Tagged: 1930s
Bonnie and Clyde: Michael J. Pollard’s Type I Denim Jacket as C.W. Moss
Michael J. Pollard as C.W. Moss in Bonnie & Clyde (1967)
Vitals
Michael J. Pollard as C.W. Moss, slow-witted mechanic-turned-bank robber
Texas to Missouri, Spring 1933
Film: Bonnie & Clyde
Release Date: August 13, 1967
Director: Arthur Penn
Costume Designer: Theadora Van Runkle
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
My last post centered around one of the many quick-and-dirty Depression-set crime films released in the wake of Bonnie & Clyde‘s popularity, so let’s refocus today’s sartorial attention back on the groundbreaking 1967 drama that started it all. Starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty (who also produced the film), Bonnie & Clyde fictionalized the exploits of real-life Texas outlaws Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, whose two-year crime spree of mostly unprofitable robberies left a trail of at least twelve dead lawmen and civilians until they were ultimately killed by law enforcement in May 1934.
Robert Benton and David Newman’s Academy Award-nominated screenplay emphasized the twenty-something couple’s youth, capitalizing on the prevailing countercultural sentiment of the late 1960s in the stylized spirit of French New Wave cinema. Presumably even younger than Bonnie or Clyde is their first on-screen accomplice: small-town gas station attendant C.W. Moss (Michael J. Pollard), whose simplicity often suggests excessive exposure to fuel fumes. Moss served as a composite for several real-life associates of the gang, specifically eventual turncoat Henry Methvin and Dallas teenager W.D. “Deacon” Jones.
Born 110 years ago today on May 12, 1916, Jones was only 16 years old when the 23-year-old Clyde and 22-year-old Bonnie recruited him into their scrappy band on Christmas Eve 1932. After a car theft gone wrong resulted in the murder of Temple, Texas family man Doyle Johnson the next day, Jones became inextricably linked with the Barrow gang for more than a year until his eventual arrest in November 1933, six months before his more famous friends were gunned down in Louisiana. Continue reading
Robert De Niro’s Sweater Vest in Bloody Mama
Robert De Niro as Lloyd Barker in Bloody Mama (1970)
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Robert De Niro as Lloyd Barker, slow-witted bandit and junkie
Kentucky, Summer 1933
Film: Bloody Mama
Release Date: March 24, 1970
Director: Roger Corman
Wardrobe Credit: Thomas Costich
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Happy Mother’s Day! One of the more infamous mothers in criminal and cinematic history was Kate “Ma” Barker, whom FBI director J. Edgar Hoover posthumously bestowed with the reputation as the ruthless ruler of her sons’ Depression-era gang of killers and kidnappers… though the boys’ associate Harvey Bailey later scoffed that Ma “couldn’t plan breakfast,” let alone a criminal enterprise.
Still, Hoover’s PR smear persisted through decades with productions like an episode of The Untouchables starring Claire Trevor, Ma Barker’s Killer Brood (1960) starring Lurene Tuttle, Bloody Mama (1970) starring Shelley Winters, and Public Enemies (1996) starring Theresa Russell. (Note that the latter was a 1996 drama and not Michael Mann’s 2009 film of the same name which focused on John Dillinger’s gang, though it did feature Giovanni Ribisi in a limited role as Barker gang member Alvin “Creepy” Karpis.)
One of Robert De Niro’s earliest roles was among the ensemble cast of Bloody Mama, one of several 1930s-set exploitation movies produced by American International Pictures to cash in on the groundbreaking popularity of Bonnie and Clyde (1967). Interestingly, Bloody Mama flips the usual disclaimer by outwardly stating “Any similar to Kate Barker and her sons is intentional,” when—in fact—the movie shares very little in common with its real-life counterparts. Continue reading
Gary Cooper’s Patterned Sport Jacket and White Bucks in Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife
Gary Cooper photographed by William Richard Walling Jr. in 1937, dressed in the same costume he would wear in Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife (1938).
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Gary Cooper as Michael Brandon, millionaire industrialist
French Riviera, Summer 1937
Film: Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife
Release Date: March 23, 1938
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Costume Designer: Travis Banton
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Born 125 years ago today on May 7, 1901, Gary Cooper established a screen legacy through Oscar-winning performances in Sergeant York (1941) and High Noon (1952) in addition to being a well-regarded style icon throughout his career. The modern #menswear community frequently looks to Coop for inspiration, including the frequently shared portraits taken by William Richard Walling Jr., in 1937, dressed in the same uniquely patterned sport jacket, deco swirl tie, and rakish belt holding up pleated trousers that he wore as a costume in Ernst Lubitsch’s 1938 screwball comedy Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife. Continue reading
Death on the Nile: George Kennedy’s Brown Striped Sport Jacket
George Kennedy as Andrew Pennington in Death on the Nile (1978)
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George Kennedy as Andrew Pennington, crooked American lawyer
Egypt, September 1937
Film: Death on the Nile
Release Date: September 29, 1978
Director: John Guillermin
Costume Designer: Anthony Powell
Background
It seems like just yesterday that George Kennedy died at age 91 rocked my corner of Twitter for how so many obituaries eulogized him as a “beefy character actor,” and yet it’s been ten years since the Oscar winner’s death on February 28, 2016.
Kennedy rose to fame after his Academy Award-winning performance in Cool Hand Luke (1967) and was a mainstay of American cinema for decades, often playing tough guys or cops in movies like the Airport and Naked Gun franchises, though the first time I first saw the actor was in John Guillerman’s lavish, star-studded 1978 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Egyptian-set murder mystery Death on the Nile. Continue reading
Dillinger (1973): Ben Johnson’s Indigo Chalkstripe Suit as Melvin Purvis
Ben Johnson as Melvin Purvis in Dillinger (1973)
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Ben Johnson as Melvin Purvis, experienced federal agent
Northern Illinois, Winter 1933
Film: Dillinger
Release Date: July 20, 1973
Director: John Milius
Costume Designer: James M. George
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
The Depression-era desperado roundup of 1934 which eventually took down the likes of John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, “Pretty Boy” Floyd, and “Baby Face” Nelson began in the last days of 1933 when a 24-man strike force of federal agents and local police surrounded the rented cottage where “Tri-State Terror” Wilbur Underhill was spending his honeymoon with his new bride Hazel Jarrett Hudson… as well as his partner-in-crime Ralph Roe and his girlfriend Eva May Nichols. The subsequent gunfight resulted in one of the women’s deaths and Underhill mortally wounded.
Despite the title character’s removal from these events, John Milius’ 1973 directorial debut Dillinger gets these general circumstances correct, though it relocates the action from outside Shawnee, Oklahoma to “northern Illinois” and places rising FBI star Melvin Purvis (Ben Johnson) onsite to single-handedly lead the counterattack against Underhill, silently portrayed by Dillinger‘s cinematographer Jules Brenner. Continue reading
Hoodlum: Tim Roth’s Gray Checked Suit as Dutch Schultz
Tim Roth as Dutch Schultz in Hoodlum (1997)
Vitals
Tim Roth as Dutch Schultz, volatile gangster
New York City and Newark, New Jersey, Spring 1934 through Fall 1935
Film: Hoodlum
Release Date: August 27, 1997
Director: Bill Duke
Costume Designer: Richard Bruno
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Ninety years ago today on October 23, 1935, notorious New York gangster Dutch Schultz was fatally shot along with his accountant Otto Berman, his lieutenant Abe Landau, and his bodyguard Bernard “Lulu” Rosencrantz at the Palace Chop House in Newark, New Jersey. Transferred to Newark City Hospital, Schultz lingered for nearly a day, with his fevered final ramblings about dot-dash systems and French-Canadian bean soup meticulously recorded by police stenographer F.J. Lang before the 34-year-old criminal finally died of peritonitis.
The famous gangland slaying was fictionalized for the denouement of Hoodlum, Bill Duke’s chronicle of Schultz’s war against underworld rivals Stephanie “Madame Queen” St. Clair (Cicely Tyson), Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson (Laurence Fishburne), and Charles “Lucky” Luciano (Andy Garcia) as the Harlem numbers racket became increasingly lucrative following the repeal of Prohibition. Though the 1997 drama isn’t without its flaws, one of its strongest elements may be Tim Roth’s performance as Schultz—perhaps the best on-screen representation of the actual gangster’s appearance and temperament. Continue reading
Sinners: Michael B. Jordan’s Suits as the Smokestack Twins
Michael B. Jordan as Elias and Elijah Moore in Sinners (2025)
Vitals
Michael B. Jordan as the Smokestack Twins: Elias “Stack” Moore and Elijah “Smoke” Moore
Clarksdale, Mississippi, October 1932
Film: Sinners
Release Date: April 18, 2025
Director: Ryan Coogler
Costume Designer: Ruth E. Carter
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Sinners has been one of the biggest movies of 2025, with the highest opening weekend box office for an original film since Nope in 2022 and, as of January 2026, the most-nominated film in Academy Awards history with 16 nominations, including Best Picture.
Produced, written, and directed by Ryan Coogler, Sinners is set 93 years ago tonight from October 15 to 16, 1932 as the snappily dressed twin Moore brothers—recently returned from Chicago, where they were gunmen for the mob—have returned to their Mississippi Delta hometown to open a juke joint.
Smoke: Chicago ain’t shit but Mississippi with tall buildings instead of plantations.
Stack: And that’s why we came back home. Figure we might as well deal with the devil we know.
Dead End: Humphrey Bogart’s Dandy Gangster Suit
Humphrey Bogart in Dead End (1937)
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Humphrey Bogart as Hugh “Baby Face” Martin, gangster
New York City, Summer 1937
Film: Dead End
Release Date: August 27, 1937
Director: William Wyler
Costume Designer: Omar Kiam
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
After his breakthrough screen role as the menacing Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest (1936), Humphrey Bogart followed it up the next year as another swaggering gangster in Dead End (1937), adapted from Sidney Kingsley’s hit play—which had premiered 90 years ago today, on October 2, 1935.
The play had run for 687 performances on Broadway, so bringing it to the screen became a passion project for producer Samuel Goldwyn and director William Wyler. Goldwyn spent a then-staggering $165,000 for the rights, bracing himself for battles with the Hays Office to keep the play’s thematic grit intact. He even hired the “Dead End Kids”, the scrappy young actors from the stage version, though their chaotic behavior on set soon had Goldwyn regretting it and he later sold their contract to Warner Brothers, where—under names like the East Side Kids and Bowery Boys—they made more than 60 films across the next two decades. Despite his dedication to replicating the realism that made the play a success, the famously fastidious Goldwyn also clashed with Wyler, who had the set decorated with actual garbage to recreate an actual slum atmosphere.
Goldwyn first hoped to cast James Cagney or George Raft as the central gangster “Baby Face” Martin, but the role ultimately went to Humphrey Bogart—already 37 years old at the time, though it still feels like watching a “young” Bogie. Continue reading
Evil Under the Sun: Colin Blakely’s Blazers as Sir Horace Blatt
Colin Blakely as Sir Horace Blatt in Evil Under the Sun (1982)
Vitals
Colin Blakely as Sir Horace Blatt, bombastic millionaire yachtsman
Mediterranean Sea, Summer 1939
Film: Evil Under the Sun
Release Date: March 5, 1982
Director: Guy Hamilton
Costume Designer: Anthony Powell
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Born 95 years ago today on September 23, 1930 in Northern Ireland, Colin Blakely was an underrated actor who excelled both on stage and screen. He won acclaim for his Shakespearean performances, his portrayal of Dr. Watson in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), and BAFTA-nominated turn in Equus (1977), while also standing out among the star-studded casts of two lavish Agatha Christie adaptations.
Following his small part as the quickly uncovered American private detective in Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Blakely returned to the Christie-verse for a juicier role in Evil Under the Sun (1982)—loosely adapted from the Queen of Crime’s 1941 novel of the same name, with many characters consolidated and the action transferred from the English coast to a fictional island in the Adriatic Sea. Continue reading
Richard Arlen’s White Suit in Island of Lost Souls
Richard Arlen in Island of Lost Souls (1932)
Vitals
Richard Arlen as Edward Parker, shipwrecked sailor
South Pacific, Summer 1932
Film: Island of Lost Souls
Release Date: December 23, 1932
Director: Erle C. Kenton
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
The old maxim that a gentleman shouldn’t wear white after Labor Day has long grown outdated, but those looking for one last hurrah in summer whites can find inspiration in Erle C. Kenton’s pre-Code sci-fi/horror adventure Island of Lost Souls.
Set on the titular island (but actually filmed on Catalina), this adaptation of H.G. Wells’ 1896 novel The Island of Doctor Moreau stars Charles Laughton as the eponymous Moreau and Richard Arlen as the shipwrecked Edward Parker, who finds himself at Moreau’s mercy on the island.
The sole survivor from the sunken S.S. Lady Vain, Parker is plucked from the sea aboard the Covina, where he’s treated by the enigmatic ex-doctor Montgomery (Arthur Hohl)—who seems more in command of the ship and its strange animal cargo than the drunken Captain Davies (Stanley Fields), who grumblingly describes their mysterious destination as “Dr. Moreau’s island, and it stinks all over the whole South Seas.”
Parker soon understands this criticism firsthand after discovering that Moreau has been dissecting men and beasts and combining their DNA into grotesque hybrid creatures, snarling in response: “Now I can understand why you and your island stink from one end of the South Seas to the other!” To keep Parker distracted and further his own experimentation, Moreau introduces him to the alluring Lota (Kathleen Burke) without explaining that she is part-panther.
Born 126 years ago today on September 1, 1899 (and shockingly only two months younger than Laughton), Arlen was cast after Randolph Scott was initially considered to play Parker. One of the most prominent actors of the 1920s and ’30s, Arlen brought his experience as a Canadian Royal Flying Corps pilot to his starring role in the first-ever winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture, Wings (1927). Though his stature waned in later decades, Arlen was one of the few major silent-era stars to successfully transition onto television, with guest appearances on dozens of shows until his death in March 1976. Continue reading
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