Heaven Can Wait: Warren Beatty’s Gray Sweats

Warren Beatty as Joe Pendleton in Heaven Can Wait (1978)

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Warren Beatty as Joe Pendleton, ill-fated quarterback

Los Angeles, Fall 1977

Film: Heaven Can Wait
Release Date: June 28, 1978
Directed by: Warren Beatty & Buck Henry
Costume Designer: Richard Bruno

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Warren Beatty and Elaine May collaborated on the screenplay for this cool and charming retelling of Harry Segall’s original play Heaven Can Wait, which was first adapted for the screen in the 1940s as Here Comes Mr. Jordan. The 1978 film retains Segall’s original title, re-imagining our hero Joe Pendleton as a football player, specifically a skilled backup quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams who looks forward to leading his team to the Super Bowl. Despite taking great care of his physique through exercise and meals like his liver-and-whey shake, Joe can’t avoid catastrophe when a reckless van driver crashes into his bicycle.

Joe wakes up in the clouds with his soprano sax in hand, escorted by a bespectacled guardian angel (Buck Henry) into the afterlife. Believing he’s merely dreaming, Joe performs a coin trick (“the only trick I know!”) and some impromptu push-ups while the escort’s supervisor, the urbane Mr. Jordan (James Mason), intervenes to try to urge Joe’s cooperation—until he determines that the overzealous escort fumbled his first assignment by extracting Joe from his earthly body too soon, as the late Mr. Pendleton wasn’t scheduled to die for another half-century, surviving until 10:17 a.m. PDT on March 20, 2025.

R.I.P., Joe! Continue reading →

Moonlighting: Bruce Willis’ First Brown Leather Jacket

Bruce Willis as David Addison on the pilot episode of Moonlighting

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Bruce Willis as David Addison Jr., wisecracking private detective

Los Angeles, Spring 1985

Series: Moonlighting
Episodes:
– “Pilot” (Episodes 1.01-1.02, dir. Glenn Gordon Caron, aired 3/3/1985)
– “The Murder’s in the Mail” (Episode 1.07, dir. Peter Werner, aired 4/2/1985)
– “Funeral for a Door Nail” (Episode 2.17, dir. Allan Arkush, aired 4/26/1986)
Creator: Glenn Gordon Caron
Costume Designer: Robert Turtrice

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

For Bruce Willis’ 70th birthday today, I was inspired by a reader’s recent comment to revisit the series that launched the actor to initial fame. Moonlighting premiered with its two-part pilot episode 40 years ago this month, starring Willis opposite Cybill Shepherd. Continue reading →

The Wind That Shakes the Barley: Cillian Murphy’s Olive Irish Tweed Jacket

Cillian Murphy in The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006)

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Cillian Murphy as Damien O’Donovan, Irish Republican Army soldier

County Cork, Ireland, 1920 through 1921

Film: The Wind That Shakes the Barley
Release Date: June 23, 2006
Director: Ken Loach
Costume Designer: Eimer Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Last year on March 17, I commemorated St. Patrick’s Day by watching The Wind That Shakes the Barley, a fictional chronicle of two brothers from County Cork during the Irish conflicts of the early 1920s. Cork native Cillian Murphy stars as Damien O’Donovan, who joins a local Irish Republican Army flying column led by his brother Teddy (Pádraic Delaney).

The brothers fight alongside each other during the Irish War of Independence, but the circumstances of the Anglo-Irish Treaty and Irish Free State deepen the divide between the increasingly radical Damien and more pragmatic Teddy as the two find themselves on opposing sides of the subsequent Irish Civil War. Continue reading →

Justifed: Raylan’s Pilot Episode Charcoal Pinstripe Suit Jacket and Jeans

Timothy Olyphant as U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens in the pilot episode (“Fire in the Hole”) of Justified.
(Photo by: Prashant Gupta, FX)

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Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens, proudly old-fashioned Deputy U.S. Marshal

Miami to Kentucky, March 2010

Series: Justified
Episode: “Fire in the Hole” (Episode 1.01)
Air Date: March 16, 2010
Director: Michael Dinner
Creator: Graham Yost
Costume Designer: Ane Crabtree

Background

Inspired by a selection of Elmore Leonard stories like “Fire in the Hole”, Justified premiered 15 years ago this week on March 16, 2010.

The series began with a literal bang as Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) demonstrated his quick trigger finger by outdrawing a “gun thug” in his assigned territory of Miami. Though he frequently insists “it was justified,” Raylan is ordered by his superiors to leave Miami, reassigned to the Lexington field office in his home turf of eastern Kentucky where he used to dig coal with now-criminal Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins).

“We weren’t what you call buddies, but you work a deep mine with a man, you look out for each other,” Raylan reflects of his and Boyd’s initial acquaintanceship. Continue reading →

John Cazale in Dog Day Afternoon

John Cazale as Sal in Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

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John Cazale as Sal Naturile, desperate bank robber and ex-convict

Brooklyn, Summer 1972

Film: Dog Day Afternoon
Release Date: September 21, 1975
Director: Sidney Lumet
Costume Designer: Anna Hill Johnstone

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

On August 22, 1972, an attempted bank robbery in Brooklyn became a media circus as dozens of police and spectators surrounded the Gravesend branch of the Chase Manhattan Bank where armed bandits John “Sonny” Wojtowicz and Salvatore “Sal” Naturile spent nearly 14 hours holed up with the handful of bank employees they held hostage. The stranger-than-fiction story was the basis for P.F. Kluge and Thomas Moore’s Life feature “The Boys in the Bank”, which was then adapted by screenwriter Frank Pierson and director Sidney Lumet into Dog Day Afternoon, starring Al Pacino and John Cazale as Sonny and Sal, respectively.

Before he died of lung cancer 47 years ago today on March 13, 1978, Cazale’s brief but brilliant screen career was batting a thousand. He had memorably co-starred in The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, The Conversation, Dog Day Afternoon, and The Deer Hunter—all of which were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Despite his contemporary acclaim and generational influence, Cazale’s sole screen award recognition was a Golden Globe nomination for his tragicomic and characteristically intense performance in Dog Day Afternoon. Continue reading →

Murder by Contract: Vince Edwards’ Leather Jacket

Vince Edwards in Murder by Contract (1958)

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Vince Edwards as Claude, existential contract killer

Los Angeles, Spring 1958

Film: Murder by Contract
Release Date: December 4, 1958
Director: Irving Lerner
Wardrobe Credit: Norman Martien

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Thanks to a recommendation from BAMF Style reader Jake—and the fact that it was briefly hosted on the Criterion Channel—one of my favorite “first watches” of this year has been the swift and slick 1958 film noir Murder by Contract.

Vince Edwards stars as Claude, a bored comptometer operator who capitalizes on his sociopathy to develop a profitable side hustler as a contract killer. As his reputation grows among the underworld, Claude’s mysterious boss Mr. Brink offers him $5,000 to complete the high-profile hit of a heavily guarded government witness scheduled to testify against him at an upcoming trial.

Continue reading →

The White Lotus: Walton Goggins’ Crane-Printed Aloha Shirt

Walton Goggins on The White Lotus, Episode 3.03: “The Meaning of Dreams”
Photo credit: Fabio Lovino

Vitals

Walton Goggins as Rick Hatchett, troubled tourist

Koh Samui, Thailand, Spring 2024

Series: The White Lotus
Episode: “The Meaning of Dreams” (Episode 3.03)
Air Date: March 2, 2025
Director: Mike White
Creator: Mike White
Costume Designer: Alex Bovaird

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Whether you’ve been a fan of Walton Goggins since his intensity on The Shield and Justified or his comic turns on Vice Principals and The Righteous Gemstones, it’s great to see the 53-year-old emerging as an unlikely heartthrob thanks to his back-to-back TV performances as the noseless Ghoul on Fallout and the moody Rick Hatchett on this season of The White Lotus. Continue reading →

The Limey: Peter Fonda’s Layered Shirts at Big Sur

Peter Fonda as Terry Valentine in The Limey (1999)

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Peter Fonda as Terry Valentine, shady rock producer/promoter

Big Sur, California, Fall 1998

Film: The Limey
Release Date: October 8, 1999
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Costume Designer: Louise Frogley

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Steven Soderbergh’s stylish 1999 crime film The Limey follows paroled English career criminal Wilson (Terence Stamp) on a quest for revenge after his daughter’s mysterious death, leading him to her final boyfriend—L.A. rock promoter Terry Valentine (Peter Fonda). As Wilson’s pursuit grows increasingly deadly, Terry high-tails it to his Big Sur beach house, where he holes up with his latest girlfriend Adhara (Amelia Heinle) and a handful of boyguards, including security chief Jim Avery (Barry Newman).

Soderbergh filmed The Limey on location in Big Sur, a picturesque region on California’s Central Coast. Spanish settlers originally named this unexplored coastal expanse “el sur grande” (“the big south”). As more English-speaking inhabitants arrived over the following decades, the name was simplified to the Spanglish “Big Sur”. This name was officially adopted 100 years ago today when the U.S. Postal Service approved a petition to rename the local post office from Arbolado to Big Sur on March 6, 1915. Continue reading →

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 →

David Niven’s Blazer and Cravats in Separate Tables

David Niven in Separate Tables (1958)

Vitals

David Niven as David Angus Pollock, charming yet deceitful retired British Army officer

Bournemouth, England, Spring 1958

Film: Separate Tables
Release Date: December 18, 1958
Director: Delbert Mann
Costume Supervisor: Mary Grant

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

The legendary David Niven was born 115 years ago today on March 1, 1910. Though he’d been an Academy Awards host for three different ceremonies, Niv was only once nominated—and awarded—an Oscar.

As of this date, Niven’s performance in Separate Tables remains the shortest ever to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, clocking in at just under 24 minutes of screen time. Coincidentally, he was also one of the hosts during the 31st Academy Award ceremony when he won, making him the only person to ever win an Oscar at the same ceremony he hosted. In honor of Niv’s birthday and tomorrow night’s Academy Awards ceremonies, let’s look deeper at the acclaimed actor’s Oscar-winning performance. Continue reading →