Vitals

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).

Providing more comic relief than serious suspicion in Arlena’s eventual death, Rex was modeled more closely after Tallulah Bankhead than to his gruffer female literary counterpart, whom Christie introduces as “a tough athletic woman with grizzled hair and a pleasant weather‐beaten face.” Given how obsessed I was with this movie in sixth grade, I can only remember with retrospective horror that some of Rex’s more dramatic mannerisms made their way into my middle school personality. Oh my.

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What’d He Wear?

The obsequious Rex Brewster glides through the island resort in ostentatious nautical-informed clothing that prompts Arlena to quip “you’re not going to barbecue me to keep yourself in sailor suits” when refusing to sign a release allowing him to publish it… ostensibly providing him with a motive for her murder.

His peaked cap and neckerchiefs are invariably part of his rotating style, paired with robes, swimwear, and knitwear alike. In the maritime tradition of naval officers and yachtsmen like fellow murder suspect Sir Horace Blatt (Colin Blakely), Rex’s peaked cap has a white twill cover, a short black patent leather visor, and a black band with a narrow leather chinstrap. There is also a white-painted anchor detail that he only pins onto the band with certain outfits, such as the Breton-striped jumper he wears for his introductory scene.

Rex demonstrates some marvelous sartorial literacy by donning a Breton-striped jumper, an iconic symbol of European maritime culture since this cotton marinière was adopted by the French Navy in 1858 and popularized in mainstream fashion by Coco Chanel after World War I. Though French Navy regulations stipulated “21 white stipes, each twice as wide as the 20 or 21 navy blue stripes,” Rex’s civilian-made crew-neck is detailed with 25 dark indigo stripes that still appear to follow mil-spec sizing against the twice-wider cream-striped ground. The stripes end at the top of the chest and the set-in sleeves, solid cream over the shoulders including the left shoulder with its three recessed dark-navy plastic buttons.

Rex’s particular style of a soft, mid-weight wool Breton-striped sweater with its narrowly ribbed crew neck and shoulder-button system is still produced by brands like Normandy label Saint James, currently marketed as the BINIC Fisherman Sweater in a 1×1 rib-knit 100% wool.

In addition to his peaked cap, Rex affects nearly all of his leisurewear—and even swimwear!—with a unique dual-patterned silk neckerchief. The kerchief presents a field of white polka-dots against a navy ground around his throat, rakishly knotted against the left side of his neck to show two red tails with a white-striped print. (He later wears an inverse version, with polka-dots against a red ground and navy-tipped tails, when confronting Arlena about signing the release for his biography of her.)

Rex’s full-fitting ivory pleated trousers may be a tropical-weight wool with enough silk woven into the construction to give them an elegant sheen under the Adriatic sun. The bottoms are finished with turn-ups (cuffs), which drape over the tops of his bright-red socks and white lace-up shoes. (The latter may be white bucks: contemporary resort footwear characterized by softly napped—often nubuck—leather uppers and brick-red rubber outsoles.)

Gold jewelry shines from Rex’s wrist in the form of his pinky ring and wristwatch. The latter has a classic white rectangular dial with Arabic hour indices, fastened to a chunky chain-link bracelet to match the yellow-gold case.

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How to Get the Look

Rex Brewster is not a simple or straightforward dresser, but he does exemplify the capsule wardrobe mindset when translated to a Broadway-takes-Balkans island resort in the 1930s. All of his clothes variate on the patriatic colors of red, white, and blue, anchored (so to speak) by his nautical-informed motifs that include a captain’s hat, Breton-striped jumper, and assorted neckerchiefs.

• Cream wool Breton-striped crew-neck sweater with three-button shoulder
• Navy silk neckerchief with white polka-dots and white-striped-on-red ends
• Ivory wool/silk pleated trousers with turn-ups/cuffs
• White napped leather bucks
• Red socks
• Peaked cap with white twill cover, black band with narrow leather chinstrap and white-finished anchor, and short black patent leather visor
• Gold pinky ring
• Gold dress watch with white rectangular dial (with Arabic hour indices) on chunky gold chain-link bracelet

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie and Agatha Christie’s novel.

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The Quote

Is coarseness a substitute for wit? I ask myself…