Cocktails and the silver screen: iconic drinks in the film industry

Some cocktails have been made famous by important individuals, like the Daiquiri and the Mojito of legendary American author (and professional drinker) Ernest Hemmingway (“My Mojito in La Bodeguita. My Daiquiri in El Floridita”).

Others were created to celebrate important historic events, like the Cuba Libre, created to mark the end of the Spanish-American War, or the Ti’ Punch, created in Guadalupe to celebrate the abolition of slavery.

But the “big screen” has played a role more than anything else, thanks to its media influence and social impact, thus dictating successful and fashionable drinks for decades. 

We present to you the Top 10:

10. COCKTAIL

What else could we begin with?

In 1988 the eternal Tom Cruise (…does he ever age???), recovering from the success of “Top Gun” and recently appearing alongside the great Paul Newman in “The Color of Money”, found himself in the role of Brian Flanagan, a young flair bartender looking for success in 1980s New York.

It’s here that he invents a new and amazing (for the time) cocktail… though today it sounds more like Rocky Balboa’s breakfast, the Red Eye:

•     1 part vodka
•     1 egg
•     6 parts tomato juice
•     12 parts light beer

A less than stellar film and cocktail which, however, can be credited with having introduced flair bartending to Italy (not always with the best results).

We much prefer remembering good old Tom as “Maverick”, guzzling an ordinary Budweiser at the officer’s club with his friend “Goose” (in anticipation of the sequel “Top Gun Maverick”, in theaters this November).

9. MAI TAI IN (BLUE) HAWAII

This 1961 film, featuring a Tiki Bar setting alla Donn “The Beachcomber” Beach, with a truly meager plot line, even for the (incredibly low) standards of the time, starring a 26-year-old Elvis “The Pelvis”, will regardless go down in history for two reasons.

The legendary “King of Rock and Roll” singing “Can’t Help Falling in Love”, and the Mai Tai:

•     2 parts white rum
•     2 parts dark rum
•     1 part triple sec
•     1 part orgeat syrup
•     a splash of fresh lime juice

 After this film was released, the Mai Tai (which in Tahitian means “excellent”), invented by the “Beachcomber” himself (the father of Tiki drink mixing), appeared on the cocktail menu of every bar in the United States (…and perhaps also those of the worst in Caracas).

8. S FEVER… SEVEN & SEVEN

1977 (Nomen omen), in the midst of New York’s Studio 54 disco era, a young (and never-again-so-thin) John Travolta pirouettes around the dance floor sheathed in a white 1970s bell-bottom suit; the only one who can wear it proudly without looking like an ice cream man.

We’re talking about Tony Manero, proletarian hero, a working class dago, looking for redemption on the dance floor of the Odyssey 2001 in Brooklyn, thrusting his pelvis and raising his index finger high, to the music of the Bee Gees, KC and the Sunshine Band, and Kool & the Gang.

And when he takes a break, between one dance and the next, he can’t help but to indulge in the most fashionable drink of the times, the 7 & 7:

•     1 part American Whisky
•     3 parts lemon lime soda
•     a twist of lemon

The drink’s name comes from the traditional ingredients used: Seagram’s 7 Crown whiskey, probably the most popular whiskey at the time in America, and 7 Up.

And once you’ve had enough to drink, you too will be able to sing “stayin’ alive” in Barry Gibb’s falsetto, (complete with strut).

7. THE MANHATTAN, SOME LIKE IT HOT

Considered by critics to be one of the best comedies in the history of American film, “Some Like it Hot”, directed by Billy Wilder in 1959, sees the splendid male team of Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon commandeered by Sugar “Kane” Kowalczyk, aka Marilyn Monroe, as blonde and beautiful as ever.

In addition to her unforgettable performance of “I Wanna Be Loved by You”, Sugar also shows off her preparation of the Manhattan:

•     2 and 1/2 parts Canadian Whiskey
•     1 part red vermouth
•     a splash of Angostura bitters
•     a Maraschino cherry
•     a twist of lemon

Quoting the diva (on her tenth Manhattan): “I’m not a drunk, I can stop whenever I want to. I just don’t want to!”

6. THE BIG G… IN RICKEY

Handsome, charming, rich, with a mysterious past and a broken heart, reformed gangster Jay Gatsby, the splendid and secretive protagonist of the film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, “The Great Gatsby”, which takes place in the Roaring Twenties prior to the Great Depression, seems to drink nothing else.

Whether you prefer Di Caprio in 2013, Robert Redford in 1974, or Alan Ladd in 1949 is of little importance. The key word is Gin Rickey:

•     3 parts gin
•     1 part fresh lime juice
•     a splash of seltzer to water it down

Gatsby’s alter (alcoholic) ego is Fitzgerald himself; a lover of jazz, the Charleston, high society, and the excesses of that era, he too had a strong preference for this cocktail.

5. PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM FRENCH 75 AT RICK’S CAFE’ AMERICAIN

Trench coat, raised lapel, hat, and a white jacket; that’s Rick Blaine, a virile and melancholy hero (the man who never needs to ask, as a well known commercial would say decades later) played in 1942 by a timeless Humphrey Bogart in “Casablanca”, considered the best film of Hollywood’s Golden Era. 

Alongside him are poor old Sam (aka Dooley Wilson) at the piano, playing “As Time Goes By”, and a stunning Ingrid Berman, sharing a glass of French 75:

•     2 parts cognac (or gin) 
•     1 part fresh lemon juice
•     4 parts champagne
•     a spoonful of sugar cane syrup
•     a slice of orange
•     a generous splash of Angostura bitters

And as Rick would have said as he raised his glass: “Here’s looking at you, kid”.

4. THE WHITE ANGEL FOR BREAKFAST… AT TIFFANY’S

Iconic and elegant like none other, donning long black gloves, a cigarette holder, and Oliver Goldsmith Manhattans: this is Holly Golightly, aka Audrey Hepburn, in 1961’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”.

An extravagant and eccentric young woman from rural America who has escaped to New York, she lives with Cat, bewitches young Colonel John “Hannibal” Smith (because she managed to find him…), and loves to play the guitar, attend the city’s parties, and drink White Angels, all accompanied by the immortal melody of the Oscar-winning song “Moon River”:

•     1 part vodka
•     1 part di Gin
•     (but if you want it “alla Holly” add a tear drop of milk as well)

To be drunk liberally, without fear of judgement, because “Sometimes it’s nice to be taken for a fool.”

3. SEX AND THE CITY’S COSMOPOLITAN

After six seasons on TV, and 94 episodes full of lingerie, shopping, friendship, and cynicism in stiletto heels, which firmly placed Sarah Jessica Parker within Hollywood’s star-system, Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda, aka the four most fashionable friends of the Millennial Big Apple, came to the big screen with “Sex and the City: the Movie”, bringing with them their faithful Cosmopolitan, or “Cosmo” for short:

•     3 parts vodka
•     1 part triple sec
•     1 part fresh lemon juice
•     2 parts cranberry juice

Obviously to be enjoyed exclusively in your city’s most glamorous bar!

2. THE DUDE KNOWS HOW TO WAIT… FOR HIS WHITE RUSSIAN

In 1998 the Cohen brothers, those mad geniuses, directed the visionary film “The Big Lebowski”, which, despite its stellar cast, made up of (in order of appearance) Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, John Turturro, Ben Gazzara, Philip Seymor Hoffman, and Sam Elliott, got a lukewarm reception in theatres before becoming, in time, a true cult classic.

In this must-see film (if you haven’t already seen it, add it to your movie list immediately) the protagonist, Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski, a laidback and amiable loafer and worthy successor of Reg Smythe’s Andy Capp, loves to spend his idle days bowling, smoking weed, and drinking his customary (and numerous…) White Russians:

•     5 parts vodka
•     3 parts coffee liqueur 
•     1 part cream (…or if you want to prepare it “alla The Dude”, substitute the cream with milk)

One can’t help but to agree with The Stranger in the final moments of the film:

“Dunno about you, but I take comfort in those words. It’s good knowin’ he’s out there. The Dude. Takin’ ‘er easy for all us sinners.”.

1. VESPER MARTINI, SHAKEN NOT STIRRED

And finally the most iconic of them all, the one that bewitched and inspired us, at least as much as its drinker.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever, at least once, wanted to say, with a firm voice and seductive gaze, while wearing a splendid stain and wrinkle-proof tuxedo, even after post-Mururoa explosions: “Shaken, not stirred!”

We’re talking about the vodka martini, the favorite cocktail of 007, aka James Bond, the dashing secret agent of Her Majesty the Queen’s MI6 (God Save the Queen) and a product of the prolific pen of London writer (and former member of the Royal Navy) Ian Fleming.

Also known as a Vesper Martini, or simply a Vesper, in honor of Vesper Lynd, the first of the saga’s 25 Bond Girls, the cocktail was invented by Fleming himself in 1953 for his first novel, “Casino Royale”, and made it to the big screen in 1962 in “License to Kill”:

•     3 parts gin
•     1 part vodka
•     1/2 part Kina Lillet (a French vermouth flavored with quinine, today no longer available and replaced with Lillet Blanc)
•     a twist of lemon, first rubbed along the edge of the glass

And with that, we close by quoting a young and charming Sean Connery (R.I.P.) at the very start of his career, playing the secret agent in License to Kill, as he places the first magnificent order of this cocktail:

“A dry martini, in a champagne glass. Three measures of gin, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shaken over ice and with a thin slice of lemon peel.”

And if you don’t have the nerve to order it just like this at the bar… well then, you can always prepare it at home.