Vitals

Al Lettieri as Rudy Butler, menacing and duplicitous armed robber

Texas, Spring 1972

Film: The Getaway
Release Date: December 13, 1972
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Men’s Costumer: Kent James

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

From The Godfather and The Getaway to McQ and Mr. Majestyk, if you needed a swarthy, mean, and snakishly charming son-of-a-bitch in the early ’70s, chances are you would call Al Lettieri. A bona fide tough guy who channeled his real-life connections to less reputable characters into his dynamic performances, Lettieri was only 47 years old when he died of a heart attack fifty years ago today on October 18, 1975.

Adapted from pulp author Jim Thompson’s 1958 crime novel of the same name, The Getaway was released in the final weeks of 1972—Lettieri’s breakthrough year, following the release of The Godfather in March.

In Thompson’s world of trigger-happy thieves and crooked cops, Lettieri’s performance was particularly villainous as Rudy Butler, a double-crossing desperado assigned by Texas prison official Jack Benyon (Ben Johnson) to assist the recently paroled “Doc” McCoy (Steve McQueen) on a bank robbery in Beacon City. Rudy attempts to double-cross Doc and narrowly escapes with his life, sending him on a vengeful voyage through Texas after taking the timid veterinarian Harold Clinton (Jack Dods0n) and his repressed wife Fran (Sally Struthers) hostage.

Looking like a sinister Jim Croce with his mustache and mess of dark hair, Lettieri portrays Rudy like a hornier predecessor of Anton Chigurh, stalking his prey through Texas’ small border towns with a sadistic relentlessness as his motivation becomes muddied somewhere between riches and revenge.

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What’d He Wear?

Just as Doc McCoy always wears the black suit he had on when released from prison, Rudy Butler almost exclusively wears the same suit throughout The Getaway, made from a dark-gray chalk-striped flannel. Despite the businesslike suiting, Al Lettieri doesn’t present the same professional polish as he did as Virgil “the Turk” Sollozzo in The Godfather, instead dressing the suit down with casual open-neck shirts that show his pair of pendants suspended from a gold neck-chain. The result is sportier than Doc’s black suit and tie as well as how Jim Thompson had dressed his literary counterpart Rudy Torrento in the novel, clad in a dark suit, white shirt, and a hat the author describes as a “semi-Homburg”.

Rudy’s single-breasted suit jacket presents the details consistent with early 1970s tailoring, from the breadth of the notch lapels to the long single vent. The jacket also has a welted breast pocket and jetted hip pockets, though Rudy may also just keep the flaps tucked into the pockets themselves as ’70s menswear tended to eschew the minimalism of previous decades. The shoulders are sloped and structured, and the sleeves are finished with two-button cuffs.

Rudy dresses for the heist in the same rich dark indigo-blue jersey-knit sports shirt that he had worn when Benyon introduced him to Doc on the San Antonio River Walk. Styled like a polo shirt with its four-button top placket, the shirt also has a fashionably long collar and two-button cuffs fastening the ends of the long sleeves.

While planning the bank robbery, Rudy wears a soft mottled salmon knitted long-sleeved shirt with a large collar and substantial light-brown buttons up the wide, placket-like front—including under the right collar leaf, coordinating to a small self-loop extending from the left side over the neck.

For the robbery, Rudy layers on a forest-green polyester knee-length raincoat, fully fastened up the covered-fly front (including the exposed top button at the neck) that completely covers the bulletproof vest he had implied that he wouldn’t wear. Styled like McCoy’s own khaki raincoat, the coat has a bal-style collar, large slanted welt side pockets, a single vent, and raglan sleeves—designed to more smoothly pull over a tailored jacket than set-in sleeves—that have a short pointed single-button tab over each cuff.

Rudy’s tactical bank robbery gear also includes black leather gloves, a black knitted balaclava cut with only two small eye holes, and—much to Doc McCoy’s eventual surprise—a bulletproof vest!

When Doc had passed them around to his team during the planning, assuring that they “will stop an M2 army rifle at fifty yards,” Rudy insisted that he had “been working ten years without one,” but then still layers one under his raincoat (but over his suit) for the bank robbery, absorbing the grouping of Doc’s .45s after Rudy’s attempted double-cross.

This body armor is comprised of two olive cloth-covered plates, each protecting one side of the torso and connected with olive woven straps over the shoulder and around the waist.

Even after ditching his blood-stained suit jacket, Rudy continues wearing the matching flat-front trousers through the rest of The Getaway. These follow contemporary trends with slanted front pockets (rather than on-seam side pockets) and subtle flare shaping the plain-hemmed bottoms. Both set-in back pockets close through a single button. Rudy’s hefty black matte leather belt closes in the front through a large, polished silver-toned single-prong buckle.

During his getaway, Rudy doesn’t only take poor Harold’s wife… he also steals the man’s corduroy coat! Lined in a soft tan piled fleece that matches the light-brown medium-wale corduroy shell, this thigh-length car coat has a flat, wide-pointed collar, three-button front, set-in vertical-entry side pockets, and a ventless back.

While this argument doesn’t excuse the theft, the jacket may have made Rudy nostalgic for his own darker brown but similarly styled corduroy coat, briefly seen when he’s purchasing his curious “picnic” supplies at a sporting goods store before the heist… but it’s more likely that it was to serve his dual purposes of utility and cruelty, needing a layer to replace his bloodied suit jacket while also eager to compound his humiliation of the cuckolded Harold.

With his commandeered coat from Harold, Rudy wears a chambray work-shirt in this work-friendly fabric’s traditional blue-and-white weave that presents a mottled slate-blue finish. The shirt may have also been pulled from Harold’s closet, as Rudy obviously couldn’t continue wearing the indigo shirt that was bloodied and torn after Doc shot him. This long-sleeved chambray shirt has a fashionably large collar and white plastic buttons up the front placket, matching those closing the cuffs and the single-button flaps over both chest pockets.

Rudy appears to wear cowboy boots that fit the Texan setting, though the shafts remain mostly covered by the full-cut legs of his suit trousers. The boots may also have zippers along the inside of each black leather upper, though this is an unorthodox detail for cowboy boots.

As Rudy frequently undresses so that Fran may tend to his wounds—and other biological needs—we get a full portrait of Rudy’s wardrobe, right down to his black boot socks and white cotton boxer shorts with their irregularly scattered pattern of pink and sage-green spots.

Unlike Doc’s Gruen, Carol’s Caravelle, and Frank Jackson’s Heuer, Rudy’s subdued steel wristwatch is the only one from the main cast to not receive a prominent on-screen close-up. This watch has a round light silver dial and is secured to Al Lettieri’s wrist on a black leather strap.

Rudy also wears a silver bangle-style cuff bracelet that likely belonged to Lettieri in real life, as he also wore it a few years later in Mr. Majestyk. This smooth, plain, and narrow silver bracelet is a rigid cuff with a barbell-like opening over the underside of the wrist and a small rectangular plate engraved with subtle scrollwork integrated into the center of the band.

Rudy also wears a thin gold necklace with two—and possibly even three—gold pendants suspended from it. The larger round pendant has a solid filigreed center, framed by a wirework circle. A second pendant is a slightly smaller solid circle with a raised, cameo-like figure in profile, similar to religious medallions.

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The Gun(s)

Rudy’s standard sidearm is a blued steel Colt Python revolver with a six-inch barrel—appropriate not just for its intimidating presence but also its name, as “Python” evokes Rudy’s snake-like personality. Introduced by Colt in 1955, the Python is chambered in the same .357 Magnum cartridge that Doc explains is carried by the Beacon City police. (Thompson’s source novel arms Rudy with “a heavy automatic,” though he later carries a “heavy .38” revolver likely taken from a policeman.)

Often regarded as Colt’s flagship wheelgun, the double-action Python became famous for its exceptional accuracy, smooth trigger pull, and high-polish “Royal Blue” finished steel. Built on Colt’s large I-frame, the Python was marketed as a premium revolver for law enforcement and civilian shooters alike, with its ventilated rib and full underlug barrel creating an iconic silhouette worthy of its precise craftsmanship.

During the finale set at Laughlin’s border hotel in El Paso, Rudy’s Python has been swapped out for a Colt Trooper Mk III revolver, also with a six-inch barrel. Introduced in 1953, two years before the debut of the Python, the Colt Trooper was designed as a solid but more affordable service revolver for police and civilian use. Both revolvers were chambered for .357 Magnum and shared Colt’s medium “I-frame””dimensions, meaning they were essentially the same size, but the Python was deliberately positioned as the prestige model with a full underlug that added weight. The Python also boasted a vented rib over the barrel a higher-polished finish, and hand-fitted internals that gave it a famously smooth trigger pull. By contrast, the Trooper’s non-vented rib, plainer finish, and less hand-tuned action reflected its utilitarian purpose, keeping costs lower while still delivering Colt’s strength and accuracy.

The Colt Trooper Mk III was introduced in 1969 as a redesigned successor to the original Trooper, built on Colt’s new “J-frame” platform as part of the Mk III series that would continue through the early 1980s. Though it lacked interchangability with older firearms, this new series simplified manufacturing and made the revolvers more robust for heavy-duty service use. As opposed to the exposed ejector rods on the original Trooper, the redesigned Trooper Mk III introduced a Smith & Wesson-style partial under-barrel shroud that anchored the rod in place.

My best guess is that Rudy’s prop Python may have been tarnished by the red paint clearly splashed onto the barrel when he shoots fellow crook Frank Jackson (Bo Hopkins) in the front seat of their Buick getaway car. If the close-up scenes at Laughlin’s were filmed later, the prop masters may have subbed it in with the essentially similar Trooper Mk III. (Or it may be a simple mistake!)

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The Car

Rudy’s getaway car for the bank robbery is a cream-colored 1965 Buick LeSabre four-door hardtop. All full-sized Buicks had been restyled for the ’65 model year, with the restyled LeSabre receiving rounder bodylines consistent with the increasingly popular “Coke bottle” profile and revised instrument panels. The LeSabre was offered in a base model and the more luxurious Custom trim, which included a cosmetic upgrade on the interior and stainless trim around the wheelhouses which appears to be present on Rudy’s LeSabre.

Regardless of trim level, all ’65 LeSabres were powered by Buick’s small-block 300 cubic-inch “Wildcat” V8, typically carbureted with a 2-barrel Rochester that generated 210 horsepower; the LeSabre 400 performance package swapped in a 4-barrel carburetor that boosted output to 250 horsepower. The 2-barrel option came standard with the three-speed manual transmission with the option of GM’s two-speed Super Turbine (ST-300) automatic transmission with its three-element “Switch-Pitch” torque converter that was the only available transmission for the LeSabre 400. Rudy’s LeSabre has a column-mounted automatic shifter, though we don’t know if his ST-300 would be mated to the 2-barrel or 4-barrel V8.

After Doc leaves him for dead at their rendezvous site, Rudy leaves his Buick behind in favor of the McCoys’ abandoned blue ’63 Ford Galaxie 500. Rudy then presumably leaves this at the Clinton homestead when he joins them in their white 1970 Ford station wagon.

Rudy: What kind of car do you drive?
Fran: A Ford! We have a Ford.
Rudy: That’s good. That’s very good, Harold.

In Thompson’s source novel, Rudy’s car is merely described as a “low-priced” black sedan with a “souped-up motor”.

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How to Get the Look

Rudy Butler adapts his wardrobe over the course of his getaway, forced to improvise after some bullets and blood compromise his suit jacket and sport shirt, so he pairs the now-orphaned suit trousers with a commandeered corduroy coat and chambray work-shirt.

• Blue sport shirt, either a mid-blue chambray long-sleeved two-pocket work-shirt or indigo jersey-knit long-sleeved polo shirt
• Light-brown medium-wale corduroy thigh-length car coat with flat collar, three-button front, side pockets, and ventless back
• Dark-gray chalk-striped flannel suit:
  • Single-breasted 2-button jacket with wide notch lapels, welted breast pocket, jetted hip pockets, 2-button cuffs, and long single vent
  • Flat-front trousers with belt loops, slanted front pockets, button-through back pockets, and subtly flared plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black leather belt with silver-toned single-prong buckle
• Black leather cowboy boots
• Black boot socks
• Silver-toned bangle cuff bracelet with engraved centerplace and barbell-style opening
• Stainless steel wristwatch with round silver dial on black leather strap
• Gold necklace with 2-3 gold pendants

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

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The Quote

He didn’t make it. Neither did you.