Danny Kaye was one of my family’s favorite entertainers when I was a kid.  His movie career was (mostly) before my time, although I relished seeing his films on television.  His variety show in the mid-’60s we never missed.  It was a bittersweet joy when he skipped that giant circle around the soundstage.  It was…

When I was in college – way back when – the student center had a room where a different video each week was piped in and played continuously.  I would plop down between classes – when we weren’t drinking something horrible at the school newspaper office – and catch fifteen minutes or so of whatever…

When I first saw the classic sci-fi movie, “Them!,” I didn’t know the meaning of needing a drink.  Today, I do.  It’s a wonder this film didn’t make me seek out my parents’ wine stash years earlier than I eventually did.  Water Is Never Enough. The trailer blazes the words: Terror – Horror – Excitement…

So you meet your friends for some wine before the movie.  You allow plenty of time, so you can relax and have several glasses before walking over to the cinema.  You settle into your comfy movie chair with some of that $20 movie food, let the promos wash over you, and then… The movie is “Alien,” and…

Pairing wine with certain movies requires a leap of faith. How would you really feel having fava beans and Chianti while watching “Silence Of The Lambs”?  Arsenic And Old Lace presents a similar difficulty. Frank Capra’s film rendition of Arsenic And Old Lace stars Cary Grant as a newlywed who discovers his two sweet, old aunts are…

If you are in the mood for an unhinged parody of the beach-blanket-teen-flesh movies of the early to mid-’60s – and when are you not in the mood for that? –  “Lord Love A Duck” is where you should go.  Duck pairs wonderfully with wine and the movie gives flight to the “groovy” part of…

Orson Welles wrote, directed and co-starred in “Touch of Evil” in 1958, at the end of what might be considered film noir’s golden era.  It was right at the end of Welles’ golden era, too.  He had been packing on the pounds by this point in his career, and was also drinking too much.  In…

The Curiosity rover has begun snooping about for evidence of life on Mars.  I’ll be watching those pictures closely for evidence of wine on Mars.  Paul Mantee’s character in Robinson Crusoe on Mars could have used a little martian vino, be it red or white.Had Daniel Defoe’s earthbound Crusoe known he would be marooned for 28 years,…

For the dog days of summer, what could be better than a movie with some canine teeth?  And some claws.  And a loud bark.  And a nice wine for a dog day afternoon. “The Howling” is a great 1980s werewolf film – there were a few of them back in the day.  This one boasts…

In Withnail and I, two English chums go “on holiday by mistake” and seek refuge from their horrid lives in a bottle of whatever is nearby. The movie is loaded with writing that is memorized and used by the film’s fans in their daily lives as often as possible. How can anyone resist lines like,…

While casting about for a French wine and movie pairing, it occurred to me how much French stuff we find all around us.  That’s no surprise if you are in France, of course.  You expect it there.  But in the United States we sure have a lot of French stuff on hand.  French wine, of…

Westerns – the Great American Movie Genre.  Yes, the Italian cinema has its Spaghetti Western – Cameriere, more Sangiovese, please!  But we’re talking real, honest-to-John-Wayne American westerns here.  The kind with a big, wide-open-spaces theme by somebody like Elmer Bernstein, Alfred Newman, orLerner and Loewe.  Morricone magic is better served with the aforementioned grape of Chianti – and…

Have you ever been riding your chopper down a southern U.S. highway, lookin’ for America and unable to find it?  If so, “Easy Rider” is the movie is for you.  I’ll call a spoiler alert here in order to mention that in between the moment you see that shotgun barrel stickin’ out of the pickup…

The Fastest Guitar Alive” is one of those rock’n’roll movies that rock’n’roll would probably like to disown.  In fact, it may have driven rock’n’roll to drink – and it was doing all right in that department before this film came along in 1967. It’s Roy Orbison’s only acting role – for a clue as to…

In “The Beast With Five Fingers,”  the severed hand of a dead piano player comes back from the grave to… play the piano some more!  There’s plenty of melody in those ghostly tunes, even though the hand appears to be a left hand. If that were true, wouldn’t it just be playing the bass notes?  Aah, I…

In Martin Scorsese’s “King of Comedy,” Robert De Niro plays Rupert Pupkin, a demented fan obsessed with the late-night talk show host played by Jerry Lewis.  If De Niro’s digs in Taxi Driver creeped you out, what did you think of his basement room in this movie?  The fake talk show set – complete with…

When we talk about wine, the talk always turns to Pinot Noir. It’s considered by many wine snobs to be the grape that’s hardest to get into the bottle, but the most expressive of the conditions from which it comes. If you’d like the full-length lecture, just ask the nearest wine snob. Make sure you…

When Ron Howard’s first film, “Grand Theft Auto,” was made, I thought great wine was the Spanada my mom kept in the fridge.  I don’t know how mom would feel about her favorite beverage being relegated to the category of “bum wine,” but at  $7.70 for a magnum, it would seem to come in on…

Kim Novak and James Stewart may have been feeling a bit dizzy from “Vertigo” when they teamed up again less than a year later for “Bell, Book and Candle.”  This romantic comedy is set in Manhattan, during the Christmas season.  The story revolves around a subculture of witches there.   Despite the beautiful cinematography, the backdrop…