Vitals

Laurence Olivier as Dr. Christian Szell, escaped war criminal aka “Christopher Hess”

New York City, Fall 1975

Film: Marathon Man
Release Date: October 8, 1976
Director: John Schlesinger
Costume Credit: Robert De Mora

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

One of the defining paranoid thrillers of the ’70s, Marathon Man was released 50 years ago today on October 8, 1976 and has spent the subsequent half-century spreading as much positive PR for dentistry as Psycho did for showers.

Adapted by William Goldman from his novel of the same title, Marathon Man follows Columbia grad student “Babe” Levy (Dustin Hoffman), who falls teeth-first into a scheme involving escaped Nazi war criminal Christian Szell (Laurence Olivier) and his cache of diamonds obtained by trading the gold fillings he extracted from Holocaust victims. Babe’s unwitting involvement culminates in Szell’s famously gruesome orthodontic torture as the doctor attempts to learn where the diamonds have been hidden.

Now, that synopsis alone should make it clear that Dr. Szell is a pretty bad guy. Goldman drew inspiration from real-life SS doctor Josef Mengele, even borrowing his nickname of Der Weiße Engel (“The White Angel”) for the distinctive white coat he wore when selecting newly arrived prisoners to concentration camps. Olivier’s Oscar-nominated performance proved chilling enough in its own right that organizations including AFI and Time would later rank Szell among cinema’s greatest villains.

Mengele himself would be fictionalized as the antagonist of another novel-turned-film, The Boys from Brazil, later that decade, but I take at least slightly more comfort in writing about Olivier’s Dr. Szell, who—however horrifying—is wholly fictitious.

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What’d He Wear?

Sometimes, the villain gets to be the best-dressed man in the movie. Given that Babe Levy’s wardrobe includes an ill-fitting sport coat and bow tie forced over his polo shirt to satisfy a restaurant dress code—followed by the torn, filthy sweats he wears while pursuing his two-time torturer through the Diamond District—it is hardly surprising that Laurence Olivier commands the sartorial attention as Dr. Szell in a slubby gray silk three-piece suit. His shimmering tailoring, complemented by an almost exclusive palette of gray ties and topcoat, reflects the character’s steely cold-bloodedness and sharklike relentlessness—still an almost unstoppable force more than three decades after the height of his sadistic ruthlessness.

According to its listing at The Golden Closet, “the three-piece suit was custom made for Mr. Olivier by Eaves Brooks Costume Company.” The all-gray suiting is a mixed weave that alternates between a wide-scaled herringbone and a more abstract geometric stripe, irregularly punctuated by slubs that give the cloth the distinctive texture of raw silk.

Szell’s ventless single-breasted jacket strengthens his silhouette with wide shoulders and a drape cut. The broad notch lapels are characteristic of 1970s fashions, tapering to a two-button front positioned over Olivier’s waist. The sleeves are roped at the shoulders and finished with three-button cuffs. Straight jetted hip pockets maintain the jacket’s clean lines, joined by a conventional welted breast pocket that Szell dresses with a white linen pocket square folded to a point.

Szell arrives in New York wearing the complete three-piece suit, including a matching waistcoat most clearly seen when he removes his jacket before torturing Babe. The single-breasted vest has a five-button front and four welted pockets, while its gray satin-lined back is fitted with an adjustable strap across the lower portion.

Following the classic sartorial convention of avoiding a belt beneath a waistcoat, Szell supports his pleated suit trousers with dark-navy cloth suspenders buttoned to the inside of the waistband. The trousers are cut with straight side pockets whose vertical openings follow the seams, no rear pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms.

Szell’s dark-brown suede derby shoes are a surprising departure from the steel tones throughout his clothing. These plain-toe shoes are derby-laced through four sets of eyelets and worn with black cotton socks, which appear to be worn with black garters that hold them up under his trouser legs.

Upon his arrival, Szell wears a plain white cotton shirt with a long point collar and button cuffs. His silk tie continues the grayscale motif, its light-silver ground woven with an intricate geometric pattern and crossed by bold black diagonal stripes running in the “downhill” direction.

From Babe’s torture scene through the final act, Szell changes into a Winchester shirt, distinguished by its plain white collar contrasting with the patterned body. Here, alternating blue and charcoal stripes run against a white ground, complemented by a front placket, single-button cuffs, and a point collar. Another gray-toned silk tie completes the look, this one patterned with gradating black horizontal lines intersected by series of shorter white vertical lines.

The following day brings Szell into the Diamond District, where he appears to have exchanged his waistcoat for a raincoat. Without the vest concealing his waist, a silver tie chain becomes visible looping across the blade of his tie above the jacket’s buttoning point.

Szell’s raincoat is made from water-resistant cotton patterned in a black-and-gray micro-houndstooth, which blends at a distance into an overall light-gray finish. An ulster collar frames the six-button covered-fly front, flanked by widely welted slanted hand pockets. The coat falls to just above his knees and is split by a single rear vent, while the set-in sleeves are finished with short, squared single-button tabs at each cuff.

Szell’s signature glasses also have silver frames, following a rectangular shape popularized by brands like Marwitz and Metzler during the 1960s. Like his screen-worn suit, Olivier’s actual prop glasses can be seen at The Golden Closet.

Though the 10k gold ring on Szell’s left pinky may read like any classic signet ring, it actually holds a key to his hidden identity with its Nazi-style eagle in relief across the ¾-inch surface. The screen-worn ring has been auctioned multiple times, including by Heritage Auctions in 2018 and again by Invaluable in 2022.

Szell’s gold cushion-case watch follows a common design from circa 1970 as produced by watchmakers like Bulova, Elgin, Longines, Omega, and Patek Philippe—to name just a few. Nicknamed for its similarity to contemporary television screens, the “TV dial” is also a gleaming gold, marked only with squared gold applied hour indices. He wears it over his left wrist on a mid-brown leather strap.

On his opposing wrist, Szell sports his dangerous weapon of choice: a retracting knife on an aluminum banded cuff. “The knife, a retractable blade,” Szell describes, adding that it’s “hardly original, but effective enough.”

According to a Heritage Auctions listing for the screen-used props, his non-retracting static rig consisted of a tooled aluminum two-piece bracelet with a foam interior, tape padding for Olivier’s comfort, and a leather-swaddled port for the interchangable blades. These include a sharp aluminum “hero blade”, a metalized plastic stunt blade, and two silver-painted rubber safety blades in differing lengths: one seven inches, the other nine.

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How to Get the Look

Dr. Szell’s look strips the warmth out of 1970s tailoring with a grayscale palette that lets texture do the work from his slubby and softly draped gray silk suit and micro-houndstooth raincoat, finished with polished but understated accessories and dark suede shoes for a sharklike look that feels elegant, severe, and almost clinical in its quiet menace.

• Gray slubby raw silk mixed-weave three-piece tailored suit:
  • Single-breasted 2-button jacket with wide notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Single-breasted 5-button waistcoat with four welted pockets and gray satin back lining
  • Pleated trousers with straight/on-seam side pockets and plain-hemmed bottoms
• White cotton shirt with plain white point collar, alternating navy-and-charcoal-on-white striped body, front placket, and single-button cuffs
• Gray patterned silk ties
• Silver tie-chain
• Navy cloth suspenders
• Dark-brown suede plain-toe 4-eyelet derby shoes
• Black cotton socks
• Black sock garters
• Gray-and-black micro-houndstooth waterproof cotton above-knee raincoat with ulster collar, six-button fly front, set-in sleeves with mini-tab cuffs, slanted welted hand pockets, and single vent
• Silver-framed squared eyeglasses
• Gold eagle-relief signet ring
• Gold cushion-case wristwatch with gold TV dial, gold applied hour indices, and brown leather strap

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

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The Quote

Is it safe?