Tagged: Black Blazer
Manhunter: William Petersen’s Dark Sport Jackets as Will Graham
William Petersen as Will Graham in Manhunter (1986)
Vitals
William Petersen as Will Graham, tortured FBI criminal profiler
Across the United States, Fall 1986
Film: Manhunter
Release Date: August 15, 1986
Director: Michael Mann
Costume Designer: Colleen Atwood
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
While the Oscar-winning The Silence of the Lambs is a deservedly great movie that brought Thomas Harris’ fictional killer psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter to widespread public attention, the cannibalistic murderer had actually made his cinematic debut a half-decade earlier when Brian Cox portrayed the renamed Dr. Lecktor in Manhunter. Adapted by writer/director Michael Mann from Harris’ 1981 novel Red Dragon (with its title changed by producer Dino De Laurentiis), Manhunter was released 40 years ago this week on August 15, 1986.
Cox starred opposite William Petersen as FBI agent Will Graham, establishing the characters’ antagonistically layered screen dynamic that would be repeated in the 2002 remake Red Dragon and the NBC TV adaptation Hannibal. Continue reading
Blue Velvet: Kyle MacLachlan’s Black Jacket
Kyle MacLachlan in Blue Velvet (1986)
Vitals
Kyle MacLachlan as Jeffrey Beaumont, inquisitive college student
Lumberton, North Carolina, Spring 1985
Film: Blue Velvet
Release Date: September 19, 1986
Director: David Lynch
Costumer: Ronald Leamon
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Today marks the 66th birthday of Kyle MacLachlan, star of the late David Lynch’s neo-noir thriller Blue Velvet. Lynch and “Kale” had first collaborated two years earlier for the director’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune, which was met with poor reception. Undeterred, Lynch shifted direction with Blue Velvet, a more personal project that delved into his now-familiar themes of surrealism and the dark, oft-criminal underbelly of Americana.
MacLachlan stars as Jeffrey Beaumont, a college student who returns to his hometown of Lumberton, North Carolina to help his family following his father’s heart attack. Taking a secluded shortcut to his parents’ home after a hospital visit, Jeffrey discovers a severed ear in a vacant field… launching him into a dangerous conspiracy involving a sultry lounge singer and a sadistic gangster. Continue reading
The Prisoner: Patrick McGoohan’s Rowing Blazer as Number Six
Patrick McGoohan as “Number Six” on The Prisoner (Episode 8: “Dance of the Dead”)
Vitals
Patrick McGoohan as Number Six, recently resigned secret agent
“The Village”, Fall 1967
Series: The Prisoner
Created by: Patrick McGoohan & George Markstein
Wardrobe: Masada Wilmot & Dora Lloyd
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Born 94 years ago today, Patrick McGoohan emerged as one of the most unique auteurs of ’60s television as the star and executive producer (and, occasionally, writer and director) of the allegorical and avant-garde “spy-fi” miniseries The Prisoner, which he co-created with George Markstein.
The Prisoner centers around its title character who, upon his contentious retirement from a shadowy British intelligence agency, wakes up mysteriously transported to a picturesque Italianate island village from which he would spend the duration of the series trying to escape. Continue reading
Scorpio: Alain Delon’s Black Blazers
Alain Delon as Jean Laurier in Scorpio (1973)
Vitals
Alain Delon as Jean Laurier, aka “Scorpio”, dangerous freelance assassin, former French paratrooper, and cat lover
Washington, D.C., and Vienna, Spring 1973
Film: Scorpio
Release Date: April 19, 1973
Director: Michael Winner
Wardrobe Master: Philippe Pickford
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Happy 85th birthday to French cinema icon Alain Delon, whose November 8, 1935 birthday makes him a Scorpio and thus a fitting choice for the title role in Michael Winner’s 1973 espionage thriller Scorpio. (Interestingly, Delon was re-teamed with The Leopard co-star Burt Lancaster, whose November 2, 1913 birthday makes him a Scorpio as well!) The astrological overtones sneak into the script as well as a CIA officer suggests to Delon’s character Jean Laurier that his codename “Scorpio” suits him:
We named you well, you’re a perfect Scorpio! You have a penchant for intrigue, violence…
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