Tag: Raoul Walsh

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

The Revolt of Mamie Stover

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Image credit: The Revolt of Mamie Stover, 1956

It took all of ten seconds to get me hooked on The Revolt of Mamie Stover (Disc), a campy 1950s melodrama directed by Roaul Walsh. As we watch Jane Russell step out of a police car to noirish music, the camera zooms in just as she turns to face the screen with a scowl of defiance. Talk about an entrance!!!!

Set in Hawaii on the cusp of the Pearl Harbor attack, this DeLuxe Color soap opera features strong female characters, romance, tiki drinks, and vinyl records. In other words, just a typical Sunday night in my living room. As sex-worker Mamie Stover, Jane Russell is smart, acerbic, and focused on one thing and one thing only—money. Although tempted into the straight life by writer Jim Blair (Richard Egan), Mamie understands sex is her ultimate weapon. If a guy can’t handle that, then aloha, buddy. Don’t let the bamboo door hit you on the way out. Sure, she makes a legit fortune buying up cheap properties in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack (shot in an incredibly moving, realistic way), but she still can’t relinquish the power that comes with her regular dance hall gig. Mamie is the star attraction, and club owner Agnes Moorehead (!!!) will stop at nothing to prevent her meal ticket from leaving.

If there was ever a movie that begs for a tiki cocktail, it’s this one. I’m taking inspiration from our red-headed star seductress for this drink, which goes up in flames just like Mamie’s love life. While watching The Revolt of Mamie Stover, I recommend drinking a Flaming Mamie.

Flaming Mamie

3 oz Jamaican Rum

1 oz Brandy

1 oz Lime Juice

1 oz Orange Juice

1 oz Cinnamon Syrup

½ oz Velvet Falernum

2 dashes Angostura Bitters

½ Fresh Lime

1 oz 151-proof Demerara Rum

Combine first seven ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Set aside. Fill a scorpion bowl with crushed ice, then strain cocktail into it. Place a hollowed-out 1/2 lime in the center reservoir, fill with 151-proof rum, and light on fire. Serve with two straws.

This spicy cocktail is a lot like Mamie herself- complex, hot-headed, and dangerous if you get too close. As much as I love to think of Mamie in a tropical paradise, cashing those rental checks forever, a part of me is glad she eventually decides to head back to her small, judgmental hometown. It means this revolt isn’t over yet. Cheers!