Category: Casual
Kill Me Again: Val Kilmer’s White Shirt and White Cadillac
Val Kilmer in Kill Me Again (1989)
Vitals
Val Kilmer as Jack Andrews, cynical private investigator
Nevada, Spring 1989
Film: Kill Me Again
Release Date: October 27, 1989
Director: John Dahl
Costume Designer: Terry Dresbach
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
This summer’s Car Week wraps with Kill Me Again, John Dahl’s little-known (at least to me, before last year) 1989 neo-noir thriller starring the late Val Kilmer and Michael Madsen opposite Kilmer’s then-wife Joanne Whalley as a dangerous femme fatale.
I’ll admit I was drawn to this as a subject this week due to some stylistic similarities with one of my favorite “car movies”, Vanishing Point (1971), which also features a man in a white shirt and jeans desperately racing a white two-door hardtop V8 through the desert until the car meets a fiery end. In this case, it’s not the nihilistic Kowalski in a Dodge Challenger but our widowed gambler P.I. in his quarter-century-old Cadillac, racing through the sand for a bundle of stolen cash. Continue reading
Two-Lane Blacktop: James Taylor as a ’55 Chevy Driver
James Taylor with Dennis Wilson and Laurie Bird in Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
Vitals
James Taylor as “The Driver”, laconic race car driver
Arizona through Tennessee, Fall 1970
Film: Two-Lane Blacktop
Release Date: July 7, 1971
Director: Monte Hellman
Costume Designer: Richard Bruno
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Monte Hellman’s offbeat cult classic road movie Two-Lane Blacktop was released 55 years ago this week on July 7, 1971, starring musicians James Taylor and Dennis Wilson as the unnamed driver and mechanic of a ’55 Chevy gasser that picks up a hitchhiker (Laurie Bird) and falls into a cross-country race for pinks against the blustering driver of a new Pontiac GTO, played by Warren Oates.
Always an unorthodox maverick, Hellman was inspired to cast Taylor after spying his face on a Sunset Boulevard billboard, recalling that he “just flipped over his face.” Both Taylor and his late co-star Oates recalled the first-time actor feeling frustrated with his lack of control as Hellman and his 30-person crew shot the film in sequence, offering the cast only a few pages of the script at a time. “I’m not talking out of turn when I say Jimmy Taylor had terrible struggles relinquishing control to Monte,” Oates later shared.
The on-set strife reached a point where Hellman convinced Taylor not to quit the production by finally allowing him to read the entirety of Rudy Wurtlizer’s screenplay… which he didn’t do. Still, Taylor didn’t see Two-Lane Blacktop as the detour to a new path in his career, explaining in a contemporary interview with the Los Angeles Times that “I’m not an actor. I’ll never do this again. If I ever did another film I’d have to be the director and writer, I’d have to be in control.” To date, this remains the six-time Grammy-winning Taylor’s sole big-screen acting credit apart from cameos.
As this summer’s Car Week feature stretches on, let’s follow Sweet Baby James in that primer-gray Chevy along America’s blue highways stretching east from Arizona. Continue reading
Rocky IV: The Italian Stallion’s Adidas Sweatsuit and Lamborghinis
Sylvester Stallone in Rocky IV (1985)
Vitals
Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa, two-time heavyweight world champion boxer
Philadelphia, Fall 1985
Film: Rocky IV
Release Date: November 27, 1985
Director: Sylvester Stallone
Costume Designer: Tom Bronson
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Happy 80th birthday to Sylvester Stallone! Born July 6, 1946, the carved his own path to Hollywood success by writing and starring in Rocky as the fictional Philadelphia boxer Rocky Balboa. What started as a simple sports drama with a million-dollar budget has advanced over a half-century to $2 billion-grossing franchise of nine films and counting.
The first six films were all entirely written by Stallone who also directed four of the sequels, including Rocky IV (1985), which essentially pits Rocky as a symbol of American greatness against the cold-hearted cruelty of the Soviet Union as embodied by his deadly rival Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren).
A brief but memorable scene finds Rocky washing his pair of Lamborghinis outside his Philly mansion while his son Rocky Jr. (Rocky Krakoff) plays with the robot they gave Rocky’s brother-in-law Paulie (Burt Young) until this domestic bliss is interrupted by a phone call from Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) to discuss Drago.
Let’s continue this summer’s Car Week with a look at Rocky’s look and his Lambos! Continue reading
Downhill Racer: Hometown Hero Redford’s Wrangler Denim and ’57 Chevy
Robert Redford as David Chappellet in Downhill Racer (1969)
Vitals
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)
Vitals
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)
Vitals
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)
Vitals
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)
Vitals
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
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