Hoodlum: Tim Roth’s Gray Checked Suit as Dutch Schultz
Tim Roth as Dutch Schultz in Hoodlum (1997)
Vitals
Tim Roth as Dutch Schultz, volatile gangster
New York City and Newark, New Jersey, Spring 1934 through Fall 1935
Film: Hoodlum
Release Date: August 27, 1997
Director: Bill Duke
Costume Designer: Richard Bruno
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Ninety years ago today on October 23, 1935, notorious New York gangster Dutch Schultz was fatally shot along with his accountant Otto Berman, his lieutenant Abe Landau, and his bodyguard Bernard “Lulu” Rosencrantz at the Palace Chop House in Newark, New Jersey. Transferred to Newark City Hospital, Schultz lingered for nearly a day, with his fevered final ramblings about dot-dash systems and French-Canadian bean soup meticulously recorded by police stenographer F.J. Lang before the 34-year-old criminal finally died of peritonitis.
The famous gangland slaying was fictionalized for the denouement of Hoodlum, Bill Duke’s chronicle of Schultz’s war against underworld rivals Stephanie “Madame Queen” St. Clair (Cicely Tyson), Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson (Laurence Fishburne), and Charles “Lucky” Luciano (Andy Garcia) as the Harlem numbers racket became increasingly lucrative following the repeal of Prohibition. Though the 1997 drama isn’t without its flaws, one of its strongest elements may be Tim Roth’s performance as Schultz—perhaps the best on-screen representation of the actual gangster’s appearance and temperament.
The real Dutch Schultz, born Arthur Flegeneheimer, pictured earlier in 1935—the final year of his life.
Rather than Schultz and his three henchmen all killed together by mob assassins (Charles “the Bug” Workman and Emmanuel “Mendy” Weiss in real life), Hoodlum opts for the drama of Lulu Rosencrantz (Ed O’Ross)—depicted here as Schultz’s long-suffering henchman—to be the gunman. Once he realizes this, Roth’s Schultz spits back: “You gotta be fuckin’ kiddin’ me… they send you.”
What’d He Wear?
Following his BAFTA Award-winning work on Goodfellas, costume designer Richard Bruno returned to the underworld to dress the gangsters vying for control of Harlem, from Bumpy Johnson’s colorful flash and Lucky Luciano’s smooth tailoring to the rougher edges of Dutch Schultz’s suits—effectively crafting the portrait of a man who only dresses to meet expectations. His sloppy sartorial approach seems to personally offend Luciano, who complains to Johnson that Schultz “…looks like a vagrant half the times… [and] buys his suits off-the-rack at Wanamaker’s.”
One of Tim Roth’s most frequently worn suits—for Schultz’s introductory scene and his ultimate death—is a gray woolen flannel three-piece suit, graph-checked with two hairline-width lines in perpendicular directions to form a muted check. Even if Dutch did buy it from a department store (which is perfectly fine!), Luciano seems personally offended by how poorly Schultz maintains them.
“You got mustard on your suit,” the pristine Lucky advises Dutch after leaning in to pick up his payment for Dewey.
The two-button suit jacket follows a configuration popular in the 1930s that rigged single-breasted tailoring with peak lapels (which are traditionally a double-breasted style). Likely ventless though we hardly get a look at it from behind, the jacket has a welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, and four-button cuffs. The matching waistcoat (vest) has two lower-positioned welted pockets and a six-button front that Schultz typically wears fully fastened.
Schultz holds his reverse-pleated trousers up with a dark leather belt that closes through a flat silver-toned enclosed buckle. Especially back in the 1930s, convention often dictated that gentlemen would opt for suspenders or side-adjusters to hold up their trousers when wearing a waistcoat, to avoid a belt buckle bunching up the cloth or a belt pulling the trousers below the bottom of the waistcoat… but Dutch Schultz is no gentleman. The trousers are finished with turn-ups (cuffs) that break over the tops of his black leather cap-toe oxford shoes.
Schultz exclusively pairs this suit with red-forward ties and white cotton shirts detailed with point collars and button cuffs. We meet Schultz when his henchmen return from busting up one of Madame Queen’s joints just as Luciano calls on him to pick up Schultz’s contribution to a bribe for special prosecutor Thomas Dewey (William Atherton). During this exchange, he wears a plain scarlet-red satin silk tie, knotted in a four-in-hand that falls a few millimeters below the top of his shirt’s tie space.
More than a year later, he wears the suit again for an exchange with Luciano—this time a more heated meeting mediated by the Mafia Commission so that Schultz can resolve his violent differences with Bumpy Johnson. Schultz’s tie is a darker burgundy, patterned with a muted Deco-style print of gold-outlined ovals in circular arrangements.
“Dutch… enough with the compliments,” Luciano scolds after Dutch tells Bumpy that he’s “got nuts the size of watermelons.”
Schultz appropriately wears that blood-red silk tie again on what would be the last day of his life, when he’s gunned down by Lulu Rosencrantz at the Palace Chop House in Newark. Throughout the sequence, he layers against the late October chill in a coat and hat. The latter is a dark taupe felt fedora with a matching wide grosgrain band and self-edged brim.
Schultz’s voluminous overcoat through this sequence adds to his chaotic sloppiness. However, the cloth itself is rather timeless—a gray-and-black barleycorn tweed with colorful threads flecked into the fabric—and follows a standard double-breasted design with its broad low-gorge peak lapels, 6×3-button arrangement, and deep side pockets. The padded shoulders framing his set-in sleeves add menace to Schultz’s silhouette as he leads his armed henchmen up against Luciano’s hapless accountant.
If Lucky Luciano is offended by Dutch Schultz’s clothes, we can only imagine how aghast he would be at Lulu Rosencrantz’s diminutive tie.
A blue stone gleams from the silver pinky ring on his left hand, where Schultz also wears his gold dress watch with its white rectangular dial on a smooth russet leather strap.
The Gun
Dutch Schultz is never far from the 1911A1 semi-automatic pistol that he keeps jammed in the front of his trouser waistband, ready to draw at a moment’s notice. Following the 1911A1 design improvements from the mid-1920s that include a shorter trigger and arched mainspring, Schultz’s pistol is likely a classic Colt Government Model. However, the distinctive gold “rampant stallion” medallions on the checked walnut grips weren’t phased in by Colt until the 1950s, used even more heavily decades later after the introduction of the Colt Mk IV Series 70.
Regardless of when Schultz’s pistol was produced, it follows the venerated design that John M. Browning established in the early 20th century, feeding its short-recoil operation from seven-round magazines of .45 ACP ammunition.
What to Imbibe
Whether he’s washing down lunch in his office or dressed to the nines at the swanky Cotton Club, any scene in Hoodlum where Dutch Schultz is drinking shows him drinking beer—consistent with his unrefined image as well as his real-life reputation as “Beer Baron of the Bronx”.
At the Palace Chop House, it’s parade of beers—specifically Schlitz—that Schultz is drinking with Lulu, sending him to the urinal where he’s shot before stumbling back to their table. Founded in Milwaukee in 1849, the Schlitz Brewing Company grew to become the largest American beer producer after the turn of the 20th century. After weathering the obvious challenges of Prohibition, Schlitz quickly established itself as the world’s top-selling brewery by 1934. Thus, it’s perfectly possible that Dutch Schultz may have been downing long-necked Schlitz on his last day alive, especially as the beer’s later blue-collar associations align with Schultz’s edgier personality.
Dutch Schlitz.
How to Get the Look
Tim Roth as Dutch Schultz in Hoodlum (1997)
If Dutch Schultz had existed in the Sopranos universe, you can be sure he would have preferred a track suit for his day-to-day style. Fated to exist during the Prohibition era instead, Dutch makes the most of his off-the-rack suits, paired simply but effectively with blood-red ties, a pinky ring, and an oversized coat to conceal his .45.
- Gray graph-check woolen flannel three-piece suit:
- Single-breasted 2-button jacket with peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, and ventless back
- Single-breasted 6-button waistcoat with two welted lower pockets
- Reverse-pleated trousers with belt loops and turn-ups/cuffs
- White cotton shirt with point collar and button cuffs
- Scarlet-red satin silk tie
- Black leather belt with flat silver enclosed buckle
- Black leather cap-toe oxford shoes
- Taupe felt fedora with taupe grosgrain band and self-edged brim
- Gray-and-black flecked barleycorn tweed double-breasted overcoat with low-gorge peak lapels, 6×3-button front, and side pockets
- Silver pinky ring with blue stone
- Gold rectangular-cased dress watch with white rectangular dial on russet leather strap
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
The Quote
If Luciano wants a fuckin’ war, I’ll splatter this fuckin’ city with his blood.
Discover more from BAMF Style
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
A great film about a very evil man, even by Mob standards. Not mentioned in the film but Dutch had been receiving instruction in the Catholic faith. He’d fallen in love with a Catholic girl. At his request a priest completed the conversion process and baptized Dutch and administered the Last Rites. Dutch was duly interred in a Catholic cemetery. Not sure what his Jewish widow felt about all this.