Category: Casual
Downhill Racer: Hometown Hero Redford’s Wrangler Denim and ’57 Chevy
Robert Redford as David Chappellet in Downhill Racer (1969)
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Robert Redford as Dave Chappellet, U.S. Olympic ski team star
Idaho Springs, Colorado, Summer 1967
Film: Downhill Racer
Release Date: November 6, 1969
Director: Michael Ritchie
Costume Designer: Edith Head (uncredited!)
Wardrobe Credit: Cynthia May
Background
To coincide with the United States celebrating its 250th anniversary today, let’s launch this summer’s Car Week with an all-American star driving an all-American car while sporting all-American denim.
Robert Redford starred in three films released in 1969, arguably a breakthrough year for the late screen icon. His most notable would be the latter role in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, though the contemporary sports drama Downhill Racer gave the ambitious future producer/director a taste of production as he wielded some of his newfound influence to recruit both screenwriter James Salter and director Michael Ritchie after Roman Polanski left the project.
Without having read Oakley Hall’s source novel, Salter followed Polanski’s original vision of adapting the High Noon concept on the Olympic slopes; instead of a downed sheriff requiring a replacement, it’s the U.S. national ski team who needs a replacement for its lead skier after an accident. Call in Redford’s arrogant but talented David Chappellet, inspired by elements of real-life skiers Billy Kidd, Spider Sabich, and Buddy Werner. Continue reading
Kurt Russell’s Tank Top and Trucker Style in Big Trouble in Little China
Kurt Russell and Kim Cattrall in Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
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Kurt Russell as Jack Burton, troublesome truck driver
San Francisco, Fall 1985
Film: Big Trouble in Little China
Release Date: July 2, 1986
Director: John Carpenter
Costume Designer: April Ferry
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
John Carpenter’s cult classic Big Trouble in Little China was released 40 years ago today on July 2, 1986. Following their initial collaboration in The Thing (1982), Kurt Russell stars as cocky trucker Jack Burton, who indeed lands in big trouble in little China—specifically San Francisco’s Chinatown district—when his friend’s fiancée is kidnapped by a local street gang and then again kidnapped by henchmen serving the reclusive sorcerer David Lo Pan (James Hong), who needs a green-eyed wife to break an ancient curse. Jack and his friend Wang Chi (Dennis Dun) are joined by appropriately named attorney Gracie Law (Kim Cattrall) on their quest through the literal underground to retrieve Wang’s betrothed. Carpenter has explained he envisioned Jack as a sidekick who thinks he’s a hero, while the more comparatively reserved Wang more closely exemplifies the traditional leading man. Continue reading
Meteor: Sean Connery’s Tweed Leisure Suit and Sheepskin Coat
Sean Connery in Meteor (1979)
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Sean Connery as Dr. Paul Bradley, orbital satellite designer-turned-MIT professor
Houston, Texas, Washington, D.C., and New York City, December 1978
Film: Meteor
Release Date: October 19, 1979
Director: Ronald Neame
Costume Designer: Albert Wolsky
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
June 30th is National Meteor Watch Day and, while those of limited imagination may think this exclusively means looking up at the stars, some of us with a more cinematic mindset expand the meaning to include watching stars like Sean Connery, Natalie Wood, Karl Malden, and Martin Landau in Ronald Neame’s poorly regarded 1979 sci-fi flick Meteor.
Released the same year that Moonraker sent the incumbent James Bond to space, the erstwhile 007 stars in Meteor as ex-NASA scientist Dr. Paul Bradley, hastily summoned back to Houston by his old colleague Harry Sherwood (Karl Malden) after a comet collided with the asteroid Orpheus, sending dozens of deadly asteroid fragments hurtling toward Earth—including a five-mile-wide meteor that itself threatens an extinction-level event within a week. Continue reading
Cliff Robertson’s “Big Kahuna” Beach Style in Gidget
Cliff Robertson and Sandra Dee in Gidget (1959)
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Cliff Robertson as Burt “The Big Kahuna” Vail, beach bum and Korean War Veteran
Malibu, California, Summer 1959
Film: Gidget
Release Date: April 10, 1959
Director: Paul Wendkos
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Now that it’s summer, let’s flash back to the beach party movie that started it all. Before Frankie and Annette and before we ever followed Elvis to Hawaii, there was Gidget.
Czech-born writer Frederick Kohner was inspired to pen a novel by his daughter Kathy, who was nicknamed “Gidget” (a portmanteau for “girl” and “midget”) while learning to surf on the beaches at Malibu. Gidget, the Little Girl with Big Ideas became a top seller after it was published in 1957, so Kohner sold the rights to Columbia Pictures—awarding five percent of the $5,000 sale to Kathy—where screenwriter Gabrielle Upton adapted it for the screen. With journeyman director Paul Wendkos at the helm, Gidget was shot in just 26 days through the early summer of 1958, primarily on location at Leo Carrillo State Park in Malibu.
Gidget was a breakthrough role for Sandra Dee in the titular starring role as 16-year-old Francine Lawrence, who doesn’t share her girlfriends’ interest in man-hunting and rather wants to spend her summer learning how to surf. She makes a splash at the local beaches, where the regular surfers adopt her as their mascot. The boys like “Moondoggie” (James Darren) all idolize the beach-dwelling “Big Kahuna” (Cliff Robertson), who describes himself simply:
I’m a surf bum! You know: ride the waves, eat, sleep—not a care in the world.
Kris Kristofferson’s Western Trucker Gear in Convoy
Kris Kristofferson as “Rubber Duck” in Convoy (1978)
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Kris Kristofferson as Martin “Rubber Duck” Penwald, maverick trucker
Arizona to New Mexico, Summer 1978
Film: Convoy
Release Date: June 28, 1978
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Costumers: Carol James & Kent James
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Today would have been the 90th birthday of the late Kris Kristofferson, likely best known as a pioneering singer-songwriter in the 1970s “outlaw country” movement alongside friends and fellow “Highwaymen” Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson. After writing and recording hits like “Me and Bobby McGee” and “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down”, Kristofferson embarked on an acting career that began with Dennis Hopper’s offbeat The Last Movie (1971), his titular starring role in Cisco Pike (1972), and his first collaborations with director Sam Peckinpah in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) and a more limited role in Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974). Following Kristofferson’s string in more romantic roles, Peckinpah again tapped him to play an adventurous anti-hero as the trucker Martin “Rubber Duck” Penwald in Convoy (1978). Continue reading
Nicolas Cage’s Red Aloha Shirt in Raising Arizona
Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter in Raising Arizona (1987)
Vitals
Nicolas Cage as H.I. McDunnough, small-time crook and new dad
Tempe, Arizona, Spring 1986
Film: Raising Arizona
Release Date: March 13, 1987
Director: Joel & Ethan Coen
Costume Designer: Richard Hornung
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
In addition to tomorrow being the official start of summer, it’s also my first Father’s Day since becoming a dad last year! So the stars feel aligned for me to write about Nicolas Cage’s Hawaiian shirt-centric style as another new dad: ex-con Herbert I. McDunnough in the Coen brothers’ sophomore film, Raising Arizona (1987).
My name is H.I. McDunnough. Call me “Hi”.
The Rockford Files: Jim’s Beige Safari-style Fishing Jacket
James Garner as Jim Rockford in a promotional photo for The Rockford Files (1974-1980)
Vitals
James Garner as Jim Rockford, wisecracking private detective and ex-convict
Los Angeles to Las Vegas, Summer 1974
Series: The Rockford Files
Episodes:
– “Backlash of the Hunter” (Pilot episode, dir. Richard T. Heffron, aired 3/27/1974)
– “In Pursuit of Carol Thorne” (Episode 1.10, dir. Charles S. Dubin, aired 11/8/1974)
Creator: Roy Huggins & Stephen J. Cannell
Costume Designer: Charles Waldo
Background
Our first scene with James Garner’s titular Malibu-based private eye on The Rockford Files catches Jim Rockford after fishing with his father, Joseph “Rocky” Rockford (played by Robert Donley in the pilot, before he would be recast with Noah Beery Jr.). Rocky accompanies his son back to his trailer parked at Paradise Cove, where Jim’s lovely new prospective client Sara Butler (Lindsay Wagner) awaits him. Jim leads Sara into his “cheap, tax-deductible, earthquake-proof” office, where he introduces his now-iconic fee of:
$200 a day, plus expenses.
Writing a check (dated June 6, 1974, precisely dating the setting), Sara then hires Jim to look into his father’s under-investigated murder two months later. In the tradition of great detective fiction, the complexities of the case deepen while Rockford gets knocked around by a few heavies before knocking boots with the gorgeous femme fatale. A break in the case sends Jim and Sara speeding east across the Mojave Desert in his famous bronze Pontiac, resulting in a gunfight with Rockford’s unregistered cookie jar gat.
Since June 18th is annually recognized as National Go Fishing Day, let’s look at how Jim Rockford dressed for that day of fishing in his introductory scene. Continue reading
Cape Fear (1962): Robert Mitchum’s Straw Hat and Striped Tee as Max Cady
Robert Mitchum as Max Cady in Cape Fear (1962)
Vitals
Robert Mitchum as Max Cady, psychopathic ex-convict
Southeast Georgia, Summer 1962
Film: Cape Fear
Release Date: June 15, 1962
Director: J. Lee Thompson
Costume Designer: Mary Wills
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
With the latest adaptation of Cape Fear earning strong reviews on Apple TV+, let’s look back to the release of the original film sixty-four years ago today on June 15, 1962. Adapted from John D. MacDonald’s suspense novel The Executioners, the first Cape Fear stars Gregory Peck as Southern attorney Sam Bowden and Robert Mitchum in a chilling performance as Max Cady, a psychotic ex-convict who, upon his release after serving eight years for sexual assault, sets out to exact revenge on the man he believes responsible for his incarceration. Continue reading
Matthew Broderick as Ferris Bueller
Matthew Broderick in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
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Matthew Broderick as Ferris Bueller, clever and charismatic high school senior and righteous dude
Chicago, Spring 1986
Film: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Release Date: June 11, 1986
Director: John Hughes
Costume Designer: Marilyn Vance
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Bueller… Bueller…
Forty years ago today, audiences first joined Matthew Broderick’s charming truant on an elaborate jaunt through Chicago when Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was released on June 11, 1986. Writer and director John Hughes completed his screenplay in less than a week, always with Broderick in mind to play the charming titular truant who was reportedly based on one of his own childhood acquaintances.
With just about two months until his high school graduation, 17-year-old Ferris Bueller wakes up to the forecast of a warm spring day. How could he possibly be expected to handle school on a day like that? Licking his palms to fake clammy hands that fool his parents, Ferris takes his ninth sick day of the semester—arousing the suspicions of Dean of Students Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), who isn’t about to let some snot-nosed punk leave his cheese out in the wind.
After setting up a complex system of safeguards designed to satiate his parents, school staff, and even fellow students, Ferris recruits his hypochondriac best friend Cameron (Alan Ruck) from his own sick day and liberates his girlfriend Sloane (Mia Sara) under the guise of a fictional grandmother’s death. At the wheel of Cameron’s dad’s prized Ferrari, Ferris speeds the trio into the Windy City for an unforgettable—if unbelievably packed—day:
The question isn’t “what are we going to do,” the question is “what aren‘t we going to do?”
Passenger 57: Wesley Snipes’ Biker Jacket with Layered Shirts and Jeans
Wesley Snipes as John Cutter in Passenger 57 (1992)
Vitals
Wesley Snipes as John Cutter, airline security chief and ex-Secret Service agent
In flight from Miami to Los Angeles, Spring 1992
Film: Passenger 57
Release Date: November 6, 1992
Director: Kevin Hooks
Costume Designer: Brad R. Loman
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, sometimes there’s nothing more necessary than to sit back and turn off your brain to watch a pleasantly absurd ’90s action movie. Luckily for us, Kevin Hooks directed the 1992 action thriller Passenger 57—its title literally inspired after writer Stewart Raffill spied a bottle of Heinz ketchup.
Wesley Snipes stars as John Cutter, a former* Secret Service agent whose stalwart reputation has followed him into his latest career as an airline security consultant, training flight attendants like Marti Slayton (Alex Datcher) how to handle hijacking scenarios. After his pal Sly Delvecchio (Tom Sizemore) helps Cutter secure an executive position as the vice president of security for the fictional Atlantic International Airlines, Cutter boards Atlantic Flight 163… the same flight on which FBI agents are escorting the dangerous international criminal Charles Rane (Bruce Payne)—who is not insane—back to California to face trial.
With his history of commercial airline bombings that makes us—and Delvecchio—wonder why the feds would choose this particular method of transportation, “the Rane of terror” has more explosive ideas for securing his freedom, which becomes an unfortunate situation for his fellow passengers—all except passenger #57, who happens to be the nation’s foremost expert in combating air terrorism. Continue reading
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