Of all the gin joints in all the towns ...

[Guest]

Just for your amusement, or recipe files. Perdita
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From Casablanca to The Philadelphia Story, there was always a place for cocktails in the Hollywood classic. Tobias Steed raises a glass to a few of the best - Tobias Steed, May 7, 2004, The Guardian

Knickerbocker: The Thin Man (1934)
Based on a 1932 detective novel, Nick and Nora charmed critics and cinema-goers and earned themselves four Oscar nominations. The constant drinking of this jovial, bantering couple never hampered their investigative skills - quite the opposite, in fact. "Can't you say anything about the case?" a detective asks. "Yes," Nick grumbles. "It's putting me way behind in my drinking."
How to make it
50ml gin
Large dash dry vermouth
Small dash sweet vermouth
Add the gin and both vermouths to a mixing glass filled with ice. Once well mixed, strain into a frosted martini glass.

Champagne cocktail: Casablanca (1942)
A veritable cocktail of refugees passed through the Cafe Americain in Casablanca. And a multitude of cocktails passed between their lips, served by Carl, the headwaiter (SZ Sakall), and accompanied by piano music from the faithful Sam (Dooley Wilson). Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) uttered some of the most memorable lines in screen history. His immortal "We'll always have Paris" recalled happier days when he shared a glass of champagne with Ilsa Lund in the city.
How to make it
Dry champagne
25ml brandy
1 white sugar cube
Angostura bitters
Douse the sugar cube in Angostura bitters and place into a champagne flute. Add the brandy, then gently top up with champagne.

Whiskey sour: The Seven Year Itch (1955)
Richard Sherman (Tom Ewell) is a married publishing executive with a staid domestic life. Until Marilyn Monroe drops into his life. "Have you ever tried dunking a potato chip in champagne?" Monroe asks Ewell. He hasn't, but admits to his secretary: "I'm perfectly capable of fixing my own breakfast. As a matter of fact, I had two peanut butter sandwiches and two whiskey sours."
How to make it
50ml bourbon (or rye whiskey)
40ml fresh lemon juice
1 egg white
Sugar syrup
Angostura bitters
Stemmed cherry
Add fresh lemon juice to a large dash of egg white, then mix this with the bourbon, a small measure of sugar syrup and two dashes of Angostura bitters. Shake vigorously with ice in a cocktail shaker, then pour straight into a rocks glass. Garnish with a stemmed cherry.

Milk punch: Guys and Dolls (1955)
Nathan Detroit (Frank Sinatra) runs a floating crap game that is temporarily homeless. To raise money, he bets Sky Masterson (Marlon Brando) that he can't persuade any girl named by Detroit to go with him to Havana. Sky takes him on, only to find that Detroit has chosen missionary Sarah Brown (Jean Simmons). He convinces her to go by promising a full congregation for her mission, and Sarah quickly takes to the milk drinks Sky orders for her. "At night they put a kind of preservative in it," he says. "That's interesting. What do they use?" asks Sarah Brown. "Bacardi." "Doesn't that have alcohol in it?" "Well, just enough to stop the milk from turning sour."
How to make it
30ml brandy
30ml rum
Milk
White sugar to taste
Grated nutmeg
Stir the brandy and rum together in a mixing glass filled with ice, then strain into a rocks glass. Top up with milk, add sugar to taste and sprinkle with grated nutmeg.

Gibson: All About Eve (1950)
Twelve Oscar nominations and six awards, including best picture, best director and best screenplay, for a script that reveals the backstage back-stabbing of Broadway. Bette Davis plays Margo Channing, a great Broadway actress who takes a star-struck Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter) under her wing. The Gibson is a variation of a martini: just replace the olive with a pearl onion.
How to make it
50ml gin (or vodka)
Dry vermouth (Noilly Prat)
1 pearl cocktail onion
Fill a mixing glass with ice and pour in a few drops of dry vermouth. Stir for 15 seconds, or until vermouth has coated the ice, then strain out the liquid. Top up mixing glass with ice, add gin and stir until glass is frosted and the mixture is well chilled. Pour into a chilled martini glass or over ice into a rocks glass. Garnish with a pearl cocktail onion.

Kir Royale: The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Katharine Hepburn plays Tracy Lord, a beautiful headstrong and divorced east coast socialite preparing to marry for the second time. Macaulay Connor (James Stewart) and Elizabeth Imbrie (Ruth Hussey) have been assigned by a society magazine to cover the events leading up to and after the wedding. Add Cary Grant as Tracy's suave ex-husband, CK Dexter Haven and a classic sophisticated comedy emerges. Witty dialogue flows as fast and easily as the champagne.
How to make it
10 ml crème de cassis
Dry champagne
Pour the crème de cassis into a champagne flute, then fill slowly with chilled dry champagne. (For the original kir, substitute chilled still dry white wine for the champagne.)

Black Russian: Ninotchka (1939)
Ninotchka (Greta Garbo) is a Russian commissar who has come to Paris to sell jewellery belonging to a grand duchess (Ina Claire). When the duchess's French boyfriend Count Léon (Melvyn Douglas) is brought in to stop the sale, he falls instead for Ninotchka and manages to break down her communist reserve with champagne and Parisian life.
How to make it
40ml Russian vodka
20ml Kahlua
Maraschino cherry
Fill a rocks glass to the brim with ice. Pour in the vodka and the kahlua and garnish with a maraschino cherry.

 

[dirtylover]

Personally, I'm rather partial to a black russian. Care to drink cocktails deep into the Fransician night, and talk a load of old twaddle?

 

[Guest]

Sending hubby out for brandy as I type. I have a sudden craving for a Milk punch, and I already have the Bacardi.

Very cool snippet from the film.

Cheers!

Lou

 

[Guest]

Loulou, let me know how you like the punch, doesn't appeal to me much. I'd love a kir royale though.

dl, where have you been?! good to see you back. P.

 

[Guest]

Loulou, let me know how you like the punch, doesn't appeal to me much. I'd love a kir royale though.

dl, where have you been?! good to see you back. P.

Yeah, I will, provided I can still type after I've had a mouthful. I doubt he'll stick to the recommended measurements.

Hey, at least the milk will line my stomach!

Large bottles of booze + heavy handed pourer = potent drink.

Lou

 

[Guest]

*hic* and yum!

I like! Very cool and smooth. Hmmm... Sounds like a man I once knew.

Cheers, Perdita!

Lou

 

[shereads]

The constant drinking of this jovial, bantering couple never hampered their investigative skills - quite the opposite, in fact. "Can't you say anything about the case?" a detective asks. "Yes," Nick grumbles. "It's putting me way behind in my drinking."

A fun thread, perdita.

It's always an eye-opener to see films from that era and be reminded that drinking and cigarette smoking were the marks of sophistication. They didn't just have a drink or two - they bathed in it.

One of my favorite, because most incongruous, drinking scenes is in "Attack of the Killer Shrews," one of those so-bad-it's-good Grade D sci-fi flicks that I would never have heard about if not for "Mystery Science Theater 2000."

Scientists stranded on an island with their experiment-gone-awry (German shepherd dogs dressed as giant rodents) and living with only the most basic necessities, contemplate their doom while mixing martinis at the little cocktail bar tucked in the corner of their cabin, beside the door to the laboratory. There wasn't a lot of back-story on the characters, but we knew from the presence of the silver shaker that at least one of them was a man of the world.

 

[Guest]

Re: Re: Of all the gin joints in all the towns ...

Scientists stranded on an island with their experiment-gone-awry (German shepherd dogs dressed as giant rodents) and living with only the most basic necessities, contemplate their doom while mixing martinis at the little cocktail bar tucked in the corner of their cabin, beside the door to the laboratory.

I love that about some of those bad flicks. The dogs as rodents . P.

 

[shereads]

The rodents didn't have a cocktail shaker. That's how we knew they were the bad guys.

 

[cantdog]

Another thing they all did was slap and shake women by the shoulders, in those b&w 30's and 40's flicks.

Remember Ray Milland when he got the poison that was going to kill him in 24 hours or whatever it was, and he had to find out who did it? He went around slapping and shaking a lot of them. Looks like aberrant stuff today, but it didn't seem to faze anyone then

What was the name of that thing, anyway?

 

[Guest]

It was Edmund O'Brien in D.O.A. (dead on arrival). Here's a blurb from IMDb:

"Forget the crappy 1980s remake starring Dennis Quaid, this is the real deal! From the fantastic opening sequence ("I want to report a murder" ... "Who was murdered?" "I was") to the inevitable end, this is an utterly brilliant thriller that will have you riveted to your seat! Edmond O'Brien, a great character actor who was in everything from the classic rock'n'roll movie 'The Girl Can't Help It' to Peckinpah's western masterpiece 'The Wild Bunch' (he played the old coot, you probably won't recognize him here), is the "hero" who is told he has been poisoned and has days, maybe even hours to live. He frantically tries to find out who did it and why. Some people complain that O'Brien's character isn't all that likable, but I think that makes the movie even stronger. When you DO find out the who and why it doesn't really make that much sense but I don't think it matters all that much in the end, the journey is the thing, and only a very picky Noir fan could be disappointed with this. On top of that, Neville Brand, who later in the 1950s played Al Capone in 'The Untouchables' TV series, and later still starred in Tobe Hooper's gonzo cult classic 'Death Trap' (a.k.a. 'Eaten Alive'), plays one of the most memorable screen villains of all time, the dim witted Chester, a real nasty piece of work! 'D.O.A.' comes with my highest recommendation. If you like thrillers you'll LOVE this!"

 

[Belegon]

Favorite drink on your list:

Black Russian

Favorite Movie (of all time for me)

Casablanca (!) The most misquoted movie ever! Leave it to our 'Dita to actually use a quote from the flick correctly.