Save the Tiger: Jack Lemmon’s Italian Silk Suit

Jack Lemmon in Save the Tiger (1973)

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Jack Lemmon as Harry Stoner, cynical businessman and World War II veteran

Los Angeles, Spring 1972

Film: Save the Tiger
Release Date: February 14, 1973
Director: John G. Avildsen
Wardrobe Credit: John A. Anderson

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

One of my favorite actors, Jack Lemmon was born 100 years ago today on February 8, 1925 in Newton, Massachusetts.

After serving in the U.S. Navy as communications officer aboard an aircraft carrier during World ar II, Lemmon rose to fame playing comedic roles in the 1950s, such as his back-to-back pairings with Judy Holliday in the early 1950s and his performance as the wily Ensign Pulver in Mister Roberts (1955) that earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor. Lemmon’s successful streak continued when he teamed with director Billy Wilder in the classic comedy Some Like It Hot (1959) and The Apartment (1960), followed by five more movies together over the next quarter-century.

Lemmon’s talent in serious roles was widely demonstrated in Blake Edwards’ 1962 drama Days of Wine and Roses, though it wasn’t until a decade later when the middle-aged actor returned to drama as the disillusioned veteran Harry Stoner in Save the Tiger (1973), a film he was so dedicated to bringing to the screen that he waived his usual salary to work at union scale—which was $165 per week—and a percentage of the gross. Lemmon ultimately received his second Oscar—this time the Academy Award for Best Actor—for his poignant portrayal of a man trapped by his past and the hollow promises of the so-called American Dream, perfectly playing the weariness of a lifetime of war-torn cynicism battling that characteristic twinkle in his eye. Continue reading →

Heaven Can Wait: Warren Beatty’s Leather Jacket

Warren Beatty in Heaven Can Wait (1978)

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Warren Beatty as Joe Pendleton, L.A. Rams quarterback

Los Angeles, February 1978

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

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Ahead of the Super Bowl this weekend, one of the movies that the big game always brings to mind for me is Heaven Can Wait, Warren Beatty and Buck Henry’s 1978 remake of Harry Segall’s 1930s play of the same name, which had already been adapted for the screen in 1941 as Here Comes Mr. Jordan.

Beatty stars as Joe Pendleton, an affably simple-minded backup quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams whose sole ambition is to lead his team to the Super Bowl. Continue reading →

Succession: Tom’s Cashmere Puffer Vest and White Sneakers in Norway

Matthew Macfadyen as Tom Wambsgans on Succession, Episode 4.05 (“Kill List”)

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Matthew Macfadyen as Tom Wambsgans, obsequious corporate media executive

Møre og Romsdal, Norway, Fall 2020

Series: Succession
Episode: “Kill List” (Episode 4.05)
Air Date: April 23, 2023
Director: Andrij Parekh
Creator: Jesse Armstrong
Costume Designer: Michelle Matland

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Working my way through the winter blues, I’m returning to some of the luxuriously simple cool-weather looks from the final season of Succession—specifically the fifth episode trip to Norway, where the Roy siblings hope to land a deal with tech giant GoJo.

Included among the Waystar RoyCo contingent is the spineless yet calculating Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen), whose machinations and devotion to the company’s late CEO Logan Roy (Brian Cox) placed him in a better position for advancement than Logan’s own children… including his daughter Siobhan (Sarah Snook), whom Tom had married before betraying to advance his good graces with Logan. Continue reading →

Oliver Reed’s Houndstooth Jacket and Turtleneck in And Then There Were None

Oliver Reed and Elke Sommer in And Then There Were None (1974)

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Oliver Reed as Hugh Lombard, adventurer and accused murderer (or is he?)

Fars, Iran, Fall 1973

Film: And Then There Were None
(also released as Ten Little Indians)
Release Date: September 24, 1974
Director: Peter Collinson

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

First released in West Germany four months earlier, the third major screen adaptation of Agatha Christie’s classic mystery And Then There Were None arrived in the United States fifty years ago today on the last day of January 1975*. This was actually the second of three versions of the story to be produced by Harry Alan Towers, the controversial British filmmaker who was evidently quite obsessed with making his mark on Christie’s famous story each decade. (For those who may be unfamiliar, the story centers around ten strangers summoned to a secluded island house, where a mysterious recording accuses them of getting away with murder in the past before each are systematically murdered themselves.)

Towers’ first attempt was the 1965 film Ten Little Indians, which was more of a remake of the 1945 screen adaptation of And Then There Were None (with its “happy” ending) than an original take on Christie’s source novel. The ’65 version also transported the story from a remote English island to an Alpine mansion and glamorized some of the characters, such as replacing the religious spinster with a glamorous actress and converting the drunken socialite into a popular singer—allowing for pop idol Fabian to croon on screen as part of his new contract with Fox. Among its other minor changes to the ten doomed guests was star Hugh O’Brian getting “the Tony Danza treatment” as Christie’s leading man, renamed from Philip Lombard to Hugh Lombard.

This latter change was inexplicably carried over to Oliver Reed’s characterization of the roguish Mr. Lombard in the 1974 adaptation, which borrowed liberally in many other ways from the previous version, including Towers copying much dialogue verbatim from his ’65 screenplay. Other than being the first major adaptation of the story to be filmed in color, the 1974 version also distinguishes itself with yet another new setting, this time moving the action to an elegant—but inexplicably abandoned—hotel in the Iranian desert. Continue reading →

Magnum, P.I.: Tom Selleck’s Red Jungle Bird Aloha Shirt

Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum on Magnum, P.I.
Based on his red “jungle bird”-printed aloha shirt having a breast pocket—as well as his personalized belt buckle, MIA/POW bracelet, and Rolex—this promotional photo was likely taken sometime during the final seasons of the show’s eight-year run.

Vitals

Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, private investigator and former Navy SEAL

Hawaii, 1980s

Series: Magnum, P.I. (1980-1988)
Creator: Donald P. Bellisario & Glen Larson
Costume Designer: Charles Waldo (credited with first season only)
Costume Supervisor: James Gilmore

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Happy 80th birthday, Tom Selleck! Born January 29, 1945 in Detroit, the actor rose to stardom as the Hawaii-dwelling private investigator Thomas Magnum across all eight seasons of Magnum, P.I. 

In addition to highlighting Magnum’s aspirational life on a lush Oahu estate with a red Ferrari at his disposal, the series further humanized Vietnam veterans and addressed their post-war struggles and successes.

Frequently nominated by both groups, Selleck was awarded an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Magnum. His familiar appearance of ubiquitous mustache and the usual aloha shirt and Detroit Tigers baseball cap has kept Magnum a recognizable character even among folks who haven’t seen the series.

Among Magnum’s dozens of aloha shirts, the red “jungle bird” print that appeared in more than two dozen episodes remains the most iconic—to the extent that Selleck donated his screen-worn shirt to the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of American History after the series ended in 1988. Continue reading →

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

Paul Newman in Slap Shot (1977)

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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.

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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 →