Category: Casual
Gerald Mohr’s Flight Jacket in Guns, Girls, and Gangsters
Gerald Mohr in Guns, Girls, and Gangsters (1959)
Vitals
Gerald Mohr as Chuck Wheeler, slick armed robber and ex-convict
December 1958 to January 1959, Nevada/California state line
Film: Guns, Girls, and Gangsters
Release Date: January 1959
Director: Edward L. Cahn
Men’s Costumes: Einar Bourman
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
“Noirvember” continues with a post from the lean and lurid 1959 noir Guns, Girls, and Gangsters starring Gerald Mohr, a prolific mid-century actor who died 58 years ago today on November 9, 1968. Despite a relatively brief career, Mohr’s acting credits include more than a hundred half-hour radio plays as Raymond Chandler’s iconic private eye Philip Marlowe. Also starring Mamie Van Doren and Lee Van Cleef, Guns, Girls, and Gangsters pits Mohr on the other side of the law as Chuck Wheeler, described by the film’s insipid narration as “known to the police as a slick and ingenious crook.” Continue reading
Something Wild: Ray Liotta in Black Leather and Black Watch Plaid
Ray Liotta in Something Wild (1986)
Vitals
Ray Liotta as Ray Sinclair, volatile ex-convict
Pennsylvania to Virginia, June 1986
Film: Something Wild
Release Date: November 7, 1986
Director: Jonathan Demme
Costume Designer: Norma Moriceau
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Three years after his film debut in the 1983 box-office bomb The Lonely Lady, Ray Liotta made a more explosive impact through his Golden Globe-nominated breakthrough performance in Jonathan Demme’s darkly comic thriller Something Wild, released 40 years ago today on November 7, 1986.
The film follows uptight banker Charlie Driggs (Jeff Daniels) on an impulsive adventure with the free-spirited “Lulu” (Melanie Griffith), who seduces him into abandoning his old yuppie life. Their larcenous escapades lead them to her Pennsylvania hometown, where she introduces Charlie to her mother as her husband. They continue this romantic charade that evening at her high school’s ten-year class reunion, where they encounter Lulu’s devilish ex-husband Ray Sinclair (Ray Liotta). Continue reading
Interstellar: Matthew McConaughey’s Heritage Workwear and Hamilton Watch
Matthew McConaughey in Interstellar (2014). Photo credit: Melinda Sue Gordon.
Vitals
Matthew McConaughey as Joseph “Coop” Cooper, resourceful NASA pilot-turned-farmer and widowed family man
Colorado, Spring 2067
Film: Interstellar
Release Date: November 5, 2014
Director: Christopher Nolan
Costume Designer: Mary Zophres
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Born 57 years ago today on November 4, 1969, Matthew McConaughey was in the midst of his celebrated “McConaissance” when he starred in Christopher Nolan’s 2014 sci-fi epic Interstellar, which opened in select theaters one day after the actor’s 45th birthday. The charismatic Texan had spent two decades building an eclectic career, from his stoner breakthrough in Dazed and Confused (1993) through a succession of dramatic leading roles and romantic comedies. Following a brief hiatus, McConaughey returned to the screen on the other side of 40 with a renewed focus on more challenging material, culminating in his Oscar-winning performance in Dallas Buyers Club (2013) and his unforgettable turn as nihilistic detective Rust Cohle in the first season of HBO’s True Detective.
Interstellar marked McConaughey’s first—and, to date, only—collaboration with Nolan, who sets his ambitious spacefaring saga in a dystopian future where catastrophic blight and widespread famine threaten humanity with extinction. McConaughey stars as Joseph “Coop” Cooper, a widowed former NASA pilot now raising his teenage son Tom (Timothée Chalamet) and 10-year-old daughter Murphy (Mackenzie Foy) on a dusty corn farm in the Great Plains. When Coop and Murph follow a series of seemingly supernatural clues to a clandestine NASA facility, they encounter Professor John Brand (Michael Caine) and his daughter Amelia (Anne Hathaway), who are preparing a desperate mission to identify habitable worlds beyond our solar system. Coop’s experience as a skilled aviator makes him an ideal candidate to pilot the expedition, though accepting the assignment means leaving his children behind for what could be years—or even a lifetime.
Coop: So if we find a home… then what?
Professor Brand: That’s the long shot.
Though Coop is motivated by the hope of securing a better future for his children, his decision to leave devastates Murph, who feels betrayed by the father she fears she’ll never see again. As a parting gift, Coop gives her a watch—specially designed for the film by Hamilton—to accompany the Hamilton timepiece he wears himself. Continue reading
The Exorcist: Father Karras’ Off-Duty Georgetown Jacket and Fall Layers
Jason Miller as Fr. Karras in The Exorcist (1973)
Vitals
Jason Miller as Fr. Damien Karras, Jesuit psychiatrist and—according to at least one demonic entity—”faithless slime”
Washington, D.C., Fall 1972
Film: The Exorcist
Release Date: December 26, 1973
Director: William Friedkin
Costume Designer: Joseph Fretwell III
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Progressing deeper through spooky season toward Halloween, let’s look at some understated style in William Friedkin’s 1973 horror classic The Exorcist. Playwright and actor Jason Miller made his Academy Award-nominated screen debut as Damien Karras, SJ, the theological psychiatrist summoned to exorcise a demon from the 12-year-old Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair).
A landmark in legitimatizing the horror genre, The Exorcist received ten Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Miller. Miller’s own experience likely informed his performance as he graduated from the Jesuit-run University of Scranton before dropping out of his studies at the Catholic University of America. He soon found success in theater, where he caught Friedkin’s eye for the role of Father Karras—reportedly beating out ’70s screen giants Paul Newman, Jack Nicholson, and Stacy Keach (who had actually been hired for the part). Even after his Oscar-nominated success, Miller preferred to continue working in regional theater
What’d He Wear?
Georgetown mother Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) desperately tries to talk Father Karras into exorcising her daughter, but he’s skeptical that she’s actually possessed by a demon—until realizing that Regan shouldn’t have known that he was a priest given his lack of clerical garb when they first meet. Indeed, Karras looks more transplanted from the world of sports than spirituality given his bright royal-blue nylon coach’s jacket paired with smart casual fall layers. Continue reading
Shaft in Africa: Richard Roundtree’s Workwear
Richard Roundtree as John Shaft in Shaft in Africa (1973)
Vitals
Richard Roundtree as John Shaft, tough private detective
Ethiopia to Paris, Winter 1972
Film: Shaft in Africa
Release Date: June 20, 1973
Director: John Guillermin
Wardrobe Credit: Frank Balchus
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Who’s the cat that won’t cop out when there’s danger all about? Shaft! (Right on.)
The groundbreaking role of private investigator John Shaft was originated across three films in the early 1970s by Richard Roundtree, who died three years ago today on October 24, 2023. After successful back-to-back installments set in Shaft’s native New York City, the character crossed the ocean for the bluntly titled 1973 sequel Shaft in Africa. Continue reading
Lanterns: Kyle Chandler’s Weathered Wardrobe as Hal Jordan
I’m pleased to again present a guest post contributed by my friend Ken Stauffer, who has written several pieces for BAMF Style previously and chronicles the style of the Ocean’s film series (and beyond!) on his excellent Instagram account, @oceansographer.
Kyle Chandler in Lanterns. Photo credit: John Johnson/HBO Max.
Vitals
Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan, cocky former test pilot and Green Lantern of Sector 2814
Coast City, California, Summer 1975 and 1996, and
Rushville, Nebraska, Fall 2016 and 2026
Series: Lanterns
Air Dates: August 16-October 4, 2026
Created by: Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King
Costume Designer: Cynthia Ann Summers
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
While most comic fans regard Hal Jordan as one of the medium’s most recognizable heroes, the pre-eminent Green Lantern of Earth, the character has really had a rough go in live action. Created by writer John Broome and artist Gil Kane, Jordan debuted in DC Comics’ Showcase #22 in 1959, succeeding Alan Scott as the second human to use that superhero moniker. When finally brought to life on the big screen by Ryan Reynolds in 2011, the movie’s overwhelmingly negative reception made the character untouchable for mainstream audiences for years to come.
Fifteen years later, DC Studios was finally ready to give Hal another opportunity to prove his worth, this time on HBO. To distance this interpretation from the last in the audience’s mind, a decision was made to shift the focus of Lanterns from spectacle to story, from special effects to character. The show deliberately takes a more grounded (not to mention cheaper!) approach, setting its character-driven mystery primarily in Middle America, à la True Detective. So rather than sending its protagonists on a galaxy-hopping adventure battling a host of CGI extraterrestrials, we see our heroes confront aliens and cyborgs (convincingly disguised as humans) in very recognizable environments, even when they’re briefly on another planet.
But who could bring this fantastic character back down to Earth, making him seem equally at home downing shots of whiskey in a roadside bar as soaring through outer space? Who could possibly make him feel convincingly lived in with just the right combination of rakish charm and dogged grit?
Enter Kyle Chandler. Continue reading
Danny’s Apollo Sweater in The Shining
Danny Lloyd as Danny “Doc” Torrance in The Shining (1980)
Vitals
Danny Lloyd as Danny “Doc” Torrance, young boy with supernatural senses
Silver Creek, Colorado, Winter 1979
Film: The Shining
Release Date: May 23, 1980
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Costume Designer: Milena Canonero
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Aside from the occasional student style, most of my BAMF Style posts over the 14 years of this blog’s existence have centered on adult characters. Whether it’s the onset of spooky season or the fact that my own son turns one this month, it finally feels like the right time to make sure I don’t, uh, overlook one of the sickest fits in horror cinema: the Apollo 11 sweater worn by young Danny Torrance as he pedals through the hallways of the haunted Colorado hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s iconic 1980 adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining.
The role marked the first of only two major screen appearances for Danny Lloyd, who celebrates his 54th birthday today. Born October 13, 1972, Lloyd was just six years old when he was cast as the psychically gifted child navigating an increasingly terrifying winter at the isolated Overlook Hotel with his parents, Jack (Jack Nicholson) and Wendy (Shelley Duvall). Continue reading
The Departed: Leo’s Leather Belstaff Jacket as Billy Costigan
Leonardo DiCaprio as Billy Costigan in The Departed (2006)
Vitals
Leonardo DiCaprio as Billy Costigan, undercover Massachusetts State Police trooper
Boston, Fall 2006 to Spring 2007
Film: The Departed
Release Date: October 6, 2006
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Designer: Sandy Powell
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
The Departed was widely released 20 years ago today on October 6, 2006, days after its September 26th premiere at the Ziegfield Theater. William Monahan adapted the material from the 2002 Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, also taking inspiration from real-life Boston crime figures like Winter Hill Gang leader Whitey Bulger and his crooked FBI handler, John Connolly. After six nominations, the prolific Martin Scorsese finally won his first Academy Award for Best Director for The Departed—which was also honored with Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay to Monahan, and Best Film Editing to Scorsese’s regular collaborator, Thelma Schoonmaker.
This was also Scorsese’s third consecutive collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio, who stars as the working-class Massachusetts State Police (MSP) recruit Billy Costigan tapped by Captain Oliver Queenan (Martin Sheen) to infiltrate a ruthless Boston mob run by Francis “Frank” Costello (Jack Nicholson). Continue reading
Sanchez’s Studded Red Leather Jacket in Bastard, Go and Kill
Franco Lantieri in Bastard, Go and Kill (1971)
Vitals
Franco Lantieri as Sanchez, dangerous Mexican henchman
Mexico, circa 1890
Film: Bastard, Go and Kill
(Italian title: Bastardo… vamos a matar!)
Release Date: March 6, 1971
Director: Gino Mangini
Costume Credit: Teresa Miccinelli (credited as seamstress)
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Like so many new parents, I always have plenty of time on my hands to idle away by watching movies I know little about. For those who recognized the sarcasm in that last sentence, you’ll also recognize what a gamble it was when I decided to spend just over an hour with the little-known 1971 Spaghetti Western Bastard, Go and Kill, knowing little about it other than it was called Bastard, Go and Kill and that some guy wore a sick red leather jacket in it.
Said guy turned out to be Franco Lantieri—a Sicilian actor who bears quite a resemblance to Gian Maria Volonté (from the first two films of Sergio Leone’s “Dollars trilogy”)—in the supporting role of Sanchez. Sanchez serves as a henchman for ruthless Mexican landowner Don Felipe Morena (Furio Meniconi), often placing him at odds against the wily, mischievous Chaco (George Eastman). While hardly among the best Spaghetti Westerns, Sanchez’s style alone made Bastard, Go and Kill worth the fistful of minutes I spent watching it earlier this year. Continue reading
East of Eden: James Dean’s Tan Sweater and Sport Shirt
James Dean in East of Eden (1955)
Vitals
James Dean as Caleb “Cal” Trask, angsty and entrepreneurial farmer’s son
Monterey to Salinas, California, Spring 1917
Film: East of Eden
Release Date: March 9, 1955
Director: Elia Kazan
Costume Designer: Anna Hill Johnstone
Background
Despite his profoundly lasting cultural impact as a 1950s screen and style icon, James Dean only starred in three credited films before his death 71 years ago today on September 30, 1955. Of these, Elia Kazan’s adaptation of John Steinbeck’s epic novel East of Eden was the only to actually be released during his lifetime.
Steinbeck took inspiration from the biblical story of Cain and Abel, graphed onto the moody Cal Trask (Dean) and his brother Aron (Richard Davalos), who both vie to impress their devout father Adam (Raymond Massey) as well as Aron’s girlfriend Abra (Julie Harris).
The novel follows the Trask family settling in California’s Salinas Valley during the 1860s through Cal and Aron’s drama through the end of World War I. The 1955 film was entirely set during these later years, though the new 2026 miniseries (releasing on Netflix tomorrow!) likely follows the family saga across Steinbeck’s full timeline.
What’d He Wear?
Costume designer Anna Hill Johnstone dressed James Dean primarily in layered neutrals as Cal Trask, perhaps signaling his impartial vulnerability while also allowing him to be both literally and mentally stripped down over the course of his emotional journey. His open-neck shirts and sweaters may seem surprisingly contemporary to modern viewers—and Johnstone surely wanted younger audiences to relate to Cal by not making him look inaccessibly old-fashioned—but historical photography and catalogs depict younger men increasingly embracing casual sportswear throughout the 1910s. Continue reading
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