Taxi Driver: De Niro’s Date-ready Maroon Corduroy Jacket as Travis Bickle

Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (1976)

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Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle, disturbed taxi driver and Vietnam War veteran

New York City, Spring 1976

Film: Taxi Driver
Release Date: February 9, 1976
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Designer: Ruth Morley

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Ahead of Robert De Niro’s birthday tomorrow, let’s celebrate Taxi Driver‘s 50th anniversary this year by seeing how well Travis Bickle cleans himself up for a date. Paul Schrader’s screenplay indicates the importance of Travis making a good impression on the more sophisticated campaign volunteer Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) by describing his approach:

TRAVIS, dressed to the teeth, walks brightly down the sidewalk. His face is freshly shaved, his hair combed, his tie straightened.

Of course, while Travis may know enough to look the part, he hasn’t quite grasped the concept of taking his first date literally anywhere but a porn palace. Continue reading →

Manhunter: William Petersen’s Dark Sport Jackets as Will Graham

William Petersen as Will Graham in Manhunter (1986)

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William Petersen as Will Graham, tortured FBI criminal profiler

Across the United States, Fall 1986

Film: Manhunter
Release Date: August 15, 1986
Director: Michael Mann
Costume Designer: Colleen Atwood

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

While the Oscar-winning The Silence of the Lambs is a deservedly great movie that brought Thomas Harris’ fictional killer psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter to widespread public attention, the cannibalistic murderer had actually made his cinematic debut a half-decade earlier when Brian Cox portrayed the renamed Dr. Lecktor in Manhunter. Adapted by writer/director Michael Mann from Harris’ 1981 novel Red Dragon (with its title changed by producer Dino De Laurentiis), Manhunter was released 40 years ago this week on August 15, 1986.

Cox starred opposite William Petersen as FBI agent Will Graham, establishing the characters’ antagonistically layered screen dynamic that would be repeated in the 2002 remake Red Dragon and the NBC TV adaptation Hannibal. Continue reading →

The Killer Inside Me: Casey Affleck as Texas Deputy Lou Ford

Casey Affleck in a promotional image for The Killer Inside Me (2010)

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Casey Affleck as Lou Ford, diabolical deputy sheriff and sadistic sociopath

West Texas, Summer 1952

Film: The Killer Inside Me
Release Date: June 18, 2010
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Costume Designer: Lynette Meyer

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

The trouble with growin’ up in a small town is everybody thinks they know who you are…

…begins Casey Affleck’s narration as West Texas deputy sheriff Lou Ford in The Killer Inside Me, Michael Winterbottom’s 2010 adaptation of Jim Thompson’s 1952 novel of the same name. Ford exemplifies a favorite Thompson trope: the amoral Southern lawman who masks his murderous, psychopathic personality behind a dim, folksy exterior; imagine Barney Fife was secretly Ted Bundy, and you’ve got Thompson’s novels like The Killer Inside Me and, my personal favorite, the darkly comic Pop. 1280.

The cinematic possibilties of this rich plot naturally brought Hollywood calling, beginning with 20th Century Fox optioning The Killer Inside Me shortly after its publication with Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, and Marilyn Monroe to star. Despite this dream cast, setbacks kept The Killer Inside Me out of production for two decades. It finally arrived on screen in 1976, just six months before Thompson’s death, with Stacy Keach now playing Deputy Ford and the action transferred to 1970s Montana.

But Burt Kennedy’s 1976 adaptation wasn’t enough. Quentin Tarantino and Dominic Sena showed interest in directing, with rumors of Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt to star. When a more faithful adaptation of The Killer Inside Me finally premirered at Sundance in January 2010, it starred Casey Affleck—born 51 years ago today on August 12, 1975—as Lou Ford. Continue reading →

Evil Under the Sun: Roddy McDowall’s Nautical Breton Stripes

Roddy McDowall in Evil Under the Sun (1982)

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Roddy McDowall as Rex Brewster, flamboyant gossip columnist

Adriatic Sea, Summer 1939

Film: Evil Under the Sun
Release Date: March 5, 1982
Director: Guy Hamilton
Costume Designer: Anthony Powell

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Having returned from my own beach vacation this weekend, today’s post draws from a summery classic that was some of the earliest inspiration on my interest in men’s style: Guy Hamilton’s 1982 adaptation of the Agatha Christie mystery Evil Under the Sun.

This was the third Christie adaptation produced by John Brabourne and Richard Goodwin for EMI Films in less than a decade, beginning with Murder on the Orient Express (1974) which starred Albert Finney as eccentric Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Death on the Nile (1978) was the first to star Peter Ustinov, who became the first actor since Austin Trevor (in the 1930s) to play Poirot multiple times on screen when he first reprised the role in Evil Under the Sun. This movie feels considerably lighter than its predecessors in its tone and sun-baked setting, transferred from the novel’s provincial English coast to an exotic fictional island in the Adriatic Sea but filmed on Mallorca.

Principal characters like Poirot, the Redferns, and the Marshall family remained mostly unchanged in Anthony Shaffer’s screenplay, while others were either composited, jettisoned, or reimagined; for instance, the athletic spinster Emily Brewster from the novel was transformed into the extravagant Rex Brewster (Roddy McDowall), a gossip columnist writing an unauthorized tell-all biography of scandalous—and recently married—Broadway diva Arlena Stuart Marshall (Diana Rigg). Continue reading →

Frankie Avalon’s Red Paisley Party Shirt in Beach Party

Frankie Avalon in Beach Party (1963)

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Frankie Avalon as Frankie, lovestruck surfer

Malibu, California, Summer 1963

Film: Beach Party
Release Date: August 7, 1963
Director: William Asher
Costume Design: Marjorie Corso & Renié

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Four years after Gidget launched the beach party subgenre, the formula was refined with less morals and more midriffs in the simply titled Beach Party. Released 63 years ago today on August 7, 1963, Beach Party was the first of about a dozen similar movies released by American International Pictures that occasionally veered from the beach into ski country or the race track but almost always featured pop singers Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello in leading roles.

Filmed across the beaches of Southern California over three weeks in the spring of 1963, Beach Party established a blueprint that most of its successors would follow: a score by exotica stalwart Les Baxter supplemented by the surf rock stylings of Dick Dale and his Del-Tones; a supporting cast of older, most established stars—like Bob Cummings, Dorothy Malone, and Morey Amsterdam in this first film; and the easy chemistry between Frankie and Annette.

Frankie and Annette played essentially the same teen lovers driven apart by an easily explained misunderstanding that is invariably resolved by the close of each approximately 90-minute runtime. In Beach Party, it’s Dolores’ hesitation that drives Frankie away—straight into the arms of the buxom “Hungarian goulash” Ava (Eva Six), one of the women whom he serenades with “Don’t Stop Now” during the raucous party at Big Daddy’s. Continue reading →

John Saxon’s Floral-collared Chambray Shirt in Moonshine County Express

John Saxon in Moonshine County Express (1977)

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John Saxon as J.B. Johnson, race car driver and occasional moonshine runner

Jackson County, Kentucky, Fall 1976

Film: Moonshine County Express
Release Date: June 1, 1977
Director: Gus Trikonis
Wardrobe Coordinator: Adrianne Levesque

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Moonshine County Express was produced by Roger Corman’s New World Pictures in 1977 during the height of the cinematic “hick flick” trend that often posited guys like Burt Reynolds as rural heroes driving fast cars full of booze. Directed by Corman favorite Gus Trikonis, Moonshine County Express stars the late John Saxon in its central role—no doubt due to the actor’s own considerable talent and his resemblance to a pre-mustached Reynolds—as well as Susan Howard, William Conrad, a post-Brady Bunch Maureen McCormick as a Daisy Duke protoype, and “hick flick” regulars Jeff Corey and Dub Taylor; Seinfeld fans may also recognize Uncle Leo (aka Len Lesser) in a supporting role as a bargain barn owner. (Both Saxon and McCormick share their August 5th birthday, with McCormick celebrating her 70th today while Saxon would have turned 90 this year.)

Claudia Jennings, Maureen McCormick, and Susan Howard in Moonshine County Express (1977)

Marcia, Marcia, Marcia! Except it’s Betty, Sissy, and Dot.

It would be hard to recommend in good faith to all my readers, but Moonshine County Express is the kind of movie you throw on when you want that raw, Southern-fried tale of fast-driivng whiskey runners in the same authentic, dobro-twanging, semi-exploitative ilk as Moonrunners, the 1975 B-movie that directly inspired The Dukes of Hazzard, though Moonshine County Express also features many of the elements that would be familiar in Hazzard County: a corrupt and corpulent county boss, a white-suited antagonist, short-shorted Southern beauties, and a liquor-hauling hero speeding around in a Dodge muscle car. Continue reading →

Walter Matthau’s Gray Striped Suit as Charley Varrick

Walter Matthau in Charley Varrick (1973)

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Walter Matthau as Charley Varrick, clever crop-dusting pilot and bank robber

Albuquerque to Reno, Summer 1973

Film: Charley Varrick
Release Date: October 19, 1973
Director: Don Siegel
Costume Designer: Helen Colvig

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Although International Crop Duster’s Day is observed on May 27th, August 3rd was established as Airplane Crop Duster Day to commemorate U.S. Army pilot Lt. John A. Macready’s first-ever aerial crop-dusting flight on this day in 1921. More than a half century later, Walter Matthau broke from his usual comedic roles to portray the the titular crop-duster who broke bad in Charley Varrick, Don Siegel’s 1973 adaptation of John H. Reese’s crime novel The Looters.

Down on his luck as “the last of the independents” as he bills himself, Charley had organized a bank robbery in Tres Cruces, New Mexico, that tragically resulted in the death of his wife Nadine (Jacqueline Scott) and another accomplice. Charley and his remaining accomplice, hotheaded Harman (Andy Robinson), spirit away with the $765,118 haul—a surprisingly hefty take which tips Charley off to the fact that they must have robbed a Mafia drop bank.

Without waiting for confirmation beyond TV news only reporting that less than $2,000 was taken, Charley swiftly begins securing plans to make his final escape. Continue reading →

This Property Is Condemned: Robert Redford’s Depression-era Cap and Corduroy

Robert Redford and Natalie Wood in This Property Is Condemned (1966)

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Robert Redford as Owen Legate, railroad representative

Mississippi, Summer 1931

Film: This Property Is Condemned
Release Date: August 3, 1966
Director: Sydney Pollack
Costume Designer: Edith Head

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Robert Redford was on the verge of stardom when he was cast as the romantic lead opposite Natalie Wood in This Property is Condemned, released sixty years ago this week on August 3, 1966 and marking the late actor’s first of seven collaborations with director Sydney Pollack.

Set in the fictional Mississippi town of Dodson (but actually filmed in the Gulf Coast city of Bay St. Louis) during the Great Depression, Redford stars as Owen Legate—a representative of the railroad that provides much of Dodson’s economic base. He literally drops into Dodson by the night train, dusting off his trousers and striding up to a raucous boarding house where the owner’s daughter, Willie Starr (Mary Badham), introduces him to rent a room from her mother, Hazel (Kate Reid), during Hazel’s 43rd birthday party. She comments “a buck is a buck” when he pays for a week’s worth in advance, prompting him to quip back “if you’re lucky” to her delight.

His room and board secured, Owen lingers around the periphery of the party, eating fried chicken and eventually meeting Willie’s older sister Alva (Natalie Wood). The popular Miss Alva sets her flirtatious sights on Owen, until he insults her by implying that “if you come with the room, if you’re included with the two meals, then let’s get on with it.” Continue reading →

Richard Egan’s Cream Camp Shirt in The Revolt of Mamie Stover

Richard Egan in The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956)

Vitals

Richard Egan as Jim Blair, writer

At sea from San Francisco to Hawaii, Summer to December 1941

Film: The Revolt of Mamie Stover
Release Date: May 11, 1956
Director: Raoul Walsh
Costume Designer: Travilla

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Though it made waves for its controversial themes and Jane Russell’s eponymous performance at the time it was released 70 years ago in May 1956, The Revolt of Mamie Stover remains a barely remembered movie today aside from generally positive reappraisals from critics and reviewers. And while Russell remains an icon of Hollywood’s brassy bombshell era, her co-star Richard Egan—once a nearly ubiquitous leading man in the late 1950s—is also little-discussed today. Continue reading →

Miami Vice: Jamie Foxx’s Brown Silk Suit as Tubbs

Jamie Foxx in Miami Vice (2006)

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Jamie Foxx as Ricardo “Rico” Tubbs, Miami-Dade PD detective

Miami, Summer 2005

Film: Miami Vice
Release Date: July 28, 2006
Director: Michael Mann
Costume Design: Michael Kaplan & Janty Yates
Jamie Foxx’s Costumer: Yaa Boaa Aning

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Michael Mann’s frequently memed update of Miami Vice was widely released 20 years ago today on July 28, 2006, reintroducing cooler-than-ice detectives Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs as Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx, respectively.

As portrayed by EGOT hopeful Philip Michael Thomas, Tubbs may have lived within Crockett’s [five o’clock] shadow in the series, but the 2006 movie gives the character more room to breathe with Jamie Foxx—fresh off his Oscar win for Ray—in the role. In fact, it was reportedly Foxx who suggested the idea of a Miami Vice film to Mann, who had executive-produced the 1980s TV series.

Despite his increased degree of characterization, the 2006 film still leaves some questions about Tubbs’ character unanswered; for example, how does he feel about mojitos? Is he fiendish or ambivalent? Continue reading →