Alfred Hitchcock’s favourite cocktail, at least when visiting Harry’s Bar in Venice, was the White Lady; his treatment of ladies, and for that matter of actors in general was less gentlemanly. Tippi Hedren, who had starred in one of the director’s best known films ”The Birds”(1963) later commented:
”Hitchcock was more careful about how the birds were treated than he was about me. I was just there to be pecked.”
The White Lady
1½ oz gin
¾ oz freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 oz Cointreau
and 1 egg white shaken over ice [1]
If one listens to that song for long enough, one begins to have sympathies for the birds. Please make it stop.
John le Carré’s George Smiley is not much of a drinker, and when he does indulge, it most often will be a good glass of wine or single malt, or if pressured by courtesy to some guest, a sherry. Perhaps his long assignments in Germany left him with a taste for beer and the odd schnapps, but that too is unconfirmed.
The Moscow Mule, a cocktail in its own right, is sometimes associated with Smiley [1] by way of a play on words, since in ”Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” (if you have not seen it, try the brilliant 1979 BBC mini-series starring Alec Guiness, not the disappointing 2011 remake), he is attempting to uncover a Russian mole within the Circus, the British Secret Service, someone passing documents to the class enemy, hence a “mule”.
½ ounce lime juice
2 ounces vodka
4 to 6 ounces ginger beer (NOT ginger ale please)
thin cucumber slice to garnish
Squeeze the lime juice into a Collins glass (a copper Moscow Mule mug would be ideal but not easy to come by) and drop in the spent shell. Add 2 or 3 ice cubes, then pour in the vodka and fill with cold ginger beer. Garnish with a cucumber slice and serve with a stirring rod.
[1] See among others in the form of a trivia question between MI5 agents on a stakeout in first episode of the BBC series ”Spooks” (2002).
If you happen to be wondering about the attached still, it shows Ms. Daly as Maria Callas in ”Master Class” at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Broadway in 2011. It is a far cry from her ingenue beginnings as Kate in Dirty Harry’s ”The Enforcer” or IT nerd Dotty in ”Telefon” (1977).
In view of her late burgeoning career, the Greyhound cocktail seems rather fitting, and there’s even a history to this drink: “The cocktails were made of vodka, sugar, and canned grapefruit juice — a greyhound. This cocktail was served at Greyhound’s popular restaurant chain that was located at bus terminals, called ‘Post House’.” (Harper’s Magazine, 1945)
1 part Vodka
3 parts grapefruit juice (pink would be perfect)
1 grapefruit wedge
Fill an old-fashioned glass with ice cubes, add all the ingredients and garnish with a (pink) grapefruit.
What can be written about Ms. Parker, a brilliantly gifted, caustically witty, non-conformist satirist, that hasn’t been said better by others, and most readers will presumably know her anyway, so let us narrow it down to the subject matter of this blog: film and drink.
Ms. Parker’s move to Hollywood in the mid-1930s triggered her second career as a screenwriter, with films such as ”A Star is Born”(1937) and an original screenplay for Hitchcock’s”Saboteur”(1942), and lasted until being blacklisted by the HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee), her 1.000+ page FBI file must make good reading.
Although Esquire and The New Yorker have listed Whiskey Sour, Martinis or Manhattans as Ms. Parker’s favourite drinks, there is also a cocktail named after her worth mentioning: The Dorothy Parker.
1½ Citrus Vodka
½ Triple Sec
¼ Chambord Liqueur
½ freshly squeezed lemon juice
champagne (or sparkling wine) to top off
Shake all ingredients except champagne, strain into a sugar-rimmed cocktail glass and top off with champagne.
Some Dorothy Parker quotes to set the mood:
“This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.” (in reference to Benito Mussolini’s ”The Cardinal’s Mistress”.)
“Tell him I was too f**king busy– or vice versa.”
“I wish I could drink like a lady I can take one or two at the most Three and I’m under the table Four and I’m under the host”_ (Dorothy Parker)
Trivia I: If you have ever caught an episode of ”Gilmore Girls”(2000-2007) then you might have noticed the Dorothy Parker tribute by the show’s creator Ms. Amy Sherman-Palladino by way of the production company’s name: “Dorothy Parker Drank Here Productions”.
Besides Sylvia Plath’s “The Unabridged Journals”, Rory‘s reading list included “Complete Stories” and “The Portable Dorothy Parker”
Poor old dad, the “Father of the Bride” (1950), preparing gallons of Martinis in expectation of his guests’ wishes at his daughter’s wedding announcement, spends the evening mixing every and all drinks but Martinis, among many: Old Fashioneds, Bourbon & Sodas, Mint Juleps, Tom Collins’, Rum & Cokes, and straight up Scotches. Let’s pick on one:
1½ oz Gin
1 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 oz carbonated water
½ sugar syrup
Mix the gin, lemon juice and sugar syrup in a tall glass with ice, top up with soda water, garnish and serve.
Although all are inspired by the 1960 Hitchcock classic “Psycho”, this is one of the many cocktails which means different things to different people:
1) The Classic Psycho
1 oz pineapple juice
1 oz orange juice
½ oz Bacardi white rum
¼ oz Grenadine syrup
¼ oz Galliano Herbal Liqueur
Mix well in a shaker, strain into a cocktail or low-ball glass and garnish with a pineapple chunk, orange slice and maraschino cherry.
2) The Icewine-Psycho
“I was inspired by the movie’s sweet and sour moments, as Mr. Bates seems to be a sweet charming man but is actually quite spooky and dangerous.”Karin Stanley, co-owner of New York cocktail lounge Dutch Kills.
2 oz. Inniskillin Riesling Icewine
1 oz. Appleton Estate Reserve Rum
¾ oz. pineapple juice
Combine all ingredients in a high-ball glass, fill with crushed or cracked ice and top with a float of Angostura Bitters.
Another drink which precedes “The Blue Lagoon” film, both the 1980 and the 1949 version, it’s attributed to any number of people, from Andy MacElhone to Paul Gauguin.
Not the pre-code 1930 film “Anna Christie” (“Gimme a visky with chincher ale and don’t be stinchy, baby.”), but a more exotic notion gave birth to this drink:
1 oz brandy
1 oz dry vermouth
1 oz orange juice
1/4 oz grenadine
dash of crème de menthe
Shake the ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled high-ball glass.
On YouTube:“Anna Christie” (1930) ordering her drink in sleazy speakeasy. Sleazy yes, but one still had to ring the bell to get in :-). https://youtu.be/_8Rvqm5XR7E
The Sidecar, listed by the International Bartenders Association in the “unforgettables” column, has it’s origin sometime between the End of World War I and the beginning of the roaring 20ies; the Paris Ritz has staked claims, it’s first found mentioned in 1922 and since then appearing in innumerable films, the latest probably being “The Bonfire of the Vanities” (1990):
2 oz Cognac
3/4 oz Lemon juice
3/4 oz Triple sec
Pour all into cocktail shaker filled with ice, shake and strain into cocktail glass.
At least as unsettling as Javier Bardem‘s portrayal of Anton Chigurh in “No Country for Old Men” (2007), is this rum-based tea and white chocolate cocktail which was created in honour of this film:
1 oz Malibu Rum
2 oz chai tea
1 oz white chocolate liqueur
garnish with a raspberry
Allow tea to cool, combine the rum and liqueur in a cocktail shaker filled with ice, shake well, strain into a chilled champagne glass and garnish with a raspberry. Explore at your own risk.
Of “Cocktail” (1988) fame, the Red-Eye is more of an antidote than a cocktail, but so what? Pour ice-cold tomato juice into a frosted mug, add cold beer but do not stir. Crack an egg into the mug, and again: do not stir!
First poured at Chasen’s restaurant in Beverly Hills, it is usually served in a long glass with ice and garnished with a cherry and a slice of orange or lemon. If alcohol is required, as it should be, then one might try a Shirley Temple Black (7-Up, kahlua and grenadine), Black being the name of her later husband, or perhaps a Dirty Shirley (lemon-lime soda, vodka and grenadine) will do.
To honour 13 nominations and three wins at the 81st Academy Awards for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (2008), 10 Cane Rum created this cocktail:
2 oz. 10 Cane Rum
1 oz. pomegranate juice
3/4 oz. freshly squeezed lemon juice
dash of syrup
garnish with pomegranate seeds or lemon twist
Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass on ice, shake, strain into Martini glass and garnish with pomegranate seeds or lemon twist.
Richard Sherman: “Miss Morris, I’m perfectly capable of fixing my own breakfast. As a matter of fact, I had a peanut butter sandwich and two whiskey sours.”
As Miss Morris, when we hear “The Seven Yea Itch” (1955), we think Whiskey Sours; and vice versa:
1½ oz Bourbon Whisky
1 oz fresh lemon juice
½ Gomme syrup
1 dash egg white
Shake with ice, strain into ice-filled old-fashioned glass and serve on the rocks … and try to keep your eyes on the drink.
Recalling the serial killer in “A Nightmare on Elm Street” (1984) who murders his victims in their dreams, here’s a drink to keep you awake, though not sober:
2 oz vanilla vodka
½ oz pumpkin spice syrup*
¾ oz lemon juice
½ oz Bailey’s Irish Cream
¼ oz Frangelico
Combine all ingredients in a shaker. Shake hard and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a dash of cinnamon.
* = For pumpkin spice syrup, blend the following ingredients until smooth:1 15 oz can of pumpkin puree2 cups water1 1/2 cups sugar1 tsp cinnamon1/2 tsp ground dried ginger1/2 tsp nutmeg1/4 tsp. ground cloves
Michael Williams: [sees dozens of stick-men hanging from trees] “No red-neck is this creative.” “The Blair Witch Project” (1999).
The Tiny Hands cocktail was purportedly thought up by Deidre Darling of Chicago’s The Savoy, who describes the drink: “The cocktail is further enhanced by the bitterness of the Fernet-Branca. The garnish was inspired by the formation of dolls out of wooden sticks.”
1½ oz Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum infused with Forbidden Forest Lapsang Souchong Tea*
½ oz Fernet-Branca
2 full eye droppers of chocolate mole bitters
½ oz lemon juice
½ oz agave nectar
1 egg white
Fill all ingredients into a shaker, shake to emulsify egg white, add ice and shake to chill. Strain and garnish with cinnamon sticks, cloves and tea leaves.*To infuse Sailor Jerry Rum with tea, soak tea bags in rum. Let steep. Strain before use.
Quoting those words no one really wants to hear when picking up a hitchhiker:
Hitchhiker: “My family’s always been in meat.” “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” (1974)
This refreshingly crispy cinnamon and cider cocktail mix complements a good medium-rare piece of meat very nicely … or perhaps it might chill you to the bone, depends on the company.
1 oz. Fireball Cinnamon Whisky
1 oz. Campari
1 oz. cranberry juice
4 oz. Angry Orchard Crisp Apple hard cider
Pour ingredients over Ice. Stir. Garnish with stemmed maraschino cherry.
“The deep reds of the Campari and blood orange juice make this bubbly cocktail reminiscent of pig’s blood, but serve these sparklers at your Halloween party and your guests will have a lot more fun than Carrie did at prom!”Katie Lee, author of the Comfort Table cookbooks.
2 oz fresh blood orange juice
¼ to ½ cup sugar in a shallow dish (for rimming the glasses)
1 oz Campari
Sparkling wine
Press a slice of juiced blood orange around the rim of a champagne glass. Press the top of the glass in the sugar to coat the rim. Combine the blood orange juice and Campari in the champagne glass. Top with sparkling wine.
Originally created at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in the 1930ies, its first revival is due to a 1972 Rolling Stones party at the Trident in Sausalito where Mick Jagger liked it so much that he and his entourage started drinking them down and making the drink popular, although the 1988 film by the same name starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Mel Gibson and Kurt Russell also did it’s part.
1½ oz tequila
¾ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
½ oz grenadine syrup
garnish with a maraschino cherry and orange slice
Pour tequila and orange juice and mix together. In a tall glass, fill with ice cubes and pour in mixture. The secret is the red to yellow gradient. Take grenadine and slowly add it in to allow it to fall to the bottom. Take an orange slice and maraschino cherry and garnish.
Fill a shot glass with cherry vodka and put inside a larger glass. Take the energy drink and pour into the glass until it reaches the top of the shot glass.
The rumour suggesting that Chuck’s canned urine was the original recipe for Red Bull remains unconfirmed.
From Johnny Depp‘s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” (1998):
1 oz gin
¼ oz Cointreau
¼ ROM Bénedictine
½ oz fresh lime juice
2⅔ oz pineapple juice
½ oz cherry brandy
⅓ oz grenadine
1 dash Angostura bitters
Pour all ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice cubes, shake and strain into high-ball glass. Garnish with pineapple and cocktail cherry. For the professional: try a mezcal on the side.
No, it isn’t a Knifey Moloko high-ball. The author of“A Clockwork Orange”Anthony Burgess left us few clues except that one of the main ingredients is milk and probably barbiturates to taste, but this drink isn’t a bad replacement:
1½ oz gin
1 oz Irish whiskey
1 oz fresh orange juice
½ oz fresh lime juice
½ oz simple syrup
2 or 3 dashes Miracle Mile Chocolate-Chili Bitters
freshly grated nutmeg
Fill a cocktail shaker with ice, gin, whiskey, orange and lime juices, simple syrup and bitters, shake, strain into a chilled coupé, garnish with nutmeg and serve.
In Robert Altman‘s “The Long Goodbye” (1973), based on the Raymond Chandler novel of the same name but set in decadently seedy 1970ies L.A., this was Terry Lenox‘s favourite drink.
2½ oz Gin
½ oz lime juice
½ oz simple syrup
garnish with a lime wheel
Add all the ingredients to a shaker and fill with ice, shake, then strain into a chilled Old Fashioned glass filled with fresh ice and garnish.
Created for the launch party of the film “The Departed” (2006) and in honour of Martin Scorsese, who finally raked in the directing Oscar which had eluded him despite films such as “Raging Bull”, “Taxi Driver” and “Goodfellas”.
2 parts Tequila
1 part Cognac
1 part Cointreau
1 Tablespoon agave nectar
squeeze of lime juice
lemon
wedge for garnish
Pour the ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice, shake well, strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon wedge.
Originally, this fictional cocktail is an invention of Zaphod Beeblebrox (in Douglas Adams’“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”) based on Janx Spirit. It is described as “the alcoholic equivalent of a mugging – expensive and bad for the head” and states that the effect of one “is like having your brain smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick”. A toned-down recipe for earthlings follows:
1 oz Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey
1 oz peach schnapps
4 – 6 oz orange juice
1 splash Blue Curacao liqueur
Mix as you see fit. 42.
The original recipe:
“Take the juice from one bottle of that Ol’ Janx Spirit. Pour into it one measure of water from the seas of Santraginus V. Allow three cubes of Arcturan Mega-gin to melt into the mixture (it must be properly iced or the benzene is lost).. Allow four litres of Fallian marsh gas to bubble through it (in memory of all those happy Hikers who have died of pleasure in the Marshes of Fallia).”
“Over the back of a silver spoon float a measure of Qualactin Hypermint extract, redolent of all the heady odours of the dark Qualactin Zones. Drop in the tooth of an Algolian Suntiger. Watch it dissolve, spreading the fires of the Algolian suns deep into the heart of the drink. Sprinkle Zamphour. Add an olive. Drink…but very careully.”
Known by most today for her roles as Violet Crawley in ”Downton Abbey” [2010-15] or Minerva McGonagall in the ”Harry Potter” franchise, one forgets that Maggie Smith had a distinguished, even illustrious career before being typecast as elderly dowager or schoolmarm, raking in two Academy Awards and three Golden Globes along the way.
”The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” (1969) established her as a serious actress and a number of comedies such as ”Murder by Death ” (1976) and ”California Suite” (1978) as well as star-vehicles à la Agatha Christie’s [”Death on the Nile” (1978) and ”Evil Under the Sun” (1982) kept her in the public eye, but her best work seemed to go mostly unnoticed: ”Travels With My Aunt” (1972), ”A Room With a View” (1985). ”Gosford Park” (2001), ”Ladies in Lavender”(2004) and more.
The Between the Sheets Cocktail, the drink Maggie Smith offers Peter Ustinov (a.k.a. Hercule Poirot) in ”Evil Under the Sun” (1982) dates back to 1930s Paris, either a Harry MacElhone(Harry’s New York Bar) creation or the apéritif du jour for working girls in French brothels; either way …
1 oz. white rum
1 oz. Cointreau
1/2 oz. lemon juice
1 oz. cognac
cocktail glass
Shake rum, Cointreau, juice, and cognac well with cracked ice, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a twist of lemon.
The 100th post belongs of course to W.C. Fields, the comedian remembered for playing profane, child-hating, boastful, dishonest, lecherous, and on occasion physically violent characters on-screen, and apparently not being the nicest of people off-screen.
If Mae West at least made pro forma attempts of disguising the gist of her lines and quotes in the flimsiest of innuendos or spoonerisms, such as …
”A hard man is good to find.” (but not“Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me.” which is a famous misquote)
… Fields was much more straight-forward with his favourite subject:
”Somebody left the cork out of my lunch.” ”I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.” ”The cost of living has gone up another dollar a quart.”
Since Mr. Fields was not much of a cocktail man, though he did purportedly begin his day with two Martinis, one before and one after breakfast, therefore making it difficult to nail down his drinking habits to one type of drink, the ”Gin & Orange” will have to serve as a stand in:
During the shooting of ”Tillie and Gus” (1933) Fields spiked the orange juice of his three-year old co-star Baby LeRoy and later, with the toddler staggering across the stage, Fields kept muttering: ”The kid’s no trooper. Look at him, he ain’t no trooper.”
Gin and Orange
3 parts gin
1 part orange juice
1 orange peel
Fill a chilled rocks glass with ice cubes, add all ingredients and garnish with an orange peel.
Perhaps the obvious choice of a Manhattan is not a fitting one for Annie, played by Diane Keaton in the Academy Award-winning film ”Annie Hall” (1977), it certainly doesn’t fit her personality nor her dress style (the latter created by costume designer Ruth Morley (right) prompted ”The Annie Hall Look”, the “layering of oversized, mannish blazers over vests, billowy trousers or long skirts, a man’s tie, and boots” [2]).
A few attempts at creating a fitting drink for someone ”who grew up in a Norman Rockwell painting” have been made; personally I liked best this foamy lavender-pinkish creation found at thestar.com ‘s “Food and Drink” [1], which is… what was it I wanted to add? … oh well … “la-dee-da, la-dee-da.”
*The Annie Hall Cocktail”
2 oz tequila blanco
1/2 oz lavender syrup (see below)
1 oz white grapefruit juice
1 egg white
grapefruit twist to garnish
ice
Lavender Simple Syrup:
1 cup (250 mL) water
1 cup (250 mL) granulated sugar
1 tbsp (15 mL) dried lavender
For the lavender syrup, bring water and sugar to a boil over high heat in a small saucepan and add lavender. Reduce the heat and let it simmer for 10 minutes, strain, discard lavender and refrigerate until chilled.
For the cocktail, shake (without ice) tequila, syrup, juice and egg white in a cocktail shaker, add ice; and shake again 25 to 30 times. Strain ingredients into a coupe and garnish with a grapefruit twist.
500 Movie Drinks and Cocktails 