It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World: Dick Shawn’s Red Dodge Dart and Beach Duds

Dick Shawn as Sylvester Marcus in It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)

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Dick Shawn as Sylvester Marcus, impulsive lifeguard

Southern California, Summer 1962

Film: It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Release Date: November 7, 1963
Director: Stanley Kramer
Costume Designer: Bill Thomas

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

I like to spend a week every summer exploring the intersection of costumes and cars as they define characters on screen. For this year’s first Car Week post, I’m revisiting a sentimental favorite: the 1963 slapstick comedy It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World with its sprawling cast of the era’s most recognizable comic actors from Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, and Buddy Hackett to Ethel Merman, Mickey Rooney, and Dick Shawn.

The latter is introduced later in the daylong pursuit of $350,000 stashed under a “big W” by the late Smiler Grogan (Jimmy Durante), portraying beach lifeguard Sylvester Marcus, described by his brother-in-law J. Russell Finch (Berle) as “an irresponsible, unreliable, big loudmouth, no-good bum who, if he isn’t a crook, it’s only because he hasn’t got the brains or ambition to even become a crook.”

Finch and his wife Emeline (Dorothy Provine) are traveling with her overbearing mother, Mrs. Marcus (Ethel Merman), whose relentless nagging during their search for the buried loot finally pushes Finch over the edge. The resulting blow-up leaves Emeline and her mother to fend for themselves, but—knowing she can count on her hopelessly devoted son—Mrs. Marcus calls Sylvester to send him ahead of them to Santa Rosita to find the loot.

Unfortunately for her quick payday, Sylvester’s sole brain cell is distracted somewhere between a beer and a bikini-clad brunette. Distracted by his mother’s description of Finch’s “assault”, Sylvester leaps into action and into the brunette’s shining red Dodge Dart convertible, tearfully determined to rescue his mother and sister without actually having listened to why they called him in the first place. Continue reading →

The White Lotus: Walton Goggins Arrives in Thailand in a Mexico-Print Shirt

Walton Goggins and Aimee Lou Wood on The White Lotus, Episode 3.01: “Same Spirits, New Forms”. Photo by Fabio Lovino.

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Walton Goggins as Rick Hatchett, grouchy “victim of [his] own decisions”

Koh Samui, Thailand, Spring 2024

Series: The White Lotus
Episode: “Same Spirits, New Forms” (Episode 3.01)
Air Date: February 16, 2025
Director: Mike White
Creator: Mike White
Costume Designer: Alex Bovaird

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Now that we’re more than a week into summer, I’m revisiting one of my new favorite sources of warm-weather style inspiration: Walton Goggins as the sardonic Rick Hatchett in the latest season of The White Lotus.

We meet Rick alongside his much-younger girlfriend Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) as they arrive by boat to the Koh Samui resort, where he quickly earns the ire of the Ratliff family by defiantly refusing to put out his cigarette. In tow: a suitcase full of loud shirts, plenty of emotional baggage, and a simmering grudge tied to resort owner Sritala Hollinger (Lek Patravadi) and her husband Jim (Scott Glenn).

Though Rick’s true motives grow more dangerously apparent as the season unfolds, our early impressions are limited to Chelsea’s casual comments: he doesn’t work much, he’s not quite balding enough to qualify as an “LBH” (loser back home) like her new friend’s all-too-familiar paramour, and her genuine desire that he take better care of himself. But as we quickly learn, Rick is often his own worst enemy. Continue reading →

The Great Gatsby: Sam Waterston’s Tan Suit as Nick

Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby (1974)

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Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway, impressionable bachelor and bond salesman

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

Published 100 years ago this spring, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s generation-defining novel The Great Gatsby has been adapted for the screen several times, though many continue to consider Jack Clayton’s 1974 film the definitive cinematic depiction to date. The story of star-crossed lovers Jay Gatsby (Robert Redford) and Daisy Buchanan (Mia Farrow) is observed through the neutral lens of their mutual acquaintance, Nick Carraway (Sam Waterston), an Ivy League grad and war veteran from the Midwest clearly modeled after Fitzgerald himself. Continue reading →

Thunderball: Rik Van Nutter’s Tropical Shirts as Felix Leiter

Rik Van Nutter as Felix Leiter in Thunderball (1965)

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Rik Van Nutter as Felix Leiter, CIA agent

Nassau, The Bahamas, Summer 1965

Film: Thunderball
Release Date: December 29, 1965
Director: Terence Young
Wardrobe Designer: Anthony Mendleson

Background

Just as I ended last summer by looking at one of James Bond’s aloha-wearing allies in Thunderball, let’s kick off the first weekend of summer during Thunderball‘s 60th anniversary year with Bond’s “brother from Langley” dripped out for days in the tropics. Continue reading →

Summertime: Rossano Brazzi’s Glen Plaid Suit

Rossano Brazzi as Renato de Rossi in Summertime (1955)

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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 →

Jaws: Roy Scheider’s Layers at Sea as Chief Brody

Roy Scheider as Martin Brody in Jaws (1975)

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Roy Scheider as Martin Brody, pragmatic island police chief

Off the coast of Amity Island, July 1974

Film: Jaws
Release Date: June 20, 1975
Director: Steven Spielberg
Costume Design: Louise Clark, Robert Ellsworth, and Irwin Rose

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Today is the 50th anniversary since Jaws first swam into theaters on June 20, 1975, redefining the summer blockbuster and establishing Steven Spielberg as a major director. In addition to breaking box office records and winning three Academy Awards (including one for John Williams’ iconic score), Jaws continues to succeed as a thriller, still terrifying generations with its portrayal of danger lurking beneath the waves.

Adapted from Peter Benchley’s bestselling novel of the same name, the story is relatively simple: after a string of deadly shark attacks off the coast of the fictional Amity Island (filmed on Martha’s Vineyard), three men—grizzled shark-hunter Quint (Robert Shaw), passionate oceanographer Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), and Amity’s aquaphobic new police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider)—set out aboard Quint’s boat to hunt the creature terrorizing the island’s residents and tourists. Continue reading →

Robert Ryan in The Wild Bunch

Robert Ryan as Deke Thornton in The Wild Bunch (1969)

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Robert Ryan as Deke Thornton, conflicted bounty hunter and ex-bandit

Texas to Mexico, Spring 1913

Film: The Wild Bunch
Release Date: June 18, 1969
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Costume Designer: James R. Silke

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Released today in 1969, The Wild Bunch reimagined the American frontier on screen. The New Hollywood movement ushered in a new level of brutality with films like Bonnie and Clyde (1967), which—along with his frustration over the Vietnam War and the lack of realism in earlier depictions of the Old West—inspired director Sam Peckinpah to return behind the lens.

Based on a screenplay co-written by Peckinpah, Walon Green, and Roy N. Sickner, The Wild Bunch follows an aging gang led by the grizzled Pike Bishop (William Holden), pursued into Mexico by a posse of ragtag bounty hunters led by Pike’s former partner, Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan), against the backdrop of the nation’s decade-long revolution. Continue reading →

George C. Scott’s Funky Brown Shirt and Tan Blazer in Hardcore

George C. Scott in Hardcore (1979)

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George C. Scott as Jake Van Dorn, serious Midwestern family man

San Francisco, Spring 1978

Film: Hardcore
Release Date: February 9, 1979
Director: Paul Schrader
Men’s Wardrobe Supervisor: G. Tony Scarano

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Oh my God, that’s my daughter.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads who read BAMF Style… and to this soon-to-be first-time dad who writes BAMF Style, as my wife is expecting our first this October!

Of course, since I’m the same insane person who writes about Psycho and The Grifters for Mother’s Day, today’s Father’s Day post centers around George C. Scott’s style in Paul Schrader’s 1979 neo-noir Hardcore as Jake Van Dorn, a Michigan rivet manufacturing executive who goes deep undercover in the California porn industry to try to save his daughter Kristen (Ilah Davis) after he learns from private detective Andy Mast (Peter Boyle) that she’s been appearing in stag films. Continue reading →

Ben Johnson’s Cream Suit in The Town That Dreaded Sundown

Ben Johnson in The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)

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Ben Johnson as J.D. Morales, Texas Rangers company captain

Texarkana, Arkansas, Spring 1946

Film: The Town That Dreaded Sundown
Release Date: December 24, 1976
Director: Charles B. Pierce
Wardrobe Credit: Karen Jones & Bonnie Langriff

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Born 107 years ago on June 13, 1918, Ben Johnson was an Academy Award-winning actor and—like his father, Ben Sr.—a bona fide cowboy and rodeo champion.

Johnson’s screen career appropriately began as a stuntman in Howard Hughes’ controversial 1943 film The Outlaw, establishing the start of a half-century career that began with Westerns like 3 Godfathers (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), Shane (1953), Hang ‘Em High (1968), and The Wild Bunch (1969). After a more dramatic performance in The Last Picture Show (1971) resulted in Johnson’s sole Oscar win, the middle-aged actor diversified his filmography with major roles in non-Westerns like The Getaway (1972), Dillinger (1973), Red Dawn (1984), and Angels in the Outfield (1994).

Since today’s commemoration of Johnson’s birthday also falls on Friday the 13th, it feels appropriate to focus on one of the actor’s first of few forays into horror. The Town That Dreaded Sundown was loosely based on the real-life Texarkana Moonlight Murders when a still-unknown “Phantom Killer” attacked eight people—killing five—through the spring of 1946. Filmed on location in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas through the hot summer of 1976, The Town That Dreaded Sundown erroneously centered most of the action around Texarkana, Arkansas, which initially resulted in the city threatening director Charles B. Pierce… but has since become an annual Halloween tradition during Texarkana’s “Movies in the Park” series.

Johnson’s cowboy background and persona suited his performance as Captain J.D. Morales, based on the case’s actual lead investigator: Manuel T. “Lone Wolf” Gonzaullas. Continue reading →

Night Moves: Gene Hackman’s Ivory Levi’s Shirt-Jacket

Gene Hackman as Harry Moseby in Night Moves (1975)

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Gene Hackman as Harry Moseby, private detective and former professional football player

Florida Keys, Fall 1973

Film: Night Moves
Release Date: June 11, 1975
Director: Arthur Penn
Costumer: Arnie Lipin
Costume Supervisor: Rita Riggs

Background

Arthur Penn’s neo-noir Night Moves premiered 50 years ago today on June 11, 1975, starring the late Gene Hackman as football pro-turned-private eye Harry Moseby, one of the most effective roles in demonstrating Hackman’s talent for balancing traditional masculinity with emotional depth and vulnerability.

Harry was recently hired by a washed-up Hollywood starlet to find her 16-year-old daughter Delly (Melanie Griffith), whom he eventually traces to the Florida Keys, where she’s living with her stepfather Tom (John Crawford) and his girlfriend Paula (Jennifer Warren) who eventually spends a night with Harry before he returns to L.A.

After a simple runaway case twists into murky layers of smuggling, betrayal, incest, and an increasing body count, Harry takes a late TWA flight back to the Keys—to the resigned dismay of his estranged wife Ellen (Susan Clark). Continue reading →