Blood Of The Vines - More Movies You've Never Heard Of

Pairing wine with movies!  See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell.  What else are you doing while stuck at home?

If you don't like the humor in the 1966 comedy Don't Worry We'll Think of a Title, you don't have enough borscht under your belt.  Morey Amsterdam co-wrote it and starred in it, so you might expect it to be 83 minutes of zingers aimed at Richard Deacon's invisible hairline.  There is a plot, but character names like Charlie Yuckapuck and Crumworth Raines may actually overshadow the storyline. 

It is probably on this list of unheralded movies because trying to find this film's online streaming home is enough to drive a pandemic shut-in to drink.  As long as we're celebrating - or whatever - uncork a bottle from the Catskills.  Tannerville's Hudson--Chatham Winery is a light year up from the old blackberry wines of yesteryear.  They also have a wine made from the hybrid Baco Noir grape.  Morey might have said, "didja hear the one about the vitis vinifera that got crossed with a vitis riparia?"  Okay, so maybe he would have thrown in a bald joke instead.  This juice is a far cry from the old kosher berry wines of the mid-60s Catskills resort era.

And now, a 1972 flick in which Pamela Sue Martin plays a pregnant teen trying to get an abortion.  In To Find a Man, Lloyd Bridges, thankfully, does not tell his daughter, "you picked the wrong week to give up birth control pills."

It's tough to pair a wine with a movie like this.  What goes with teenage sex, pregnancy, abortion and paternal rage?  Recent studies show that a glass of wine here and there probably won't harm an unborn baby, but doctors say "why take the chance?"  If you are screening this film, maybe a Shirley Temple or some other mocktail would be a more correct pairing with your popcorn. 

Future pop star Vicki Sue Robinson plays a bit part in the film, four years before she would score a hit record with Turn the Beat Around.  Maybe a 1970s classic like Mateus Rosé, Cold Duck or Blue Nun would fit, after the kids have gone to bed.

Young Detective Dee is a fairly recent movie for these digital pages.  The Chinese trilogy carries the subtitles Mystery of the Phantom Flame, The Rise of the Sea Dragon and The Four Heavenly Kings.  Dee looks like a pronouncer in the title, since the character’s name is actually Di. 

The sea dragon version of the Young Detective Dee series is set in 660, when the Chinese fleet is attacked by said monster in an effort to poison the royal tea.  Kid makes good and an antidote saves the day, but now we need a wine to drink while we watch this fantasmagorical film.

It doesn't look like South Africa's Newton Johnson produces the Seadragon Pinot Noir anymore, but if you can find a bottle, it's a natural New World Pinot to pair with an Old World battle on the waves.


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