Olive Higgins Prouty, Now, Voyager opens with a classic “spinster aunt” character who has existed under her tyrannical mother’s thumb for far too long. Although Charlotte Vale (Davis) once had a scandalous tryst at sea with a lowly staff member (Titanic fans will probably enjoy the shared plot points here, even down to the backseat canoodling in a fancy car!), her mother made sure any happiness was short-lived. It isn’t until Charlotte’s sister-in-law steps in with the help of a psychiatrist that she finally manages to claw her way out from her mother’s talons and get back on the horse. Or the cruise ship, in this case. While on this voyage, she meets a lonely man trapped in a loveless marriage (Paul Henreid, still as dull as he was in Casablanca), and after their car crashes on a port excursion to Rio, they spend a few days ashore falling in love. After, he heads back to his terrible wife and very troubled daughter, while Charlotte brings her new glowed-up self back to Boston. From there, the script gets… messy. I won’t spoil anything, but let’s just say, she makes some truly weird decisions involving her lover’s daughter, and the whole thing gives me the impression this woman still doesn’t understand how to extricate herself from codependent relationships. The cruise scenes? Fantastic! Everything else? Cringe.

Although the characters in this movie choose to drink Old Fashioneds on their cruise, I prefer to mix a favorite Brazilian cocktail, the Caipirinha. I like to think this is a drink Charlotte Vale would have enjoyed while trysting in Rio. Also, she probably would have loved picturing her mother while pulverizing the lime.

Caipirinha

2 oz Cachaça

2 tsp Sugar

1 Lime, cut into wedges

In a rocks glass, muddle lime wedges with sugar. Fill the glass with ice and add the cachaça. Stir gently to combine.

Ultimately, Now, Voyager is an exhausting movie. However, maybe with enough Caipirinhas, you’ll laugh (as I did) at the collection of dead minks hanging from Bette’s shoulder. Doris Day sported something similar in Romance on the High Seas, and this makes me wonder—should I be visiting a furrier before my cruise? I think I’d rather just stick with jaunty sun hats. Cheers!

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Romance on the High Seas

Posted on March 6, 2023 by LizLocke
Image credit: Romance on the High Seas, 1948

In a few week’s time, I’ll be packing my bags for an ocean voyage to the kiddie-filled sands of Castaway Cay. Not being an experienced cruiser, I decided to spend this month taking advice from the movies. What to pack? What to drink? What, exactly, is a Lido Deck? To get me started, I’m turning to my movie fairy godmother Doris Day. She tends to have the answers to most of life’s dilemmas, and I found a lot of great tips in her delightful debut role in Michael Curtiz’s Romance on the High Seas (Disc/Download).

Tip No. 1: Nobody dresses the first night out.

Apparently, cruisers wear business casual instead of formal on their first trip to the dining room. Poor Doris, posing as a rich society lady as part of this crazy woman’s attempt to catch her husband cheating, is excited to get doll’d up, and makes the major faux pas of wearing a GORGEOUS ice blue silk gown on her first night at sea. This would send anybody else running back to their stateroom, but not Doris. She just pastes on a smile and walks confidently up to the maître d’ because goddamn it, she looks great, and she’s hungry. Except… she missed her seating time. People might not dress in their finest, but they show up when they’re supposed to.

Tip No. 2: You can make a meal out of pretzels and potato chips.

Turns out, the bar is the place to be on a cruise ship. Not only is it quiet and practically empty during the dinner hour, but bartenders will bring you snacks. Lots and lots of snacks. And if you’re lucky, a nightclub singer with the voice of an angel will appear out of nowhere to sing a melancholy tune.

Tip No. 3: Always overtip

This is just a great rule no matter where you are, land or sea. The society woman who hired Doris might be suffering from an extreme case of paranoia, but she’s still a class act. She makes sure to provide Doris with plenty of cash to tip the boat crew; after all, she wouldn’t want word to spread that she’s cheap. The horror!

Tip No. 4: If you’re distressed, just walk into any bar and tell the server you want to get higher than a kite.

These are not words I ever expected to hear coming out of Doris Day’s mouth, but I applaud the way she advocates for herself. Pretending to be someone she’s not while falling in love with the private investigator hired to trap her is difficult enough, but then her bandleader beau from New York boards the ship at the next port of call! I really can’t blame her for wanting to check out for a night.

Speaking of ports of call, this ship visits some really exciting places. Cuba and Rio are great stops, but Trinidad looks like a lot of fun too! Let’s toast Doris’s Caribbean adventure with Giuseppe González’s recipe for a Trinidad Sour.

Trinidad Sour

1 1/2 oz Angostura Bitters

1/2 oz Rye Whiskey

3/4 oz Lemon Juice

1 oz Orgeat

Lemon Twist

Combine bitters, whiskey, lemon juice, and orgeat in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Although I’m not sure the Disney Wish will give me the same opportunities for cocktails and couture I’d find on other voyages, I can still take a page out of Doris’s book and make this trip something memorable. She doesn’t board the ship with intentions to find love or a gig in the lounge, but somehow she pulls off both. So I guess I’ll leave it here with Tip No. 5: Keep an open mind. Cheers!

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