Category: Frock Coat
Oscar Isaac’s Byronic Black Frock Coat and Red Kerchief as Victor Frankenstein
Oscar Isaac in Frankenstein (2025)
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Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein, baron and budding mad scientist
Edinburgh, Scotland, Fall 1855
Film: Frankenstein
Release Date: October 17, 2025
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Costume Designer: Kate Hawley
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
“I feel like, if I were around in the 1850s, this is how I would have dressed,” I commented to my wife, who just nodded with her characteristic patience when I say insane things. While she didn’t respond by telling me how much I look like Oscar Isaac (but was definitely thinking it, right? Right??), I was nonetheless intrigued by Kate Hawley’s deservedly Academy Award-nominated costume design in Guillermo del Toro’s 2025 retelling of Frankenstein, adapted from the famous 1818 novel by Mary Shelley, who died 175 years ago this week on February 1, 1851.
Director and screenwriter del Toro updated Shelley’s Romantic era setting to the 1850s, incorporating the medical advancements during the Crimean War into the context around Dr. Frankenstein’s experiments. We are introduced to the adult Frankenstein as he vehemently defends himself to a disciplinary tribunal for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh:
If we are to behave as immodestly as gods, we must—at the very least—deliver miracles, wouldn’t you say? Ignite a divine spark in these young students’ minds: teach them defiance rather than obedience!
Wicked: Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz
Jeff Goldblum in Wicked (2024)
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Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz
Emerald City in the land of Oz, circa 1900
Film: Wicked: Part I
Release Date: November 22, 2024
Director: Jon M. Chu
Costume Designer: Paul Tazewell
Tailor: Martin Nicholls
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Congratulations to Wicked costume designer Paul Tazewell, who received the Academy Award for Best Costume Design during last night’s Oscars ceremony. Jon M. Chu’s first installment adapting this mega-hit Broadway musical was nominated for ten Academy Awards, also winning for Best Production Design.
The musical itself was adapted by Stephen Schwartz from Gregory Macguire’s 1995 novel Wicked, a revisionist expansion of the universe that L. Frank Baum developed in his “Oz” books and had been immortalized in the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz. The stage and screen musical adaptations of Wicked refrain from some of the novel’s darker elements in favor of maintaining the colorful fantasy associated with the story.
We don’t actually meet the wizard until the final act of Wicked, nearly two hours into the 160-minute movie. After an intimidating introduction as a gravely, disembodied voice behind a massive robotic face, the wizard reveals himself to be a man as Jeff Goldblum strides out and introduces himself to fledgling witches Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda Upland (Ariana Grande). Continue reading
The Newton Boys: Dock Newton’s Gray Morning Coat
Vincent D’Onofrio as Dock Newton in The Newton Boys (1998)
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Vincent D’Onofrio as Wylie “Dock” Newton, ex-convict and outlaw
Toronto, Summer 1923
Film: The Newton Boys
Release Date: March 27, 1998
Director: Richard Linklater
Costume Designer: Shelley Komarov
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
One hundred years ago tomorrow on June 12, 1924, the notorious Newton brothers gang committed their last* holdup after a wildly successful five-year spree that robbed at least 80 banks across ten states, about half of these in their home state of Texas where brothers Willis, Jess, Joe, and “Dock” Newton were born in Uvalde.
“If there are any bank robbers you’d want as family members, it would be the Newton Boys,” writes Duane Swiercyznski in his volume This Here’s a Stick-Up: The Big Bad Book of American Bank Robbery, in which he describes the group as “unfailingly polite, nonviolent, and professional heisters.”
In addition to their preference for courtesy over cruelty, the brothers attributed their success to initially sticking to less risky nighttime robberies targeting specific old-fashioned safes that could be more easily blown open with nitroglycerin. It was only when departing from this formula that the Newtons encountered real trouble, such as their impulsive attempt to rob daylight messengers of the Imperial Bank of Canada in July 1923… which netted C$84,000 but broke the gang’s avoidance of violence when four guards were shot and wounded.
Just under a year later, the Newtons again should have stuck to their formula rather than agreeing to what would be one of the last—but biggest—train robberies in American history. On the evening of June 12, 1924, the Newtons joined a group of professional criminals in the attempted robbery of R.P.O. train 57 outside Rondout, Illinois, about forty miles up the Lake Michigan coast from Chicago.
“Ain’t this a helluva way to make a living?” Jess reportedly joked to the conductor, whose nerves at being robbed—even by the generally nonviolent Newtons—resulted in him failing to stop the train where the bandits expected. In the subsequent confusion and darkness, one of the outsiders recruited into the job mistook Dock for one of the guards and opened fire. Continue reading
Warren Beatty in McCabe and Mrs. Miller
Warren Beatty as John McCabe in McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971)
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Warren Beatty as John McCabe, enterprising gambler and pimp
Presbyterian Church, Washington, Fall to winter 1902
Film: McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Release Date: June 24, 1971
Director: Robert Altman
Wardrobe Credit: Ilse Richter
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
There are moments every January where I envy the idiosyncratic wardrobe of John McCabe, warmly swaddled in hefty furs as he trots into the humble hamlet of Presbyterian Church, Washington, scored by Leonard Cohen’s mournful baritone.
One of the most prolific pioneers of the “New Hollywood” movement that began in the 1960s, Robert Altman followed up his maverick success with MASH (1970) and his artistic experiment with Brewster McCloud (1970) by setting his sights on one of the most venerated genres in American cinema. Altman and Brian McKay adapted a 1959 novel by Edmund Naughton to deliver McCabe & Mrs. Miller, which the director would ultimately deem an “anti-Western” for its subversion of genre conventions and expectations. Continue reading
Deadwood: Keith Carradine as “Wild Bill” Hickok
Keith Carradine as “Wild Bill” Hickok on Deadwood
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Keith Carradine as James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok, legendary gunfighter, gambler, and erstwhile lawman
Deadwood, Summer 1876
Series: Deadwood
Episodes:
– “Deadwood” (Episode 1.01, dir. Walter Hill, aired 3/21/2004)
– “Deep Water” (Episode 1.02, dir. Davis Guggenheim, aired 3/28/2004)
– “Reconnoitering the Rim” (Episode 1.03, dir. Davis Guggenheim, aired 4/4/2004)
– “Here Was a Man” (Episode 1.04, dir. Alan Taylor, aired 4/11/2004)
Creator: David Milch
Costume Designer: Janie Bryant
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Famously killed 145 years ago today holding the “dead man’s hand”, James Butler Hickok was a living Wild West legend by the time his caravan pulled into Deadwood, then a lawless mining camp in the Black Hills of Dakota Territory, during the summer of 1876. Continue reading
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice: Robert Culp’s Swingin’ Navy Suit and Jabot
Robert Culp as Bob Sanders in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)
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Robert Culp as Bob Sanders, swinging documentary filmmaker
Las Vegas, Summer 1969
Film: Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
Release Date: September 17, 1969
Director: Paul Mazursky
Costume Designer: Moss Mabry
Background
“Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice!” is the subject of the titular toast Alice (Dyan Cannon) delivers in a shared suite at the Riviera in Las Vegas, where the foursome—so to speak—has gathered for a weekend of gambling and a Tony Bennett concert.
A discussion of “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” leads to a newly open-minded Alice questioning where Bob (Robert Culp) and Carol (Natalie Wood) have been leaving more than just their hearts. The swinging couple’s admissions lead to a peanut-munching Ted (Elliott Gould) confessing his own recent affair to Alice who, following her initial outrage, has the most unpredictable reaction of any of the spouses as she begins to undress and declares that the four need to have an orgy.
Although it was Bob’s breakthrough at Esalen that got the ball (or, uh, balls) rolling in exploring this degree of openness, it’s both men who require the most convincing, particularly Ted, who finally gives in after deciding: “We’ll have an orgy, and then we’ll go see Tony Bennett.” Continue reading
Arsenic and Old Lace’s “Teddy Roosevelt”
John Alexander as “Teddy Roosevelt” Brewster in Arsenic and Old Lace (1941)
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John Alexander as “Teddy Roosevelt” Brewster
Brooklyn, Halloween 1941
Film: Arsenic and Old Lace
Release Date: September 23, 1944
Director: Frank Capra
Background
Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States, was born this day 159 years ago on October 27, 1858. A son of New York City, the timid Theodore overcame his childhood asthma with his robust physical pursuits matched only by his professional ambition as a career soldier, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Governor of New York, and finally the youngest President of the United States when he assumed office at the age of 42 after the assassination of William McKinley.
The proximity of T.R.’s birthday to Halloween always makes me think of Arsenic and Old Lace, the Frank Capra-directed dark comedy set one Halloween in Brooklyn involving Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant), his two dangerous but darling elderly aunts, and – like all of the best movies of the 1940s – Peter Lorre being Peter Lorre.
Originally a play (and doubtlessly one that your high school has performed), actor John Alexander reprised his role from the stage as “Teddy” Brewster, Mortimer’s delusional but harmless brother who believes that he is Teddy Roosevelt.
“So what?” says a friendly local cop who visits the Brewsters on his beat. “There’s a lot worse guys he could think he was.” Continue reading
Col. Mortimer in For a Few Dollars More
An Italian poster for For a Few Dollars More (1965), featuring Lee Van Cleef as Colonel Douglas Mortimer.
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Lee Van Cleef as Douglas Mortimer, taciturn Old West bounty hunter and former U.S. Army Colonel
El Paso, Fall 1873
Film: For a Few Dollars More
Release Date: November 18, 1965
Director: Sergio Leone
Costume Designer: Carlo Simi
Background
Where life had no value, death, sometimes, had its price.
That is why the bounty hunters appeared.
…is how For a Few Dollars More introduces itself after blazing onto the screen, underlined by yet another iconic Ennio Morricone score. Clint Eastwood returns to the Sergio Leone spaghetti western scene as one of these bounty hunters, a laconic loner referred to only as “Manco”. While his dress and demeanor would imply that this was the same character he portrayed in A Fistful of Dollars the previous year, a lawsuit actually prevented Leone from using Eastwood’s “Joe” character from that film. Thus, the “Man with No Name” was born more out of legal necessity than artistic intention. Continue reading
Sherlock Holmes’ Purple Frock Coat
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Robert Downey, Jr. on set as Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock Holmes (2009).
Robert Downey, Jr. as Sherlock Holmes, eccentric consulting detective
London, August 1890
Film: Sherlock Holmes
Release Date: December 25, 2009
Director: Guy Ritchie
Costume Designer: Jenny Beavan
Background
Few have heard of Dr. Joseph Bell, a physician at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and eventual lecturer at the University of Edinburgh’s medical school who was born today in 1837. Those who do know Dr. Bell, however, likely know him due to his fame as a likely inspiration for the character of Sherlock Holmes. A very observant and proud doctor, Bell was often called in to assist with police investigations, teaming up with forensic expert Professor Henry Littlejohn. Arthur Conan Doyle had met Bell in 1877 and worked as his clerk at the infirmary. Bell later took pride in knowing that Doyle’s most famed and beloved creation – the character of Sherlock Holmes – was at least partly based on him. Though this inspiration has been exaggerated by series like Murder Rooms: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes, the Bell-Doyle connection is undeniable.
To honor Dr. Bell’s birthday, I’ll be exploring the first appearance of Robert Downey, Jr. as Sherlock Holmes in the 2009 reboot, Sherlock Holmes. In this sequence, Holmes and Watson pair up to arrest the evil Lord Blackwood and stop his black magic practices. The scene involves many elements that would become trademarks of the new films, including Holmes’ predictive and fluid fighting technique that proves most effective against Britain’s most thickheaded thugs. Continue reading
Sherlock Holmes’ Black Frock Coat
Robert Downey, Jr. as Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock Holmes (2009).
Vitals
Robert Downey, Jr. as Sherlock Holmes, eccentric consulting detective
London, November 1890
Film: Sherlock Holmes
Release Date: December 25, 2009
Director: Guy Ritchie
Costume Designer: Jenny Beavan
Background
Announcement of the 2009 update of Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary detective, Sherlock Holmes, met with some initial criticism. Many believed that the action-oriented director Guy Ritchie would dumb down the flawed but efficient genius of Doyle’s stories and instead focus on action and box office draws. However, the smartly-paced story, the excellent performances (notable Downey, Jr. as Holmes), and the era-evoking visuals surprised many and the film received mostly positive reviews and critical attention, with a sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, released two years later. Continue reading
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