The Wicker Man: Christopher Lee’s Tweed Suit

Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man (1973)

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Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle, charismatic pagan cult leader

The Hebrides, Scotland, Spring 1973

Film: The Wicker Man
Release Date: December 6, 1973
Director: Robin Hardy
Costume Designer: Sue Yelland

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Happy Halloween! This year marks the 50th anniversary of The Wicker Man, Robin Hardy’s Scottish-set drama that helped define the folk horror subgenre.

After more than a decade portraying the debonair yet dangerous Count Dracula in a half-dozen Hammer films, Christopher Lee met with screenwriter Anthony Shaffer in 1971 to discuss collaborating on a more unique type of horror. Shaffer’s subsequent conversations with director Robin Hardy centered their focus on old religion, like the practices depicted in David Pinner’s 1967 novel Ritual, which Shaffer set out to adapting into what would become The Wicker Man.

The Wicker Man follows the devout and unimaginative police sergeant Neil Howie (Edward Woodward) to the remote island of Summerisle in the Hebrides, facing polite but firm resistance as he investigates a young girl’s disappearance leading up to the island’s annual May Day celebrations. Howie’s investigations direct him to the island’s much-discussed leader, the mannered Lord Summerisle who describes himself to Howie as “a heathen, conceivably, but not—I hope—an unenlightened one.” Continue reading →

Bell, Book and Candle: James Stewart’s Stone Suit

James Stewart in Bell, Book and Candle (1958)

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James Stewart as Shepherd “Shep” Henderson, bewitched publisher

New York City, Spring 1958

Film: Bell, Book and Candle
Release Date: November 11, 1958
Director: Richard Quine
Wardrobe Credit: Ed Ware

Background

Not every Halloween-season movie has to be scary! In time for October 29 being National Cat Day, dig your claws into Bell, Book and Candle, Richard Quine’s lighthearted supernatural romance that reunited Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak just months after their iconic screen pairing in Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller Vertigo.

I’ll admit that Bell, Book and Candle may not be my favorite from Stewart, Novak, Quine, or screenwriter Daniel Taradash, but this bewitching comedy still offers plenty of atmospheric fun and camp between the two stars… and Novak’s magical Siamese cat Pyewacket. Continue reading →

When Harry Met Sally: Harry’s Cream Cable-Knit Sweater

Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally (1989)

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Billy Crystal as Harry Burns, sarcastic political consultant and recent divorcée

New York City, Fall 1987

Film: When Harry Met Sally…
Release Date: July 14, 1989
Director: Rob Reiner
Costume Designer: Gloria Gresham

Background

As October advances deeper into colder weather, today’s post celebrates the enduring knitwear selected by costume designer Gloria Gresham for fall style icon Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally.

Though he only wears it for two brief scenes in Rob Reiner’s 1989 romantic comedy, Harry Burns’ cream-colored cable-knit sweater remains a cultural touchpoint even nearly 35 years later. Continue reading →

Richard Roundtree’s Black Leather as Shaft

Richard Roundtree as John Shaft in Shaft (1971)

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Richard Roundtree as John Shaft, tough private detective

New York City, Winter 1971 and 1972

Film: Shaft
Release Date: June 25, 1971
Director: Gordon Parks
Costume Designer: Joseph G. Aulisi

Film: Shaft’s Big Score!
Release Date: June 21, 1972
Director: Gordon Parks
Costume Designer: Joseph G. Aulisi

Background

R.I.P. Richard Roundtree (1942-2023), who shot to stardom in the early 1970s after making his iconic screen debut as the eponymous detective in Shaft. Continue reading →

Get Out: Chris’ Blue Denim Neckband Shirt

Daniel Kaluuya as Chris Washington in Get Out (2017)

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Daniel Kaluuya as Chris Washington, Brooklyn photographer

Upstate New York, Spring 2016

Film: Get Out
Release Date: February 24, 2017
Director: Jordan Peele
Costume Designer: Nadine Haders

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

As today (October 23) has been newly declared National Horror Movie Day, today’s post looks at one of my recent favorites of the genre, the 2017 psychological thriller Get Out.

Filmed in only 23 days from his own Oscar-winning original screenplay, Jordan Peele’s directorial debut follows Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya), a levelheaded black photographer from Brooklyn who accompanies his new girlfriend Rose Armitage (Allison Williams) upstate to meet her family for the first time. Continue reading →

Bela Lugosi as Dracula

Bela Lugosi in Dracula (1931)

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Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula, debonair vampire

Transylvania to London, Spring 1930

Film: Dracula
Release Date: February 14, 1931
Director: Tod Browning
Costume Design: Ed Ware & Vera West (uncredited)

Background

With Halloween less than two weeks away, embrace spooky season through Bela Lugosi’s iconic performance as Count Dracula in Tod Browning’s 1931 Universal horror classic Dracula. Continue reading →

The Way We Were: Robert Redford’s Navy CPO Shirt

Robert Redford as Hubbell Gardiner in The Way We Were (1973)

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Robert Redford as Hubbell Gardiner, Hollywood screenwriter and Navy veteran

Malibu, California, Fall 1947 through Spring 1948

Film: The Way We Were
Release Date: October 19, 1973
Director: Sydney Pollack
Costume Design: Dorothy Jeakins & Moss Mabry

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

This week marks the 50th anniversary of The Way We Were, released October 19, 1973. Adapted by Arthur Laurents from his own novel of the same name, the story follows the privileged and carefree Hubbell Gardiner (Robert Redford) and politically driven Katie Morosky (Barbra Streisand) through a decade of their on-and-off romance.

After a contentious and unrequited flirtation while at the same college in the late 1930s, Hubbell and Katie reunite by chance during the latter years of World War II, when Hubbell is serving in the U.S. Navy. Despite some early tumultuousness, the two gently compromise their differing personalities and enter a relationship that continues after the war and through the Red Scare of the late ’40s. The growing paranoia of McCarthyism—and Katie’s reignited activism in response—threatens their livelihood as Hubbell is working as a Hollywood screenwriter. Continue reading →

Lone Starr in Spaceballs

Bill Pullman as Lone Starr in Spaceballs (1987)

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Bill Pullman as Lone Starr, cynical “hero for hire”

“Once upon a time warp… in a galaxy very, very, very, very far away…”

Film: Spaceballs
Release Date: June 24, 1987
Director: Mel Brooks
Costume Designer: Donfeld (Donald Lee Feld)

Background

Spaceballs was my first exposure to Mel Brooks, having appealed to my being a Star Wars fan through my childhood. Of course, as I was nine years old the first time I watched Spaceballs, many of the meta humor and more mature-minded jokes went straight over my head, but I still thought it was one of the funniest things I’d ever seen. More than two decades later, it’s still a fun watch, as this peerless master of modern comedy riffs on far more than just what had been my favorite sci-fi franchise.

Continuing the Star Wars parallels, Spaceballs merges Han Solo’s persona with Luke Skywalker’s folklore into one character, the swaggering space cowboy Lone Starr (Bill Pullman), traversing the galaxy in his Winnebago spaceship with his loyal half-canine sidekick Barf (John Candy).

The duo are recruited by the desperate King Roland of Druidia (Dick Van Patten) to save his daughter Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) and her gilt droid-of-honor Dot Matrix (Joan Rivers) from the clutches of the evil Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis), who also turns out to be Lone Starr’s father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate. The adventure becomes a life-changing journey for Lone Starr as he learns how to harness the mysterious power of “the Schwartz”. Continue reading →

The Last Detail: Jack Nicholson’s Navy Crackerjack Uniform and Pea Coat

Jack Nicholson in The Last Detail (1973)

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Jack Nicholson as Billy L. “Badass” Buddusky, brash U.S. Navy Signalman 1st Class

Norfolk, Virginia, to Portsmouth Naval Prison, December 1972

Film: The Last Detail
Release Date: December 12, 1973
Director: Hal Ashby
Costume Designer: Theodore R. Parvin

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

On the “birthday” of the U.S. Navy, founded October 13, 1775, check out Cracker Jack Nicholson’s uniform in The Last Detail—released 50 years ago this December.

In the spirit of today also being Friday the 13th, The Last Detail chronicles the story of unlucky Larry Meadows (Randy Quaid), a glum kleptomaniac seaman being transferred to a military prison. The profane Navy lifer Billy Buddusky (Jack Nicholson) and his more even-tempered colleague Richard “Mule” Mulhall (Otis Young) are tasked with accompanying Larry from the Norfolk Naval Investigative Service Office headquarters (“Shit City”) up to Portsmouth Naval Prison, where Larry has been sentenced to an eight-year stretch for the attempted theft of no more than $40 from a polio charity box.

The profane Navy lifer Buddusky conspires with Mule to make the most of their “shit detail”, stretching a two-day trip out to its full allotted week so unlucky Larry can live it up along the way with burgers, beer, and broads. Continue reading →

The Twilight Zone: William Shatner’s Suit for a Nightmarish Plane Ride

In honor of the 60th anniversary of this iconic episode, today’s post is the third to be written by the curator of the popular Instagram account @jamesbondswardrobe. Enjoy!

William Shatner and Nick Cravat filming The Twilight Zone episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” (Episode 5.03)

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William Shatner as Robert Wilson, paranoid middle-aged “husband, father and salesman on sick leave”

Aboard a Gold Star Airways flight across the United States, Fall 1963

Series: The Twilight Zone
Episode: “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” (Episode 5.03)
Air Date: October 11, 1963
Director: Richard Donner
Costume Designer: Mitchell Leisen

Background

Portrait of a frightened man: Mr. Robert Wilson—thirty-seven, husband, father and salesman on sick leave. Mr. Wilson has just been discharged from a sanitarium where he spent the last six months recovering from a nervous breakdown, the onset of which took place on an evening not dissimilar to this one, on an airliner very much like the one in which Mr. Wilson is about to be flown home—the difference being that, on that evening half a year ago, Mr. Wilson’s flight was terminated by the onslaught of his mental breakdown. Tonight, he’s traveling all the way to his appointed destination, which, contrary to Mr. Wilson’s plan, happens to be in the darkest corner of the Twilight Zone.

Yep, not much more background is needed than that—thanks, Rod Serling! Our “hero”, played by the legendary William Shatner, nestles in for what should be an uneventful plane ride home. If we learned anything from the likes of Don Draper and Pete Campbell, dressing for air travel in the sixties meant wearing your regular business duds. Loafers hadn’t yet become the de facto footwear to have on when boarding a plane, and men “dressing for comfort” seemingly translated to them just wearing a more comfortable suit. Continue reading →