Glenn Ford’s Tanker Jacket in Human Desire
Glenn Ford in Human Desire (1954)
Vitals
Glenn Ford as Jeff Warren, railroad engineer and Army veteran
El Reno, Oklahoma, Fall 1953
Film: Human Desire
Release Date: August 6, 1954
Director: Fritz Lang
Costume Designer: Jean Louis (gowns)
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Glenn Ford was born 110 years ago on May 1, 1916. The Quebec-born actor specialized as everymen with a tough side, making him the ideal star in classic film noir like Gilda (1946) and The Big Heat (1953) as well as westerns like 3:10 to Yuma (1957) and the school-set social drama Blackboard Jungle (1955) that featured both “Rock Around the Clock” and a young Sidney Poitier. In addition to being one of the most popular and bankable stars in the United States for a decade, Ford also enlisted in the Marine Corps during World War II and returned to service with a Navy Reserve commission in 1958.
While I always liked Ford’s screen presence which reminds me of my grandfather, the Golden Globe-winning actor’s complicated personal life as a serial womanizer included four marriages that all ended in divorce and—according to his son Peter’s biography—affairs with at least 140 Hollywood actresses, including an on-and-off romance with Gilda co-star Rita Hayworth that lasted four decades. He also recorded all of his home’s phone calls (resulting from a paranoid belief that his first wife Eleanor Powell would discover his frequent infidelity), supported candidates on both sides of the political arena, and was busted for illegally raising 140 white leghorn chickens.
Hardly the best-known from either its stars or director, the solid 1954 film noir Human Desire reteamed Ford with director Fritz Lang and co-star Gloria Grahame one year after their previous collaboration in The Big Heat. It was loosely based on Émile Zola’s 1890 novel La Bête humaine, which had been filmed twice before though Human Desire—which updated the setting to the contemporary early ’50s—was the first English language adaptation.
Ford stars as Jeff Warren, returning from his Army service in the Korean War to his Oklahoma hometown to resume his work driving streamliners for the fictional Central Northern Railroad—echoing Ford’s own father Newton, who worked as a Canadian Pacific Railway engineer and Venice Electric Tram motorman until his death in 1940. Lang and cinematographer Burnett Guffey (fresh off an Academy Award win for From Here to Eternity) filmed mostly on location in the central Oklahoma town of El Reno, specifically around the Rock Island Railroad facilities, adding a strong verisimilitude to the intrigue between Jeff and married femme fatale Vicki Buckley (Gloria Grahame), who begs Jeff to murder her husband so they can be together.
What’d He Wear?
More than two decades before Robert De Niro famously pulled on Travis Bickle’s personalized tanker jacket in Taxi Driver, Glenn Ford modeled an unmarked model during his dangerous flirtations as Jeff Warren in Human Desire. Unlike Bickle, whose service was decades later in an entirely different branch, it’s possible that Jeff’s jacket is indeed a relic of his own Army service.
The U.S. Army Quartermaster had designated the “Jacket, Winter, Combat, P.Q.D. Spec No. 26” in February 1941, primarily intended for use among the Army’s armored units though it also found favor with pilots as a more pliable alternative to the iconic leather A-2 flight jacket. The No. 26 tanker jacket’s shell is a light olive-drab shade #3 (OD3) 12-ounce cotton twill, contrasted with an olive-brown elasticized worsted wool knit squared standing collar, tubular cuffs, and waist hem. Just over a year later, improvements to the jacket were standardized as No. 26(A), backing the cotton twill wind flap with the same brown kersey wool as the blanketed lining and reconfiguring the open-top patch pockets as cotton-lined slash pockets. The waist-length cut and structure of the jacket remained the same, including the straight-zip front and double-pleated bi-swing “action back” to aid movement.
Jeff walks with Vicki while wearing Levi’s 501XX jeans in dark indigo selvedge denim, specifically identifiable as the 1947 post-war model by the presence of belt loops but no cinch, hidden rivets, and the overlapping “diamond” where the brand’s trademark arcuate stitching meets over both back pockets. He holds them up with a dark leather belt that closes through a single-prong buckle.
Unless there’s extant color photography or documentation I haven’t seen, the color of Jeff’s flannel long-sleeve work-shirt is lost to history. While it could be a dark navy-blue two-pocket version of the CPO shirt made famous in the Navy, I believe it’s more likely a dark olive-brown wool service shirt issued to Army personnel. Made to Army regulations by different contractors who varied small details, these shirts generally followed the same pattern with two patch pockets over the chest that close with single-button flaps, a convertible collar, and single-button cuffs.
Officers’ shirts were made with shoulder epaulets for rank insignia, which were not necessary (or authorized) on shirts for enlisted personnel. Though we don’t see his shoulders under the jacket that he never removes during these scenes (even when laying in bed!), Jeff likely wears an enlisted man’s shirt as it lacks the satin-finished neckband lining typically—but not always—found on officer’s winter-weight woolen shirts. He keeps the top few buttons of the placket undone for a less orderly appearance than would have been allowed in the service.
When not dressed in his jeans, Jeff wears dark wool trousers that follow contemporary tailoring with a flatteringly long rise to Ford’s natural waist and long, functionally elegant double sets of reverse-facing pleats. They’re styled with side pockets and substantial turn-ups (cuffs) on the bottoms, breaking over the tops of his dark leather cap-toe derby shoes that likely coordinate with the narrower dark leather belt he wears with these dressier slacks. The shoe leather is dark enough to be either black or a dark brown, though I’d favor the lesser formality of brown if one was pressed to wear leather lace-ups with this outfit.
If the pleated pants date the outfit more than his jeans did, Jeff goes [understandably] full mid-century with his fedora. The hat is a dark felt, continuing onto the self-edged brim, with a wide black grosgrain band.
Ford likely wore one of his own wristwatches, a simple mechanical dress watch with a light-colored dial on a round case, secured to his left wrist on a tan leather strap.
Noirmaxxing.
How to Get the Look
Glenn Ford in Human Desire (1954)
Jeff Warren’s blend of military surplus gear and heritage workwear would probably yield him millions of followers on the modern #menswear Instagram community, but he came by his fits more honestly as a war veteran working on the railroad in his tanker jacket, woolen service work-shirt, selvedge jeans, and lace-ups—with only the noir hero’s requisite fedora dating his look to the 1950s.
- Olive-drab #3 cotton twill zip-up U.S. Army Winter Combat P.Q.D. Spec. No. 26(A) “tanker jacket” with brown worsted wool standing collar, cuffs, and hem, straight-zip front with wool-backed storm flap, cotton-lined slash pockets, bi-swing pleated “action back”, and brown kersey wool blanketed lining
- Olive-brown woolen flannel long-sleeved U.S. Army enlisted service shirt with convertible collar, front placket, two chest pockets with single-button flaps, and single-button cuffs
- Dark-indigo selvedge denim Levi’s 501XX five-pocket jeans with belt loops
- Dark-brown leather cap-toe derby shoes
- Dark felt fedora with wide black grosgrain band and self-edged brim
- Round-cased wristwatch with light-colored dial on tan leather strap
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
The Quote
Death comes as sort of an accident.
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