Tagged: 3-Piece Suit
Hoodlum: Tim Roth’s Gray Checked Suit as Dutch Schultz
Tim Roth as Dutch Schultz in Hoodlum (1997)
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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)
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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. 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
Robert Redford’s Blue Bank Robbery Suit in The Old Man & the Gun
Robert Redford and Sissy Spacek in The Old Man & the Gun (2018). Photo credit: Eric Zachanowich.
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Robert Redford as Forrest Tucker, aging and amiable bank robber and escape artist
Texas, Summer to Fall 1981
Film: The Old Man & the Gun
Release Date: September 28, 2018
Director: David Lowery
Costume Designer: Annell Brodeur
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
After screen legend Robert Redford’s death earlier this month at age 89, I revisited his final leading role in David Lowery’s The Old Man & the Gun—a project Redford chose for his feel-good farewell film because he wanted his “last acting job to be fun.” Lighthearted yet elegiac, this crime caper premiered at the Telluride Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival before its wider release seven years ago tomorrow. Continue reading
David Suchet’s Herringbone Suit as Hercule Poirot in The Mysterious Affair at Styles
David Suchet as Hercule Poirot in the 1990 episode of Agatha Christie’s Poirot: “The Mysterious Affair at Styles”
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David Suchet as Hercule Poirot, fastidious Belgian refugee and former detective
Essex, England, Summer 1917
Series: Agatha Christie’s Poirot
Episode: “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” (Episode 3.01)
Air Date: September 16, 1990
Director: Ross Devenish
Costume Designer: Linda Mattock
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
“Queen of Crime” Agatha Christie was born 135 years ago today on September 15, 1890. Among her most prolific creations was the character of Hercule Poirot, a fussy Belgian detective whom she included in more than three dozen novels and short stories despite her own eventual exhaustion with the character she decried as “insufferable.” Poirot first appeared in Christie’s debut novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles, first published 105 years ago next month in October 1920.
Recommended by Christie’s own family for the role, David Suchet crafted the definitive portrayal of the detective throughout 13 seasons of the ITV series Agatha Christie’s Poirot, originated by writer Clive Exton in 1989. To commemorate the centenary of Christie’s birth, ITV aired the feature-length episode “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” between the second and third seasons which, to date, remains the only major English-language adaptation of Christie’s novel. Continue reading
Robert Mitchum in The Night of the Hunter
Robert Mitchum in The Night of the Hunter (1955)
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Robert Mitchum as Harry Powell, self-described preacher and serial-killing swindler
West Virginia, Summer 1930
Film: The Night of the Hunter
Release Date: July 26, 1955
Director: Charles Laughton
Wardrobe Credit: Jerry Bos
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Born 108 years ago today on August 6, 1917, Robert Mitchum delivered arguably the greatest performance of his prolific career in Charles Laughton’s 1955 gothic horror masterpiece The Night of the Hunter, which premiered 70 years ago last month in Des Moines, Iowa. Laughton’s first and only directorial effort was negatively received upon its release, though decades of reassessment have elevated its reputation and it’s now included on lists among the best movies ever made. Continue reading
One Way Passage: William Powell’s Shipboard Flannel Suit
William Powell in One Way Passage (1932)
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William Powell as Dan Hardesty, recaptured death row fugitive
Hong Kong to San Francisco, via Honolulu, Fall 1932
Film: One Way Passage
Release Date: October 22, 1932
Director: Tay Garnett
Costume Designer: Orry-Kelly (gowns)
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
On the anniversary of William Powell’s July 29, 1892, birthday, let’s look at how the dashing actor brought his marvelous sense of style to the screen in the last of his six major films opposite Kay Francis, the pre-Code drama One Way Passage.
Crafted from a story by Robert Lord, who won the Academy Award for Best Story, One Way Passage stars Powell and Francis as Dan Hardesty and Joan Ames, star-crossed lovers who meet over Paradise cocktails at the International Bar in Hong Kong. Shortly after, they reconnect aboard the S.S. Maloa steaming across the Pacific to San Francisco. Continue reading
The Great Gatsby: Sam Waterston’s Tan Suit as Nick
Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby (1974)
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Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway, impressionable bachelor and bond salesman
Long Island, New York, Summer 1925
Film: The Great Gatsby
Release Date: March 29, 1974
Director: Jack Clayton
Costume Designer: Theoni V. Aldredge
Clothes by: Ralph Lauren
Background
Published 100 years ago this spring, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s generation-defining novel The Great Gatsby has been adapted for the screen several times, though many continue to consider Jack Clayton’s 1974 film the definitive cinematic depiction to date. The story of star-crossed lovers Jay Gatsby (Robert Redford) and Daisy Buchanan (Mia Farrow) is observed through the neutral lens of their mutual acquaintance, Nick Carraway (Sam Waterston), an Ivy League grad and war veteran from the Midwest clearly modeled after Fitzgerald himself. Continue reading
Ben Johnson’s Cream Suit in The Town That Dreaded Sundown
Ben Johnson in The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)
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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
The Handmaiden: Ha Jung-woo’s Tan Solaro Suit as Count Fujiwara
Ha Jung-woo as Count Fujiwara in The Handmaiden (2016)
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Ha Jung-woo as Count Fujiwara, conniving con artist
Japanese-occupied Korea, Summer 1930
Film: The Handmaiden
(Korean title: 아가씨)
Release Date: June 1, 2016
Director: Park Chan-wook
Costume Designer: Jo Sang-gyeong
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Considered one of the best South Korean movies of all time, The Handmaiden premiered nine years ago this month during the 69th Cannes Film Festival in May 2016, just weeks before it was released to theaters on June 1st. Director and co-screenwriter Park Chan-wook was inspired by Sarah Waters’ 2002 novel Fingersmith, reimagining the setting from Victorian-era England to Japanese-occupied Korea in the years leading up to World War II.
The eponymous handmaiden is Nam Sook-hee (Kim Tae-ri), a Korean pickpocket recruited by the smooth con artist known as “Count Fujiwara” (Ha Jung-woo) to work for the aloof Japanese heiress Izumi Hideko (Kim Min-hee), helping the Count gain Hideko’s favor so she ultimately agree to marry him—only for him to commit her to an asylum and inherit her fortune. Continue reading