Tagged: 1940s
Cary Grant’s Tuxedo in Notorious
Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman in Notorious (1946)
Vitals
Cary Grant as T.R. Devlin, American government agent
Rio de Janeiro, Spring 1946
Film: Notorious
Release Date: September 6, 1946
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Costume Design: Edith Head (gowns only)
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Released 80 years ago this September, Notorious marked the second of four screen collaborations between Alfred Hitchcock and Cary Grant—who was born 122 years ago today on January 18, 1904. Written by Ben Hecht, Notorious is vintage Hitch at full boil, blending noir-tinged espionage with a romance daring enough to taunt the censors, all delivered with the Master of Suspense’s unmistakable mix of wit, menace, and nerve-shredding tension.
Notorious reaches a boiling point during a party hosted by the urbane yet dangerous Alex Sebastian (Claude Rains) and his new wife Alicia (Ingrid Bergman)—in fact a honeyspot spy recruited by American agent T.R. Devlin (Grant) to seduce her way into Sebastian’s circle of German emigrés hiding in post-World War II Brazil. 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?
Frank Lovejoy’s M-1941 Field Jacket in Try and Get Me!
Frank Lovejoy in Try and Get Me! (1950)
Vitals
Frank Lovejoy as Howard Tyler, unemployed family man and World War II veteran
Central California, Spring 1950
Film: Try and Get Me!
(Original title: The Sound of Fury)
Release Date: November 15, 1950
Director: Cy Endfield
Men’s Wardrobe: Robert Martien (uncredited)
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
In recognition of Veteran’s Day, today’s Noir-vember post focuses on one of the many films noir driven by the plight and cynicism of American servicemen in the years following World War II.
Originally released under the less lurid title The Sound of Fury, Try and Get Me! was adapted by Jo Pagano from his own 1947 novel The Condemned, which drew from the real-life 1933 lynching of two men who had confessed to kidnapping and murdering California heir Brooke Hart—the same incident which also inspired Fritz Lang’s 1936 film Fury. (For the trivia-inclined: Hart was kidnapped 92 years ago this week, on Thursday, November 9, 1933.)
The movie begins in the fictional town of Santa Sierra, California, where a seemingly innocent bowling alley conversation between the down-on-his-luck Howard Tyler (Frank Lovejoy) and gregarious fellow ex-serviceman Jerry Slocum (Lloyd Bridges) leads to the strong-willed Jerry enlisting Howard as his getaway driver for a series of holdups that escalate to a deadly kidnapping. Continue reading
Hogan’s Heroes: Colonel Hogan’s USAAF Flight Jacket and Crusher Cap
Bob Crane on Hogan’s Heroes (1965-1971)
Vitals
Bob Crane as Robert E. Hogan, resourceful U.S. Army Air Forces Colonel
“Stalag Luft 13” near Hammelburg, Germany, Winter 1945
Series: Hogan’s Heroes
Created by: Bernard Fein & Albert S. Ruddy
Costume Design: Reeder P. Boss, Ray Harp, and Marjorie Wahl
Background
Hogan’s Heroes debuted sixty years ago today on September 17, 1965 with a black-and-white pilot episode, followed by 167 episodes in full color. Debuting twenty years after the end of World War II, the series twisted the typical POW formula as 1) a comedy in which 2) the Allied characters showed no actual desire to escape from their imprisonment. As the titular Colonel Robert E. Hogan (Bob Crane) explains to one of his “heroes” in the first-season finale, “we’re not just ordinary POWs, we’re here on a mission. Our orders are very plain: assist Allied prisoners to escape, and sabotage the enemy wherever possible.” Continue reading
The Two Jakes: Jack Nicholson’s Gray Donegal Tweed Jacket
Jack Nicholson as J.J. Gittes in The Two Jakes (1990)
Vitals
Jack Nicholson as J.J. “Jake” Gittes, world-weary private investigator and ex-policeman
Los Angeles, Fall 1948
Film: The Two Jakes
Release Date: August 10, 1990
Director: Jack Nicholson
Costume Designer: Wayne A. Finkelman
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
I had only just turned one when The Two Jakes was released 35 years ago today on August 10, 1990, so I can’t say whether anyone was really asking for a sequel to Roman Polanski’s 1974 neo-noir masterpiece Chinatown. What I can say is that there’s been surprisingly steady interest from BAMF Style readers in how Jack Nicholson’s wardrobe evolved from Anthea Sylbert’s Oscar-nominated designs for the 1930s-set Chinatown to suit the sequel’s setting in the fall of 1948. Continue reading
Alec Guinness’ Tropical Khaki Drill Uniform in The Bridge on the River Kwai
Alec Guinness in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Vitals
Alec Guinness as Lt. Col. L. Nicholson, duty-bound British Army officer and POW
Between Burma and Thailand, Spring 1943
Film: The Bridge on the River Kwai
Release Date: October 2, 1957
Director: David Lean
Wardrobe Credit: John Wilson-Apperson
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
One of the most acclaimed war epics of all time, The Bridge on the River Kwai was directed by David Lean and adapted from the 1952 novel by French author Pierre Boulle, a former POW who infused the story with a mix of firsthand insight and satirical commentary. The film became the highest-grossing release of 1957 and won six of its seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Alec Guinness, who died 25 years ago tomorrow on August 5, 2000.
In this fictionalized account of the construction of a railway bridge along the Burma-Siam route during World War II, Guinness portrayed dignified career officer Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson of the British Army, whom we meet as he leads his whistling troops into a Japanese prison camp deep in the arid Thai jungle. Continue reading
Ben Johnson’s Cream Suit in The Town That Dreaded Sundown
Ben Johnson in The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)
Vitals
Ben Johnson as J.D. Morales, Texas Rangers company captain
Texarkana, Arkansas, Spring 1946
Film: The Town That Dreaded Sundown
Release Date: December 24, 1976
Director: Charles B. Pierce
Wardrobe Credit: Karen Jones & Bonnie Langriff
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Born 107 years ago on June 13, 1918, Ben Johnson was an Academy Award-winning actor and—like his father, Ben Sr.—a bona fide cowboy and rodeo champion.
Johnson’s screen career appropriately began as a stuntman in Howard Hughes’ controversial 1943 film The Outlaw, establishing the start of a half-century career that began with Westerns like 3 Godfathers (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), Shane (1953), Hang ‘Em High (1968), and The Wild Bunch (1969). After a more dramatic performance in The Last Picture Show (1971) resulted in Johnson’s sole Oscar win, the middle-aged actor diversified his filmography with major roles in non-Westerns like The Getaway (1972), Dillinger (1973), Red Dawn (1984), and Angels in the Outfield (1994).
Since today’s commemoration of Johnson’s birthday also falls on Friday the 13th, it feels appropriate to focus on one of the actor’s first of few forays into horror. The Town That Dreaded Sundown was loosely based on the real-life Texarkana Moonlight Murders when a still-unknown “Phantom Killer” attacked eight people—killing five—through the spring of 1946. Filmed on location in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas through the hot summer of 1976, The Town That Dreaded Sundown erroneously centered most of the action around Texarkana, Arkansas, which initially resulted in the city threatening director Charles B. Pierce… but has since become an annual Halloween tradition during Texarkana’s “Movies in the Park” series.
Johnson’s cowboy background and persona suited his performance as Captain J.D. Morales, based on the case’s actual lead investigator: Manuel T. “Lone Wolf” Gonzaullas. Continue reading
A Matter of Life and Death: David Niven’s Houndstooth Jacket
David Niven in A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
Vitals
David Niven as Squadron Leader Peter David Carter, charismatic Royal Air Force pilot
Southern English Coast, Spring 1945
Film: A Matter of Life and Death
Release Date: November 1, 1946
Directed by: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Costume Designer: Hein Heckroth
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Powell and Pressburger’s marvelous Technicolor fantasty-romance A Matter of Life and Death begins eighty years ago today, “the night of the second of May, 1945.”
Less than a week until the German surrender that effectively ended the European theater of World War II, a Lancaster bomber is returning through the fog over the English Channel after a Royal Air Force mission over Germany that resulted in the aircraft’s terminal damage. His radio operator dead and the rest of the crew bailed out on his orders, the poetic Squadron Leader Peter David Carter (David Niven) sits alone at the controls, communicating to the charming U.S. Army Air Forces technician June (Kim Hunter), who attempts in vain to reassure the pilot while he offers his own reassurance that he isn’t afraid to meet whatever awaits him:
Hello, June, don’t be afraid. It’s quite simple—we’ve had it, and I’d rather jump than fry. After the first thousand feet, what’s the difference? I shan’t know anything anyway. I say, I hope I haven’t frightened you… you’ve got a good voice, you’ve got guts, too! It’s funny, I’ve known dozens of girls—I’ve been in love with some of them—but an American girl who I’ve never seen, who I never shall see, will hear my last words. It’s funny. It’s rather sweet! June, if you’re around when they pick me up, turn your head away.
With his own parachute damaged and the Lancaster hurtling toward a fiery fate, Peter stoically accepts the inevitability of death (“I’ll be a ghost and come and see you! You’re not frightened of ghosts, are you? It’d be awful if you were.”) and relays a few final messages for June to pass along to his mother and sisters before bailing from the craft. Continue reading
Stray Dog: Toshirô Mifune’s Summer Suit
Toshirô Mifune in Stray Dog (1949)
Vitals
Toshirô Mifune as Murakami, homicide detective
Tokyo, Summer 1949
Film: Stray Dog
(Japanese title: 野良犬, Nora inu)
Release Date: October 17, 1949
Director: Akira Kurosawa
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Considered one of the greatest actors of all time, Toshirô Mifune was born 105 years ago today, on April 1, 1920. Before his Hollywood debut in Grand Prix (1966), Mifune starred in sixteen films directed by Akira Kurosawa. Their third collaboration was the 1949 drama Stray Dog, a film that blends elements of film noir with themes of disillusionment in postwar Japan and is now regarded as an early example of the police procedural.
The story begins on “an unbearably hot day” in Tokyo, where Mifune’s newly promoted homicide detective Murakami reports the theft of his sidearm. After recounting the incident—including his failed pursuit of the pickpocket—Murakami partners with veteran detective Satō (Takashi Shimura) to track the weapon into the depths of Tokyo’s underworld. Their investigation leads to a desperate small-time crook named Yusa (Isao Kimura), whose escalating crime spree weighs heavily on Murakami, forcing him to confront difficult questions about guilt, duty, and justice. Continue reading
Sunset Boulevard: William Holden’s New Year’s Evening Dress
William Holden and Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Vitals
William Holden as Joe Gillis, “well-known screenwriter, uranium smuggler, and Black Dahlia suspect”
Los Angeles, New Year’s Eve 1949
Film: Sunset Boulevard
Release Date: August 10, 1950
Director: Billy Wilder
Costume Designer: Edith Head
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Happy New Year! Billy Wilder’s iconic 1950 noir Sunset Blvd. features one of the most lavish yet depressing celebrations of this holiday, as the washed-up “silent movie queen” Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) organizes an intimate evening with her latest obsession, desperate screenwriter Joe Gillis.
“It was at her New Year’s party that I found out how she felt about me,” Joe narrates. “Maybe I’d been an idiot not to have sensed it was coming… that sad, embarrassing revelation.”
Clad in the new full evening tailcoat and white tie that Norma purchased for him, Joe strolls into Norma’s ballroom for the party… only to discover that he’s the only guest. Following an awkward tango, the two quarrel when he demands that she not fall in love with him. With less than an hour to midnight, Joe abandons the house “to be with people my own age… I had to hear somebody laugh again.” Continue reading
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