Try This Ida Lupino Noir Bar Cocktail |

“Noir City-Face the Music” is in full swing at the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland as the launch of its eight city tour.

Eddie Muller—host of TCM’s Noir Alley, one of the world’s leading authorities on film noir, and cocktail connoisseur—takes film buffs and drinks enthusiasts alike on a spirited tour through the “dark city” of film noir in this stylish book packed with equal parts great cocktail recipes and noir lore.

ROAD HOUSE paired with a BETWEEN THE SHEETS

Watch Road House below.

If heaven ever appeared in a noir, it was in this 1948 film. Jefty’s Road House is a rustic retreat near the Canadian border—a combination lodge, restaurant, nightclub, and bowling alley, it was a kind of place once fairly common in America, but that now seems like an exquisite pipe dream. The fabulous set, fabricated on the 20th Century–Fox lot, was created by art directors Lyle Wheeler and Maurice Ransford and set decorator Thomas Little, under the direction of director Jean Negulesco, himself a former art director. It serves as backdrop for a ménage a noir in which a couple of boyhood pals—the proprietor and manager of said road house—vie for itinerant chanteuse Lily Stevens (Ida Lupino), a wily and willful dame who, in the words of her romantic rival (Celeste Holm), “Does more with no voice than anybody I’ve ever heard.”

Unfortunately for Lily, this bit of heaven is owned and operated by the devil. Jefty is played with maniacal zeal by Richard Widmark, whose gleeful psychopathy made him an overnight sensation in his two previous Fox films: Kiss of Death (1947) and The Street with No Name (1948). Road House was tailored for Lupino at the height of her glamour girl phase; she played essentially the same character in 1946’s The Man I Love (showing in the 2026 Noir City)at her home studio of Warner Bros. Lupino made this film specifically to play opposite Widmark, although in the end she winds up romancing Jefty’s pal, Pete Morgan (Cornel Wilde).

Much was made of Lupino doing her own singing. She offers husky-voiced renditions of the classic barroom ballads, “One for My Baby (and One More for the Road),” “Again,” “The Right Kind,” and “There’ll Be Some Changes Made.” “One for My Baby” actually cracked the pop charts, proving there was nothing this woman could not do. Let’s toast Lily Stevens and Ida Lupino with a timeless classic, the naughtily named Between the Sheets, essentially a sugar-free variation on another perennial favorite, The Sidecar. Most versions call for Triple Sec, but I prefer using Cointreau.

Photo by Steve Legato

BETWEEN THE SHEETS Cocktail

COUPE GLASS, chilled MIXING GLASS, strained

1 ounce. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cognac

1 ounce. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . light rum

1 ounce. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cointreau

¼ ounce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . lemon juice

Garnish . . . . . . . . . . . . …. orange peel, flamed

NOTES: Tradition calls for a spritz of orange oils to be flamed over the surface of the drink. To do this, peel off a sizable bit of orange rind. Holding a lighted match in one hand over the drink, fold the peel in proximity to the flame. This will produce a sparkle of citrus oil on the surface, with the heat enhancing the aroma. Discard the peel or set it in the drink. Your call.

Eddie Muller’s Noir Bar pairs carefully curated classic cocktails and modern noir-inspired libations with behind-the-scenes anecdotes and insights on 50 film noir favorites. Some of the cocktails are drawn directly from the films: If you’ve seen In a Lonely Place and wondered what’s in a “Horse’s Neck”—now you’ll know. If you’re watching Pickup on South Street you’ll find out what its director, Sam Fuller, actually drank off-screen. Didn’t know that Nightmare Alley’s Joan Blondell inspired a cocktail? It may become a new favorite. Meanwhile, Rita Hayworth is toasted with a “Sailor Beware,” an original concoction which, like the film that inspired it (The Lady From Shanghai), is unique, complex, and packs a wallop. Featuring dozens of movie stills, poster art, behind-the-scenes imagery, and stunning cocktail photography, Noir Bar is both a stylish and exciting excursion through classic cinema’s most popular genre. Also included are cocktails paired two films in this year’s festival, Gilda and Sweet Smell of Success.

You can purchase Eddie Muller’s books at the Festival, at his website or from your local independent book shop in person or through Bookshop.org.

Read Michael J. Casey’s book review.

And Julia Ricci’s Non-Drinker’s review.

For more recipes from the Noir Bar go here,

Noir Bar: Film Classics and Cocktails with Eddie Muller at The Mob Museum where he discussed a range of classic movies while demonstrating how to create a few of his own noir-inspired craft cocktails. Muller provided insights and anecdotes about all-time-great noir films, along with clips from films.