The Menswear of Clue

Film: Clue
Release Date: December 13, 1985
Director: Jonathan Lynn
Costume Designer: Michael Kaplan

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Today marks the 40th anniversary since the release of Clue, which overcame an underwhelming initial release to become perhaps the most successful cinematic adaptation of a board game. The Parker Brothers classic formed the foundation for John Landis and Jonathan Lynn’s zany murder mystery, framed against the backdrop of the post-World War II “Red Scare” though, ultimately, communism was just a red herring.

Clue was released with three separate endings (a fourth was dropped during production), intended to be varied at each showing. In addition to reflecting the spirit of the original game, Landis had hoped that multiple endings would bring audiences back for multiple showings, but the gimmick unfortunately backfired as the public. It wasn’t until Clue was released to home video with all three endings presented sequentially that it gained a cult following.

Tim Curry, Lesley Ann Warren, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Martin Mull, Michael McKean, and Eileen Brennan in Clue (1985)

The movie is set over a rainy New England night in June 1954, as the game’s six colorfully named suspects—Mr. Green (Michael McKean), Colonel Mustard (Martin Mull), Mrs. Peacock (Eileen Brennan), Professor Plum (Christopher Lloyd), Miss Scarlet (Lesley Ann Warren), and Mrs. White (Madeline Kahn)—are summoned to dinner at the foreboding Hill House mansion, where each are greeted by the butler Wadsworth (Tim Curry). Continue reading →

My Night at Maud’s: Jean-Louis Trintignant’s Sheepskin Jacket

Jean-Louis Trintignant in My Night at Maud’s (1969)

Vitals

Jean-Louis Trintignant as Jean-Louis, serious-minded engineer and conflicted Catholic

Clermont-Ferrand, France, Christmas 1968

Film: My Night at Maud’s
(French title: Ma nuit chez Maud)
Release Date: June 4, 1969
Director: Éric Rohmer

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Considered one of the best French actors of the post-war era, the late Jean-Louis Trintignant was born 95 years ago today on December 11, 1930. Trintignant worked with many prolific directors but his sole collaboration with Éric Rohmer was the Nouvelle Vague drama My Night at Maud’s—the fourth-released of Rohmer’s “Six Moral Tales”.

My Night at Maud’s premiered at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival and would be nominated for two Academy Awards. Trintignant portrays the ambitious engineer Jean-Louis, deeply in love with the young biology student Françoise (Marie-Christine Barrault) he has seen at his church, until just before Christmas when his friend Vidal (Antoine Vitez) introduces him to the eponymous Maud (Françoise Fabian). The night of their first meeting features intense discussions ranging from ethics to existence until, at Maud’s existence, Jean-Louis spends an awkward—and initially platonic—night in her bed, acting only on his newfound attraction by kissing her before he leaves in the morning.

Through their subsequent interactions, Jean-Louis’ faith conflicts with his growing attraction to the outspoken, divorced atheist as he and Maud recognize the tragic unlikelihood of lasting love between them. Continue reading →

Salt and Pepper: Sammy Davis Jr. in Green Suede

Sammy Davis Jr. in Salt and Pepper (1968)

Vitals

Sammy Davis Jr. as Charles Salt, nightclub singer and co-owner

London, Spring 1968

Film: Salt and Pepper
Release Date: June 21, 1968
Director: Richard Donner
Costume Designer: Cynthia Tingey
Tailor: Charles Glenn

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Multi-talented entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. was born 100 years ago today on December 8, 1925. Davis started performing on stage at only three years old when he joined his father and godfather in a touring act named after the latter: the Will Mastin Trio. After serving in the Army during World War II and maintaining his stardom through the ’50s, Davis developed an informal but enduring association with fellow entertainers Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford that has become immortalized as the “Rat Pack”. (It was reportedly at Davis’ insistence that Sinatra changed the group’s initial name from “the Clan” to “the Summit”.)

The Rat Pack’s heyday was through the early 1960s, consisting primarily of stage shows and feature films like Ocean’s 11 (1960), playing a group of Army vets teaming up to rob five Vegas casinos. But as Dino’s character declares in that flick, “old times are only good when you’ve had ’em,” and the group’s cultural domination began to sizzle within a few short years. Sinatra had spent a small fortune to renovate part of his Palm Springs estate in anticipation of a visit from Lawford’s brother-in-law—who happened to be then-President John F. Kennedy—until Attorney General RFK advised his brother to limit his association with the mob-connected Ol’ Blue Eyes… so both JFK’s visit and Lawford’s upcoming role in 4 for Texas went to Bing Crosby instead.

Ever the diplomat, Davis maintained professional ties with Lawford as the two pallies starred in three more films through the end of the ’60s, adapting their Rat Pack personas to the times in Salt and Pepper (1968) and the Jerry Lewis-directed sequel, One More Time (1970).

Salt and Pepper was the second film directed by Richard Donner, who would more successfully revisit the black-and-white buddy comedy subgenre two decades later with the Lethal Weapon series. Davis and Lawford play swingin’ London nightclub operators-turned-spies Charlie Salt and Christopher Pepper, respectively, who uncover a plot to overthrow the British government. Continue reading →

Marriage on the Rocks: Dino’s Red Sweater and Green Slacks

Dean Martin in Marriage on the Rocks (1965)

Vitals

Dean Martin as Ernie Brewer, playboy advertising executive

Los Angeles, Fall 1965

Film: Marriage on the Rocks
Release Date: September 24, 1965
Director: Jack Donohue
Costume Designer: Walter Plunkett

Background

As we’re gliding through December, my playlist is increasingly loaded with Christmas classics—often sung by the great mid-century entertainers like Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, and Rat Pack icons Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.

After the Rat Pack’s heyday in the early ’60s had all but ended, the latter two pallies co-starred in Marriage on the Rocks, released sixty years ago in September 1965 amidst their career highs that included Sinatra recording September of My Years and appearing in an Emmy-winning documentary about his life and career, while Martin had just debuted his long-running variety show on NBC after knocking the Beatles from the top of the charts with “Everybody Loves Somebody”. Continue reading →

Hell or High Water: Jeff Bridges’ Texas Ranger Western-wear

Jeff Bridges in Hell or High Water (2016)

Vitals

Jeff Bridges as Marcus Hamilton, experienced Texas Ranger nearing retirement

West Texas, Summer 2016

Film: Hell or High Water
Release Date: August 12, 2016
Director: David Mackenzie
Costume Designer: Malgosia Turzanska

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

One of the best to ever do it, Jeff Bridges turns 76 today. Born December 4, 1949, the actor was born into a family of talent including his parents Lloyd and Dorothy and older brother Beau, but he established his own path when he received his first Academy Award nomination for The Last Picture Show, released two months before his 22nd birthday. Bridges’ seventh and latest Oscar nod recognized his more grizzled, elegiac performance in the Taylor Sheridan-penned neo-Western crime thriller, Hell or High Water. Continue reading →

Clark Griswold’s Christmas Tree-Hunting Parka and Sweater

Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)

Vitals

Chevy Chase as Clark W. Griswold Jr., festive family man and food additive executive

Chicago*, December 1989

Film: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
Release Date: December 1, 1989
Director: Jeremiah S. Chechik
Costume Designer: Michael Kaplan

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Let’s officially launch the Christmas season and continue this winter’s Car Week with the Griswold family in their “ol’ front-wheel-drive sleigh” in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, released 36 years ago today on December 1, 1989!

After the first two films took the Griswolds traveling across the United States and Europe, the family spends the holidays at home, where “the last true family man” Clark (Chevy Chase) and his wife Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo) are trying to spread yuletide cheer to their kids Audrey (Juliette Lewis) and Rusty (Johnny Galecki) with a snowy Saturday afternoon trek into the most mountainous region of rural Illinois* in search of “that most important of Christmas symbols.”

Audrey: We’re not driving all the way out here so you can get one of those stupid ties with the Santa Clauses on it, are we Dad?
Clark: No, I have one of those at home.

Rather than neckwear, the family is embracing the frosty majesty of the winter landscape to find the perfect tree that will anchor the “fun, old-fashioned family Christmas” envisioned by Clark, foregoing the pre-cut trees offered in Jolly Jerry’s lot to chop one down himself… despite forgetting a saw. Continue reading →

White Heat: James Cagney’s Chalkstripe Suits and 1949 Mercury

James Cagney with Margaret Wycherly in White Heat (1949)

Vitals

James Cagney as Arthur “Cody” Jarrett, ruthless gang leader and devoted son

Los Angeles, California and Springfield, Illinois, Fall 1949 to Spring 1950

Film: White Heat
Release Date: September 2, 1949
Director: Raoul Walsh
Wardrobe Credit: Leah Rhodes

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Closing out Noirvmber but speeding into this winter’s Car Week, Raoul Walsh’s hard-boiled 1949 masterpiece White Heat erupts at the intersection of film noir and the classic Warner Brothers gangster film, which its star James Cagney had a hand in pioneering through his roles in The Public Enemy (1931), Angeles with Dirty Faces (1938), and The Roaring Twenties (1939). The latter had been his final criminal role for nearly a decade, as he evolved toward romantic and comedic roles including his Academy Award-winning performance as George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942).

But as his subsequent movies were unsuccessful with audiences, Cagney reluctantly returned to both the cinematic underworld and Jack L. Warner’s kingdom when he signed on to play the volatile gang leader Cody Jarrett in White Heat. Virginia Kellogg’s story was loosely inspired by the myth surrounding the ill-fated “Ma” Barker and her sons during the Depression-era crime wave, purchased for $2,000 by Warner Bros., where Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts spent six months adapting into a fictional screenplay where—much to Jack Warner’s frustration—they only envisioned Cagney to play Cody.

Following a $300,000 mail train robbery in the Sierra Nevada mountains that left four crewmen dead, Cody leads his gang’s retreat from their mountain hideout, splitting off with his sultry wife Verna (Virginia Mayo) and domineering mother (Margaret Wycherly) to hole up in a motel on the outskirts of Los Angeles. We’ve already seen Ma’s powerful influence over her son, both supporting him when he has his mind-splitting migraines and gently suggesting that he execute a wounded gang member rather than take the chance he’ll talk.

When Ma risks a trip into town to buy Cody’s favorite strawberries for him, she picks up a police tail that has Cody again at the wheel of their Mercury to make their getaway. After a night-time police chase through the streets of L.A., Cody ducks the Mercury into a drive-in theater and develops his plan to take the fall for a hotel heist in Illinois that was the same day as their deadly train robbery, giving himself a 2,000-mile alibi:

While those hoodlums were killing those innocent people on the train, I was pushing in a hotel in Springfield! Couldn’t be in both places at once, could I?

Continue reading →

Bob Newhart’s Red Leisure Jacket on Thanksgiving

Bob Newhart as Dr. Bob Hartley in “Over the River and Through the Woods”, the fourth-season Thanksgiving-themed episode of The Bob Newhart Show.

Vitals

Bob Newhart as Robert Hartley, PhD, deadpan psychologist

Chicago, Thanksgiving 1975

Series: The Bob Newhart Show
Episode: “Over the River and Through the Woods” (Episode 4.11)
Air Date: November 22, 1975
Director: James Burrows
Created by: David Davis & Lorenzo Music
Men’s Costumes: Ralph T. Schlain
Clothes by: Botany 500

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

One of the most iconic Thanksgiving-themed TV episodes of all time aired fifty years ago this week: “Over the River and Through the Woods”, from the fourth season of The Bob Newhart Show, the 1970s sitcom starring Bob Newhart and Suzanne Pleshette as Chicago couple Robert and Emily Hartley.

The demands of a psychologist’s patients during the holidays keep Bob home in Chicago for Turkey Day, though he’s hardly remiss to be missing Emily’s family’s annual gala in Seattle that includes square dancing and skipping stones across Puget Sound. Come Thursday, Bob hosts his fellow “Thanksgiving orphans”: orthodontist and office-mate Dr. Jerry Robinson (Peter Bonerz) his airheaded next-door neighbor Howard Borden (Bill Daily), and his chronic patient Elliot F. Carlin (Jack Riley), who declares “you know you’re at a bad party when Elliot Carlin is the happiest man in the room.” Continue reading →

The Amityville Horror: James Brolin’s Corduroy Jacket and Cargo Pants

James Brolin and Margot Kidder in The Amityville Horror (1979)

Vitals

James Brolin as George Lutz, surveyor and stepdad

Long Island, New York, Fall 1975

Film: The Amityville Horror
Release Date: July 27, 1979
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Men’s Costumes: Richard Butz

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Fifty years ago next month, George Lutz and his family moved into 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville on the south shore of Long Island. Amity, as you know, means friendship (as the mayor in Jaws has made clear), but there’s nothing friendly about the paranormal activity that drove the Lutz family from that Dutch Colonial Revival house after only 28 days.

Though the veracity of the events have been called into question (and, I believe, generally debunked), they remain in the forefront of public consciousness thanks to Jay Anson’s 1977 book The Amityville Horror and its subsequent film adaptations—the best-known and best-regarded of which being the 1979 horror thriller of the same name starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder as George and Kathy Lutz. Continue reading →

Mads Mikkelsen’s Dark Dance Suit in Another Round (Druk)

Mads Mikkelsen in Druk (Another Round) (2020)

Vitals

Mads Mikkelsen as Martin, inebriated history teacher

Copenhagen, Spring 2020

Film: Another Round
(Danish title: Druk)
Release Date: September 24, 2020
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Costume Design: Ellen Lens & Manon Rasmussen

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Happy 60th birthday to Mads Mikkelsen! Born November 22, 1965, the Danish actor rose to global prominence for his performance as the villainous Le Chiffre in the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale and as the title character on NBC’s Hannibal, though his most celebrated performance may be as the depressed schoolteacher Martin in Thomas Vinterberg’s 2020 comedy-drama Another Round—originally released in Denmark as Druk and honored in the United States with the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. Continue reading →