Glen Powell in Hit Man: Gary’s Western-Inspired Wardrobe as “Ron”

Glen Powell as Gary Johnson in Hit Man (2023)

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Glen Powell as Gary Johnson, mild-mannered psychology professor moonlighting as an undercover police contractor

New Orleans, Fall 2022

Film: Hit Man
Release Date: May 24, 2024
Director: Richard Linklater
Costume Designer: Juliana Hoffpauir

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

After a limited two-week run in theaters, Hit Man debuted on Netflix at the beginning of this month and quickly became the service’s #1 most-watched movie in the U.S. The screenplay by director Richard Linklater and star Glen Powell fictionalizes the life of Gary Johnson, a college professor and successful “fake hitman” whose undercover police work led to more than 70 arrests of people seeking the services of a contract killer.

Hit Man is Linklater’s second cinematic depiction of stranger-than-fiction true crime based on a Texas Monthly article by Skip Hollandsworth (the first was Bernie in 2011), though the production and setting were moved from Houston to New Orleans to take advantage of Louisiana tax credits.

Described in the epilogue as the “chillest dude imaginable,” the real Gary Johnson—whom the same epilogue is sure to insist was never actually involved in any murders—died in 2022 at the age of 75 before getting to see this dark comedy that riffed on his life story.

Though sensationalizing his life for dramatic purposes, Hit Man includes many details from Johnson’s life, like his cats Id and Ego, his unassuming politeness, and the random opportunity that elevated him to the city’s most in-demand assassin who signals his identity to prospective clients with a single response phrase:

All pie is good pie.

Continue reading →

Moonraker: Roger Moore’s Cream Suit in Rio

Roger Moore as James Bond in Moonraker (1979)

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Roger Moore as James Bond, suave and sophisticated British MI6 agent

Rio de Janiero, Brazil, February 1979

Film: Moonraker
Release Date: June 26, 1979
Director: Lewis Gilbert
Costume Designer: Jacques Fonteray
Tailor: Angelo Vitucci

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Moonraker launched James Bond into orbit when it premiered 45 years ago today on June 26, 1979 as the fourth of Sir Roger Moore’s seven adventures as the dashing spy.

Before his out-of-this-world journey, 007 trots the globe from California to Italy and ultimately to Brazil, where he landed in Rio de Janiero during the annual Carnival festivities held in February. February is a summer month in Brazil, so Bond dresses for the warmth in a cream linen suit and open-neck brown shirt and matching pocket square as he alights from his plane. Continue reading →

Don’t Look Now: Donald Sutherland’s Glen Plaid Jacket

Donald Sutherland in Don’t Look Now (1973)

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Donald Sutherland as John Baxter, architect and grieving father

Venice, Italy, Winter/Spring 1973

Film: Don’t Look Now
Release Date: October 16, 1973
Director: Nicolas Roeg
Wardrobe Credit: Anna Maria Feo

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Today’s post pays tribute to the late, great Donald Sutherland (1935-2024), the Canadian-born actor who died last week at the age of 88. One of the actor’s most-discussed films is Nicolas Roeg’s haunting horror tale Don’t Look Now, for which he received a BAFTA nomination. Continue reading →

A Shot in the Dark: Inspector Clouseau’s Trench Coat and Trilby

Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau in A Shot in the Dark (1964). Photo credit: MGM.

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Peter Sellers as Jacques Clouseau, bumbling Sûreté investigator

Paris, Fall 1963

Film: A Shot in the Dark
Release Date: June 23, 1964
Director: Blake Edwards
Costume Designer: Margaret Furse
Tailor: Douglas Hayward

Background

Tomorrow will commemorate 60 years since the release of A Shot in the Dark, the sequel to The Pink Panther which introduced Peter Sellers as the inept Investigator Clouseau. Sellers’ comedic talent elevated Clouseau to a breakout favorite among audiences of The Pink Panther, which was otherwise meant to be a stylish ensemble comedy centered around David Niven’s dashing jewel thief in pursuit of the eponymous diamond.

After observing how Clouseau resonated with audiences, director Blake Edwards and his co-screenwriter William Peter Blatty adapted Henry Kurnitz’s comic mystery play A Shot in the Dark—itself a Broadway adaptation of Marcel Archard’s L’Idiote—to reprise Sellers’ characterization of Inspector Clouseau. Set in Clouseau’s home turf, the story introduced Clouseau’s long-suffering boss Commissioner Dreyfus (Herbert Lom) and martial-artist manservant Cato (Burt Kwouk) who would both reappear in all three subsequent Pink Panther films to be released the following decade.

A Shot in the Dark begins at the country estate of millionaire Benjamin Ballon (George Sanders) outside of Paris, where we observe the household and staff watching, evading, and romancing each other in the shadows… until a gunshot rings out and the head chauffeur is found dead in the bedroom of the alluring maid Maria Gambrelli (Elke Sommer), last seen clutching the victim’s own still-smoking Beretta pistol. Enter Inspector Clouseau onto the scene… stepping out of his car and immediately into the Ballon fountain, perfectly introducing the madcap mystery to follow. Continue reading →

The Gambler: James Caan’s White Tennis Gear

James Caan as Axel Freed in The Gambler (1974)

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James Caan as Axel Freed, gambling-addicted English professor

New York City, Fall 1973

Film: The Gambler
Release Date: October 2, 1974
Director: Karel Reisz
Costume Designer: Albert Wolsky

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

In addition to today being the first day of summer, June 20th is also observed as International Tennis Day, established ten years ago to recognize the day when the first “Tennis Court Oath” was taken in 1789 at a tennis court near the Palace of Versailles.

The sport has found renewed interest this year after the release of Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers starring Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist, a film not without its own notable style including—but certainly not limited to—the “I TOLD YA” T-shirt homage to John F. Kennedy Jr. that costume designer J.W. Anderson chose for Zendaya’s wardrobe.

“We don’t talk enough about the scene in the original version of The Gambler where the James Caan character absolutely destroys his own mother at tennis,” Matt Zoller Seitz tweeted after Caan’s death in July 2022, so I’m hoping to rectify this oversight.

While Challengers will have its BAMF Style spotlight soon, the intersection of International Tennis Day and the summer solstice during the 50th anniversary year of The Gambler drew me toward the Fred Perry-branded tennis whites that Caan wore as Axel Freed in this 1974 drama. Continue reading →

The Last of Sheila: Ian McShane’s White Lacoste Cardigan

Ian McShane as Anthony Wood in The Last of Sheila (1973)

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Ian McShane as Anthony Wood, controlling Hollywood husband and ex-convict

French Riviera, Late summer 1972

Film: The Last of Sheila
Release Date: June 14, 1973
Director: Herbert Ross
Costume Designer: Joel Schumacher

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

One of my favorite “summer vibes” movies is The Last of Sheila, which I first watched last summer after learning that it was among Rian Johnson’s inspiration for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. As the third Knives Out movie has commenced filming and we’re approaching another summer solstice, let’s revisit the Riviera style on parade in The Last of Sheila, released 51 years ago this month on Flag Day 1973.

Written by Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins, The Last of Sheila boasts a fine ensemble cast portraying “six hungry failures” summoned by Hollywood producer Clinton Greene (James Coburn) to spend a week in the Ligurian Sea aboard his yacht, Sheila, named for his late wife who died exactly a year earlier in a mysterious hit-and-run.

After Clinton is murdered during his festivities, the six frenemies begin looking amongst each other for who would have had the means and opportunity to kill Clinton, though all had a motive—presumably to silence the gossip he knew about each of their pasts, revealed by the cards he had assigned to each on their first day at sea.

Perhaps the least connected of the six is the charismatic but shady Anthony Wood (Ian McShane), who fiercely promotes—and controls—the career of his glamorous actress wife Alice (Raquel Welch). When the “I am an EX-CONVICT” card held by the anxious Lee Parkman (Joan Hackett) is revealed to apply to Anthony’s dual convictions for assault, Lee’s writer husband Tom (Richard Benjamin) briefly focuses his interrogation on Anthony as the group tries to solve the mystery. Continue reading →

Tom Hanks in Road to Perdition

Tom Hanks in Road to Perdition (2002)

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Tom Hanks as Michael Sullivan, recently widowed Irish mob enforcer and dedicated father

The Midwest, Winter 1931

Film: Road to Perdition
Release Date: July 12, 2002
Director: Sam Mendes
Costume Designer: Albert Wolsky
Tailor: John David Ridge

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

“Natural law… sons were put on this earth to trouble their fathers,” avuncular mob boss John Rooney (Paul Newman) advises his top enforcer Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks) at a time that both men are facing crises with their respective sons.

Father’s Day feels like the appropriate time to celebrate the style from this unorthodox role for America’s Dad. Tom Hanks pivoted from a career built on playing affable heroes and everymen to a dangerous Depression-era mob hitman in Road to Perdition, Sam Mendes’ 2002 drama adapted by screenwriter David Self from a graphic novel series of the same name by Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Rayner. Continue reading →

Warren Beatty’s Brown Trucker Jacket in The Parallax View

Warren Beatty as Joe Frady in The Parallax View (1974)

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Warren Beatty as Joe Frady, maverick political reporter

Seattle and Los Angeles, Spring 1974

Film: The Parallax View
Release Date: June 14, 1974
Director: Alan J. Pakula
Costume Designer: Frank L. Thompson

Background

The Parallax View was released 50 years ago today on Flag Day 1974—an appropriate observance for this second of Alan J. Pakula’s trio of politically themed paranoid thrillers that also included Klute (1971) and All the President’s Men (1976).

Warren Beatty provides one of the arguably best performances of his career as Joe Frady, an investigative reporter for an Oregon newspaper who is tipped to a deadly political conspiracy by ex-girlfriend Lee Carter (Paula Prentiss) shortly before she too died under questionable circumstances attributed to a drug overdose. At a time when, in Joe’s words, “every time you turned around, some nut was knockin’ off one of the best men in the country,” Lee witnessed the assassination of a presidential hopeful three years earlier. Continue reading →

The Newton Boys: Dock Newton’s Gray Morning Coat

Vincent D’Onofrio as Dock Newton in The Newton Boys (1998)

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Vincent D’Onofrio as Wylie “Dock” Newton, ex-convict and outlaw

Toronto, Summer 1923

Film: The Newton Boys
Release Date: March 27, 1998
Director: Richard Linklater
Costume Designer: Shelley Komarov

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

One hundred years ago tomorrow on June 12, 1924, the notorious Newton brothers gang committed their last* holdup after a wildly successful five-year spree that robbed at least 80 banks across ten states, about half of these in their home state of Texas where brothers Willis, Jess, Joe, and “Dock” Newton were born in Uvalde.

“If there are any bank robbers you’d want as family members, it would be the Newton Boys,” writes Duane Swiercyznski in his volume This Here’s a Stick-Up: The Big Bad Book of American Bank Robbery, in which he describes the group as “unfailingly polite, nonviolent, and professional heisters.”

In addition to their preference for courtesy over cruelty, the brothers attributed their success to initially sticking to less risky nighttime robberies targeting specific old-fashioned safes that could be more easily blown open with nitroglycerin. It was only when departing from this formula that the Newtons encountered real trouble, such as their impulsive attempt to rob daylight messengers of the Imperial Bank of Canada in July 1923… which netted C$84,000 but broke the gang’s avoidance of violence when four guards were shot and wounded.

Just under a year later, the Newtons again should have stuck to their formula rather than agreeing to what would be one of the last—but biggest—train robberies in American history. On the evening of June 12, 1924, the Newtons joined a group of professional criminals in the attempted robbery of R.P.O. train 57 outside Rondout, Illinois, about forty miles up the Lake Michigan coast from Chicago.

“Ain’t this a helluva way to make a living?” Jess reportedly joked to the conductor, whose nerves at being robbed—even by the generally nonviolent Newtons—resulted in him failing to stop the train where the bandits expected. In the subsequent confusion and darkness, one of the outsiders recruited into the job mistook Dock for one of the guards and opened fire. Continue reading →

The Godfather Part II: Don Fanucci’s White Suit

Gastone Moschin as Don Fanucci in The Godfather Part II (1974)

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Gastone Moschin as Don Fanucci, ruthless Black Hand extortionist

New York City, Summer 1917

Film: The Godfather Part II
Release Date: December 12, 1974
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Costume Designer: Theadora Van Runkle

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Born 95 years ago today on June 8, 1929, Italian actor Gastone Moschin may be most recognizable to audiences around the world for his portrayal of the sinister Don Fanucci in The Godfather, Part II (1974), celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

Genco Abbandando (Frank Sivero) introduces the young Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro)—and we the audience—to the sneering white-suited gangster as an enforcer for the “Black Hand”, the real-life extortion racket which preyed upon Italian-American immigrants in communities along the eastern seaboard from Boston to New Orleans, where it was linked to the 1890 assassination of police chief David Hennessy.

The Black Hand operated primarily within the United States around the turn of the 20th century, violently threatening victims who ranged from simple shopkeepers to celebrities like tenor Enrico Caruso, who enlisted the help of crusading NYPD Lieutenant Joseph Petrosino. Though Petrosino arrested two men connected with the Caruso threats, he himself would become a victim of Mano Nera when he was fatally shot in March 1909 while undercover in Sicily, investigating the history of brutal criminals he hoped to banish from the United States. The Petrosino murder increased pressure from law enforcement that all but dissolved the Black Hand’s influence by the 1920s, around the time that Prohibition provided the opportunity for younger and more ambitious crooks like “Lucky” Luciano to organize the former Black Hand threads into a structure known alternately as La Cosa Nostra (“Our Thing”) or simply Mafia.

One of the most prominent Black Hand gangsters of this era was the Sicilian-born Ignazio Lupo, known as “Lupo the Wolf” among the neighborhoods he terrorized in New York City’s Little Italy. Lupo was reportedly a direct inspiration for Mario Puzo to craft the character of Don Fanucci who first appeared in the 1969 novel The Godfather before he would be brought to life by Gastone Moschin in the cinematic sequel. Continue reading →