Tashlinesque
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 hoist a glass to a trio of films directed by Frank Tashlin.
The Alphabet Murders is a British film from 1965. The story was taken from an Agatha Christie novel, so we can expect it to be top-notch. If you’re a Hercule Poirot fan, we can take that a notch higher, if there is one. The book was actually titled The A.B.C. Murders. The entertainment industry had apparently gotten over the notion that they had to spell it out for us.
The cast includes Tony Randall, Anita Ekberg, and Robert Morley. Randall is given the role of Poirot. If that seems an odd choice to you, there’s a club you can join that includes most of the critics of the mid-’60s. My wife has a computer which stays on shows featuring Hercule Poirot, so I feel I can speak from an area of a certain expertise. Tony Randall was a great leading man’s best friend, but a great Belgian detective he wasn’t.
The story strays quite a bit from the book, which is not unusual in the movie biz. Our featured director, Tashlin, specialized in wringing a bit of humor out of whatever script was in front of him. The humor centered on Clouseau-ish slapstick, raising the hackles of more than one scribe. One thing you don’t want to do to a scribe is raise hackles. The movie’s plot is thrown into action by the death of a clown, which, in the old joke, is called “a good start.”
An unusual movie deserves an unusual wine. Alphabet Wine is a Georgian Saperavi, for those who want a little adventure when they pop the cork. A New York importer sells it for $24.
From 1957, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter was a satire on advertising, mainly. Advertising happens to be a topic that lends itself quite conveniently to satire. Tashlin borrowed minimally from the Broadway play of the same name in writing the screenplay. By minimally, we mean he liked the title.
Jayne Mansfield stars along with, well whaddaya know, Tony Randall in this one. The role of lowly adman Rockwell P. Hunter was intended for Ed Sullivan, but he turned it down. From Ed Sullivan to Tony Randall seems like a long jump, but that was Tashlin’s problem, since he was the producer as well the director. A Hollywood problem.
Mansfield’s Rita Marlowe applies her beauty to rescuing Stay-Put lipstick from the bargain bin. Hunter acts as her boyfriend in a public relations move, which doesn’t sit well with his real-life fiancée. He soars from the basement to the boardroom, only to find that it’s lonely at the top. All ends well when Rock and the fiancée retire to a chicken ranch, which must be someone’s idea of a great retirement, just not mine.
I searched and searched for a lipstick wine, but all I got were entries from CoverGirl, Revlon, and Maybelline. I struck gold, or red, I guess, with Boucher Wines. Their Lipstick On A Pig red blend is heavy on the Santa Barbara County Syrah and it, no kidding, pairs well with bacon. $26.
https://boucherwines.com/products/2022-lipstick-on-a-pig
From 1956, the dawn of rock’n’roll, we have The Girl Can’t Help It. Mansfield stars in this one, too, as the girl who can’t help it, naturally. Girl was written as a way to show off Mansfield as a singer who wasn’t too good at singing. Throw in a host of rock stars and some screaming teenagers and you’ve got a Saturday afternoon matinee miracle on your hands.
The musical cast features Fats Domino, Little Richard, Eddie Cochran, and Gene Vincent, among other less brilliant stars of ‘50s rock’n’roll. The music carries this film, as it shows all the excitement of those early rockin’ days while, thankfully, overshadowing the intrigue involving the singer, the promoter, and a mobster. Little Richard’s performance on the title song is a revelation. The film influenced rock stars of the following decades, including a couple of guys named Lennon and McCartney. They reportedly broke up a recording session at Abbey Road to go home and watch the movie’s premiere on British TV.
Elvis Presley wasn’t in The Girl Can’t Help It, but he probably should have been. The rumor is that his cellblock scene in Jailhouse Rock was inspired by this Tashlin film. Elvis Presley – The King is a $20 Cabernet Sauvignon with the icon of ‘50s rock on the label.
https://winesthatrock.com/collections/elvis-presley-wines/products/elvis-preseley-the-king