Cagney’s Corduroy Jacket in White Heat

James Cagney in White Heat (1949)

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

Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, Fall 1949

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

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

One hundred years ago this week, brothers Ray, Roy, and Hugh DeAutremont attempted to rob a Southern Pacific Railroad “San Francisco Express” as it sped through the Siskiyou Mountains of the Pacific Northwest. Panicking when the heist didn’t go according to plan, the three brothers murdered four employees on the train and were forced to flee empty-handed. Famous forensic criminologist Edward Heinrich’s investigation eventually identified the DeAutremont brothers as the perpetrators, and the trio were captured after a four-year manhunt.

The “Siskiyou Massacre” of October 11, 1923 formed the basis for the opening scene in Raoul Walsh’s 1949 noir thriller White Heat, one of the great gangster movies of all time that returned James Cagney to the genre that made him famous. Continue reading →

Never Say Never Again: Bond’s Cream Tropical Suit

Sean Connery as James Bond in Never Say Never Again (1983)

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Sean Connery as James Bond, sophisticated secret agent

Nassau, Bahamas, Spring 1983

Film: Never Say Never Again
Release Date: October 7, 1983
Director: Irvin Kershner
Costume Designer: Charles Knode
Tailor: Douglas Hayward

Background

The “Battle of the Bonds” commenced 40 years ago today when Never Say Never Again premiered on the 00-7th of October 1983. Produced by Jack Schwartzman’s Taliafilm, the movie was essentially a reimagining of Thunderball (1965), in which a weathered but game Sean Connery reprised his iconic role of James Bond… but without the official oversight of Eon Productions.

As I’ll be jetting off to a tropical environment this weekend, it feels appropriate to look at one of Bond’s sartorial highlights from this “unofficial” adventure, worn as Connery’s 007 makes some initial contacts upon landing in the Bahamas for his mission to investigate a missing nuclear warhead. (His lodgings are the historic British Colonial Hotel, which had to close during the COVID-19 pandemic but has been extensively renovated and is planned to reopen by the end of the year!) Continue reading →

Stacy Keach’s Trucker Jacket in Roadgames

Stacy Keach in Roadgames (1981)

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Stacy Keach as Pat Quid, energetic American trucker and Navy veteran

Southern Australia, Spring 1980

Film: Roadgames
Release Date: June 26, 1981
Director: Richard Franklin
Costume Designer: Aphrodite Kondos

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

10-4, good buddy! For reasons obvious to anyone even remotely familiar with CB lingo, October 4th is annually celebrated as National Truckers Appreciation Day so today’s post hits the open road with Stacy Keach in the 1981 Ozploitation thriller Roadgames. Continue reading →

Harvey Keitel’s Navy Chalkstripe Suit in Mean Streets

Harvey Keitel in Mean Streets (1973)

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Harvey Keitel as Charlie Cappa, conflicted Mafia associate

New York, Fall 1972

Film: Mean Streets
Release Date: October 14, 1973
Director: Martin Scorsese
Wardrobe Credit: Norman Salling

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

You don’t make up for your sins in the church. You do it in the streets. The rest is bullshit and you know it.

This month marks the 50th anniversary of Mean Streets, Martin Scorsese’s breakthrough film that premiered today in 1972 during the New York Film Festival, twelve days before it was widely released.

Though arguably the first of his movies to include many of his now-familiar themes and techniques, Mean Streets was actually Scorsese’s third film, following his debut Who’s That Knocking On My Door? (1967) and Boxcar Bertha (1972), the latter one of the low-budget Depression-era crime flicks produced by Roger Corman’s American International Pictures in the wake of the successful Bonnie and Clyde (1967).

Following John Cassavetes’ encouragement to “write what you know” and incorporate more of his own experiences onto the screen, Scorsese reintroduced himself to the world with the remarkable Mean Streets—essentially his own retelling of I Vitelloni (1953) set among the mobbed-up mooks in Little Italy—viewed through the same unapologetically gritty lens that Scorsese would return to three years later in Taxi Driver (1976).

Unlike the then-recent hit The Godfather (1972), Mean Streets focused not on the dons leading these crime families but rather the street-level hoods whose lives are defined by small-time scores, gambling debts, and long nights. Reuniting with Scorsese after appearing in his directorial debut, Harvey Keitel stars as Mean Streets‘ ostensible protagonist Charlie Cappa. Continue reading →

Magnum, P.I.: Black Star Orchid Aloha Shirt

Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum on Magnum, P.I., Episode 1.17: “J. ‘Digger’ Doyle”

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

Hawaii, Summer 1981

Series: Magnum, P.I.
Episodes:
– “No Need to Know” (Episode 1.05, dir. Lawrence Doheny, aired 1/8/1981)
– “All Roads Lead to Floyd” (Episode 1.13, dir. Ron Satlof, aired 3/12/1980)
– “J. ‘Digger’ Doyle” (Episode 1.17, dir. Winrich Kolbe, aired 4/9/1981)
Creator: Donald P. Bellisario & Glen Larson
Costume Designer: Charles Waldo (credited with first season only)
Costume Supervisor: James Gilmore

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Today is the end of Hawaiian History Month as well as one week before my first-ever trip to the Aloha State, so let’s return to the Paradise of the Pacific via the aloha style frequently worn by Tom Selleck in Magnum, P.I.

As established from the beginning of the series, Magnum is a private investigator and former Navy SEAL who exchanges his security expertise for his cushy dwellings in the guesthouse of enigmatic author Robin Masters’ lush Oahu estate. Taking cases as they suit him, speeding around the island in Masters’ red Ferrari, and working with old war pals T.C. (Roger E. Mosley) and Rick (Larry Manetti), the only drawback to Magnum’s lifestyle are the limitations imposed by Masters’ strict majordomo Jonathan Quayle Higgins III (John Hillerman)… though even Magnum can often work his charm and trade favors for Higgins to earn a few extra perks—like access to Masters’ wine cellar.

Magnum’s wardrobe blends preppy staples of the ’80s, military-inspired garb, and the floral shirts associated with the Hawaiian islands—a contrast to the previous major Hawaiian-set series, Hawaii Five-O, where Jack Lord’s cop character Steve McGarrett regularly wore conservative suits and ties. On the other hand, Magnum embraces dressing casually at every opportunity, even wearing jeans when he’s forced to borrow a dinner jacket for the evening in “No Need to Know” (Episode 1.05).

This episode is the first to feature the black colorway of Magnum’s “Star Orchid”-printed aloha shirt, a variation of the green Star Orchid shirt that appears multiple times throughout the first three seasons. Continue reading →

The Big Chill: William Hurt’s Tan Corduroy Jacket

William Hurt in The Big Chill (1983)

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William Hurt as Nick Carlton, former radio psychologist and war veteran

Beaufort, South Carolina, Fall 1983

Film: The Big Chill
Release Date: September 28, 1983
Director: Lawrence Kasdan
Costume Designer: April Ferry

Background

Today is the 40th anniversary of the release of The Big Chill, Lawrence Kasdan’s 1983 comedy-drama centered around seven friends from college (played by Tom Berenger, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Mary Kay Place, and JoBeth Williams) who reunite after more than a decade for the funeral of a fellow UMich alum who committed suicide.

Scored by the rock and R&B hits from their late ’60s college heyday, the movie focuses on the ennui of adulthood as this handful of baby boomers are forced to reconcile their current realities with the idealistic visions they had for their future when they were young, energetic, and relatively free of responsibility.

It was easy back then, no one ever had a cushier berth than we did… it’s only out here in the world that it gets tough.

Continue reading →

A Bronx Tale: Sonny’s Gray Silk Jacket

Chazz Palminteri in A Bronx Tale (1993)

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Chazz Palminteri as Sonny LoSpecchio, local mob capo

The Bronx, New York, Fall 1960

Film: A Bronx Tale
Release Date: September 29, 1993
Director: Robert De Niro
Costume Designer: Rita Ryack

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Thirty years ago this week, A Bronx Tale was released in theaters across the United States, two weeks after it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. This mobbed-up coming-of-age story was adapted from Chazz Palminteri’s autobiographical one-man show of the same name, recalling Palminteri’s own childhood experiences growing up in the Bronx during the 1960s. Continue reading →

Asteroid City: Jason Schwartzman’s Safari Jacket

Jason Schwartzman as Augie Steenbeck in Asteroid City (2023)

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Jason Schwartzman as Augie Steenbeck, widowed war photojournalist (portrayed in-universe by Jones Hall)

The Mojave Desert, Fall 1955

Film: Asteroid City
Release Date: June 16, 2023
Director: Wes Anderson
Costume Designer: Milena Canonero

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

“Each year, we celebrate Asteroid Day, commemorating September 23, 3007 B.C., when the Arid Plains Meteorite made Earth impact,” General Grif Gibson (Jeffrey Wright) explains to the gathered crowd of Junior Stargazers and Space Cadets and their parents in Asteroid City, the latest from Wes Anderson—a colorful reflection of grief and loneliness in a delightfully surreal “cosmic wilderness”.

Vividly photographed in Anderson’s signature style, Asteroid City centers around a fictional play staged for live television in the 1950s, scored by a great early ’50s guitar soundtrack featuring contemporary hits by Les Paul & Mary Ford and cowboy singers like Slim Whitman and Tennessee Ernie Ford as well as Alexandre Desplat’s evocative original score. The play is set in a fictional town of 87 dwellers, located approximately “halfway between Parched Gulf and Arid Plains” near a nuclear testing site in the California/Arizona/Nevada region, according to the opening lines of playwright Conrad Earp (Edward Norton).

The ostensible protagonist among our ensemble cast is the Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman), a jaded war photojournalist and—initially unbeknownst to his “brainiac” son Woodrow (Jake Ryan) and three younger daughters that he’s traveling with—a recent widow. “Let’s say she’s in Heaven… which doesn’t exist for me, of course, but you’re Episcopalian,” Augie reassures his children while grasping their mother’s ashes in a teal Tupperware bowl. Continue reading →

Hawaii Five-O, Episode 1: Jack Lord’s Slate Suit

Jack Lord as Steve McGarrett on Hawaii Five-O (Episode 1.01: “Cocoon”)

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Jack Lord and Steve McGarrett, Hawaii state police “Five-O” task force commander

Honolulu, Fall 1967

Series: Hawaii Five-O
Episode: “Cocoon” (Episode 1.01)
Air Date: September 20, 1968
Director: Paul Wendkos
Creator: Leonard Freeman
Costume Designer: Richard Egan

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Book ’em, Danno! Today is the 55th anniversary of when the original Hawaii Five-O series premiered with the TV movie “Cocoon” on Friday, September 20, 1968. Conceptualized by creator Leonard Freeman, Hawaii Five-O set new records for TV longevity by lasting twelve seasons, all of which were almost entirely set and filmed in the Hawaiian islands.

The series centers around the Five-O Task Force, a fictional state police agency commanded by Detective Captain Steve McGarrett, who reports directly to the governor. Despite the pivotal role, McGarrett wasn’t cast until less than a week before filming began when Freeman called on Jack Lord. Continue reading →

Boogie Nights: Burt Reynolds’ Red Finale Safari Suit

Burt Reynolds as Jack Horner in Boogie Nights (1997)

Vitals

Burt Reynolds as Jack Horner, avuncular adult film director

San Fernando Valley, California, Summer 1984

Film: Boogie Nights
Release Date: October 10, 1997
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Costume Designer: Mark Bridges

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Although the film contains very little that I can personally relate to (other than, perhaps, margarita-fueled arguments about Star Wars), the end of Boogie Nights has always reminded me of the end of summer.

Set just before dusk on a June night in the San Fernando Valley, the finale is comprised of just two long shots: one following pornographer Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds) through the hallowed halls of his MCM dream house, and the movie’s iconic final shot that finally reveals Dirk Diggler’s much-discussed money maker to the audience. Continue reading →