Slap Shot: Paul Newman’s Fur-collared Leather Coat

Paul Newman in Slap Shot (1977)

Vitals

Paul Newman as Reggie Dunlop, renegade hockey coach and player

Southwestern Pennsylvania, Winter 1977

Film: Slap Shot
Release Date: February 25, 1977
Director: George Roy Hill
Costume Designer: Tom Bronson

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Today would have been the 100th birthday of screen icon Paul Newman, born January 26, 1925. Across his prolific career that spanned six decades and yielded a competitive Oscar win among his ten nominations, Newman frequently cited the 1977 sports comedy Slap Shot as the most fun of his career. Continue reading →

The Fourth Protocol: Pierce Brosnan’s Black Leather Biker Gear

Pierce Brosnan in The Fourth Protocol (1987). Photo credit: Stanley Bielecki.

Vitals

Pierce Brosnan as Valeri Alekseyevich Petrofsky, cold-blooded undercover KGB operative

Suffolk, England, Spring 1987

Film: The Fourth Protocol
Release Date: March 20, 1987
Director: John Mackenzie
Costume Designer: Tiny Nicholls

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Many James Bond fans know that Pierce Brosnan was first offered the role in the 1980s, but the announcement ironically improved Remington Steele‘s ratings to the point that the series was renewed and Brosnan had to turn down the Bond role to honor his commitments to the series. Three months before the next Bond film—The Living Daylights starring Timothy Dalton—was released in June 1987, Brosnan appeared in a different espionage thriller, The Fourth Protocol.

Indeed, the plot of a British agent trying to stop a rogue Soviet mission to detonate a “false flag” nuclear device at an American airbase must have sounded awfully familiar to Bond fans who watched Roger Moore do the same thing four years earlier in Octopussy… but this time, the maverick British spy is an MI5 agent named John Preston (Michael Caine), squaring off against Brosnan as KGB Major Valeri Petrofsky. Continue reading →

Paul Schneider as Dick Liddil in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Paul Schneider and Brad Pitt in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

Vitals

Paul Schneider as Dick Liddil, smooth-talking outlaw and incorrigible “innamoratu”

Missouri and Kentucky, Fall 1881

Film: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Release Date: September 21, 2007
Director: Andrew Dominik
Costume Designer: Patricia Norris

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

The James Gang committed over 25 bank, train, and stagecoach robberies from 1867 to 1881. But, except for Frank and Jesse James, all of the original members were either now dead or in prison. So, for their last robbery at Blue Cut, the brothers recruited a gang of petty thieves and country rubes, culled from the local hillsides.

— Hugh Ross’ narration from The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Based on the last few months of the infamous bandit leader’s life, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford illustrates how Jesse (Brad Pitt) and Frank James (Sam Shepard) had fallen from their notorious “glory days” of riding with the Youngers, now reduced to a band of fanboy ruffians like the simple-minded Ed Miller (Garret Dillahunt) and brothers Charley (Sam Rockwell) and Bob Ford (Casey Affleck). One of the more capable members of this new iteration of the gang is Dick Liddil (Paul Schneider), though even he seems more interested in how many women he can “diddle”. Continue reading →

Selma: David Oyelowo’s Navy Suit as Martin Luther King Jr.

David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma (2014)

Vitals

David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr., iconic civil rights activist

Alabama, January to March 1965

Film: Selma
Release Date: December 25, 2014
Director: Ava DuVernay
Costume Designer: Ruth E. Carter

Background

Since 1986, Martin Luther King Jr. Day has been observed on the third Monday of each January since President Ronald Reagan signed Rep. Katie Hall’s proposed bill into law. Though King was actually born on January 15, 1929, “MLK Day” follows the pattern of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act that designates several American federal holidays to be permanently observed at the start of the workweek, like Presidents Day and Memorial Day.

Nominated for Best Picture at the 87th Academy Awards, Ava DuVernay’s 2014 drama Selma chronicles the events leading up to the famous Selma-to-Montgomery marches in March 1965, organized by nonviolent activists to protest the widespread denial of Black Americans exercising their constitutional voting rights. Continue reading →

The Cotton Club: Richard Gere in Prohibition-era Black Tie

Richard Gere as “Dixie” Dwyer in The Cotton Club (1984)

Vitals

Richard Gere as Dixie Dwyer, mob-connected movie star and jazz trumpeter

New York Spring, Winter 1928 to Winter 1931

Film: The Cotton Club
Release Date: December 14, 1984
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Costume Designer: Milena Canonero

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Fraught with almost as much deadly drama behind the scenes as depicted on screen, Francis Ford Coppola’s contentious crime epic The Cotton Club was released 40 years ago last month in December 1984. From a story by Coppola, William Kennedy, and Mario Puzo, the story centers around the real-life titular Harlem nightclub that operated during Prohibition, which was first enforced across the United States 105 years ago today on January 17, 1920. The movie was received about as well as Prohibition itself, with both Oscar and Razzie nominations, four-star ratings and dead financiers.

The Cotton Club blends actual gangsters like Owney Madden and Dutch Schultz and popular musicians like Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington with fictional characters inspired by real-life figures. Richard Gere stars as “Dixie” Dwyer, a jazz musician destined for stardom as a matinee idol who shares biographical traits with the actor George Raft and alliteratively named trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke. Dixie finds himself vying against Schultz for the affections of Vera Cicero (Diane Lane), a vivacious singer reminiscent of nightclub owner “Texas” Guinan—who also inspired Gladys George’s brassy character in The Roaring Twenties. Continue reading →

The Bourne Identity: Tim Dutton as Eamon

Tim Dutton as Eamon in The Bourne Identity (2002)

Vitals

Tim Dutton as Eamon, wealthy family man

French countryside, Winter 2002

Film: The Bourne Identity
Release Date: June 14, 2002
Director: Doug Liman
Costume Designer: Pierre-Yves Gayraud

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Poor Eamon, seemingly always having to get his half-sister Marie (Franka Potente) out of jams!

The latest finds Eamon and his two kids driving up to his Christmas-decorated French country home (actually filmed in the Czech Republic), only to find that Marie and her new boyfriend have broken in, apparently in some kind of trouble and seeking refuge. The next morning, he learns that “some kind of trouble” centers around that boyfriend being Jason Bourne (Matt Damon), a trained killer whose amnesia has made him a target for a rogue branch of the CIA specializing in assassinations. Continue reading →

Hour of the Gun: James Garner’s “Vendetta Ride” Wardrobe as Wyatt Earp

James Garner as Wyatt Earp in Hour of the Gun (1967)

Vitals

James Garner as Wyatt Earp, taciturn Deputy U.S. Marshal

Arizona Territory to Mexico, Spring 1882

Film: Hour of the Gun
Release Date: November 1, 1967
Director: John Sturges
Wardrobe Credit: Gordon T. Dawson

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

A decade after he released Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in 1957, director John Sturges returned to the legendary gunfight at Tombstone, Arizona for his continuation of the story, Hour of the Gun. While Gunfight at the O.K. Corral fictionalized the events leading up to the titular confrontation, Hour of the Gun begins with the showdown followed by a slightly more fact-based retelling of the “vendetta ride” led by Wyatt Earp, who died 96 years ago today on January 13, 1929. Continue reading →

Avalanche: Rock Hudson’s Plaid Jacket

Rock Hudson in Avalanche (1978)

Vitals

Rock Hudson as David Shelby, stubborn ski resort developer

Colorado, Winter 1978

Film: Avalanche
Release Date: August 30, 1978
Director: Corey Allen
Wardrobe Credit: Jane Ruhm

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

In the spirit of another snowy weekend, today’s post focuses on one of the lesser-discussed (and for good reason!) disaster movies of the 1970s. After the disaster genre conquered air (Airport), water (The Poseidon Adventure), and fire (The Towering Inferno), what was left but… snow?

Thus, Corey Allen—no relation to “Master of Disaster” Irwin Allen—took it upon himself to direct and co-write Avalanche, a harrowing tale of a ski resort built on hubris and soft-focus shots of Mia Farrow. Farrow stars as Caroline Brace, invited to the grand opening of a ski resort owned by her ex-husband David Shelby (Rock Hudson). While there, she finds herself drawn to earnest environmental photographer Nick Thorne (Robert Forster), who repeatedly tries to warn David about the threat that heavy snowfall would pose to his resort.

Of course, Nick’s premonitions are tragically realized when a rogue plane crash triggers the titular avalanche that threatens not only Mia’s burgeoning romances but also the lives of everyone at the resort—including a chef who dies covered in his own soup. Who else will perish during the avalanche? Will it be soup or snow that claims additional victims? And, most importantly, which man will Mia choose?? Continue reading →

Lee Van Cleef as “Angel Eyes” in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Lee Van Cleef in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)

Vitals

Lee Van Cleef as “Angel Eyes”, ruthless mercenary

New Mexico Territory, Spring 1862

Film: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
(Italian title: Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo)
Release Date: December 23, 1966
Director: Sergio Leone
Costume Designer: Carlo Simi

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Today would have been the 100th birthday of Lee Van Cleef, the actor whose Golden Boot Award-winning contributions to the Western genre began with his debut performance in the iconic High Noon (1952) but remains arguably best known for his back-to-back roles in the latter two films of Sergio Leone’s “Dollars trilogy” that established the spaghetti Western subgenre.

Born January 9, 1925 in New Jersey, Van Cleef served in the U.S. Navy aboard a minesweeper during World War II. Following his debut in High Noon, Van Cleef’s distinctive appearance and sinister mannerisms resulted in a string of supporting—and often villainous—roles in crime stories and Westerns until his breakout role as Colonel Douglas Mortimer in Leone’s For a Few Dollars More (1965), which resulted in his sole Golden Globe nomination.

Leone followed For a Few Dollars More with the Civil War-set The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly—the final installment of his so-called “Dollars trilogy”—which also prominently co-starred Van Cleef opposite Clint Eastwood’s stoic “Man with No Name”. As opposed to the more heroic Colonel Mortimer whose violent quest was driven by a sense of justice, Van Cleef’s character in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly embodied the eponymous “Bad”—a sadistic assassin who kills for money… and occasionally pleasure. Continue reading →

A View to a Kill: Roger Moore’s White Bogner Ski Clothes

Roger Moore as James Bond in A View to a Kill (1985). Photo by Keith Hamshere, sourced from Thunderballs archive.

Vitals

Roger Moore as James Bond, British government agent

Siberia, Winter 1985

Film: A View to a Kill
Release Date: May 22, 1985
Director: John Glen
Costume Designer: Emma Porteous

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

On this snowy 00-7th of January, let’s hit the slopes with Roger Moore—and his stunt doubles John Eaves and Martin Grace—in Sir Roger’s swan song as James Bond, A View to a Kill, celebrating its 40th anniversary this May.

Though the title originated from one of Ian Fleming’s short stories, the movie demonstrates how far the franchise had drifted from the source material, exemplified by this pre-credits sequence, which introduces a cringe-worthy “California Girls” needle drop as Moore’s stuntman skis through the mountains of Siberia—though actually filmed at Piz Palü in Switzerland and Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon in Iceland. Continue reading →