Q’s Tropical Style in Thunderball

Desmond Llewelyn as “Q” in Thunderball (1965)

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Desmond Llewelyn as “Q”, MI6’s trusted quartermaster and gadgeteer

Nassau, Summer 1965

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

Background

Welsh actor Desmond Llewelyn, best known for his portrayal of the steadfast “Q” in 17 James Bond films over 36 years, was born 110 years ago today on September 12, 1914. Llewelyn may have been destined to be indelibly intertwined with James Bond’s world of gadgetry, as his father purchased the first production Bentley in 1921, decades before Ian Fleming assigned agent 007 a Bentley 4½ Litre in his early novels.

After serving in the Royal Welch Fusiliers during World War II, Llewelyn resumed his acting career, which consisted largely of uncredited bit parts in films such as Hamlet (1948) and A Night to Remember (1958). His big break came when director Terence Young invited him to audition for the role of MI6’s equipment officer in the second Bond film, From Russia With Love (1963). Both Young and Fleming envisioned the character of Major Boothroyd—named after firearms expert Geoffrey Boothroyd—with a Welsh accent, although Llewelyn believed the character should speak with the upper-class accent that he ultimately adopted for the role. Although the name Boothroyd was occasionally referenced (most notably in The Spy Who Loved Me in 1977), the character became widely known as “Q,” a nod to his title as quartermaster and head of MI6’s “Q branch.”

Llewelyn returned for Goldfinger (1964), where he and Sean Connery established Bond and Q’s signature relationship, marked by affectionately antagonistic banter during the now-iconic scenes where Q introduces Bond to his latest innovative gadgets—often destined for considerable abuse. This playful dynamic continued in Thunderball (1965), during a memorable scene where a tropically dressed Q arrives in the Bahamas to equip his most troublesome agent with a selection of pocket-sized gadgets… provided Bond has a convenient pocket, of course. Continue reading →

Legends of the Fall: Brad Pitt’s Tan Leather Car Coat

Brad Pitt in Legends of the Fall (1994)

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Brad Pitt as Tristan Ludlow, tough bootlegger and World War I veteran

Montana, Fall 1925

Film: Legends of the Fall
Release Date: December 23, 1994
Director: Edward Zwick
Costume Designer: Deborah Lynn Scott

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Legends of the Fall may be a biblical title, but the style is autumnal, set amidst the network of the fictional Ludlow ranch in Montana across the first quarter of the 20th century.

Family patriarch William Ludlow (Anthony Hopkins) had been a decorated Army colonel before leaving the service in protest of the government’s treatment of Native Americans, raising his sons Alfred (Aidan Quinn), Tristan (Brad Pitt), and Samuel (Henry Thomas) on their remote ranch, where they learn to be the self-sufficient types that can survive bear confrontations… and if they don’t survive them, at least put up enough of a fight to earn “a good death.”

Portraying the tough but troubled Tristan Ludlow provided a breakthrough opportunity for Pitt, continuing the momentum he’d built in a similar role two years earlier in A River Runs Through It, though Tristan is arguably a more rugged character than Paul Maclean. By the mid-1920s, Tristan had seen and done it all, as a cowboy, soldier, big-game hunter, and now a bootlegger whose rumrunning runs him afoul of his own Volstead-voting brother Alfred and his nemeses, the crooked O’Banion brothers. As blood spills on both sides of the conflict, Tristan fears that those he love most are damned to die before him, only to be saved by the bonds of his family. Continue reading →

Trevor Howard’s Swiss Holiday Sportswear in The Passionate Friends

Trevor Howard in The Passionate Friends (1949)

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Trevor Howard as Steven Stratton, romantic biology professor

Switzerland, Summer 1948

Film: The Passionate Friends
Release Date: January 26, 1949
Director: David Lean
Costume Designer: Margaret Furse

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Based on H.G. Wells’ 1913 novel of the same name, The Passionate Friends was director David Lean’s second film in four years to star Trevor Howard as a dignified and dashing gentleman who sweeps a bored housewife off her feet. In this case, the woman in question is Mary Justin (Ann Todd), pleasantly—if dispassionately—married to respected financial advisor Howard Justin (Claude Rains).

The Passionate Friends begins with Mary’s arrival in Switzerland for a long overdue holiday, traveling with her husband’s dutiful secretary Miss Layton (Betty Ann Davies) with Howard himself to follow later. (Though set in Switzerland, these sequences were actually filmed just across the French border at Lac d’Annecy in Haute-Savoie.)

As Mary drifts to sleep in her luxurious suite at the Hotel Splendide, she recalls her previous romances with biology professor Steven Stratton (Trevor Howard), whom she last saw nine years earlier in London when their reunion resulted in an extramarital affair that nearly destroyed her marriage to Howard. Little does she know, coincidence—or fate—has brought Steven not only to the same lakeside luxury hotel but indeed the adjoining room. Continue reading →

Rolling Thunder: William Devane’s USAF Lightweight Blue Jacket

William Devane in Rolling Thunder (1977)

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William Devane as Major Charles Rane, twice-traumatized Vietnam War veteran and “one macho motherfucker”

Texas and Mexico, Summer 1973

Film: Rolling Thunder
Release Date: October 7, 1977
Director: John Flynn
Wardrobe Credit: Nancy McArdle

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

You learn to love the rope. That’s how you beat ’em. That’s how you beat people who torture you. You learn to love ’em. Then they don’t know you’re beatin’ ’em.

Today is the 85th birthday of William Devane, the talented Albany-born actor who appeared in the rare starring role in the 1977 revenge-centered action thriller Rolling Thunder.

Written by Paul Schrader and Heywood Gould as an intended expansion of the Travis Bickle Cinematic Universe that began in Schrader’s script for Taxi Driver, Rolling Thunder centers around Major Charles Rane, a United States Air Force pilot returning home to San Antonio after seven years of imprisonment and torture in a Hanoi hellhole.

“He’s unemotional, unresponsive, and stoic to the point of not being among the living,” writes Quentin Tarantino in Cinema Speculation, the volume that introduced me to Rolling Thunder. Continue reading →

Point Break: Keanu Reeves’ Plaid Shirt and Jeans

Keanu Reeves as Johnny Utah in Point Break (1991)

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Keanu Reeves as Johnny Utah, ambitious FBI agent

Los Angeles, Summer 1991

Film: Point Break
Release Date: July 12, 1991
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Costume Supervisors: Colby P. Bart & Louis Infante

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Happy 60th birthday to Keanu Reeves, the Canadian actor born in Beirut on September 2, 1964. After his breakthrough performance in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989), Reeves continued his path to stardom as the OSU quarterback-turned-FBI agent Johnny Utah pursuing a gang of bank-robbing surfers in Point Break (1991). Continue reading →

Breathless: Richard Gere’s Rockabilly Shirt and Plaid Trousers

Richard Gere in Breathless (1983)

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Richard Gere as Jesse Lujack, swaggering drifter

Los Angeles, Summer 1982

Film: Breathless
Release Date: May 13, 1983
Director: Jim McBride
Costume Designer: J. Allen Highfill

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Happy 75th birthday to Richard Gere! To celebrate this prolific actor’s August 31, 1949, today’s post looks at one of my unexpectedly favorite performances from the prolific actor.

Jim McBride’s 1983 remake of Breathless flips the nationalities of the French crook and his American girlfriend in the 1960 French New Wave classic, starring Gere as the cocky ne’er-do-well Jesse Lujack who shacks up with Monica Poiccard (Valérie Kaprisky), a French UCLA student he had met once during a weekend trip to Las Vegas. Continue reading →

Little Murders: Elliott Gould’s Beige Suede Belted Jacket

Elliott Gould in Little Murders (1971)

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Elliott Gould as Alfred Chamberlain, aloof photographer

New York City, Spring 1970

Film: Little Murders
Release Date: February 9, 1971
Director: Alan Arkin
Costume Designer: Albert Wolsky

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

As we wave goodbye to summer and celebrate the 86th birthday of Elliott Gould, born August 29, 1938, let’s review the actor’s style in the final act of Alan Arkin’s 1971 directorial debut Little Murders, a stark, satirical portrait of a chaotic New York City plagued by unsolved homicides, power blackouts, and rampant street crime. Continue reading →

And Then There Were None (2015): Anthony Marston’s Pink Terry Shirt

Douglas Booth as Anthony Marston in And Then There Were None (2015)

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Douglas Booth as Anthony Marston, irresponsible socialite

Devon, England, August 1939

Series Title: And Then There Were None
Air Date: December 26-28, 2015
Director: Craig Viveiros
Costume Designer: Lindsay Pugh

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

A recent rewatch of the 2015 BBC One series And Then There Were None brought to mind the exquisite parade of interesting menswear designed by Lindsay Pugh for the half-dozen gents summoned to the mysterious Soldier Island off the coast of Devon. The series is set during a late summer weekend in August 1939 on the brink of World War II, a specter that hauntingly looms over the darkly faithful series which is the first English-language adaptation to restore Agatha Christie’s original ending.

The story centers around ten strangers—eight guests and a married couple to serve as their staff—invited to the island by the enigmatic U.N. Owen, whom it is quickly established none of the ten have ever met… nor will they meet him, as their unknown host only makes his presence known by a recording accusing each of the ten of murder. All but two of the attendees respond with horrified denials, with the roguish adventurer Philip Lombard (Aidan Turner) and brash socialite Anthony Marston (Douglas Booth) being the only two to instantly own up to their past crimes. Continue reading →

Diamonds are Forever: Sean Connery’s Bond Returns… in a Terrycloth Shirt

Sean Connery and Denise Perrier in Diamonds are Forever (1971)

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Sean Connery as James Bond, British government agent

French Riviera, Spring 1971

Film: Diamonds are Forever
Release Date: December 17, 1971
Director: Guy Hamilton
Wardrobe Master: Ray Beck
Tailor: Anthony Sinclair

Background

Born 94 years ago today on August 25, 1930, Sir Sean Connery rose to stardom as the first actor to play James Bond in the official EON Productions series, from Dr. No (1962) through Diamonds are Forever (1971).

Connery first retired from the role after You Only Live Twice (1967), resulting in Australian actor George Lazenby’s sole shot in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969). After Lazenby too hung up 007’s shoulder holster, Connery was persuaded back for one last official performance as Ian Fleming’s iconic secret agent, commanding a record-setting $1.25 million salary to return as Commander Bond… which he then donated in its entirety to the Scottish International Education Trust.

Despite the somber ending of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service that set Bond out for revenge, Diamonds are Forever began a lighter era for the series as the stories diverged from Fleming’s source material with an increased emphasis on comedic elements and spectacle.

After a few faceless vignettes in exotic locales like Cai-Cai-Cairo, Connery’s Bond makes his long-anticipated on-screen reappearance during the pre-credits sequence of Diamonds are Forever, striding down onto the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc’s stunning beach in Cap d’Antibes, where he makes his iconic introduction (“Bond, James Bond”) to Marie, an even more stunning bikini-clad brunette portrayed by Denise Perrier, the French-born Miss World 1953.

Marie: Is there something I can do for you?
Bond: Yes, as a matter of fact, there is… there is something I’d like you to get off your chest.

Continue reading →

Dillinger (1973): Harry Dean Stanton’s Raccoon Coat as a Doomed Homer Van Meter

Harry Dean Stanton as Homer Van Meter in Dillinger (1973)

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Harry Dean Stanton as Homer Van Meter, doomed and desperate Depression-era bandit

Wisconsin, Spring 1934

Film: Dillinger
Release Date: July 20, 1973
Director: John Milius
Costume Designer: James M. George

Background

Ninety years ago today in the late afternoon of Sunday, August 23, 1934, a 28-year-old named Homer Van Meter was rushing to keep an appointment in St. Paul, Minnesota. The tall, slender Hoosier nicknamed “Wayne” had been arrested multiple times and was currently wanted for the string of armed robberies and murders committed during his tenure with the infamous John Dillinger gang, which had all but crumbled after its eponymous leader was killed in Chicago a month and a day earlier.

The saga of the Dillinger gang continues to inspire an abundance of books and films, including the fiercely entertaining 1973 movie Dillinger. Written and directed by John Milius in his directorial debut, Dillinger dramatizes the facts and folks associated with the gang, benefiting from the involvement of Clarence Hurt, a retired FBI agent who was part of ace agent Melvin Purvis’ team and present when Dillinger was killed in July 1934.

Led by Warren Oates and Ben Johnson as Dillinger and Purvis, respectively, Dillinger‘s cast includes some of the most recognizable and reliable supporting players of the ’70s filling out the ranks of Dillinger’s gang, including Steve Kanaly, Geoffrey Lewis, John P. Ryan, a young Richard Dreyfuss as “Baby Face” Nelson, and Harry Dean Stanton as Homer Van Meter. Continue reading →