Category: Two-Piece Suit
Daniel Craig’s Cream Linen Suit in Queer
Daniel Craig as William Lee in Queer (2024)
Vitals
Daniel Craig as William Lee, dissolute American expatriate
Mexico City, Spring 1951 and 1953
Film: Queer
Release Date: November 27, 2024
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Costume Designer: Jonathan Anderson
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Following the success of Challengers earlier in the year, director Luca Guadagnino kept his 2024 momentum going with Queer, adapted from the 1985 novella by Beat Generation icon William S. Burroughs—who died 28 years ago today, on August 2, 1997. Daniel Craig stars as William Lee, a clear stand-in for Burroughs, complete with the author’s distinctive wardrobe, substance issues, and ever-present handgun—albeit with some of the rougher edges sanded down for the screen. Continue reading
Dillinger (1973): Geoffrey Lewis’ Striped Suit as Harry Pierpont
Geoffrey Lewis as Harry Pierpont in Dillinger (1973)
Vitals
Geoffrey Lewis as Harry Pierpont, even-tempered bank robber
Across the Midwest, Fall 1933 to Spring 1934
Film: Dillinger
Release Date: July 20, 1973
Director: John Milius
Costume Designer: James M. George
Background
Today would have been the 90th birthday of character actor Geoffrey Lewis, born July 31, 1935. A familiar face across decades of movies and television, Lewis had one of his earliest prominent screen roles among the supporting cast of John Milius’ bullet-riddled 1973 directorial debut Dillinger, chronicling the life and crimes of the titular Depression-era bank robber.
Lewis co-starred as Harry Pierpont, a real-life associate of Dillinger’s known for his loyalty, cool head, and quiet leadership within the gang. Born in Muncie in 1902, the real “Pete” Pierpont first made a name for himself with Indiana law enforcement during the early 1920s through a spree of escalating crimes and bank heists. He was eventually captured and sentenced to both the Indiana State Reformatory and Indiana State Prison, where he crossed paths with a younger inmate named John Dillinger, then serving a 10–20 year stretch for mugging a grocer. Pierpont took the eager Dillinger under his wing, teaching him the tricks of the trade. Continue reading
Reservoir Dogs — Michael Madsen’s Black Suit and Cadillac as Mr. Blonde
Michael Madsen as Vic Vega (“Mr. Blonde”) in Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Vitals
Michael Madsen as Vic Vega, cold-blooded professional thief
Los Angeles, Summer 1992
Film: Reservoir Dogs
Release Date: October 9, 1992
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Costume Designer: Betsy Heimann
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Many have been sharing tributes to the late Michael Madsen (1957-2025), who died just days ago on Thursday, July 3, of cardiac arrest at age 67.
Following the start of his career in the early 1980s with films like WarGames (1983) and The Natural (1984), Madsen performed his arguably most iconic role as the psychopathic Vic Vega—aka “Mr. Blonde”—in Quentin Tarantino’s breakthrough 1992 directorial debut, Reservoir Dogs. Continue reading
Summertime: Rossano Brazzi’s Glen Plaid Suit
Rossano Brazzi as Renato de Rossi in Summertime (1955)
Vitals
Rossano Brazzi as Renato de Rossi, antique store owner
Venice, Summer 1954
Film: Summertime
Release Date: June 21, 1955
Director: David Lean
Costume Designer: Rosi Gori (uncredited)
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Summertime is here! And by that I mean both the fact that Friday was the summer solstice and that David Lean’s Venetian romance Summertime was released in the United States seventy years ago yesterday on June 21, 1955, nearly a month after its Venice premiere.
Like Lean’s 1940s dramas Brief Encounter and The Passionate Friends, Summertime lushly depicts the intense romance between two strangers—in this case, the American tourist Jane Hudson (Katharine Hepburn) and the dashing local antiques dealer Renato de Rossi (Rossano Brazzi), whom she meets during her long-awaited summer vacation to Venice.
Lazing across a few chairs in Piazza San Marco, Renato first observes Jane while she’s filming the square. She’s initially oblivious to his attention, then becomes uncomfortably befuddled by it and hurries out of the area. Continue reading
Sweet Smell of Success – Tony Curtis’ Dark Pinstripe Suit
Tony Curtis as Sidney Falco in Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
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Tony Curtis as Sidney Falco, unscrupulous publicity agent
New York City, Fall 1956
Film: Sweet Smell of Success
Release Date: June 27, 1957
Director: Alexander Mackendrick
Costume Designer: Mary Grant
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Today would have been the 100th birthday of prolific actor Tony Curtis.
Born Bernard Schwartz in East Harlem on June 3, 1925, Curtis was inspired by war movies made by his screen heroes Cary Grant and Tyrone Power to join the U.S. Navy, serving aboard a submarine in the Asiatic Fleet through the end of World War II.
Arriving in Hollywood after the war, the rechristened “Anthony Curtis” grew his fandom after memorable bit parts in Johnny Stool Pigeon (1949) and Winchester ’73 (1950). His career grew to being one of the biggest stars of the ’50s, including his Academy Award-nominated performance in The Defiant Ones (1958) and iconic cross-dressing role in Some Like It Hot (1959).
While the latter is one of my favorite movies, my favorite Tony Curtis performance is the shameless Sidney Falco in Sweet Smell of Success (1957), Alexander Mackendrick’s slick and satirical film noir featuring the whip-fast dialogue of Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman’s screenplay and James Wong Howe’s atmospheric cinematography of New York City during the fabulous fifties. Curtis taps his inner Gemini to convincingly portray all aspects of Falco’s cutthroat ambition, from the wily Manhattan publicist to the subservient PR flack desperate to please the powerful columnist J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster).
Denzel Washington as Malcolm X: Gray Suit and Astrakhan Hat for the Finale
Denzel Washington in Malcolm X (1992)
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Denzel Washington as Malcolm X, revolutionary minister and civil rights activist
New York City, February 1965
Film: Malcolm X
Release Date: November 18, 1992
Director: Spike Lee
Costume Designer: Ruth E. Carter
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Malcolm X was born 100 years ago today on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. A charismatic and complex voice in the civil rights movement, he became the subject of Malcolm X, Spike Lee’s sweeping 1992 biopic starring Denzel Washington in the title role.
Washington had first portrayed Malcolm a decade earlier in Laurence Holder’s one-act play When the Chickens Come Home to Roost was always Lee’s top choice for the film. His performance earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor—one of two Oscar nominations for Malcolm X, the other recognizing Ruth E. Carter’s striking costume design. Continue reading
John Hannah’s Norfolk Suits as Lusitania Passenger Ian Holbourn
John Hannah in Sinking of the Lusitania: Terror at Sea (2007)
Vitals
John Hannah as Ian Holbourn, English-born professor, writer, and Scottish laird
RMS Lusitania in the North Atlantic Ocean, off the Irish coast, May 1915
Film: Sinking of the Lusitania: Terror at Sea
(Original title: Lusitania: Murder on the Atlantic)
Air Date: May 12, 2007
Director: Christopher Spencer
Costume Designer: Diana Cilliers
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
110 years ago today on the afternoon of Friday, May 7, 1915, the RMS Lusitania was steaming east toward its destination port of Liverpool when a German U-boat fired a torpedo that struck the Cunard ship on its starboard side. Less than 20 minutes later, the grand 787-foot-long ship was on its way to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in a disaster that would claim the lives of nearly 1,200 of its 1,960 passengers and crew.
Although the Lusitania was indeed a passenger liner, the Imperial German Embassy had just issued an official warning that any ship flying the flag of England or her allies was subject to a German attack. This open statement of aggression from the German government has resulted in lingering conspiracies that the British government had intentionally sailed the Lusitania through dangerous waters to provoke a German attack and lure the United States into war. Though these theories have been generally discredited, the deaths of 128 Americans who were aboard the liner has been cited as a significant factor in the U.S. ultimately entering World War I against Germany.
Unlike the famous sinking of the RMS Titanic three years earlier, the Lusitania victims were less determined by chance than a mix of luck and “survival of the fittest”, with the odds favoring able-bodied swimmers who were either on deck or able to quickly reach it during the 18 minutes that it took the liner to founder.
Despite the drama, scale, and significance of its sinking that took 1,197 lives, the Lusitania disaster has yet to be prominently portrayed on screen, save for a docudrama that first aired on the Discovery Channel in May 2007. Originally titled Lusitania: Murder on the Atlantic, the 90-minute production’s recognizable cast includes Kenneth Cranham as the ship’s captain William Turner and John Hannah as Ian Holbourn, an Anglo-Scotsman professor who was returning to his home on the remote Shetland island of Foula after a lecture tour of the United States. Missing his own sons who were at home with his wife, Holbourn befriended the homesick 12-year-old Avis Dolphin (Madeleine Garrood), a fellow second-class passenger.
The real John Bernard Stoughton “Ian” Holbourn (1872-1935), pictured as he would have looked shortly before the Lusitania disaster.
The Conversation: Gene Hackman’s Puppytooth Suit and Raincoat
Gene Hackman as Harry Caul in The Conversation (1974)
Vitals
Gene Hackman as Harry Caul, anxious audio surveillance expert and saxophonist
San Francisco, December 1972
Film: The Conversation
Release Date: April 7, 1974
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Costume Designer: Aggie Guerard Rodgers
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Released today in 1974, The Conversation featured a characteristically great starring performance from the late Gene Hackman. Hackman stars as San Francisco surveillance specialist Harry Caul, a paranoid loner described by one of his few pals as “the best bugger on the West Coast.”
Director Francis Ford Coppola later shared that, though Hackman initially struggled to connect with the repressed and introspective Caul due to their contrasting personalities, he ultimately came to regard the role as one of his personal favorites. Continue reading
Heat: Val Kilmer’s Gray Glen Plaid Bank-Robbery Suit
Val Kilmer in Heat (1995)
Vitals
Val Kilmer as Chris Shiherlis, professional armed robber
Los Angeles, Spring 1995
Film: Heat
Release Date: December 15, 1995
Director: Michael Mann
Costume Designer: Deborah Lynn Scott
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
R.I.P. Val Kilmer (1959-2025)
After becoming the youngest student ever accepted into Juilliard’s prestigious Drama Division at the time, Kilmer rose to fame through a streak of memorable ’80s hits like Top Secret! (1984), Real Genius (1985), and Top Gun (1986). The ’90s saw Kilmer take on a range of leading roles, from his magnetic turn as Jim Morrison in The Doors (1991) to donning the cape in Batman Forever (1995), as well as his scene-stealing performance as the sardonic and tubercular Doc Holliday in Tombstone (1993).
Kilmer followed that success with another standout role in Heat (1995), Michael Mann’s masterful crime epic that celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Kilmer plays Chris Shiherlis, a reliable criminal but not-so-reliable husband, part of a tight-knit crew led by the calculating Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro). Hoping that one last big score will salvage his unraveling marriage, Shiherlis throws in on a high-stakes heist at the Far East National Bank in downtown Los Angeles. “The bank is worth the risk. I need it, brother,” he tells McCauley. Continue reading
Stray Dog: Toshirô Mifune’s Summer Suit
Toshirô Mifune in Stray Dog (1949)
Vitals
Toshirô Mifune as Murakami, homicide detective
Tokyo, Summer 1949
Film: Stray Dog
(Japanese title: 野良犬, Nora inu)
Release Date: October 17, 1949
Director: Akira Kurosawa
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Considered one of the greatest actors of all time, Toshirô Mifune was born 105 years ago today, on April 1, 1920. Before his Hollywood debut in Grand Prix (1966), Mifune starred in sixteen films directed by Akira Kurosawa. Their third collaboration was the 1949 drama Stray Dog, a film that blends elements of film noir with themes of disillusionment in postwar Japan and is now regarded as an early example of the police procedural.
The story begins on “an unbearably hot day” in Tokyo, where Mifune’s newly promoted homicide detective Murakami reports the theft of his sidearm. After recounting the incident—including his failed pursuit of the pickpocket—Murakami partners with veteran detective Satō (Takashi Shimura) to track the weapon into the depths of Tokyo’s underworld. Their investigation leads to a desperate small-time crook named Yusa (Isao Kimura), whose escalating crime spree weighs heavily on Murakami, forcing him to confront difficult questions about guilt, duty, and justice. Continue reading
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