Vitals

Sean Connery as Detective Sergeant “Johnny” Johnson, jaded police detective

Berkshire, England, Spring 1972

Film: The Offence
Release Date: January 11, 1973
Director: Sidney Lumet
Costume Designer: Evangeline Harrison

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Sean Connery and director Sidney Lumet’s third of five cinematic collaborations, The Offence, was released on this day in 1973. Adapted by John Hopkins from his own stage play This Story of Yours, the film was the first of two projects that United Artists agreed to finance through Connery’s production company Tantallon Films in exchange for the star returning to play James Bond in Diamonds are Forever.

As his first post-Bond film, Big Tam specifically chose The Offence to demonstrate his range and expand his screen image beyond the 007 persona, resulting in perhaps one of his greatest performances. Connery stars as veteran Berkshire police detective-sergeant Johnson who—haunted by his two decades investigating violent crimes—breaks down during an interrogation and beats suspected serial rapist Kenneth Baxter (Ian Bannen) to death. Referenced for much of the film but not fully depicted until the finale, the fierce fight sequence was choreographed by an uncredited Bob Simmons, Connery’s long-time stunt coordinator and double from the Bond series who actually appeared as “Bond” in the pre-credits gunbarrel sequences from Dr. No through Goldfinger.

Though it was produced for under one million dollars and released to critical acclaim, The Offence‘s commercial failure at the box office resulted in United Artists opting out of financing Connery’s second film. Though Connery and Lumet would collaborate again twice more, The Offence remains the only movie produced by Tantallon Films.

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What’d He Wear?

“You’re no bloody oil painting yourself!” Johnson’s wife retorts after he misdirects his inner rage toward her haggard appearance. The fortysomething Connery’s appearance had been criticized in Diamonds are Forever, but The Offence capitalized on the star’s receding, graying hairline and slight paunch—even introducing the mustache that he’d wear throughout the rest of his 1970s filmography—to play the haggard and haunted Detective Sergeant Johnson.

Fresh off of dressing Michael Caine in Get Carter, costume designer Evangeline Harrison—credited as “Vangie” Harrison—layered Johnson in warm, hardy earth tones to reflect his grounded nature and bucolic surroundings. Though made and set in the early 1970s, most of the fashion is still rooted in the mid-to-late 1960s as many of these Berks wouldn’t prioritize updating their wardrobes to keep up with the times. Despite this, Johnson still dresses arguably well, if without James Bond’s Savile Row refinement.

From blankets to outerwear, men and women have relied on sheepskin for warmth for centuries, though—like so many lasting fashions—it found its fashionable footing in military garb when sheepskin garments like the Irvin flying jacket and B-3 bomber were issued to early 20th century pilots. The practical insulation and romance of aviation fell back to land, as the general public increasingly embraced sheepskin and shearling jackets. Johnson wears his more for function than form, as it shows all the signs of a lived-in working man’s winter coat from the visibly flattened nap in high-contact areas to the single vent curling up from repeated wear.

Johnson’s thigh-length sheepskin car coat presents the natural snuff-brown suede-like outer shell, contrasted by a lighter oatmeal-toned fleece lining that presents on the revers with about a half-inch buffer space along the collar and lapel edges. The jacket has a narrow double-breasted wrap with six brown woven leather buttons in a widely spaced 6×3-button closure, with the fleece lining cut away along the inside of the buttonholes to offer less resistance when fastening the coat. A swelled seam fully bands around the center from back to front, where it crosses just above the second row of buttons. Johnson’s coat features slanted jetted-entry hip pockets, a single vent, and set-in sleeves finished with plain cuffs.

Johnson’s short-brimmed trilby was tightly woven in a brown and tan herringbone tweed, with flecks of darker umber and faint gray threaded through, and a self-band. Like his coat, it builds the image of an English countryside cop who has relied on these sturdy, practical pieces for decades of living and working in a chilly climate.

Johnson’s cream poplin shirt softens the contrast against the warm browns of his suit and coat, styled with a spread collar and plain button-up front. The sleeves are finished with double (French) cuffs, which he wears unconventionally like barrel cuffs—pulling a button-like link through all four layers of fabric to fasten them.

He maintains tonal and textural consistency with his tie, knitted from wool in a muted olive-green that leans toward mustard-yellow, and knotted in a hefty Windsor that fills the space of his shirt’s spread collar. Though Ian Fleming wrote of distrusting the Windsor knot in his James Bond novels, Connery’s 007 fastened his ties in this manner in his first and last Bond movies—Dr. No and Diamonds are Forever—so this may have been the actor’s preferred manner.

Appropriate for a veteran Berkshire detective, Johnson’s suit balances business styling with country-forward cloth—woven in a Prince of Wales check consisting of a subdued dark brown-and-tan glen plaid with a muted red overcheck, presenting as a semi-solid dark-brown until viewed more closely.

The buttons on his single-breasted jackets suggest that Connery may have actually rotated between at least two similarly patterned suits, as he shifts between a two-button jacket with three-button cuffs and a three-button jacket with four-button cuffs, though the latter appears to be more canonical as he wears it sans his overcoat in more significant scenes. Both suit jackets are otherwise conventionally styled with welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, and double vents.

Johnson’s matching suit trousers have a medium rise, which falls below his natural waist during his intense struggle with Baxter in the interrogation room. The trousers have a full, comfortable fit through the thighs, tapering to plain-hemmed bottoms with a short break.

Aside from when he pulls on black rubber calf-high wading boots to join his fellow officers in the search for the missing Janie, Johnson wears black leather ankle boots with inside-zips—one of his few fashion-forward concessions to the era rather than the more traditional lace-up derbies or oxfords I might have expected for the character.

Following Baxter’s death, Johnson is ordered to return to the station immediately for an interview with police superintendent Cartwright (Trevor Howard). He asks if he has time to shave and change clothes, during which time the clothes he wore for the attack on Baxter are bagged by Sergeant Panton (John Hallam). The sequence of Johnson getting ready illustrates his awareness of his presentation, intentionally foregoing the older striped shirts in his drawer for the newer clean white shirt still in its bag.

Despite intentionally portraying Johnson as something of an anti-Bond, Connery changes into a navy mini-herringbone suit that Bond Suits creator Matt Spaiser likens to both 007’s style as well as how costume designer Harrison had dressed Michael Caine in Get Carter the previous year. In fact, the combination of a navy suit, white shirt, black knitted tie, and black slip-on shoes closely echoes how Ian Fleming outfitted Bond in most of his source novels.

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What to Imbibe

The more I drink, it’s funny, the more sober I get.

Shaken and stirred after his suspension for beating Baxter to death, Johnson storms home, where he wakes up his wife Maureen (Vivien Merchant) by crashing open the home bar to pour himself a long slug of Johnnie Walker Red Label blended Scotch whisky, drinking most of what remains in the bottle as the trauma from two decades of violent crime-solving catches up to him.

As Johnnie Walker’s entry-level bottling—blended from whiskies aged ten years or more—Red Label suits Johnson’s rugged, no-nonsense persona, while also nodding to the natural link between Scotch whisky and Connery’s own Scottish heritage. Rebranded from “Extra Special Old Highland Whisky” in 1909, Johnnie Walker Red Label has been the world’s best-selling Scotch whisky since 1945 (according to ClubWhisky.com.)

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How to Get the Look

In addition to sporting the best mustache this side of Thomas Magnum, Sean Connery’s distressed detective layers against a brisk English spring in a sheepskin coat and tweed trilby with his hard-worn suits and knitted ties.

• Brown-and-tan Prince of Wales check (with muted red overcheck) wool tailored suit:
  • Single-breasted 3/2-roll jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 3- or 4-button cuffs, and double vents
  • Trousers with tapered, plain-hemmed bottoms
• Cream poplin shirt with spread collar, plain front, and double/French cuffs
• Olive-mustard knitted wool tie
• Black calfskin leather inside-zip ankle boots
• Snuff-brown sheepskin thigh-length car coat with natural piled fleece lining, narrow 6×3-button double-breasted front, slanted jetted hip pockets, plain cuffs, and single vent
• Brown-and-tan herringbone tweed self-banded trilby

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Help your bloody self and check out the movie.

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The Quote

I hit him. I don’t deny it. Something he understands—something we all understand, sweetie. Pain. I’ve seen it, I know.