Booze News: When Rupert Pupkin speaks you better listen!

Greetings, fellow inebriates,

This is slightly off-topic, but I wanted to make you aware that I submitted a guest post today for the Rupert Pupkin Speaks film blog.  If you are unfamiliar with the Rupert Pupkin Speaks site, please take this opportunity to check it out.  This phenomenal film blog is all about keeping older movies in the public consciousness.  In addition to short reviews of Warner Archives releases and other unique video offerings, the site regularly features "favorite film lists" from a variety of contributors, including film bloggers and critics.  I recently discovered Rupert Pupkin Speaks, and it has quickly become one of my favorite destinations on the Internet.

In recent weeks, Rupert Pupkin Speaks has been featuring curated lists of "Favorite Underrated Comedies."  As a lover of both classic film comedy and "top ten" lists, this was a party that I just couldn't resist.  And I have to admit that I enjoyed the freedom of pontificating on films that weren't necessarily alcohol-centric.  Click on the link below to view my humble submission; and while you're at it, stick around to check out some of the other posts.  You're sure to discover some obscure and wonderful titles that you never knew existed.

Garv's post on Rupert Pupkin Speaks

Cheers,
garv

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Review: Treasure Island (1990)

USA/TV/C-132m./Dir: Fraser Clarke Heston/Wr: Fraser Clarke Heston/Cast: Charlton Heston (Long John Silver), Christian Bale (Jim Hawkins), Julian Glover (Dr. Livesey), Richard Johnson (Squire Trelawney), Oliver Reed (Billy Bones), Christopher Lee (Blind Pew), Isla Blair (Mrs. Hawkins), Michael Halsey (Israel Hands), Nicholas Amer (Ben Gunn), Pete Postlethwaite (George Merry)

"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest--
...Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest--
...Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!"

That little ditty, invented by Robert Louis Stevenson for his adventure novel, Treasure Island, is the primary reason why we associate pirates with rum to this day.  Sure, the alcoholic buccaneers featured in Stevenson’s story were not without historical precedent.  Eighteenth century privateers traded rum and sailors of all sorts certainly drank it; but after the publication of Treasure Island it was impossible to disassociate pirates from their drink of choice. 

Rum plays a central role throughout Treasure Island.  When ex-buccaneer Billy Bones takes lodging at the Admiral Benbow Inn, he spends his evenings swilling rum and singing the seafaring song printed above.  Overindulgence in the drink leads to Bones’ death and in turn fuels the plot, as Jim Hawkins, the inn-keeper’s son, discovers a treasure map amongst the dead man’s possessions.  When the boy hero takes to sea in search of pirate gold, he discovers that most of his crewmates are old shipmates of Bones with plans of mutiny, larceny, and murder.  Hawkins is nearly discovered overhearing the mutineers’ plans, but his neck is saved when the pirates are distracted by their thirst for rum. Rum continues to serve as Hawkins’ ally for the remainder of the book, as the dim-witted buccaneers are defeated at nearly every turn by their weakness for the drink. 

Not only is Treasure Island the most important of all pirate tales; it is also the most often filmed.  The story has been adapted for film and television more than fifty times, including multiple silents, iconic MGM and Disney classics, animated shorts and features, and a Muppetized version.  However, the most faithful and in my opinion the best of all of the Treasure Island movies was a 1990 made-for-television production, produced, written, and directed by Fraser Clarke Heston (the son of the most forceful of all ham actors, Charlton Heston).

Don’t let the fact that the picture was produced for basic cable stop you from seeking out Fraser Heston’s take on the oft-filmed tale.  The production values are excellent (with the tall ship from the 1962 version of Mutiny on the Bounty standing in for the Hispanola), the cinematography is lush, and the soundtrack by The Chieftains is appropriately seaworthy.  Best of all is the cast.  A teenage Christian Bale makes an admirable Jim Hawkins; noted drunkard Oliver Reed is perfectly cast as the boozy Billy Bones; and Christopher Lee is wonderfully slimy as Blind Pew.  Finally, in the pivotal role of Long John Silver, Heston has cast his dad.  I’ve never been a big fan of the over-actor I like to call “Cheston.”  However, Cheston makes one of the best movie Silvers, capturing both the ruthlessness and the folksy charm that the part requires.   

Heston the younger wisely chooses not to try to improve upon a classic.  The dialogue is more than 90 percent Stevenson, and the story sticks close to the text, with the exception of a few judicious cuts.  Consequently, if you are a fan of the book, the 1990 movie version will be the one you'll treasure.  It is a film that can be enjoyed with the whole family, or better yet with a bottle of rum. 

Drinks Consumed--Rum (with water and straight), port wine, and ale

Intoxicating Effects--Harmonizing, staggering, slurred speech, bickering, brawling, physical violence, passing out, and death

Potent Quotables--DR. LIVESEY (to Billy Bones): I have only one thing to say to you, sir.  If you keep on drinking rum, the world will soon be quit of a very dirty scoundrel.  

Video Availability--DVD (Warner Brothers)

Similarly Sauced Cinema--Cheston, Oliver Reed, and Christopher Lee also co-starred in the best adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ swashbuckler with The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers (1974).

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Review: Seven Psychopaths (2012)

USA/C-110m./Dir: Martin McDonagh/Wr: Martin McDonagh/Cast: Colin Farrell (Marty Faranan); Sam Rockwell (Billy Bickle); Christopher Walken (Hans Kieslowski); Woody Harrelson (Charlie Costello); Tom Waits (Zachariah Rigby); Abbie Cornish (Kaya); Linda Bright Clay (Myra); Bonny (Bonny the Shih Tzu)

In terms of quality, 2012 was an above average year at the multiplex.  Not only did it see the release of first rate films from many of the top directors working today (including The Master, Moonrise Kingdom, and Lincoln); it also featured slyly smart and amusing popcorn pictures (such as the brilliant Cabin in the Woods, Looper, and The Avengers).  Picking a “best” picture from the diverse group of well-crafted 2012 releases is a confounding task.  However, if asked what was the single most blissfully entertaining movie of the year, I would respond, “Seven Psychopaths” without hesitation.  

Seven Psychopaths is a feast of a movie.  It stars Colin Farrell as Marty, an alcoholic screenwriter who is having difficulty with his newest script, “Seven Psychopaths”—the problem being he’s only come up with one psychopath and he’d rather spend his time drinking.  Marty’s best pal, Billy (Sam Rockwell), an unemployed actor who kidnaps dogs on the side for reward money, desperately wants to help his friend finish the script, even if it means introducing Marty to real psychopaths.  Things take a dark turn for Marty, Billy, and Billy’s partner in the dog kidnapping biz, Hans (Christopher Walken), when Billy kidnaps a Shih Tzu owned by demented gangster Charlie Costello (Woody Harrelson).  Add to the mix a serial killer with a playing card fetish, a bunny-toting vigilante (Tom Waits), and a pissed off girlfriend (Abby Cornish), and Marty is in for one hell of a drunken ride.

Seven Psychopaths is the type of film that is easy to dismiss as a smug writer’s exercise that is way up its own butt.  Marty’s script and the movie we are watching are given the same title, so when the onscreen characters discuss Marty’s script, they are usually commenting on the movie they are in.  The postmodern humor could easily become insufferable if Martin McDonagh’s screenplay wasn’t so darn smart and funny.  Luckily, the playwright turned filmmaker’s follow-up to his excellent In Bruges (2008) shows no signs of a sophomore slump.

Another thing that helps sell the challenging material is the socko cast.  Colin Farrell holds together the disparate elements of the story with an anxious, witty variation on the cliché of the alky screenwriter.  Christopher Walken brings both hilarity and emotional depth to the role of the pacifist of the group.  It’s one of his best turns in a career of great performances.  However, the real standout is Sam Rockwell as Billy.  McDonagh gives the character of Billy the juiciest material, and Rockwell squeezes every bit of nectar and pulp out of it.  If you’ve liked Sam Rockwell in previous movies, you’ll love him in this.  It is Sam Rockwell at his Sam Rockwellest.

If the idea of Pulp Fiction (1994) crossed with Adaptation (2002) sounds like a good time at the movies, than you owe it to yourself to check out Seven Psychopaths.  It is a decidedly well-mixed cocktail.

Drinks Consumed--White wine, margaritas, bourbon (Buffalo Trace), beer (Shiner Bock, Corona, and others), and unnamed cocktails

Intoxicating Effects--Hangover, memory blackouts, bickering, swearing, physical violence, and drunk driving

Potent Quotables--MARTY: I don’t have a drinking problem.  I just like drinking.
BILLY: Of course you do, Marty.  One, you’re a writer. Two, you’re from Ireland. It’s part of your heritage.  You’re fucked. 
MARTY: Fuck off now, Billy.  Seriously, just fuck off now.  I’m not in the fuckin’ mood!
BILLY: You’re fucked from birth.  Spanish have got bullfighting.  The French got cheese.  And the Irish have got alcoholism.

Video Availability--DVD and Blu-ray (Sony)

Similarly Sauced Cinema--Colin Farrell also drowned his sorrows with liquor in Martin McDonagh’s directorial debut, In Bruges (2008).

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Review: The Master (2012)

USA/C-137m./Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson/Wr: Paul Thomas Anderson/Cast: Joaquin Phoenix (Freddie Quell); Philip Seymour Hoffman (Lancaster Dodd); Amy Adams (Peggy Dodd); Laura Dern (Helen Sullivan); Ambyr Childers (Elizabeth Dodd); Jesse Plemons (Val Dodd); Rami Malek (Clark)

There are a handful of films that so dazzle you with the power of their images that, as you leave the theater, the world appears changed.  Colors are more vibrant.  Textures appear in sharper focus.  You notice the composition between shapes.  Your concentration is heightened.  In short, you view the world as if it were a movie.  Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, The Master, is one such film.

The story, what there is of one, centers around Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) a sex-obsessed, alcoholic World War vet, diagnosed with a “nervous condition.” After being released from the naval veteran’s hospital, Freddie loses one job due to erratic fits of anger and flees another job due to inadvertently poisoning a co-worker with his highly-potent homebrew.  It is Freddie’s talent for low-budget mixology, combining ingredients such as industrial alcohol and paint thinner with fruit juice, that initially ingratiates him with Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a huckster leader of an infant scientific/religious movement (some call it a cult).  Dodd sees Quell as his greatest conversion challenge, and Quell sees Dodd and his group as a respite from his wandering.  However, under-the-surface Dodd and his extended family may be as tightly-wound and animalistic as Freddie. 

The Master is a difficult, confounding film that will leave many audiences cold.  Those that aren’t turned off by Anderson’s cryptic writing and the film’s deliberate pace may well be repelled by the often sexually crude dialogue and the energy of Phoenix’s raw-nerve performance.  That said, The Master is a work of art, and it is easily the best film of the year.  Paul Thomas Anderson has yet to make a bad film, but with the one-two punch of There Will Be Blood and The Master, his work has risen to the level of that of the top rank of film artists, such as Welles, Kubrick, and Fellini.

There is much to praise in this 137-minute work of art.  Anderson always get the most from the actors that he works with (from Philip Baker Hall to Tom Cruise to Adam Sandler to Daniel Day-Lewis), and The Master contains career-topping performances from Phoenix, Hoffman, and Amy Adams.  The cinematography by Mihai Malaimare Jr. is mesmerizing, and the Jonny Greenwood's score amps us the tension without intruding on the action.  The only area where one might find fault is in the lack of story, but it is hard to complain when the film is so rich in characterization.  The movie will leave you with plenty to contemplate, even if you can’t quite process the narrative upon a first viewing.

For soused cinema enthusiasts, The Master is a banquet.  Freddie Quell is a capital “A” alcoholic, and the film focuses loving attention on his mixology skills.  Much like the Three Stooges, Freddie can concoct volcanically potent yet drinkable cocktails from the most unlikely ingredients (though he doesn’t use an old boot as a cocktail shaker).  The character of Lancaster Dodd is also an inveterate tippler, but he keeps his predilections better hidden, under the watchful eye of his domineering wife.  The tug of war between Quell and Dodd, two bombastic boozers, makes fascinating viewing.

Drinks Consumed--Torpedo juice (180-proof grain alcohol drained from a torpedo); poisonous punch (made from a variety of liquors and paint thinner); champagne; Old Fashions, and scotch served neat

Intoxicating Effects--brawling, physical violence, swearing, hangover, memory blackouts, sneaking sips, harmonizing, jail time, destruction of property, and soused sex
 
Potent Quotables--When asked by Dodd if Freddie’s brew is poison, Quell responds, “Not if you drink it smart.”  (I’ll replace this paraphrase with the exact quote when the film is released on video.) 

Video Availability--The Master is currently in theaters.  See it on the big screen (preferably in 70mm) while you can.


Similarly Sauced Cinema--Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) in Paul Thomas Anderson’s previous masterwork, There Will Be Blood (2007), is also fond of his drink. 

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Review: A Free Soul (1931)

USA/B&W-93m./Dir: Clarence Brown/Wr: Becky Gardiner & John Meehan, from a book by Adela Rogers St. John/Cast: Norma Shearer (Jan Ashe), Lionel Barrymore (Stephen Ashe), Clark Gable (Ace Wilfong), Leslie Howard (Dwight Winthrop), James Gleason (Eddie), and Lucy Beaumont (Grandma Ashe)

In response to a series of highly publicized Hollywood sex scandals, the U.S. film industry began a policy of self-censorship in July of 1934.  Film historians have chosen to refer to movies produced between the advent of sound and the enforcement of this Motion Picture Production Code as “Pre-Code,” because these pictures often display lascivious sexuality, drug and alcohol use, intense violence, and other salacious behavior that would be unthinkable a few years later.  A Free Soul is a good example of a Pre-Code film, in that is flaunts frank depictions of pre-marital sex, racketeering, murder, and alcohol abuse.

Lionel Barrymore and Norma Shearer star as Stephen and Jan Ashe, an alcoholic attorney and his free-thinking daughter.  Ashe’s best years as a lawyer are behind him due to his drinking, but he scores a great success in his Johnny Cochran-like defense of gangster Ace Wilfong (Clark Gable).  When a soused and celebratory Ashe brings Ace to a family dinner party, he unintentionally sparks a scandalous affair between Ace and his daughter.  When relations between the unwed lovers sour, Jan’s former fiancé, Dwight Winthrop (Leslie Howard), takes the law into his own hands.  Only the legal skills of Jan’s pickled pater can save the rash Dwight.

Time has blunted the shock value of this moldy melodrama.  The immodest suggestion of sex between Shearer and Gable (She went to his apartment and stayed—GASP!) is pretty tame by today’s standards.  The depiction of Barrymore’s alcoholism, while frank for the period, is also not alarming in the eyes of present-day audiences.  However, what do retain the power to shock are Norma Shearer’s costumes (or lack thereof).  In particular, she wears a thin, slip-like dress to a family dinner party and to Gable’s apartment afterwards that clings to her body in a most immodest way, making it obvious that nothing is worn underneath.  The nightgown is more indecent than anything Jean Harlow wore onscreen during the same era. Based upon this dress alone, the movie would have a hard time obtaining a PG-13 rating today.

While the sudsy story doesn’t hold up well, A Free Soul holds a special place in film history for a few reasons.  Firstly, Lionel Barrymore won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance as the alky attorney, beginning a tradition of awards going hand-in-hand with portrayals of dipsomaniacs struggling against their obsession with the bottle.  More importantly, Clark Gable made such an impression in his supporting turn in A Free Soul that it catapulted him to leading man status, where he soon proved to be the 1930s’ top male sex symbol.  Finally, the first pairing of Gable and Howard is sure to draw interest from fans of Gone with the Wind (Norma Shearer was also one of the many actress considered for the role of Scarlett).

A Free Soul is not great drama, but general audiences will find it worth their time based upon Norma Shearer's costume choices and Barrymore’s boozing.  Of course, for fans of Pre-Code flicks, it is more or less essential viewing.   
 
Drinks Consumed--Champagne, gin martinis, whisky and soda, and unnamed liquor

Intoxicating Effects--Sneaking sips, slurred speech, hiccups, staggering, stumbling, bickering, and bar tossed

Potent Quotables--JAN: Tell me, Eddie.  Has he been drinking?
EDDIE: Well…
JAN: A lot?
EDDIE: Well, it wouldn’t be a lot for a camel or one of them things.

Video Availability--A Free Soul is available on DVD as a part of the TCM Archives - Forbidden Hollywood Collection Vol. 2 (Warner Home Video).

Similarly Sauced Cinema--For a more modern tale of a lawyer struggling with alcoholism, check out The Verdict (1982), featuring Paul Newman at his finest. 


Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Vol. 2 (The Divorcee / A Free Soul /      Three on a Match / Female / Night Nurse / Pre-Code Documentary)

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