Kris Kristofferson’s Western Trucker Gear in Convoy

Kris Kristofferson as “Rubber Duck” in Convoy (1978)

Vitals

Kris Kristofferson as Martin “Rubber Duck” Penwald, maverick trucker

Arizona to New Mexico, Summer 1978

Film: Convoy
Release Date: June 28, 1978
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Costumers: Carol James & Kent James

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Today would have been the 90th birthday of the late Kris Kristofferson, likely best known as a pioneering singer-songwriter in the 1970s “outlaw country” movement alongside friends and fellow “Highwaymen” Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson. After writing and recording hits like “Me and Bobby McGee” and “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down”, Kristofferson embarked on an acting career that began with Dennis Hopper’s offbeat The Last Movie (1971), his titular starring role in Cisco Pike (1972), and his first collaborations with director Sam Peckinpah in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) and a more limited role in Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974). Following Kristofferson’s string in more romantic roles, Peckinpah again tapped him to play an adventurous anti-hero as the trucker Martin “Rubber Duck” Penwald in Convoy (1978). Continue reading →

Nicolas Cage’s Red Aloha Shirt in Raising Arizona

Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter in Raising Arizona (1987)

Vitals

Nicolas Cage as H.I. McDunnough, small-time crook and new dad

Tempe, Arizona, Spring 1986

Film: Raising Arizona
Release Date: March 13, 1987
Director: Joel & Ethan Coen
Costume Designer: Richard Hornung

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

In addition to tomorrow being the official start of summer, it’s also my first Father’s Day since becoming a dad last year! So the stars feel aligned for me to write about Nicolas Cage’s Hawaiian shirt-centric style as another new dad: ex-con Herbert I. McDunnough in the Coen brothers’ sophomore film, Raising Arizona (1987).

My name is H.I. McDunnough. Call me “Hi”.

Continue reading →

The Rockford Files: Jim’s Beige Safari-style Fishing Jacket

James Garner as Jim Rockford in a promotional photo for The Rockford Files (1974-1980)

Vitals

James Garner as Jim Rockford, wisecracking private detective and ex-convict

Los Angeles to Las Vegas, Summer 1974

Series: The Rockford Files
Episodes:
– “Backlash of the Hunter” (Pilot episode, dir. Richard T. Heffron, aired 3/27/1974)
– “In Pursuit of Carol Thorne” (Episode 1.10, dir. Charles S. Dubin, aired 11/8/1974)
Creator: Roy Huggins & Stephen J. Cannell
Costume Designer: Charles Waldo

Background

Our first scene with James Garner’s titular Malibu-based private eye on The Rockford Files catches Jim Rockford after fishing with his father, Joseph “Rocky” Rockford (played by Robert Donley in the pilot, before he would be recast with Noah Beery Jr.). Rocky accompanies his son back to his trailer parked at Paradise Cove, where Jim’s lovely new prospective client Sara Butler (Lindsay Wagner) awaits him. Jim leads Sara into his “cheap, tax-deductible, earthquake-proof” office, where he introduces his now-iconic fee of:

$200 a day, plus expenses.

Writing a check (dated June 6, 1974, precisely dating the setting), Sara then hires Jim to look into his father’s under-investigated murder two months later. In the tradition of great detective fiction, the complexities of the case deepen while Rockford gets knocked around by a few heavies before knocking boots with the gorgeous femme fatale. A break in the case sends Jim and Sara speeding east across the Mojave Desert in his famous bronze Pontiac, resulting in a gunfight with Rockford’s unregistered cookie jar gat.

Since June 18th is annually recognized as National Go Fishing Day, let’s look at how Jim Rockford dressed for that day of fishing in his introductory scene. Continue reading →

Cape Fear (1962): Robert Mitchum’s Straw Hat and Striped Tee as Max Cady

Robert Mitchum as Max Cady in Cape Fear (1962)

Vitals

Robert Mitchum as Max Cady, psychopathic ex-convict

Southeast Georgia, Summer 1962

Film: Cape Fear
Release Date: June 15, 1962
Director: J. Lee Thompson
Costume Designer: Mary Wills

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

With the latest adaptation of Cape Fear earning strong reviews on Apple TV+, let’s look back to the release of the original film sixty-four years ago today on June 15, 1962. Adapted from John D. MacDonald’s suspense novel The Executioners, the first Cape Fear stars Gregory Peck as Southern attorney Sam Bowden and Robert Mitchum in a chilling performance as Max Cady, a psychotic ex-convict who, upon his release after serving eight years for sexual assault, sets out to exact revenge on the man he believes responsible for his incarceration. Continue reading →

Casino: Joe Pesci’s Gray Birdseye Blazer

Joe Pesci in Casino (1995)

Vitals

Joe Pesci as Nicky Santoro, sadistic mobster

Las Vegas, Spring 1973 to Fall 1980

Film: Casino
Release Date: November 22, 1995
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Design: Rita Ryack & John A. Dunn

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

After multiple requests to expand my sartorial focus on Casino from Robert De Niro’s colorful tailoring as Ace Rothstein to Joe Pesci’s mobbed-up fits, today’s post finally zeroes in on Pesci’s style as the volatile Nicky Santoro. Continue reading →

Matthew Broderick as Ferris Bueller

Matthew Broderick in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)

Vitals

Matthew Broderick as Ferris Bueller, clever and charismatic high school senior and righteous dude

Chicago, Spring 1986

Film: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Release Date: June 11, 1986
Director: John Hughes
Costume Designer: Marilyn Vance

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Bueller… Bueller…

Forty years ago today, audiences first joined Matthew Broderick’s charming truant on an elaborate jaunt through Chicago when Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was released on June 11, 1986. Writer and director John Hughes completed his screenplay in less than a week, always with Broderick in mind to play the charming titular truant who was reportedly based on one of his own childhood acquaintances.

With just about two months until his high school graduation, 17-year-old Ferris Bueller wakes up to the forecast of a warm spring day. How could he possibly be expected to handle school on a day like that? Licking his palms to fake clammy hands that fool his parents, Ferris takes his ninth sick day of the semester—arousing the suspicions of Dean of Students Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), who isn’t about to let some snot-nosed punk leave his cheese out in the wind.

After setting up a complex system of safeguards designed to satiate his parents, school staff, and even fellow students, Ferris recruits his hypochondriac best friend Cameron (Alan Ruck) from his own sick day and liberates his girlfriend Sloane (Mia Sara) under the guise of a fictional grandmother’s death. At the wheel of Cameron’s dad’s prized Ferrari, Ferris speeds the trio into the Windy City for an unforgettable—if unbelievably packed—day:

The question isn’t “what are we going to do,” the question is “what aren‘t we going to do?”

Continue reading →

Passenger 57: Wesley Snipes’ Biker Jacket with Layered Shirts and Jeans

Wesley Snipes as John Cutter in Passenger 57 (1992)

Vitals

Wesley Snipes as John Cutter, airline security chief and ex-Secret Service agent

In flight from Miami to Los Angeles, Spring 1992

Film: Passenger 57
Release Date: November 6, 1992
Director: Kevin Hooks
Costume Designer: Brad R. Loman

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, sometimes there’s nothing more necessary than to sit back and turn off your brain to watch a pleasantly absurd ’90s action movie. Luckily for us, Kevin Hooks directed the 1992 action thriller Passenger 57—its title literally inspired after writer Stewart Raffill spied a bottle of Heinz ketchup.

Wesley Snipes stars as John Cutter, a former* Secret Service agent whose stalwart reputation has followed him into his latest career as an airline security consultant, training flight attendants like Marti Slayton (Alex Datcher) how to handle hijacking scenarios. After his pal Sly Delvecchio (Tom Sizemore) helps Cutter secure an executive position as the vice president of security for the fictional Atlantic International Airlines, Cutter boards Atlantic Flight 163… the same flight on which FBI agents are escorting the dangerous international criminal Charles Rane (Bruce Payne)—who is not insane—back to California to face trial.

With his history of commercial airline bombings that makes us—and Delvecchio—wonder why the feds would choose this particular method of transportation, “the Rane of terror” has more explosive ideas for securing his freedom, which becomes an unfortunate situation for his fellow passengers—all except passenger #57, who happens to be the nation’s foremost expert in combating air terrorism. Continue reading →

The Omen: Gregory Peck’s Charcoal Pinstripe Suit

Gregory Peck in The Omen (1976)

Vitals

Gregory Peck as Robert Thorn, American diplomat

Rome, June 6, 1970 and London, June 1975

Film: The Omen
Release Date: June 6, 1976
Director: Richard Donner
Wardrobe Supervisor: Tiny Nicholls
Tailor: H. Huntsman & Sons, London

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

The Omen was released fifty years ago today on June 6, 1976—a date intentionally selected to mirror the film’s opening on June 6th at 6 a.m., when American ambassador Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) rushes through Rome to reach his wife Katherine (Lee Remick). Robert arrives to learn that the child Katherine has just delivered died moments after birth, but hospital chaplain Father Spiletto (Martin Benson) convinces him to secretly adopt a newborn orphan and raise the boy as their own without Katherine’s knowledge.

Unfortunately for Robert, Katherine, and the world at large, that boy is Damien—the Antichrist—but I suppose you’ll have that when someone’s birth is the infamous 6-6-6: the “Number of the Beast” described in the Book of Revelation.

Gregory Peck in The Omen (1976) Continue reading →

Keith David’s Printed Polo and Desert Boots in Dead Presidents

Keith David in Dead Presidents (1995)

Vitals

Keith David as Kirby, small-time neighborhood crime boss

The Bronx, Spring 1969

Film: Dead Presidents
Release Date: October 4, 1995
Directed by: The Hughes Brothers
Costume Designer: Paul A. Simmons, Jr.

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Always the coolest guy in anything he’s in, the prolific Keith David was born June 4, 1956 and celebrates his 70th birthday today by receiving his long-overdue star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. David’s strong screen presence shone from the start, from his credited screen debut in The Thing (1982) that launched an unstoppable career spanning nearly five decades and counting.

David co-starred in the Hughes brothers’ 1995 crime drama Dead Presidents as Kirby, an avuncular Bronx crook who acts as de facto second father to local youngsters like Anthony Curtis (Larenz Tate). Shortly before Anthony is shipped off to Vietnam with the Marine Corps in early 1969, he unknowingly becomes Kirby’s getaway driver while collecting some debts in the neighborhood. Continue reading →

The Great Gatsby: Bruce Dern’s Polo Gear and Cardigan as Tom

Bruce Dern as Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby (1974)

Vitals

Bruce Dern as Tom Buchanan, hulking polo player

Long Island, New York, Early Summer 1925

Film: The Great Gatsby
Release Date: March 29, 1974
Director: Jack Clayton
Costume Designer: Theoni V. Aldredge
Clothes by: Ralph Lauren

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

The 1974 adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s landmark Jazz Age novel The Great Gatsby was my cinematic introduction to Bruce Dern, who celebrates his 90th birthday tomorrow! Born June 4, 1936 in Chicago, the actor’s birthday falls curiously close to the start of the action, when the irresponsible flapper Daisy Buchanan bemoans over dinner that “in two weeks, it’ll be the longest day of the year,” referring to the mid-June summer solstice. Continue reading →