Category: Movies
On the Waterfront: Marlon Brando’s Buffalo Plaid Jacket
Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront (1954)
Vitals
Marlon Brando as Terry Malloy, dockworker and former prize fighter
Hoboken, New Jersey, Fall 1953
Film: On the Waterfront
Release Date: July 28, 1954
Director: Elia Kazan
Wardrobe Supervisor: Anna Hill Johnstone
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Screen legend Marlon Brando was born 100 years ago today on April 3, 1924 in Omaha, Nebraska. After studying under Stella Adler in the 1940s, Brando shot to stardom with his iconic performances in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and The Wild Ones (1953) before receiving his first Academy Award for his powerful portrayal of longshoreman Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront (1954), released 70 years ago this summer.
Including Brando’s recognition, On the Waterfront won in eight of its 12 nominated Oscar categories, including Best Picture, Best Story and Screenplay, and Best Director for Elia Kazan, who would later write of Brando’s work as Terry: “If there is a better performance by a man in the history of film in America, I don’t know what it is.” Continue reading
Allied: Brad Pitt’s Flight Jacket and RCAF Uniform Gear
Brad Pitt as Max Vatan in Allied (2016)
Vitals
Brad Pitt as Max Vatan, Royal Canadian Air Force intelligence officer
London and Dieppe, Spring 1944
Film: Allied
Release Date: November 23, 2016
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Costume Designer: Joanna Johnston
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
The 2016 World War II romantic thriller Allied centered around Brad Pitt’s character Max Vatan, an officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF)—the high-flying branch of the Canadian armed forces that was officially founded 100 years ago today on April 1, 1924.
I’ve read simplifications of Allied‘s plot as “Casablanca meets Notorious“, with Joanna Johnston’s Oscar-nominated costume design maintaining much of the 1940s elegance from both of those acclaimed classics. And indeed, the romantic and action-packed first act of Allied is set in Casablanca, where Max’s dangerous mission for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) pairs him with the alluring French Resistance circuit leader Marianne Beauséjour (Marion Cotillard).
Upon returning to England, Max receives clearance to bring Marianne into the country, where they marry despite Max’s boss, British Army Captain Frank Heslop (Jared Harris) advising him that “marriages made in the field never work.” (In fact, there were a few real-life spies who served the British during World War II that would later marry, such as SOE officers Peter Churchill and Odette Sansom, both of whom had been imprisoned and brutally interrogated by the Germans and whose service and relationship formed the basis of the 1950 film Odette. That said, Frank may have been onto something as the two divorced in 1955 after eight years of marriage.)
The newlywed Vatans in October 1942.
With their newborn daughter, the couple lives in domestic bliss—and domestic Blitz—for over a year until Max’s superiors alert him to their suspicions that Marianne is a German spy! Though he reluctantly agrees to follow the SOE’s plan to test Marianne’s allegiance with a “blue dye” procedure, Max remains convinced of her loyalty and sets out to prove it. Continue reading
Robert Redford’s Tuxedo in The Great Gatsby
Robert Redford as Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby (1974)
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Robert Redford as Jay Gatsby, enigmatic millionaire and eager romantic
Long Island, New York, Summer 1925
Film: The Great Gatsby
Release Date: March 29, 1974
Director: Jack Clayton
Costume Designer: Theoni V. Aldredge
Clothes by: Ralph Lauren
Background
Today marks the 50th anniversary since the release of The Great Gatsby, directed by Jack Clayton from a screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola. This 1974 film was actually the third major adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s romantic Jazz Age novel to be brought to the big screen, following a now-lost silent film in 1926 and a 1949 update starring Alan Ladd, Betty Field, and Macdonald Carey.
The lavish 1974 version stars Robert Redford as the eponymous millionaire who amassed his wealth and flaunts it through riotous parties all in the hopes of reuniting with his erstwhile love, the now-married Daisy (Mia Farrow).
Roaring ’20s standards like “Who?” and “Whispering” filter up from the jazz band out in the garden as Nick Carraway (Sam Waterston) is nervously led by a gun-toting bodyguard into a handsome wood-paneled office, where Nick finally meets the enigmatic host. Jay Gatsby is immediately charming, but his talent for first impressions sizzles out for a very stilted encounter as Gatsby awkwardly explains that he just felt the two neighbors should meet.
Mercifully interrupted by a business phone call (“I don’t give a damn what Philadelphia wants, I said a ‘small town’. If that’s his idea of a small town, he’s no use to us.”), Gatsby recovers his wits enough to ask Nick to join him for lunch the following day.
Though The Great Gatsby received a lukewarm critical reception upon its release 50 years ago this week, it grossed nearly four times its budget and was a major cultural phenomenon, with Nelson Riddle’s Oscar-winning score and Theoni V. Aldredge’s Oscar-winning costume design reviving interest in music and fashions of the 1920s. Continue reading
Jaws: Mayor Vaughn’s Colorful Striped Blazer
Murray Hamilton as Mayor Larry Vaughn in Jaws (1975)
Vitals
Murray Hamilton as Larry Vaughn, ineffective mayor of Amity Island
Amity Island, July 1974
Film: Jaws
Release Date: June 20, 1975
Director: Steven Spielberg
Costume Design: Louise Clark, Robert Ellsworth, and Irwin Rose
Background
Today would have been the 101st birthday of Murray Hamilton, the marvelous character actor whose talents were perhaps best showcased as the hopelessly stubborn mayor of Amity Island, the fictional New England beach town being terrorized by a great white shark in Steven Spielberg’s iconic 1975 blockbuster Jaws. Continue reading
Taxi Driver: Travis Bickle’s Tanker Jacket
Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (1976)
Vitals
Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle, disturbed taxi driver and Vietnam War veteran
New York City, Spring to Summer 1976
Film: Taxi Driver
Release Date: February 9, 1976
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Designer: Ruth Morley
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Happy International Taxi Driver Day to all cabbies whose alienation doesn’t drive them to a violent murder spree shooting up a brothel! This observance commemorates when the first gas-powered taxi cabs reportedly arrived on the streets of London on March 22, 1907.
The profession was immortalized in Martin Scorsese’s 1976 film Taxi Driver, written by Paul Schrader and filmed on location in New York City during the scorching summer of 1975. Two years after his first Academy Award win (for The Godfather, Part II), Robert De Niro received his second Oscar nomination for his performance as Travis Bickle, the lonely Marine-turned-cabbie whose PTSD, insomnia, and paranoid psychosis becomes a dangerous powder keg in the squalid decay of 1970s New York. Continue reading
Gene Kelly in It’s Always Fair Weather
Gene Kelly in It’s Always Fair Weather (1955)
Vitals
Gene Kelly as Ted Riley, dancing gambler and World War II veteran
New York City, Fall 1955
Film: It’s Always Fair Weather
Release Date: September 2, 1955
Directed by: Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen
Costume Designer: Helen Rose
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Happy first day of spring! As fairer weather sets in across the Northern Hemisphere, let’s flash back to the 1950s as the marvelously multi-talented Gene Kelly tap-danced on roller-skates in the MGM musical satire It’s Always Fair Weather.
The Fugitive: Harrison Ford’s Green Parka on St. Patrick’s Day
Harrison Ford as Dr. Richard Kimble in The Fugitive (1993)
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Harrison Ford as Dr. Richard Kimble, fugitive and former vascular surgeon determined to clear his name
Chicago, Spring 1993
Film: The Fugitive
Release Date: August 6, 1993
Director: Andrew Davis
Costume Designer: Aggie Guerard Rodgers
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Chicago’s famous celebrations with its parade and green-dyed river hosted a major setpiece midway through the 1993 thriller The Fugitive, adapted from the 1960s TV show of the same name.
As in the show, the titular fugitive is Dr. Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford), a man wrongly convicted of his wife’s murder who takes the opportunity to escape after his conviction and works a series of odd jobs while desperately trying to clear his name and find the one-armed man who actually killed his wife. The film reimagines Dr. Kimble’s police pursuer as U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) and his experienced team of deputies, who manage to track Richard to Chicago based on the sounds of an el train’s PA system in the background of a tapped call to his lawyer.
Dr. Kimble’s hunt leads him to Cook County Hospital, where he falsifies a job on the custodial staff so he can more intently search the prosthetics records for a one-armed man. He finds a promising lead in the form of an incarcerated armed robber (“one-armed man, armed robbery… that’s funny,” quips one of Gerard’s deputies), but quickly realizes this wasn’t the man he was looking for. Unfortunately, the marshals had closed in on the same lead and Dr. Kimble once again comes face-to-face with Gerard, resulting in a desperate chase out through the courthouse and into the crowds of the St. Patrick’s Day parade. Continue reading
Richard Burton in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
Vitals
Richard Burton as George, weary but witty history professor
New England, Fall 1965
Film: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Release Date: June 21, 1966
Director: Mike Nichols
Costume Designer: Irene Sharaff
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Hollywood icons Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were married (for the first of two times) sixty years ago today on March 15, 1964. The A-list couple starred in 11 films over the span of a decade, with arguably the most acclaimed being Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, adapted by Ernest Lehman from Edward Albee’s play of the same name and the directorial debut for then-comedian Mike Nichols. Continue reading
Oppenheimer: Cillian Murphy’s Brown Suits at Los Alamos
Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer in Oppenheimer (2023). Photo credit: Melinda Sue Gordon.
Vitals
Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, theoretical physicist and “father of the atomic bomb”
Los Alamos, New Mexico, Spring 1943 through Summer 1945
Film: Oppenheimer
Release Date: July 21, 2023
Director: Christopher Nolan
Costume Designer: Ellen Mirojnick
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Released last summer (on my 34th birthday!), Oppenheimer has been deservedly sweeping accolades this year, including seven BAFTAs, five Golden Globes, and 13 Academy Award nominations ahead of the ceremony this Sunday, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Christopher Nolan, a trio of acting nominations, and Best Costume Design for Ellen Mirojnick.
Adapted by Nolan from Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s biography American Prometheus, this epic cinematic portrait of J. Robert Oppenheimer chronicles the prolific physicist’s career from his 1920s studies in Europe through his work on the Manhattan Project during World War II and the ultimate revocation of his security clearance in the 1950s, depicted as the result of Atomic Energy Commission chairman Lewis Strauss’ petty resentment. Continue reading
Song of the Thin Man: William Powell’s Houndstooth Jacket as Nick Charles
William Powell as Nick Charles in Song of the Thin Man (1947)
Vitals
William Powell as Nick Charles, witty detective
New York City, September 1947
Film: Song of the Thin Man
Release Date: August 28, 1947
Director: Edward Buzzell
Costume Supervisor: Irene
Background
Across six films beginning with The Thin Man, William Powell and Myrna Loy channeled their remarkable screen chemistry into portraying Nick and Nora Charles, a married couple who work together to solve murders between martinis. On the 40th anniversary of William Powell’s death on March 5, 1984 at the age of 91, today’s post explores the debonair actor’s attire from his swan song as Nick Charles. Continue reading
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