William Powell – Cinema Sips

I’ve died and gone to movie-cocktail heaven. This week, I had the pleasure of watching One Way Passage (Disc), a stylish drama about doomed lovers aboard an ocean liner. Made during the brief but wonderful Pre-Code Era, it features stunning gowns, a short runtime, and plentiful cocktails. We really did have everything, didn’t we?

Starring a dashing William Powell as escaped death-row inmate Dan, and Kay Francis as the terminally ill Joan, these two strangers meet at a bar in Hong Kong and share cocktails, both breaking their glasses over the bartop once they’re through (a move that was equal parts charming and horrifying to a barware collector like myself). Shortly after, Dan gets arrested and dragged onto a ship headed to San Francisco, where he reunites with Joan. They’re both on borrowed time, though neither one suspects it of the other. Dan has multiple opportunities to escape again, but he gives them all up for a chance to better know this woman who has captured his heart. As they share more classic cocktails and kisses, and Kay wears yet another fabulous Orry Kelly creation, I am equal parts excited and heartsick. Excited I found a movie that integrates cocktails so fully into a love story, and heartsick that it can seemingly only end in tragedy.

The drink ordered in this movie is the Paradise cocktail, and although the onscreen version is different from the classic recipe that appeared in Harry Craddock’s Savoy Cocktail Book in 1930, both use popular ingredients of the time period. Dan and Joan’s Hong Kong bartender is almost like a chemist, measuring out ingredients and twisting orange peels as he makes the catalyst that sets this whole story in motion. While watching One Way Passage, I recommend drinking a Paradise cocktail.

Paradise

1 ½ oz Gin

1 oz Apricot Brandy or Liqueur

2 oz Orange Juice (fresh squeezed)

Orange Twist

Chill a glass by filling with ice, and set aside. Combine gin, apricot brandy, and orange juice in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled. Dump the ice out of the glass, then strain the cocktail into it. Twist an orange peel over the cocktail to express the oils, then drop in.

I won’t ruin the ending, but let’s just say that the way barware is utilized had me grinning from ear-to-ear. This film manages to take what should have been a maudlin finale and turns it into something happy and whimsical. That’s the power of cocktails, and that’s the power of good storytelling. Cheers!

This year for New Year’s Eve, I’m taking the advice of one Cinema Sips reader and watching a classic holiday film, The Thin Man (DVD/Download). By enjoying this movie on one of the most celebratory nights of the year, I can feel like I’m attending a fabulous party, instead of sitting at home in my pajamas, trying desperately to make it to midnight.

The Thin Man is based on the Dashiell Hammett novel of the same name, and it follows former detective Nick Charles and his wealthy wife Nora as they get pulled into a murder mystery involving old acquaintances. Myrna Loy plays the lovely, entertaining Nora Charles, always with a highball or martini glass in her hand. Her banter with William Powell as Nick Charles makes you wish that all marriages were like this one. Of course it’s easy to be carefree and relaxed when you have oodles of family money in your bank account, but what makes this couple so unique is that they are incredibly funny, smart, and down-to-earth. Plus, they have the most ADORABLE dog named Asta, and I’m a sucker for a smart, well-trained movie pet.

I know New Year’s is traditionally a champagne holiday (and I’ll of course have a cheap bottle from Trader Joe’s chilling in the fridge) but honestly, you can’t watch The Thin Man without a dry gin martini in your hand. It just can’t be done. I have to think that martinis were served in smaller portions when this movie was made. How else to account for Nora Charles asking a waiter to bring her 6 of them? If I have more than 2 I’m a mess. At any rate, while watching The Thin Man, I recommend drinking a Dry Gin Martini. However many you have is totally up to you.

Dry Gin Martini

2 ½ oz Gin

½ oz Dry Vermouth

Olive

Shake gin and vermouth (to the tune of your favorite waltz) in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Strain into a martini glass and garnish with an olive.

There’s really nothing I like more than staying home with an old movie and a classic cocktail. So this New Year’s Eve, while other people are paying way too much for their prix-fixe meals and grappling with Uber surcharges, I’ll be sitting at home, warm and cozy, laughing as William Powell delivers pun after delicious pun, and wishing I had Myrna Loy’s fashion sense, wit, and adorable hangover ice pack. I’ll certainly need it Jan 1^st. Cheers!

	We’re No Angel… on Donovan’s Reef
	Concluding thoughts… on Ocean’s 11 (1960)
	The Blue Gardenia… on The Goonies