Vitals

Aldo Ray as Art Rayburn, aka Jim Vanning, commercial artist and war veteran

Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Winter 1956

Film: Nightfall
Release Date: December 5, 1956
Director: Jacques Tourneur
Costume Designer: Jean Louis (credited for gowns)

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Today would have been the 100th birthday of Aldo Ray, born September 25, 1926. A tough and resilient U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, the raspy-voiced Ray often incorporated these traits into his characters—perhaps most skillfully in Jacques Tourneur’s 1956 thriller Nightfall, released 70 years ago this December. The film has been celebrated as a favorite by crime fiction experts James Ellroy and Quentin Tarantino, the latter citing it as inspiration for Bruce Willis’ character in Pulp Fiction.

Based on a 1948 novel by David Goodis, Nightfall both follows and subverts many film noir tropes; though often photographed against bright, snowy countryside rather than exclusively urban shadows, Ray’s protagonist Art Rayburn is cut from the noir mold, forced to reinvent himself (as commercial artist Jim Vanning) after running afoul of criminals.

The incident is portrayed in a flashback to Art’s hunting trip to Wyoming the previous winter with his doctor pal Edward “Doc” Gurston (Frank Albertson). A car crash interrupts Art and Doc’s feast of freshly caught trout, fried with butter and bread crumbs. When Doc offers to help the two men injured in the accident, we see that it is John (Brian Keith) and Red (Rudy Bond), the two crooks torturing Art in the present day.

Once Doc fixes John’s arm, the two men reveal themselves as bank robbers who plan to execute Art and Doc rather than leave any living witnesses. They use Art’s hunting rifle to shoot Art and Doc, staging a murder-suicide, but fail to realize that Art actually survived. Art waits until the sadistic John and Red have driven away to patch himself up from Doc’s medical bag… only to realize that John and Red accidentally took Doc’s bag and left behind their satchel of $350,000 in stolen loot!

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What’d He Wear?

Rather than the “expensive” suit that John comments on in the present sequences, Art Rayburn wears an M-1943 field jacket which he almost certainly acquired during his World War II service and continued wearing a decade later during civilian life. Made from a hardy cotton sateen in a dark olive-green shade standardized as OD#7, these iconic field jackets were introduced by the U.S. Army in 1943 to replace the shorter and lighter M-1941 field jacket.

The thigh-length M-43 has a broad ulster-style collar that tapers to six OD#7 four-hole buttons up the front, reinforced by an internal drawstring cinching the waist. The two bellows pockets over the chest and two larger pockets over the hips are all covered with pointed flaps that each close through a single button covered by the flap’s cloth. The jacket also has shoulder straps (epaulets), and the set-in sleeves are finished with squared cuffs that can be closed through one of two buttons.

Art’s sturdy brushed cotton chamois shirt contextually and texturally harmonizes with his field jacket in this rugged outdoor setting, keeping him warm, comfortable, and insulated. The fabric is light-colored, with a pale mini grid-check indiscernible outside of close-ups. It follows the pattern of contemporary work shirts and military service shirts with a front placket, two chest pockets with single-button flaps, and single-button cuffs.

He buttons it over an off-white cotton base layer, which could be either a henley-style undershirt or even union suit-style “long johns” that would be particularly insular in the snowy woods outside Jackson Hole.

Art tucks the chamois shirt into military fatigue-style trousers that also maintain continuity with his field jacket. Likely made from a sage-green or khaki cotton, these flat-front trousers have side pockets and two set-in back pockets with single-button pointed flaps. He holds them up with a smooth, glossy dark leather belt that closes through a squared single-prong buckle.

The bottoms of Art’s field trousers are bloused into the ankle-covering shafts of his dark-brown leather moc-toe lace-up hiking boots. This practice was popularized among U.S. Army paratroopers during World War II, who tucked their trouser bottoms into calf-high boots to reduce wind resistance and snagging as well as to provide ankle support. While it’s obvious that Art hadn’t incorporated any parachute landings into his hunting trip with Doc, blousing his trouser bottoms like this would again prevent snags when moving through the woods as well as protecting his legs from elements like insects and weather.

Although we eventually get a nice glimpse of the wristwatch that Brian Keith wears as the villainous John, Aldo Ray’s round-cased watch remains a mystery beyond a light-colored dial and metal expanding band. It almost certainly belonged to the actor himself.

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The Gun

As part of their sadistic execution games, John and Red give Art his own hunting rifle—which Ben Fraser (James Gregory) later describes as “a .30-30 rifle” to make it look like he committed suicide after shooting Doc. When Art tries to turn the rifle on his captors, Red fires and shoots a piece of rock off of his skull… so Art plays dead to make the men drive away.

Based on details within the receiver cluster from the sharply swept bolt handle to the trigger, I suspect Art’s bolt-action rifle to be a Remington Model 30 Express, fitted with a fully adjustable Lyman or Redfield rear aperture sight. Unfortunately, this means it can’t actually be chambered in .30-30 Winchester Center Fire (WCF), a cartridge already rare among bolt-action rifles, as the Model 30’s range of calibers was limited to .30-06 Springfield, .25 Remington, .30 Remington, .32 Remington, .35 Remington, 7mm Mauser, .257 Roberts, and .270 Winchester.

Introduced in 1921, the Remington Model 30 was essentially a sporting refinement of the U.S. Model 1917 Enfield action, adapting Remington’s wartime manufacturing experience into a commercial hunting rifle. The improved Model 30 Express followed in 1926, with a more polished sporting stock, refined sights and other updates intended to make the rugged military-derived action more appealing to hunters. Produced through 1940, the Model 30 never achieved the fame of later American classics like the Winchester Model 70, but it remains significant as one of Remington’s earliest successful bolt-action sporting rifles and an important evolutionary step toward the company’s postwar Model 721 and 722.

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How to Get the Look

Art Rayburn appropriately adapts hardy wartime combat gear for a civilian hunting expedition in his M-43 field jacket and fatigue-style trousers bloused into commercial hiking boots.

• Olive drab (OD#7) cotton M-1943 field jacket with 6-button covered-fly front, four bellows pockets with covered-button pointed flaps, cinched waist with inside drawcord, and adjustable button cuffs
• Light mini-grid check chamois shirt with spread collar, front placket, two chest pockets with single-button flaps, and single-button cuffs
• Off-white cotton henley-style undershirt
• Drab cotton flat-front fatigue-style trousers with belt loops, side pockets, flapped back pockets, and bloused bottoms
• Dark leather belt with single-prong buckle
• Dark-brown leather moc-toe lace-up hiking boots
• Round-cased wristwatch with light-colored dial and expanding band

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.