Why Booze Movies?

Throughout film history, alcohol has been at the forefront.

Silent movies used liquor to teach cautionary lessons and to generate belly laughs with drunken slapstick.

As sound entered the picture, bootleg booze fueled gangster films and champagne supplied the fizz for screwball comedies.

Soon rotgut swilling private eyes and whiskey swigging cowboys were the rage, followed by cocktail-sipping swingers and spies.

Finally, as Hollywood moved away from the studio system and the production code that governed it, antiheroes and subversive comedians tested the limits of drunken misconduct.

There are a lot of films to cover, so let’s get started… On second thought, I need a drink first.