Category: Movies
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
Casino: Joe Pesci’s Gray Birdseye Blazer
Joe Pesci in Casino (1995)
Vitals
Joe Pesci as Nicky Santoro, sadistic mobster
Las Vegas, Spring 1973 to Fall 1980
Film: Casino
Release Date: November 22, 1995
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Design: Rita Ryack & John A. Dunn
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
After multiple requests to expand my sartorial focus on Casino from Robert De Niro’s colorful tailoring as Ace Rothstein to Joe Pesci’s mobbed-up fits, today’s post finally zeroes in on Pesci’s style as the volatile Nicky Santoro. 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
The Omen: Gregory Peck’s Charcoal Pinstripe Suit
Gregory Peck in The Omen (1976)
Vitals
Gregory Peck as Robert Thorn, American diplomat
Rome, June 6, 1970 and London, June 1975
Film: The Omen
Release Date: June 6, 1976
Director: Richard Donner
Wardrobe Supervisor: Tiny Nicholls
Tailor: H. Huntsman & Sons, London
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
The Omen was released fifty years ago today on June 6, 1976—a date intentionally selected to mirror the film’s opening on June 6th at 6 a.m., when American ambassador Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) rushes through Rome to reach his wife Katherine (Lee Remick). Robert arrives to learn that the child Katherine has just delivered died moments after birth, but hospital chaplain Father Spiletto (Martin Benson) convinces him to secretly adopt a newborn orphan and raise the boy as their own without Katherine’s knowledge.
Unfortunately for Robert, Katherine, and the world at large, that boy is Damien—the Antichrist—but I suppose you’ll have that when someone’s birth is the infamous 6-6-6: the “Number of the Beast” described in the Book of Revelation.
Keith David’s Printed Polo and Desert Boots in Dead Presidents
Keith David in Dead Presidents (1995)
Vitals
Keith David as Kirby, small-time neighborhood crime boss
The Bronx, Spring 1969
Film: Dead Presidents
Release Date: October 4, 1995
Directed by: The Hughes Brothers
Costume Designer: Paul A. Simmons, Jr.
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Always the coolest guy in anything he’s in, the prolific Keith David was born June 4, 1956 and celebrates his 70th birthday today by receiving his long-overdue star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. David’s strong screen presence shone from the start, from his credited screen debut in The Thing (1982) that launched an unstoppable career spanning nearly five decades and counting.
David co-starred in the Hughes brothers’ 1995 crime drama Dead Presidents as Kirby, an avuncular Bronx crook who acts as de facto second father to local youngsters like Anthony Curtis (Larenz Tate). Shortly before Anthony is shipped off to Vietnam with the Marine Corps in early 1969, he unknowingly becomes Kirby’s getaway driver while collecting some debts in the neighborhood. Continue reading
The Great Gatsby: Bruce Dern’s Polo Gear and Cardigan as Tom
Bruce Dern as Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby (1974)
Vitals
Bruce Dern as Tom Buchanan, hulking polo player
Long Island, New York, Early Summer 1925
Film: The Great Gatsby
Release Date: March 29, 1974
Director: Jack Clayton
Costume Designer: Theoni V. Aldredge
Clothes by: Ralph Lauren
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
The 1974 adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s landmark Jazz Age novel The Great Gatsby was my cinematic introduction to Bruce Dern, who celebrates his 90th birthday tomorrow! Born June 4, 1936 in Chicago, the actor’s birthday falls curiously close to the start of the action, when the irresponsible flapper Daisy Buchanan bemoans over dinner that “in two weeks, it’ll be the longest day of the year,” referring to the mid-June summer solstice. Continue reading
A Face in the Crowd: Andy Griffith’s Silky Shirt, String Tie, and Sport Suit
Andy Griffith as Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes in A Face in the Crowd (1957)
Vitals
Andy Griffith as Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes, folksy yet power-hungry media personality
Memphis to New York City, Spring 1956
Film: A Face in the Crowd
Release Date: May 28, 1957
Director: Elia Kazan
Costume Designer: Anna Hill Johnstone
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Today would have been the 100th birthday of Andy Griffith, born June 1, 1926. Already somewhat known as a comedian for routines like his breakthrough 1953 monologue “What It Was, Was Football”, Griffith made his explosive screen debut in Elia Kazan’s excellent 1957 drama A Face in the Crowd, a devastatingly prescient depiction of how susceptible American culture is to populism and celebrity cycloning into demagoguery. Budd Schulberg adapted his own short story “Your Arkansas Traveler” into the screenplay centered around Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes, a charismatic drifter-turned-demagogue plucked from obscurity by radio producer Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal) who ascends out of control into an influential public figure. Continue reading
Robert Wagner’s Blue Tuxedo in The Towering Inferno
Robert Wagner and Susan Flannery in The Towering Inferno (1974)
Vitals
Robert Wagner as Dan Bigelow, horny public relations agent
San Francisco, Summer 1974
Film: The Towering Inferno
Release Date: December 14, 1974
Director: John Guillermin
Costume Designer: Paul Zastupnevich
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
I recently saw a tweet clowning on Robert Wagner’s ignominious death in The Towering Inferno that again got me thinking about the style in this char-studded—er- star-studded ’70s disaster epic.
Dazed and Confused: Matthew McConaughey’s Ted Nugent T-Shirt and Peach 1970s Levi’s
Matthew McConaughey in Dazed and Confused (1993)
Vitals
Matthew McConaughey as David “Woods” Wooderson, Texas stoner
Central Texas, Spring 1976
Film: Dazed and Confused
Release Date: September 24, 1993
Director: Richard Linklater
Costume Designer: Katherine Dover
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Alright, alright, alright…
Richard Linklater’s nostalgic coming-of-age comedy Dazed and Confused was set fifty years ago today on May 28, 1976, during the last day of school for Lee High School, outside Austin, Texas. Linklater drew from his own experiences growing up in Huntsville, even lending actual names of classmates to the characters—eventually resulting in a lawsuit that would be swiftly dismissed. Many of the ensemble cast were then little-known actors who rose to considerable stardom, including Ben Affleck, Adam Goldberg, Cole Hauser, Milla Jovovich, Nicky Katt, Jason London, Parker Posey, and Renée Zellweger, but it’s perhaps Matthew McConaughey that emerged most memorably in his breakthrough role as David “Woods” Wooderson. Continue reading
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