The Dark Side of Hollywood
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies, and many more, at Trailers From Hell. This week, we lift a big rock and look beneath it to find the squiggly life forms who make the movies we love.
The Bad and the Beautiful sounds like the title of a soap opera, and it is, in a way. The 1952 film recounts the reasons why several Hollywood talents don’t want to work with a certain producer. It all has to do with past dealings in which they believe this producer ruined their lives. Never mind that the director, actress, and screenwriter in question are at the top of their respective careers. Also never mind that their success was due in large part to the producer they all now hate. That’s Hollywood for ya. What have you done to me lately?
Vincente Minnelli directs Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Walter Pidgeon and Dick Powell in the film, which won five Oscars on six nominations. Gloria Grahame won Best Supporting Actress as the writer’s wife, but no statues went to the lead actors, director or producer. Go figure. At least Douglas was nominated.
We see flashbacks which describe how the producer offended the beautiful trio. They are all gathered together in another producer’s office as he tries to get them on board for a new project the bad guy has in mind. They are ready to walk out when they hear the idea and decide that maybe they could work with him again after all. To borrow the closing line from another movie, “They all lived happily ever after, until the next picture.”
Wines that are technically “bad” can be considered “beautiful” depending on one’s taste. High alcohol, unbalanced components, or volatile acidity can make a bad wine seem beautiful, since beauty is in the mouth of the beholder. Apothic is a brand which is deemed bad, due to its off-dry sweetness and its heavily oaked flavor. It’s also deemed beautiful, due to its off-dry sweetness and its heavily oaked flavor. Like they say, drink what you like. It’s about $12 at the supermarket.
https://www.apothic.com/apothic-red-wine-blend.html
Minnelli revisited similar territory a decade later for 1962’s Two Weeks in Another Town. The 1962 potboiler stars Douglas with Edward G. Robinson, Cyd Charisse, and Claire Trevor. The film is shot through with references to The Bad and the Beautiful, including a scene in which Douglas watches himself in the previous movie. How meta.
The film revolves around the production of a big Hollywood romance movie shot in Rome. A washed up actor is delighted to be offered a role in it, but that opportunity is snatched away from him after he arrives in Italy. They let him dub some lines of the other actors, but when the director has a heart attack, the director’s chair becomes available to him. He finishes the film and is taking a bow for his achievement when the bedridden director accuses him of stealing his film. This sort of Hollywood ending sometimes has the name Alan Smithee in the credits.
Melodramatic Wines are a natural choice for this pairing. The California Red Wine sells for about $12, maybe less depending on who’s directing. The website says it’s a wine that never shies away from the spotlight and always steals the show. That’s fine, as long as it doesn’t steal my movie! https://melodramaticwines.com/
Fairy tales can come true, they can happen to you, if you keep a flamethrower in your pool house. Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 instant classic, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, takes late ‘60s Tinseltown and spins a happy ending for one of the saddest stories of the era.
Plenty of Hollywood’s streets are featured in the film, with a soundtrack provided by Boss Radio KHJ, pouring forth from car radio speakers. El Cielo Drive serves as a constant point of reference throughout the movie, and as the natural setting for its climax.
There are plenty of cocktail options included in Once Upon a Time…, if you’d like to drink along at home. A Bloody Mary at Musso and Frank, margaritas at El Coyote and Casa Vega and homemade whiskey sours are all fine pairings for your screening.
A wine from the Hollywood Hills would be a natural for this film. Hollywood Classic Vineyard is a tiny plot of Bordeaux grape varieties growing within cork-popping distance of the Hollywood sign. The wines are not plentiful, and they are rather hard to access anyway, lending some all-important Hollywood mystique to the juice. Speaking of mystique, the owner has gotten plenty of blowback from nearby residents alleging that his development plans make him a bad neighbor.
https://www.hollywoodclassicwine.com/