Author: Bob Westal

1953’s The Big Heat was directed by Fritz Lang and scripted to near perfection by former crime reporter Sidney Boehm. Based on a novel by William P. McGivern, The Big Heat contains disturbing violence remarkable for its time but the reason we still talk about it 71 years later has little to do with shock value. Directed by uber-influential expressionist Fritz Lang, it works largely because of a screenplay and actors who never fear to raise the emotional stakes. It’s a career highlight for leading man Glenn Ford. Still, it’s the amazing Gloria Grahame who is the beating heart of…

Mighty Joe Young is well-known to geeky film fanciers as a follow-up to 1933’s King Kong. It didn’t have the greatest reputation among my teenage fanboy friends but, seeing it for maybe the first time at TCM Fest this year, it was a daffy, breezy comfort watch. Released in 1949, it was a chance for another, more lighthearted bite at the giant-simian apple for the Kong team of director Ernest B. Schoedsack, producer/co-writer Merian C. Cooper, and stop-motion pioneer Willis O’Brien. One important addition was a 29-year-old stop-motion artist named Ray Harryhausen. A possible influence on everything from E.T. to…

I know of no earthly connection between this somewhat sweet martini alternative and the 49th U.S. state. Its history goes back to the turn of the 20th century – long before Alaska was granted statehood in 1959 — and it appears in Harry Craddock’s 1930 The Savoy Cocktail Book. That seems to be all there is – except a lovely drink. I recommend the Alaska when you just want a small, easy to make potent potable with a softer and sweeter flavor. My reason for choosing the Alaska this time is that my bottle of Yellow Chartreuse, which I discussed ad…

I’ve been through most of the drinks in Ted Haigh’s Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails over the last 12 or 13 years but I’ve missed this evocatively named drink up to now. It was probably that, whenever I looked at the Widow’s Kiss recipe, I didn’t have any Yellow Chartreuse or, if I had that, I was fresh out of Benedictine. Now, I have both but not for much longer. The Benedictine isn’t a problem. I complained about the price of Green Chartreuse when I made The Diamondback and the now-standard The Last Word a decade or so back. The more expensive green liqueur…

I have some great news. Jon Stewart has announced a return to basic cable. I have better news: his sworn enemy, Tucker Carlson, the anti-Stewart himself, has not! Even so, the long-time standup turned comic sage will return to an even more dangerous environment than the one he left in 2015. The Tucker that Stewart faced off against on CNN’s Crossfire in 2004 was a baby-faced dweeb, a George Will/William Buckley wannabe, an angry adolescent Mickey Mouse, complete with bow tie. Today, Tucker is scarred for life and has never forgiven Stewart; he has become a perpetually aggrieved testicle-tanning, hate-spewing, white…

2024 is at our doorstep and I’ve unearthed a delicious sparkling wine and booze combo ideal for New Year’s Eve or any celebration. Be forewarned, however; this one comes with a hidden hard liquor depth charge that demands respect. West 75th is a variation on another classic NYE-friendly beverage, the French 75. While some versions of that drink allow for Prosecco in place of Champagne, West 75th, as borrowed/adapted from Difford’s Guide, goes further by specifying Prosecco and then replaces gin with apple brandy, simple syrup for raspberry syrup, and adds orange bitters. The taste is so deceptively fruity and easygoing you…

Christmas is coming whether we like it or not. I’ve got something cool in the pipeline for New Year’s, but below are several of my favorite drinks from past holiday posts to keep you literally fat and happy in the meantime. Nog! Nog! Nog! I rediscovered the joy of eggnog with my first Christmas post. I loved the stuff sans-booze as a kid but I found little joy in the rum or brandy nog I’d tried later at holiday parties. I understood making it from scratch would result in a fresher and more full-bodied drink, but I was intimidated by…

Assuming you have nothing else to think about, it’s possible you remember that our last drink was the Oaxaca Old Fashioned. That variation on the first cocktail features one and a half parts reposado tequila to a half part mezcal. and will inevitably be confused with this week’s similar but not at all identical drink. The Mezcal Old Fashioned is comprised of equal parts mezcal and reposado or anejo tequila. The alteration is a small one but not so minor when it comes to taste. Fans of Only Murders in the Building may have noticed today’s drink as the preferred order of intrepid…

Well, this is embarrassing. Inspired by its multiple namechecks on Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building, I had meant to present you with the Mezcal Old Fashioned. It turns out, however, that the drink I’ve been making all week is its sister beverage, the Oaxaca Old Fashioned. I’ll get into the small but probably important distinctions in a later post. Rest assured, however; my tastebuds and I agree that this is a modern-day cocktail classic that deserves wider recognition. It’s a sweet, smokey, after-dinner drink that is boozy enough for cocktailian respectability. It’s also fine before dinner if you’re like me…

I loved the Clover Club so much that I covered it not once but three times back in 2013. There’s no great mystery about the genesis of the name. It was first served at meetings of the Clover Club, a regular convocation of drinky males, at Philadelphia’s Bellevue-Stratford Hotel up through Prohibition. While banning alcohol set the cause of all good cocktails back, the death blow to the Clover Club beverage seems to have come from toxic masculinity! It turns out that “pink for girls and blue for boys” was not yet a big deal pre-World War I. So manly men in Philly and…