Tag: noir

Classic Films

A Kiss Before Dying

LizLocke2 Comments
Image: A Kiss Before Dying, 1956

If my beloved A Summer Place had taken a very different turn in the third act, it might have resulted in a version of this week’s Technicolor noir, A Kiss Before Dying (Disc/Download). I’m trading the windswept beaches of Pine Island for the desert vistas of Tucson to see what happens when a girl really gets in “trouble”.

Dropping us right into the melodrama, the film opens with a college student (Robert Wagner) who’s just found out his girlfriend (Joanne Woodward) is pregnant, and he is not happy about it. He promises to marry her, but secretly, he’s also checking out poison books from the library and skulking around the chemistry department. When she refuses to take the poisoned pills he gives her, he lures her to a rooftop on their wedding day. In a flash, the girlfriend goes splat, and the murderer coolly walks away. The rest of the movie is a cat-and-mouse game wherein the girlfriend’s sister starts asking questions, never realizing the man she’s begun dating is the same man who pushed her sister off a roof and made it look like a suicide. Robert Wagner is extremely good at playing a sociopath—someone akin to a charming conman from a Patricia Highsmith novel.  Except he’s no Ripley; the audience feels no sympathy for this guy.

My favorite scene in the movie occurs in the historic Pago Pago Lounge, a Tucson Tiki bar opened in 1947. I’ve seen pictures in various books, but it’s extra exciting to see it in a Hollywood production. I’m not sure what the characters have in their glasses, but I know I’ll be sipping on the bar’s eponymous drink, the Pago Pago Punch.

Pago Pago Punch

2 oz orange juice

1 ½ oz lime juice

1 ½ oz grapefruit juice

1 ½ oz honey syrup (1:1 ratio honey to water)

2 oz dark Jamaican rum

2 dashes angostura bitters

Place all ingredients in a shaker filled with plenty of crushed ice. Shake to chill, then pour entire contents unstrained into a pilsner glass. Garnish with a dried orange and swizzle stick.

Tiki bars are the perfect place to discuss murder because they usually involve dim lighting, soft music, and liquor to loosen your inhibitions. It makes sense they’d pop up in so many film noirs, and it’s always a pleasure to see these architectural touchstones of the Tiki movement come alive onscreen. A Kiss Before Dying invites us to escape into a world where bright Technicolor hides sinister plots, and the only safe place is next to a tropical fish tank, hunched over a cocktail. Cheers!

Classic Films · Dramas

Leave Her to Heaven

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image credit: Leave Her to Heaven, 1945

All aboard the crazy train as we attempt to go inside the twisted mind of Ellen in this week’s film Leave Her to Heaven (Disc). Played by the impossibly beautiful Gene Tierney, this femme fatale will stop at nothing to claim the undivided attention of her man. Obviously, nobody ever taught this gal how to share her toys.

When novelist Richard Harland (Cornel Wilde) first encounters Ellen on a train to New Mexico, he assumes she’s merely an attractive bookworm. The fact that she’s holding one of his books is a nice stroke of the ego, but here’s his first mistake—underestimating Ellen for even a second. Indeed, every interaction from here on feels plotted; part of a grander scheme to fully possess this man. She takes out everyone who gets in her way, from a disabled polio survivor, to her unborn baby, and even <spoiler alert> HERSELF!!!! That’s right, Ellen finds a way to make sure this man thinks only of her, even from beyond the grave. It’s a stunning psychological thriller, made haunting by the cool, calculating eyes of Tierney. Even the movie’s end credits can’t stop her effect on the audience.

Although the acting and script are huge draws, I also enjoy the Leave Her to Heaven’s settings. From the rocky desert of Sedona to the crisp, clean wilderness of Maine, this movie is a celluloid vacation. But rather than getting in the lake with Ellen, I think I’d rather stay on shore sipping a classic Remember the Maine cocktail.

Remember the Maine

2 oz Rye

¾ oz Sweet Vermouth

½ tsp Absinthe

2 tsp Cherry Heering liqueur

Luxardo Maraschino cherry

Combine rye, sweet vermouth, absinthe, and cherry liqueur in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a cherry.

Having read the book this is based on, I can confirm the film adaptation does a great job of capturing Ellen’s mysterious, devilish allure. In a weird way, you start to understand where she’s coming from. Like her, I wouldn’t want my husband’s relatives to interrupt my romantic vacation, nor would I be thrilled to find myself with child. I don’t think satin pumps and a trip down the staircase would be my solution to that problem, but the way things are going with our reproductive rights, who knows? And that’s what makes Ellen so scary—she could be any woman, who gets pushed just a little too far. Cheers!