Tagged: 1970s
Ben Gazzara’s Navy Suit for The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
Ben Gazzara in The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)
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Ben Gazzara as Cosmo Vitelli, strip club owner and emcee
Los Angeles, Fall 1975
Film: The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
Release Date: February 15, 1976
Director: John Cassavetes
Wardrobe Credit: Mary Herne
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
John Cassavetes re-teamed with his friend and frequent collaborator Ben Gazzara for The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, a gritty neo-noir originally released 50 years ago today on February 15, 1976. The original cut ran over two hours, but feedback from audience—and Gazzara himself—resulted in Cassavetes recutting it down to a tighter 108-minute version that was re-released in 1978, maintaining its tone and ambiguously bleak ending.
“My name, if you don’t know it by now, is Cosmo Vitelli, and I own this joint,” Gazzara’s scrappy cabaret owner announces to his audience. “You know, they say everything is sex; sex is everything. Here at the Crazy Horse West, we give you a lot more than that.” Continue reading
Leslie Nielsen’s Pinstripe Suit as Dr. Rumack in Airplane!
Leslie Nielsen as Dr. Rumack in Airplane! (1980)
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Leslie Nielsen as Dr. Rumack, serious physician
In the air between Los Angeles and Chicago, Spring 1980
Film: Airplane!
Release Date: July 2, 1980
Directed by: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker
Costume Designer: Rosanna Norton
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Born 100 years ago today on February 11, 1926, the legendary Leslie Nielsen finally found the role that unlocked his straight-faced superpower, launching his beloved comedic second act in Hollywood history in Airplane! as Dr. Rumack, a man so serious that irony simply bounces off him.
Dr. Rumack: Can you fly this plane and land it?
Ted: Surely you can’t be serious.
Dr. Rumack: I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.
Aside from a lighthearted guest spot on the first season of M*A*S*H, the Canadian-born Nielsen’s comic potential generally sat idle on the runway until the madcap ZAZ crew cast him as the deadpan Dr. Rumack, followed by his enduring role as the bumbling detective Frank Drebin—first in the short-lived TV series Police Squad!, followed by its far more successful film continuation The Naked Gun and its two sequels.
Adapted nearly word-for-word (no, really) from the 1957 drama Zero Hour, Airplane! primarily parodies the disaster subgenre that dominated ’70s cinema like Airport, though it found fodder in everything from From Here to Eternity to Saturday Night Fever. Star-crossed ex-lovers Ted Striker (Robert Hays) and Elaine Dickinson (Julie Hagerty) are our leads, but Nielsen hijacks the movie the moment he’s introduced as the doctor tapped with treating any of the passengers and crew aboard Trans American Flight 209 from LAX to Chicago who made the sorry decision of choosing fish for dinner, prompting a food poisoning epidemic rivaling even the revulsion of an Anita Bryant concert. Continue reading
Taxi Driver: Travis Bickle’s M-65 Field Jacket
Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (1976)
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Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle, disturbed taxi driver and Vietnam War veteran
New York City, Spring to Summer 1976
Film: Taxi Driver
Release Date: February 9, 1976
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Designer: Ruth Morley
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Martin Scorsese’s violent meditation on loneliness, Taxi Driver, was released 50 years ago today on February 9, 1976—one day after its New York City premiere. Fresh off of his Academy Award win for The Godfather Part II, Robert De Niro received a second career nomination for his portrayal of “God’s lonely man” Travis Bickle, a troubled Marine Corps veteran who combats his insomnia by driving a taxi through the decaying streets of 1970s New York.
After his poorly conceived attempts to woo a sophisticated political campaign volunteer are understandably rejected, Travis refocuses his attention on the pre-teen prostitute Iris (Jodie Foster), whom he attempts to dissuade from her current profession. Meanwhile, Travis’ paranoia grows to the point that he drops just under a thousand dollars on a quartet of handguns that range in power and concealment—his scattered plans ranging from political assassination to a brothel massacre, all the while practicing his heavily armed bravado in his disorganiz-ized home:
“You talkin’ to me?”
Sean Connery’s Sheepskin Coat and Plaid Suit in The Offence
Sean Connery in The Offence (1973)
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Sean Connery as Detective Sergeant “Johnny” Johnson, jaded police detective
Berkshire, England, Spring 1972
Film: The Offence
Release Date: January 11, 1973
Director: Sidney Lumet
Costume Designer: Evangeline Harrison
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Sean Connery and director Sidney Lumet’s third of five cinematic collaborations, The Offence, was released on this day in 1973. Adapted by John Hopkins from his own stage play This Story of Yours, the film was the first of two projects that United Artists agreed to finance through Connery’s production company Tantallon Films in exchange for the star returning to play James Bond in Diamonds are Forever.
As his first post-Bond film, Big Tam specifically chose The Offence to demonstrate his range and expand his screen image beyond the 007 persona, resulting in perhaps one of his greatest performances. Continue reading
Chilly Scenes of Winter: John Heard’s Moth-eaten Maroon Sweater
John Heard in Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979)
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John Heard as Charles Richardson, obsessive state analyst
Salt Lake City, Winter 1979/80
Film: Chilly Scenes of Winter
Release Date: October 19, 1979
Director: Joan Micklin Silver
Costume Designer: Rosanna Norton
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
The wintry weather this first full week of the year feels appropriate to slip into John Heard’s deceptively cozy wardrobe in Joan Micklin Silver’s 1979 comedy Chilly Scenes of Winter. Originally marketed by United Artists as a zany, lighthearted rom-com that the studio re-titled Head Over Heels (much to its cast and crew’s dismay), Chilly Scenes of Winter is actually an all-too-real exploration of the depths to which a seemingly sane person can fall when tortured by their concept of love.
Heard plays Charles Richardson, a seemingly normal Utah State Department of Development report analyst who begins dating his colleague Laura (Mary Beth Hurt), only to grow increasingly and desperately obsessed with winning back her affection after she ends their relationship. Continue reading
The Killer Elite: Robert Duvall’s Navy Shacket and Watch Cap
Robert Duvall in The Killer Elite (1975)
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Robert Duvall as George Hansen, mercenary-for-hire
San Francisco, Spring 1975
Film: The Killer Elite
Release Date: December 19, 1975
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Costume Designer: Ray Summers
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
My post about the late James Caan’s style in The Killer Elite for the film’s 50th anniversary last month received more attention than I expected, as well as requests to cover his co-star Robert Duvall. So, ahead of Duvall’s 95th birthday tomorrow, let’s look at how he dresses as the double-crossing mercenary George Hansen across The Killer Elite‘s second act.
After betraying his partner Mike Locken (Caan) and leaving him with a crippling bullet to the knee, George has been profiting as a freelance mercenary most recently hired to assassinate a Taiwanese politician visiting the United States. Mike had been out of commission for weeks while recovering from his wound, but his old employer ComTeg finally welcomes him back into the fold—hoping he can foil his former partner’s plot. Continue reading
Rocky: Sylvester Stallone’s Black Leather Jacket
Sylvester Stallone in Rocky (1976)
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Sylvester Stallone as Robert “Rocky” Balboa, ambitious boxer and mob enforcer
Philadelphia, Fall/Winter 1975
Film: Rocky
Release Date: December 3, 1976
Director: John G. Avildsen
Costumer: Robert Campbel
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Happy New Year! Fifty years ago tonight, scrappy southpaw Rocky Balboa went the distance against the heavyweight champ, turning a Philadelphia club fighter into an American myth—so, in the spirit of “new year, new you”—let’s punch into the style of Sylvester Stallone’s era-defining breakthrough role. Continue reading
Blow: A Colorful New Year’s Eve Sport Jacket
Johnny Depp as George Jung in Blow (2001)
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Johnny Depp as George Jung, successful cocaine smuggler
Miami, New Year’s Eve 1979
Film: Blow
Release Date: April 6, 2001
Director: Ted Demme
Costume Designer: Mark Bridges
Background
I’ll be the first to admit my hypocritical cowardice. I’ve written many posts celebrating turtlenecks, but it wasn’t until this year that I truly started embracing them in my personal style, the result of a New Year’s resolution to myself. “What kind of resolution is that?” you might ask. “Didn’t you become a father this year? Why are you worried about turtlenecks?” you may also ask. And I’ll ignore all those questions.
I always had a soft spot for Blow, Ted Demme’s Scorsese-inspired movie following the rise and fall of the late drug dealer “Boston George” Jung, played to trichological perfection by Johnny Depp. Even at the height of George’s success, Depp convincingly sells George as the kind of himbo whose right connections at the right place at the right time converged for him to make millions smuggling cocaine for the Medellín Cartel through the 1970s and ’80s.
During a New Year’s Eve party (scored by KC and the Sunshine Band’s disco hit “Keep It Comin’, Love”), George learns from one of his partners that his old partner Diego Delgado—a thinly veiled stand-in for the real-life Carlos Lehder—has double-crossed him, cutting George out to conduct his own smuggling operations from Norman’s Cay… though it takes George a few beats to comprehend that “Norman Cay” isn’t a person but a place. Continue reading
Three Days of the Condor: Wicks’ Leather Car Coat and Navy Suit
Michael Kane in Three Days of the Condor (1975)
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Michael Kane as S.W. Wicks, shady CIA section chief
Langley, Virginia to New York City, Winter 1975
Film: Three Days of the Condor
Release Date: September 24, 1975
Director: Sydney Pollack
Costume Designer: Joseph G. Aulisi
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Released in September 1975, the Christmas-adjacent spy thriller Three Days of the Condor celebrated its 50th anniversary earlier this year. Robert Redford stars as the titular “Condor”, the CIA’s codename for its low-level researcher Joe Turner who is the only survivor of a coordinated attack on its deep-cover office in Manhattan.
The massacre is revealed to have been part of an internal conspiracy, involving Turner’s own section chief S.W. Wicks. Though not a prominent character with just a few minutes of screen time across four scenes, Wicks is certainly a significant one and very effectively played by Michael Kane—no, not that Michael Caine—an acclaimed Canadian actor and World War II veteran who died 18 years ago last week on December 14, 2007. Continue reading
The Killer Elite: James Caan’s Brown Suede Jacket
James Caan in The Killer Elite (1975)
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James Caan as Mike Locken, government mercenary
San Francisco, Spring 1975
Film: The Killer Elite
Release Date: December 19, 1975
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Costume Designer: Ray Summers
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
The Godfather co-stars and real-life friends James Caan and Robert Duvall reunited as rival mercenaries in The Killer Elite, widely released fifty years ago today on December 19, 1975, following its L.A. premiere two days earlier. Adapted by Marc Norman and Stirling Silliphant from Robert Syd Hopkins novel Monkey in the Middle, the film’s mixed reception hasn’t improved much with age, and Caan himself considered it a dud that he took merely to work with director Sam Peckinpah—even if Peckinpah’s creative control was limited by United Artists.
The Killer Elite takes a lighter, action-oriented hand to the anti-government paranoia that defined ’70s thrillers, capitalizing on the easy chemistry between Caan and Duvall who portray the friends-turned-foes on opposing sides in a San Francisco proxy war. They begin the story as Mike Locken (Caan) and George Hansen (Duvall), colleagues in ComTeg—a private intelligence network often hired by the government. “What’s that? ‘Circumsized Italian Americans’?” Mike jokes when they’re asked if they work for the CIA. Continue reading
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