It’s Oscar time this weekend. Which means you could settle in for a night of Hollywood congratulating itself on what was not really a banner year for movies. Or, you could switch on the Netflix, pop in the DVD or fire up the VCR and take a look at one of the great wine connoisseurs of the silver screen _ Claude Rains.
What? You thought I was going to say James Bond? Not a bit of it. Permit me to make my case:
Notorious 1946. Older suitor Rains has the extensive wine cellar on which the movie’s plot hinges. The bad guys are smuggling metal ore out in empty bottles, which leads to some suspenseful dodging around the racks and a little bit of cellar canoodling on the part of good guys Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. And was there ever a plot so dependent on an adequate supply of champagne? Here is a 10 minute clip of the stellar cellar scene.
This Earth is Mine 1959. This time around Rains is the patriarch of a Napa Valley wine family struggling to stay afloat during Prohibition. Lavish photography and bucketfuls of soap. Rock Hudson is a rebellious winemaker and Jean Simmons is the love interest. Bonus trivia: Scores of Napa wineries as well as locals appear in this film and a left-handed teacher had to be found to teach southpaw Hudson how to graft rootstock. This is the whole movie, all 1 hour and 58 minutes of it. Probably could have used an editor, and it’s not everyday I say that. Fifteen minutes in is a fun vineyard scene between Hudson and Simmons that begins when she chastely denudes herself of shoes and stockings to walk barefoot between the vines. I strongly, strongly recommend that you do not do this.
Deception 1946. Bette Davis, Paul Henreid. Rains is again the older suitor (I guess ’46 was his year for that) and Davis and Henreid are musically minded lovers. This short clip shows the devious Rains intimidating Henreid with his mad ordering skillz.