New Year's Resolution Week Twenty Nine: Gun Crazy

I love Noir, just love it, and this one looked really good.  My favorite is Detour, and this had the same shoe string budget.  Those are usually the best, dunno why.  I knew nothing about the movie other than it looked kinda cheesie, so I was going into this blind.  And fortunately, I was just in the mood for that!

I had no help for food again, so I had to come up with my own.  In noir films, they always seem to end up in diners, so I started thinking about diner food.  I love diners.  I'd rather eat at a diner than anywhere else.  What can I say, I'm a simple girl.  Denny's is the best ever.  It's America's Diner!  Anyway....  Now most of the time at a diner, what do you get?  Breakfast!  Which is perfect, cause of the schedule I had to keep this week.  I missed watching the movie last night and had to watch it this morning.  So breakfast!!  And I had all of stuff in the house, so no grocery shopping.  Nice.  I like pretty simple breakfast, so I made hash browns, toast and eggs.  However, the eggs I used were fresh duck eggs.  If you like eggs, and you can score some duck eggs, I HIGHLY recommend them.  They are so rich and flavorful.  The yolks are nice and big.  Decadent!  To drink, since I can't have coffee(BAHHHH!), I made this drink called Inka.  It's a polish coffee substitute made from wheat.  Not a trace of caffeine, cause even decaf has a touch of it.  It's not going to fool anyone, but it's really not bad.  I added some all natural creamer, and it was pretty yummy.

Breakfast on depression glass!!!  Toast, duck eggs, hash browns, and Inka.  I got to use my depression glass coffee mugs!  It's from France.  ;-)

I was so impressed with this film.  Shoe string budgets tend to bring out the best in classic films for some reason.  Maybe because they can't rely on fancy stuff to get the story across, maybe because they hire actors and staff that really need the work and try harder.  Dunno, but they're good!  The two main characters were played by Peggy Cummins and John Dall.  I'd never heard of these actors before nor seen a film with them in it.  At least not that I remember.  

Peggy Cummins plays a wonderful femme fatale.  She's striking and strong and manipulative.  She's a wonderful actress, she conveys so much with her eyes.  They give her away and let you know what she really is right off the bat.  Her acting reminded me a lot of Jane Greer in Out Of The Past.

Lookit her check him out!  Her use of her eyes is amazing!

John Dall plays a sweet simple nice guy.  You root for him.  He's great at making you like him, and you actually like him so much and understand his character that you desperately want him to make the right choices.  But it's noir, and you know he won't!  The attraction between Dall and Cummins is amazing.  You can feel it.  I wonder if they were together in real life?  The attraction is that good!

The attraction between these two seeps through the screen.

I loved the story line, and was excited to see what would happen next.  It really held my interest.  There were some wonderful scenes, especially when they were shooting.  There were very creative shots that helped keep the excitement up.  

Isn't this cool?

I had a great time with this.  Breakfast was awesome, I did add too much oil to the hash browns, so they were a little too greasy.  Never thought I'd say that!  HA!  The duck eggs made up for it!  And butter and bread?  Well, you can't go wrong with that!  Ever!  The film was even better than expected.  I loved it!  The ending really surprised me.  I highly highly recommend this film, even if you don't like noir,   It's that good.  Oh, and go watch Detour too!  Fab-u-lous!

Love,

Olive

PS: They did end up eating in a diner, by the way.  I was ridiculously excited about it!

They had hamburgers, maybe if they had breakfast, things would have turned out better!

  

New Year's Resolution Week Twenty Eight: Sunset Boulevard

This is one of my favorite movies of all time.  It is one of the first classic films I ever saw.  Though for some reason, I cannot remember my first showing.  It's like it's always been a part of me.  Always in my repertoire.  It is one of the movies that secured my love of classic cinema. It's just so perfect.  I watch it whenever it's on, so I was looking forward to tonight.  I knew it wouldn't be a dud!

Movie Night Menus came though again tonight!  I was totally not in the mood to stuff myself, so their menu was perfect for tonight.  Light fancy food.  The cocktail was a Ritz cocktail.  It was basically a fizzy orange cherry drink.  I used orange juice, fizzy water and grenadine.  Decided that was close enough!  The main meal was smoked oyster Waldorf salad in avocado shells.  I just followed the recipe and left out the oysters.  Easy.  Finally, caviar toasts.  I wasn't in the mood for toasts, so I used croissants instead.  They're fancy, so I thought that would work.  I also couldn't find creme fraiche, so I used farmer's cheese this time.  Last time I used cream cheese.  I also have some vegan caviar, so I was able to use that.  Nice and simple and easy.

So here we go!  Ritz cocktail(kinda), Waldorf salad in avocado shells, farmer's cheese with vegan caviar and croissant.  Oh yeah, and depression glass.  ;-)

So onto the movie!  Like I said, I love this movie.  When I was a smoker, I tried desperately hard to make a cigarette holder like Norma Desmond.  I think I used a paperclip.  Epic fail, but I tried.  The detail in this film is amazing.  There is always something to look at.  I cannot imagine how long it took the to put together these sets! They're so intricate!  I just love watching!  It's so beautiful.  

Even as an ex-smoker, I still want this cigarette holder!  

This movie is all about Miss Gloria.  Let's face it, anyone could have played the other roles.  NO ONE else in the world could play Norma Desmond!  I know that she wasn't thrilled with being associated forever with this role.  I think it was because people assumed it was autobiographical.  Swanson was not that tragic.  She was tough and smart, and she simply would not eat unhealthy food.  If you get that reference, you will be my friend forever!  As Norma, she was so glamorous, so extreme, so fabulous!  Swanson also has one of the most beautiful profiles ever. I hold her right up there with Barrymore.

Look at this DIVA!

I also absolutely love all of the other classic actors that are either in this movie or referenced.  Every time I watch it, I hear another name of an actor I love.  Everyone already knows The Waxworks, Buster(sigh), Anna Q Nilsson, and HB Warner.  And of course, the baby thrower himself, Erich von Stroheim, who worked with Swanson on Queen Kelly(which we get to see part of in the film.  LOVE).  Cecil B DeMille has his very own close up.   And I love that he calls her "Young Fellow" in the film.  It was a nickname he had for her in real life from the time she was a young girl.  A TON of silent actors are mentioned in the script!  Mabel Normand, Wallace Reid, Rod La Rocque, John Gilbert, Valentino, Marie Prevost....  ::::sigh::::  And they're deep cuts too!  Someday maybe I'll listen very closely and put together a list.  Someday....

Chaplin even makes an appearance....sort of.  ;-)

As for dinner.  It was ok.  Nothing spectacular.  I think I would have switched out all the mayo and sour cream and just used plain greek yogurt.  Tastes the same, saves the calories and fat.  But I don't think I'll be making this again.  It was very plain and boring.  Maybe the oysters would have made a big difference.  Hmmm.  The cocktail was just ok.  I don't think I like grenadine that much anymore.  I shoulda just had the OJ and fizzy water.  The farmer's cheese was really bland too.  Caviar was salty.  Meh.  Croissant was good though.  Thankfully it was easy and not heavy, so it could have been a bigger waste.

Gloria Swanson saved the night!  Here is the scene everyone wants to see.  Here is her close up.....

      

Next week I'll be late posting.  Plans are just going to be in the way, but I won't forget!

Love,
Olive
    

New Year's Resolution Week Twenty Seven: Winchester '73

Alright, I'm just gonna say it.  I don't like westerns.  Don't like them, never have, never will.  I don't even like western TV shows.  Even if Barbara Stanwyck is in it.  Nope.  I dislike them almost as much as I dislike musicals.  There are some exceptions, but for the most part classic musicals just leave me cold. And bored.  Anyway, I don't like westerns either.  I do like William S Hart though.  For some weird reason, I have a soft spot for him.  I also have a soft spot for James Stewart and Shelley Winters.  So while I really wasn't looking forward to tonight, I was hoping they would save me.  It could happen.

So dinner!  Nothing in Movie Night Menus again.  They did have some westerns in there.  Dinner was chili or tacos(they called it something else, but tortillas with meat are tacos. They just wanted to be fancy).  I wasn't in the mood for either.  Kinda.  Since the film was set in Texas, I decided to go for fajitas!  I haven't had fajitas in forever!  So I grilled up some vegetarian chicken strips and some onions and peppers.  Warmed up some tortillas.  And bought a little cherry pie.  Why cherry pie?  Cause it was cute and I wanted it, that's why. 'nough said.

Tortillas, vegetarian fajitas, and cherry pie.  And depression glass.

So the movie.  I decided to go into this with a healthier attitude.  I was going to watch the story and ignore the setting.  It's a very different western from any that I've seen before.  I haven't seen many, but I've seen a few.  This story follows a gun as it is passed from different owners.  It actually really was interesting.  No one said, "Y'all" or used hokey accent.  In fact, Jimmy Stewart made it easy to try and forget it was a western.  He never changed his way of speaking.  Doesn't really fit a western.  At all.  There were some cheesy fight scenes and shoot outs, so I wasn't too thrilled with those.  They're silly.  Stewart and Winters were wonderful.  I do love Shelley.  She's so good.  A Patch Of Blue, A Place In The Sun, Roseanne, Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?, The Poseidon Adventure, What's The Matter With Helen?, Lolita....  Love her!  But like I said, the story really was interesting.  I was pleasantly surprised.  I really wanted to find out who ended up with the gun!

There were some pretty cool cameos too:

Rock Hudson

Stony Tony Curtis

So maybe it was my improved attitude or maybe it really was just a good movie in spite of being a western.  I really enjoyed this film.  I would totally recommend it if you want to watch a western.  And dinner was nummy.  Totally hit the spot.  Fajitas are amazing!  Cherry pie was a little sour, but whipped cream fixed that!  ;-)  

Really good night!

Love,

Olive

New Year's Eve Resolution Week Twenty Six: Adam's Rib

I gotta start off saying I LOVE SPENCE AND HEPBURN!!  Love them!  My favorite film of theirs is Guess Who's Coming To Dinner.  It's so good so very very good.  I've seen Adam's Rib before, but it was a long long time ago and I can't remember most of it.  Since these two are always good, especially together, I had no doubt tonight would be a great night!

As for dinner?

Finally! Movie Night Menus had me serving up a lime daiquiri, cold melon halves, lamb stew with aromatic rice, candy bars, and licorice.  Ummm, interesting?  Now I gotta switch it up to meet my needs.  First, daiquiri.  I made some fizzy lime water.  Hey, it was the best I could do.  Next cold melon halves, I don't like digging in melons, so I chopped it up.  Ok, I bought it chopped up.  Lazy.  Plus I didn't want a whole melon.  Next, lamb stew.  The recipe had so many ingredients!  Lots of them I've never worked with before, so I just winged it.  I replaced the lamb with tofu.  Tofu doesn't like to be boiled for too long, so I added it the last 15 minutes.  I also misread the recipe a bit.  It called for apple cider, and I thought it said apple cider vinegar.  So there's that.  To counter the sour I created, I added sugar and salt.  I also added an entire can of coconut milk instead of just a cup.  I couldn't let it go to waste.  As for the candy bars and licorice?  Done!  Snickers baby!!!

Depression glass with licorice and candy bars, tofu stew, and cold melon. And lime fizzy water in my Laurel and Hardy glass.

I had a great time with this movie.  It was so cute and so fun.  Very typical man vs woman film a la Doris Day and Rock Hudson, but really smart.  And the chemistry.....  I can't say enough about it.  Tracy and Hepburn just adore each other.  And respect each other.  It's really beautiful to watch.  I think that was my favorite thing about this film.  I loved watching them enjoying each other.  I can't remember a film of theirs where I saw the relationship so clear.  I mean, it's always there, but here it was in full force.

Lookit them just loving each other.  That look....

They just had so much fun with each other.  But I do kinda swear she's flipping him off....  Hmmmm.

The other actors were great as well.  You really love Judy Holiday.  But how can you not love Judy Holiday?  She's beautiful and adorable.  The only other film I've seen her in is Born Yesterday(I think).  She was phenomenal, just like in this film.  She had the same voice.  Kinda ditsy.  I had always assumed that it was a put on for the character in Born Yesterday, now I wonder if that is how she really spoke.  I gotta find more of her films and check it out.    

She's so good at simple and innocent.  Amazing expression.  

I had a great time tonight.  The film just made the evening.  It was so good.  The dinner?  I wasn't a big fan of the stew.  It was ok.  Didn't seem to have much flavor.  I think the problem was that all of the spices were on the tofu and I couldn't add the tofu until the end, so they didn't get to permeate the rest of the stew.  It was really healthy though.  My doctor would be proud.  Next time I think I'll use that vegetarian duck I used for the duck soup.  It's sturdier and won't fall apart when boiled.  Oh yeah and no ACV, I'll get cider.  Everything else was awesome, especially the rice.  SO GOOD!! I'm totally going to make the rice again.

Love,
Olive
PS:  I can't believe I'm already more than half way through!  This year is flying!!