There’s a kind of joy in watching vintage Hollywood films or reading classic Black Mask writers such as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. It’s not nostalgia, because you probably haven’t lived those years. It’s more of a fascination bordering on a yearning for beautiful times when women were dangerous and wore silk affairs for breakfast, men had a side parting as sharp as a knife, and every character had a drinks cabinet at home or else spent an overindulgent amount of time at some hotel bar.

And the best scenes are always played around a bottle of something. In the 1934 film The Thin Man, William Powell, who plays Nick, gives the bartender a lesson in the finer art of shaking a drink. “The important thing is the rhythm,” he tells him. “A Manhattan you always shake to fox-trot time, a Bronx to two-step time, a dry martini you always shake to waltz time.”

In Some Like It Hot, characters dunk their lines in copious Manhattan cocktails while in The Philadelphia Story, Cary Grant gives Katherine Hepburn a stinger, a heady mix of brandy, crème de menthe and crushed ice. Cary Grant’s drink of choice in North by Northwest is a gibson, which is six parts gin and one part vermouth strained in a chilled martini glass. And who can forget Humphrey Bogart’s memorable line in Casablanca. As he fixes Ingrid Bergman a champagne cocktail, he turns to her and tells her: “Here’s looking at you, kid.”

Whisky is fuelling a taste for classic cocktails such as the old-fashioned and mint julep

In recent years, classic cocktails have made a welcome return. Whisky is fuelling a taste for classic cocktails such as the old -fashioned and mint julep. Gin has also re-claimed its place in vintage cocktails such as the greyhound and, that most classic cocktail of all, the martini, which was especially created for gin. It was the drink of choice of Ernest Hemingway (even though the American author could drink anything) and Humphrey Bogart. Even that famous call to arms of the British Empire, “It’s five o’clock somewhere,” referred to gin.

Such memorable moments. To relive them, the recipe is simple: a cocktail shaker, a few choice bottles and some mixers and garnish. There’s no better way than to feel like a vintage Hollywood star than to mix a classic cocktail.

Cosmopolitan

You need
3 parts citrus flavoured vodka
½ parts Cointreau
½ parts cranberry juice
A dash of lime
Orange twist

Method
Combine the vodka, Cointreau, cranberry juice and lime into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with an orange twist.

Tom Collins

You need
1 part gin
Juice of half a lemon
2 parts soda water
2tsp caster sugar
Lemon wedge
Ice

Method
Pour the freshly squeezed lemon juice, sugar and gin into a highball glass and stir. Add cubed ice and stir again. Top with soda water, stir and garnish with a lemon wedge.

Whisky Sour

You need
3 parts whisky
2 parts lemon juice
1 part Gomme syrup
A dash of egg white

Method
Pour all the ingredients into a cocktail shaker, add ice and shake. Strain into an ice-filled old fashioned glass. You can garnish with a cherry or an orange twist.

Negroni

You need
1 part gin
1 part Campari
1 part sweet red vermouth

Method
You can serve a Negroni in two ways: on the rocks or straight up. For the on the rocks version, combine all the ingredients on a glass filled with ice, stir to combine and add an orange twist. To serve a Negroni straight up, combine all the ingredients in a mixing glass, stir well, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Add an orange twist as a garnish.

Old-Fashioned

You need
1 part bourbon
2 dashes Angostura bitters
1 dash water
Sugar cube

Method
Place the sugar cube in an old fashioned glass and add the bitters and water. Muddle until the sugar has dissolved. Add ice cubes and whisky and garnish with an orange twist.

Dry Martini

You need
2 parts gin
¾ parts dry vermouth
Lemon zest or a green olive

Method
Shake the gin and dry vermouth into a cocktail shaker and pour into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with either lemon zest or an olive.