Tagged: Brown Suit
Murder on the Orient Express: Connery’s Houndstooth Suit
Sean Connery and Vanessa Redgrave on set as Colonel Arbuthnot and Mary Debenham in Murder on the Orient Express (1974).
Vitals
Sean Connery as Colonel John Arbuthnot, British Indian Army commanding officer
The Orient Express, December 1935
Film: Murder on the Orient Express
Release Date: November 21, 1974
Director: Sidney Lumet
Costume Designer: Tony Walton
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Today is my grandma’s 95th birthday, which she will be celebrating by going to her 9-to-5 job (where she never misses a day!) and then joining our family for a dinner out on the town. One of my favorite memories with Grandma includes Saturday mornings in her kitchen, watching old mystery movies together. This tradition instilled in me a love for the genre as well as an appreciation for classic movies and stars.
Murder on the Orient Express was one of our favorite movies to watch together. With a cast led by the excellent Albert Finney as a charismatic and near-cartoonish Hercule Poirot, the film is also rightly a celebration of some of the most talented women from the silver screen including Lauren Bacall and Ingrid Bergman, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress from her work in this movie. Continue reading
Gene Hackman’s Tweed Suit as Buck Barrow
Gene Hackman and Estelle Parsons as Buck and Blanche Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Vitals
Gene Hackman as “Buck” Barrow, bank robber, ex-convict, and family man
Texas, May 1933
Film: Bonnie & Clyde
Release Date: August 13, 1967
Director: Arthur Penn
Costume Designer: Theadora Van Runkle
Background
Happy birthday to Gene Hackman, who turns 86 years old today!
Bonnie and Clyde marked the first major role for Hackman, who had spent much of the ’60s as a struggling actor who shared rooms with fellow struggling actors Dustin Hoffman and Robert Duvall. 1967 turned out to be a banner year for the friends and roommates, earning Hackman and Hoffman their first Academy Award nominations.
Hackman brings an easygoing charm to the role of the more famous Clyde’s older brother Buck, and the film gets many of the “on paper” details right about Buck. As Clyde’s older brother, he had more experience tangling with the law and spent the first few months of Clyde’s criminal career in the Texas state prison. He had escaped once, but—as Hackman tells Warren Beatty’s Clyde—it was his new wife Blanche that talked him into returning to prison to serve out the rest of his sentence, and he would be pardoned 15 months later. Buck and Blanche journeyed to visit Bonnie and Clyde, ostensibly for a reunion and possibly for Buck to try and talk Clyde into following his good example. Of course, the murder of two Joplin policemen during this reunion meant Buck would be wanted again as well, and the brothers led the motley “Barrow Gang” in a string of small-town stickups and kidnappings over the next three months. Continue reading
Don Draper’s Brown Hershey Pitch Suit
Jon Hamm as Don Draper, presenting a pitch to Hershey executives in “In Care Of” (Episode 6.13) on Mad Men.
Vitals
Jon Hamm as Don Draper, suddenly honest Madison Avenue ad man
New York City, Fall 1968
Series: Mad Men
Episodes: “Favors” (Episode 6.11) & “In Care Of” (Episode 6.13)
Air Date: June 9, 2013 (Episode 6.11) & June 23, 2013 (Episode 6.13)
Directors: Jennifer Getzinger (Episode 6.11) & Matthew Weiner (Episode 6.13)
Creator: Matthew Weiner
Costume Designer: Janie Bryant
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
After Winter Storm Jonas had most of us on the East Coast huddling in whatever warmth we could find this weekend, it’s time to head back to work. In the spirit of Jon Hamm’s recent Golden Globe win for the final season of Mad Men, let’s head back to the office appropriately suited up. Continue reading
Joe Kidd’s Tweed Suit
Clint Eastwood as Joe Kidd in Joe Kidd (1972).
Vitals
Clint Eastwood as Joe Kidd, laconic hunter and former bounty hunter
New Mexico, Spring 1902
Film: Joe Kidd
Release Date: July 14, 1972
Director: John Sturges
Background
Penned by Elmore Leonard, Joe Kidd is a unique revisionist Western starring Clint Eastwood as the titular ex-bounty hunter who finds himself reluctantly hired to join a posse tracking down a group of Mexican revolutionaries fighting for land reform.
Although the Joe Kidd character could be interchanged with any of Eastwood’s usual taciturn and iron-willed Western heroes (not that he’s any less entertaining for it!), the movie benefits from its interesting and oft-ignored setting and context as well as the usual Elmore Leonard touch of an array of unique characters populating the film’s world.
At the outset, Joe is locked up in the small town of Sinola, New Mexico as he awaits his trial for poaching. When he is asked if he knew it was illegal to hunt on reservation land, Joe responds:
Well the deer didn’t know where he was, and I wasn’t sure either.
What’d He Wear?
Audiences had become well-acquainted with the sight of Clint Eastwood’s familiar “Man With No Name” guise in Westerns, so it must have caught many audiences off-guard when Joe Kidd is first introduced in a suit – albeit, a raggedly worn one after his night in the slammer. Continue reading
Jimmy Darmody’s Brown Striped Suit
Michael Pitt pours some brandy as Jimmy Darmody on Boardwalk Empire.
(Episode 1.12: “A Return to Normalcy)
Vitals
Michael Pitt as Jimmy Darmody, Atlantic City bootlegger and gangster
Atlantic City, Spring/Summer 1921
Series: Boardwalk Empire
Episodes:
– “A Return to Normalcy” (Episode 1.12, aired December 5, 2010, dir. Tim Van Patten)
– “21” (Episode 2.01, aired September 25, 2011, dir. Tim Van Patten)
– “A Dangerous Maid” (Episode 2.03, aired October 9, 2011, dir. Susanna White)
– “Two Boats and a Lifeguard” (Episode 2.08, aired November 13, 2011, dir. Tim Van Patten)
– “Georgia Peaches” (Episode 2.10, aired November 27, 2011, dir. Jeremy Podeswa)
– “To the Lost” (Episode 2.12, aired December 11, 2011, dir. Tim Van Patten)
Creator: Terence Winter
Costume Designer: John A. Dunn
Tailor: Martin Greenfield
WARNING! Spoilers ahead! Continue reading
Gangster Squad – Jerry’s Brown Double-Breasted Suit
Ryan Gosling as Sgt. Jerry Wooters in Gangster Squad (2013).
Vitals
Ryan Gosling as Jerry Wooters, dapper LAPD detective-sergeant
Los Angeles, August 1949
Film: Gangster Squad
Release Date: January 11, 2013
Director: Ruben Fleischer
Costume Designer: Mary Zophres
Background
Continuing BAMF Style’s recent string of neo-noir period film posts following a swaggering L.A. detective decked out in period attire, I decided to take another look at the recent movie Gangster Squad.
Described (by me) as L.A. Confidential for the video game crowd, Gangster Squad is loosely based on the true story of LAPD detectives John O’Mara and Jerry Wooters’ team that took a head-on approach to breaking Mickey Cohen’s rackets in the ’40s and ’50s. Although stylish, well-casted, and full of thrilling action pieces, Gangster Squad received some criticism for its lack of character development and condensing the multi-decade efforts of these detectives into just a few months in late 1949. Continue reading
Rebel Without a Cause – Jim’s Easter Suit
James Dean as Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause (1955).
Vitals
James Dean as Jim Stark, confused suburban high school student and loner
Los Angeles, Easter 1956
Film: Rebel Without a Cause
Release Date: October 27, 1955
Director: Nicholas Ray
Costume Designer: Moss Mabry
Background
Other than The Passion of the Christ and those of its ilk, few are able to name a film that takes place around Easter. Little realize that Rebel Without a Cause actually begins with James Dean’s drunken loner Jim Stark drunkenly making his way down a suburban street on Easter Sunday evening.
Rebel Without a Cause is groundbreaking in many ways. The story thrusted the issue of suburban moral decay into the faces of deniers that refused to believe their “safe” post-war communities were anything but pleasant. The film also marked the first and last top billing for James Dean, who would die in a fatal car accident less than a month before its release, a sad reflection of an incident portrayed in the movie. Continue reading
The French Connection – Popeye Doyle’s Light Brown Suit
Gene Hackman as “Popeye” Doyle in The French Connection (1971)
Vitals
Gene Hackman as Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle, gruff NYPD narcotics detective
Brooklyn, December 1970
Film: The French Connection
Release Date: October 9, 1971
Director: William Friedkin
Costume Designer: Joseph Fretwell III
Background
To celebrate this weekend’s Academy Awards ceremony, BAMF Style is looking at The French Connection, which took home five Oscars in 1972 including Best Picture and—for Gene Hackman’s portrayal of unorthodox narc “Popeye” Doyle—Best Actor. It was the first R-rated movie to win the coveted Best Picture award, and its gritty realism set the tone for one of the greatest decades in American filmmaking. Continue reading
Bonnie and Clyde (1967): Warren Beatty’s Brown Herringbone Bank Robbery Suit as Clyde Barrow
Warren Beatty as Clyde Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde (1967).
Vitals
Warren Beatty as Clyde Barrow, Depression-era bank robber and gang leader
Pilot Point, TX, Summer 1933
Film: Bonnie & Clyde
Release Date: August 13, 1967
Director: Arthur Penn
Costume Designer: Theadora Van Runkle
Background
It was around this time in late November 1932 that an awkward and maladjusted Texas hoodlum decided he wanted to make the jump from armed robber and spree killer to big-time bank-robbing gang leader. Now 23 years old, Clyde Barrow already had numerous arrests dating back to an aborted attempt to steal a rental car and impress a girlfriend (not Bonnie, in case you’re curious.) He’d spent two years in prison, having endured sexual and physical abuse for most of it, and now graced headlines of small Texas newspapers with the notoriety of a gutless killer with the blood of two shopkeepers and a deputy sheriff attributed to him (not to mention that of the most abusive inmate from his prison stretch).
With the support of his vulnerable girlfriend, Bonnie Parker, and two Texas nobodies who shared his dreams of taking a major bank score, Clyde set out for the Farmers and Miners Bank in Oronago, Missouri on November 30, 1932. Bonnie had already visited the bank the previous day to case it, but the inexperienced girl drew only suspicious stares from its employees rather than a master plan for robbery. Undeterred by her lack of success, Clyde loaded his Browning Automatic Rifle—stolen from a Texas National Guard armory three months earlier—and charged into the bank around 11:30 a.m. with accomplice Frank Hardy. Things didn’t quite go according to plan. Continue reading
Steve McQueen’s Brown 3-Piece Suit as Thomas Crown
Steve McQueen as Thomas Crown in The Thomas Crown Affair (1968).
Vitals
Steve McQueen as Thomas Crown, millionaire busienssman and criminal mastermind
Boston, Summer 1968
Film: The Thomas Crown Affair
Release Date: June 19, 1968
Director: Norman Jewison
Costume Designer: Alan Levine
Tailor: Douglas Hayward
Background
The Thomas Crown Affair is one film where I would feel comfortable ruling that the style outweighs the substance. In some ways, the plot reads like a harlequin novel – a dashing millionaire is investigated by an impossibly stunning insurance investigator and the two play a cat-and-mouse game, culminating in some symbolism-driven sex and his eventual escape. It is a simple plot in a film best remembered for its lavish touches across the board from cinematography to costuming.
In fact, Crown himself is far more sophisticated than the plot. Watching for plot can be more than mildly frustrating as the film really electrifies when McQueen and Dunaway are onscreen and – not the fault of the other actors – stumbles when neither are there to save it. The film is still a fun and very ’60s caper, but it’s important to keep in mind that the focus is totally on style. Continue reading
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