Category: Film Noir Fashions

In a Lonely Place: Bogie’s Twill Sports Coat and Turtleneck

Humphrey Bogart as Dix Steele in In a Lonely Place (1950)

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Humphrey Bogart as Dixon “Dix” Steele, frustrated screenwriter

Los Angeles, Fall 1949

Film: In a Lonely Place
Release Date: May 17, 1950
Director: Nicholas Ray
Costume Designer: Jean Louis (credited for gowns only)

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Today’s post wraps up #Noirvember on what would have been the 100th birthday of silver screen icon Gloria Grahame. Born November 28, 1923, Grahame’s film noir credits include Crossfire (1947) and The Big Heat (1953), though my favorite is In a Lonely Place (1950), directed by her then-husband Nicholas Ray and starring Humphrey Bogart.

Some of Bogie’s friends and acquaintances have described the character of cynical screenwriter Dixon Steele to be the closest that the actor ever came to projecting his true charismatic yet insecure persona onto the screen. Continue reading

Sunset Boulevard: William Holden’s Mini-Check Sport Jacket and “Dreadful Shirt”

William Holden as Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard (1950)

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William Holden as Joe Gillis, struggling screenwriter

Los Angeles, Fall 1949

Film: Sunset Boulevard
Release Date: August 10, 1950
Director: Billy Wilder
Costume Designer: Edith Head

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Noirvember continues with Sunset Boulevard, one of the great films noir that shines a light—or, more appropriately, casts a shadow—on the darker side of Hollywood, a theme popular with contemporary dramas like In a Lonely Place (1950) and The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), with an added verisimilitude through mentions of real studios like 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures—who, of course, produced Sunset Boulevard—and cameos from Cecil B. DeMille, Hedda Hopper, and Buster Keaton.

William Holden stars as Joe Gillis, who describes himself in the opening narration as “a movie writer with a couple of B pictures to his credit.” On “the day when it all started,” Joe recounts living in a seedy one-room Hollywood apartment where he owes three months back rent, grinding out two original screenplays a week and fretting that he’s lost his touch. Three payments behind on his Plymouth, his screenplays aren’t selling, and his agent isn’t willing to help, instead insisting that “the finest things on the world have been written on an empty stomach,” though that may be just to get out of having to lend his client the $290 he needs to keep his car. Continue reading

Humphrey Bogart in The Desperate Hours

Humphrey Bogart in The Desperate Hours (1955)

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Humphrey Bogart as Glenn Griffin, menacing fugitive

Indianapolis, Fall 1955

Film: The Desperate Hours
Release Date: October 5, 1955
Director: William Wyler
Costume Designer: Edith Head

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Noirvember continues with The Desperate Hours, a 1955 drama that was Humphrey Bogart’s penultimate silver screen performance. Bogie remains significantly associated with film noir, thanks to genre-defining movies like High Sierra (1941), The Maltese Falcon (1941), The Big Sleep (1946), Key Largo (1948), and In a Lonely Place (1950).

The New York-born actor rose to prominence playing villains, perhaps most notably his breakthrough role of snarling Dillinger-esque gangster Duke Mantee in the stage and screen productions of The Petrified Forest. As exemplified by his masterful but hardly glamorous performance in movies like The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), Bogart never let his popularity get in the way of darker roles—even after winning the Academy Award for Best Actor for The African Queen (1951).

Adapted by Joseph Hayes from his own novel and play of the same name (itself loosely based on true events), The Desperate Hours cast Bogart as the dangerous Glenn Griffin, the leader of a trio of three escaped convicts who seek refuge by forcing their way into the suburban Indiana home of Daniel (Frederic March) and Ellie Hilliard (Martha Scott). Continue reading

Leave Her to Heaven: Cornel Wilde’s Brown Plaid Flannel Shirt

Cornel Wilde in Leave Her to Heaven (1945)

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Cornel Wilde as Richard “Dick” Harland, idealistic novelist

Northern Maine, August 1942

Film: Leave Her to Heaven
Release Date: December 25, 1945
Director: John M. Stahl
Costume Designer: Kay Nelson

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

I began Noirvember this month by highlighting a costume from one of the rare classic examples of  “color noir”—which is exactly what it sounds like, a crime-centered drama from the 1940s and ’50s that includes many of the same themes and techniques as the shadowy film noir but photographed in full color, rather than the typical black-and-white.

Arguably the first major example of color noir is Leave Her to Heaven, widely released on Christmas 1945 and starring Cornel Wilde opposite the ravishing Gene Tierney, whose performance resulted in the actress’ only Academy Award nomination. Tierney died 32 years ago today on November 6, 1991. Continue reading

Desert Fury: Burt Lancaster’s Colorful Noir Cowboy Style

Burt Lancaster in Desert Fury (1947)

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Burt Lancaster as Tom Hanson, affable deputy sheriff

Nevada, Spring 1947

Film: Desert Fury
Release Date: August 15, 1947
Director: Lewis Allen
Costume Designer: Edith Head

Background

Born 110 years ago today on November 2, 1913, Burt Lancaster’s connection to film noir begins with his screen debut in The Killers (1946), followed by performances in Brute Force (1947), I Walk Alone (1947), Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), Criss Cross (1949), and Sweet Smell of Success (1957)—to name just a few of his noir credentials.

While the existence of “color noir” may sound contradictory, there were a handful of films made during the ’40s and ’50s that have been qualified as such, including the 1947 drama Desert Fury which maintains its noir techniques and themes but with lush Technicolor cinematography as opposed to the shadowy black-and-white typically associated with the style.

Let’s kick off #Noirvember in post-World War II Nevada, where Lancaster’s friendly Tom Hanson takes a break from serving as deputy sheriff in the fictional town of Chickawalla to practice his equestrian abilities. Continue reading

John Garfield in The Breaking Point

John Garfield as Harry Morgan in The Breaking Point (1950)

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John Garfield as Harry Morgan, cynical charter fishing boat captain and Navy veteran

Newport Beach, California and Ensenada, Mexico, Spring to Summer 1950

Film: The Breaking Point
Release Date: September 30, 1950
Director: Michael Curtiz
Wardrobe Credit: Leah Rhodes

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

One of the most intense and talented actors of his generation, John Garfield was born 110 years ago today on March 4, 1913 in New York’s Lower East Side. His birth name was Julius Garfinkle, with Julius added as a middle name that resulted in his nickname “Julie” among friends and family.

Garfield delivered many excellent performances during his too-brief life and career, eventually citing his personal favorite to be in his penultimate film The Breaking Point, a more faithful retelling of Ernest Hemingway’s novel To Have and Have Not than the popular and stylish 1944 adaptation starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.

Lushly photographed and set against the docks of Newport Beach, The Breaking Point stars Garfield as self-described “boat jockey” Harry Morgan, a World War II veteran who makes a living for his supportive wife and daughter by chartering his fishing boat, Sea Queen, that ferries passengers back and forth from Mexico. Continue reading

Devil in a Blue Dress: Don Cheadle as Mouse Alexander

Don Cheadle as Raymond “Mouse” Alexander in Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)

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Don Cheadle as Raymond “Mouse” Alexander, smooth but dangerous gunsel

Los Angeles, Summer 1948

Film: Devil in a Blue Dress
Release Date: September 29, 1995
Director: Carl Franklin
Costume Designer: Sharen Davis

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

As #Noirvember comes to a close, I want to celebrate one of my favorite characters from neo-noir, the trigger-happy “Mouse” Alexander in Devil in a Blue Dress, played by Don Cheadle who was born November 29, 1964 and celebrates his 58th birthday today.

Fledgling private eye Ezekial “Easy” Rawlins (Denzel Washington) calls his old pal Mouse for some high-caliber help as the stakes climb but soon regrets his decision: “You ain’t been in my house five minutes and you gone and shot somebody already, Mouse!” Continue reading

Out of the Past: Robert Mitchum’s Suede Fishing Jacket

Robert Mitchum as Jeff Markham in Out of the Past (1947)

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Robert Mitchum as Jeff Markham, aka Jeff Bailey, laconic gas station owner and former private detective

Bridgeport, California, Fall 1946

Film: Out of the Past
Release Date: November 25, 1947
Director: Jacques Tourneur
Costume Credit: Edward Stevenson

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Today marks the 75th anniversary since the release of Out of the Past, often considered among the best of classic film noir, the shadowy sub-genre known for its murky morals, gat-toting gumshoes, and double-crossing dames.

We begin in the small northern California town of Bridgeport, where laconic gas station owner Jeff Bailey enjoys a quiet fishing date with his girlfriend Ann Miller (Virginia Huston) until he’s silently interrupted by his deaf employee, “The Kid” (Dickie Moore), signing for Jeff to return. Back in town, Jeff is greeted by Joe Stefanos (Paul Valentine), a mob torpedo sent to invite Jeff—whom we learn is actually an ex-private investigator named Jeff Markham—to Lake Tahoe to meet a mysterious figure from… out of his past. Continue reading

Alan Ladd in This Gun for Hire

Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake in This Gun for Hire (1942)

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Alan Ladd as Philip Raven, cold-blooded, cat-loving contract killer

San Francisco to Los Angeles, Spring 1942

Film: This Gun for Hire
Release Date: April 24, 1942
Director: Frank Tuttle
Costume Designer: Edith Head

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

I had already been planning to write about This Gun for Hire this month when I realized that today would have been the 100th birthday of Veronica Lake, who was born in Brooklyn on November 14, 1922 with the decidedly less glamorous name of Constance Ockelman. Lake was still in her teens when cast in her first starring role in Sullivan’s Travels (1941), the success of which convinced Paramount to cast her in their upcoming thriller, which would also be a vehicle to launch their next up-and-comer, Alan Ladd. Continue reading

Desert Fury: Wendell Corey’s Herringbone Tweed Suit

Wendell Corey as Johnny Ryan in Desert Fury (1947)

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Wendell Corey as Johnny Ryan, stone-cold mob enforcer

Nevada, Spring 1947

Film: Desert Fury
Release Date: August 15, 1947
Director: Lewis Allen
Costume Designer: Edith Head

Background

In the spirit of #Noirvember, I want to celebrate an entry in the relatively rare “color noir” category as well as the career of Wendell Corey, the Massachusetts-born actor and one-time AMPAS President who died on this day in 1968.

Corey was a familiar face in classic film noir like I Walk Alone (1948), Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), and The File on Thelma Jordon (1950) before his perhaps most recognized performance as the skeptical Detective Tom Doyle assisting Jimmy Stewart‘s peeping amateur crime-solver in Rear Window (1954). It had been an impressive rise for an actor whose feature film debut had only been a few years earlier, appearing in Desert Fury (1947) as the gay-coded mob killer Johnny Ryan, right-hand man to smooth racketeer Eddie Bendix (John Hodiak).

Also starring Lizabeth Scott and Burt Lancaster, with whom Corey would again co-star in I Walk AloneDesert Fury joins contemporaries like Leave Her to Heaven (1945) and Niagara (1953) as the rare examples of full-color movies that maintain enough of the themes, style, and sinister story elements of traditional film noir to still qualify for this classification. Continue reading