Tagged: Cardigan Sweater
Patrick Wilson’s Argyle Zip Sweater in The Conjuring
Patrick Wilson as Ed Warren in The Conjuring (2013)
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Patrick Wilson as Ed Warren, paranormal investigator
Harrisville, Rhode Island, Fall 1971
Film: The Conjuring
Release Date: July 19, 2013
Director: James Wan
Costume Designer: Kristin M. Burke
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
With ten days until Halloween, let’s shift into horror mode with the first installment of The Conjuring franchise, based on real-life demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren’s 1971 investigation into the possible haunting of the Perron family’s Rhode Island home. Starring Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine, this movie was the first in a shared cinematic universe of nine films to date—most recently The Conjuring: Last Rites, which was released last month. Continue reading
Denzel Washington as Malcolm X: Gray Suit and Astrakhan Hat for the Finale
Denzel Washington in Malcolm X (1992)
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Denzel Washington as Malcolm X, revolutionary minister and civil rights activist
New York City, February 1965
Film: Malcolm X
Release Date: November 18, 1992
Director: Spike Lee
Costume Designer: Ruth E. Carter
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Malcolm X was born 100 years ago today on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. A charismatic and complex voice in the civil rights movement, he became the subject of Malcolm X, Spike Lee’s sweeping 1992 biopic starring Denzel Washington in the title role.
Washington had first portrayed Malcolm a decade earlier in Laurence Holder’s one-act play When the Chickens Come Home to Roost was always Lee’s top choice for the film. His performance earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor—one of two Oscar nominations for Malcolm X, the other recognizing Ruth E. Carter’s striking costume design. Continue reading
The Gambler: James Caan’s Tan Cardigan
James Caan as Axel Freed in The Gambler (1974)
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James Caan as Axel Freed, gambling-addicted English professor
New York City, Fall 1973
Film: The Gambler
Release Date: October 2, 1974
Director: Karel Reisz
Costume Designer: Albert Wolsky
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Today’s post honors the late James Caan, born 85 years ago on March 26, 1940. Just after his star-making performance in The Godfather, Caan starred as Axel Freed in The Gambler (1974), the eponymous English professor whose crippling addiction lands him deep in debt.
Axel’s struggle to climb out of the $44,000 hole he’s dug for himself is central to the film. Early on, Axel joins his mother at the beach where, upon learning of the extent of his debt, she bemoans her failure in raising a son “with the morals of a snail.” As Axel spirals further, he seeks out ways to cover the debt, meeting with his girlfriend Billie (Lauren Hutton) before attempting a desperate plan to hustle cash. Continue reading
Clark Griswold’s Christmas Eve Cardigan
Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
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Chevy Chase as Clark W. Griswold Jr., food additive executive and “last true family man”
Chicago, Christmas Eve 1989
Film: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
Release Date: December 1, 1989
Director: Jeremiah S. Chechik
Costume Designer: Michael Kaplan
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Merry Christmas! Now a perennial holiday classic, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation was released 35 years ago this month in December 1989 as the third installment to feature Chevy Chase as the hapless head of the Griswold family.
After zany misadventures on an American road trip and a European vacation, Clark clings to his idealistic hope for a “fun, old-fashioned family Christmas,” which somehow means inviting both his and his wife’s sets of parents to stay with them for more than a week leading up to the actual holiday. In the meantime, Clark is eager to surprise his family with the news that he placed a down payment on a swimming pool… a payment he’ll be able to cover as soon as he receives his company’s usual holiday bonus.
(For modern readers, a “holiday bonus” is a monetary payment that employers used to give to their employees at the end of each year. In the late 1980s when Christmas Vacation was made, this often amounted to several thousand dollars; for most employees today, this may take the form of a branded reusable water bottle, already-obsolete Bluetooth earbuds, or simply not being fired.)
Inspired by producer and co-writer John Hughes’ semi-autobiographical short story “Christmas ’59”, the festivities culminate on Christmas Eve as both sides of Clark and Ellen’s families gather at the over-illuminated Griswold home for an over-cooked turkey dinner, a surprise rodent guest, and the family’s first kidnapping. Happy holidays!
The Great Gatsby: Sam Waterston’s Tan Shawl-collar Cardigan
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
Born on this day in 1896, F. Scott Fitzgerald left an indelible mark on American literature with his classic novel The Great Gatsby, which has been adapted for the screen at least a half dozen items—including Jack Clayton’s iconic 1974 film.
Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, this lush adaptation stars Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, and Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway, the narrator and ostensibly a surrogate for Fitzgerald himself—though the author also reflected elements of himself in the romantic hero Jay Gatsby.
A knitwear-clad F. Scott Fitzgerald in the third-floor bedroom of his parents’ residence at 599 Summit Avenue in St. Paul, where he wrote This Side of Paradise. (Source: Twin Cities Pioneer Press)
After hosting the reunion between his married cousin Daisy and her old flame, Nick’s wealthy neighbor Gatsby, Nick spends the rest of the summer observing the couple retreat into furtive seclusion, dodging not only Daisy’s prideful husband but also the gossip of Gatsby’s now-dismissed household staff and newspaper reporters showing up at Nick’s door.
When curiosity about Gatsby was at its highest, the lights in his house failed to go on one Saturday night.
The Andy Griffith Show: Barney Fife’s Return to Mayberry in an Aloha Shirt and Cardigan
Don Knotts as Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show (Episode 6.17: “The Return of Barney Fife”)
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Don Knotts as Barney Fife, bumbling Raleigh detective and former deputy sheriff
Mayberry, North Carolina, Fall 1965
Series: The Andy Griffith Show
Episode: “The Return of Barney Fife” (Episode 6.17)
Air Date: January 10, 1966
Director: Alan Rafkin
Creator: Sheldon Leonard
Costume Designer: Stanley Kufel
Background
Today would have been the 100th birthday of Don Knotts, born July 21, 1924 in Morgantown, West Virginia. The comedian who shares my birthday (though 68 years older) remains arguably best known for his celebrated role as the overly officious country deputy Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show, though he also appeared across the latter seasons of Three’s Company as wannabe swinger landlord Ralph Furley.
Knotts’ five Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series remains a record-setting amount in that category and was also the most wins for a performer in the same role in the same series until Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ sixth and final win for Veep in 2017. In addition, his characterization of Barney Fife was ranked ninth on TV Guide‘s 1999 list of the 50 Greatest TV Characters of All Time.
Despite the accolades, Knotts amicably left The Andy Griffith Show at the end of the fifth season to pursue his film career, but the in-universe explanation that Barney was hired as a detective in Raleigh allowed for the actor to occasionally return to the series, including his Emmy-winning performance in the sixth season’s “The Return of Barney Fife”. Continue reading
The Last of Sheila: Ian McShane’s White Lacoste Cardigan
Ian McShane as Anthony Wood in The Last of Sheila (1973)
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Ian McShane as Anthony Wood, controlling Hollywood husband and ex-convict
French Riviera, Late summer 1972
Film: The Last of Sheila
Release Date: June 14, 1973
Director: Herbert Ross
Costume Designer: Joel Schumacher
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
One of my favorite “summer vibes” movies is The Last of Sheila, which I first watched last summer after learning that it was among Rian Johnson’s inspiration for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. As the third Knives Out movie has commenced filming and we’re approaching another summer solstice, let’s revisit the Riviera style on parade in The Last of Sheila, released 51 years ago this month on Flag Day 1973.
Written by Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins, The Last of Sheila boasts a fine ensemble cast portraying “six hungry failures” summoned by Hollywood producer Clinton Greene (James Coburn) to spend a week in the Ligurian Sea aboard his yacht, Sheila, named for his late wife who died exactly a year earlier in a mysterious hit-and-run.
After Clinton is murdered during his festivities, the six frenemies begin looking amongst each other for who would have had the means and opportunity to kill Clinton, though all had a motive—presumably to silence the gossip he knew about each of their pasts, revealed by the cards he had assigned to each on their first day at sea.
Perhaps the least connected of the six is the charismatic but shady Anthony Wood (Ian McShane), who fiercely promotes—and controls—the career of his glamorous actress wife Alice (Raquel Welch). When the “I am an EX-CONVICT” card held by the anxious Lee Parkman (Joan Hackett) is revealed to apply to Anthony’s dual convictions for assault, Lee’s writer husband Tom (Richard Benjamin) briefly focuses his interrogation on Anthony as the group tries to solve the mystery. Continue reading
Richard Burton in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
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Richard Burton as George, weary but witty history professor
New England, Fall 1965
Film: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Release Date: June 21, 1966
Director: Mike Nichols
Costume Designer: Irene Sharaff
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Hollywood icons Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were married (for the first of two times) sixty years ago today on March 15, 1964. The A-list couple starred in 11 films over the span of a decade, with arguably the most acclaimed being Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, adapted by Ernest Lehman from Edward Albee’s play of the same name and the directorial debut for then-comedian Mike Nichols. Continue reading
Jimmy Stewart’s Christmas Cardigan in The FBI Story
James Stewart in The FBI Story (1959)
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James Stewart as John “Chip” Hardesty, earnest FBI agent
Chicago, Christmas 1933
Film: The FBI Story
Release Date: October 1959
Director: Mervyn LeRoy
Costume Designer: Adele Palmer
Background
While Jimmy Stewart’s cinematic Christmas creds are primarily as the troubled protagonist of It’s a Wonderful Life, more than a decade later we’re treated to a brief holiday sequence in The FBI Story.
Essentially a feature-length dramatization propagating the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s role in quelling all American lawlessness across the first half of the 20th century, the once-obscure The FBI Story has been the subject of some renewed interest as it had been the first major production to depict the Osage murders of the 1920s that were recently at the center of Martin Scorsese’s epic Killers of the Flower Moon.
The Seven-Ups: Roy Scheider’s Leather Jacket and Pontiac Ventura
Roy Scheider as Buddy Manucci in The Seven-Ups (1973)
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Roy Scheider as Buddy Manucci, renegade NYPD detective
New York City, Winter 1972
Film: The Seven-Ups
Release Date: December 14, 1973
Director: Philip D’Antoni
Costume Designer: Joseph G. Aulisi
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Philip D’Antoni’s sole directorial effort The Seven-Ups was released 50 years ago today, starring Roy Scheider in his first major leading role as the lead of a group of renegade NYPD detectives who specialize in securing arrests for crooks who will serve sentences of at least seven years… hence being known as “the seven-ups.”
The Seven-Ups could be argued as a spiritual continuation of The French Connection, which D’Antoni had accepted the Academy Award for producing two years earlier. Both movies were filmed and set during a gritty winter in early 1970s New York City, focused on crusading cops unafraid to break a few rules—including Scheider as an Italian-American detective named Buddy, inspired by the real-life Sonny Grosso.
Both The French Connection and The Seven-Ups also featured a thrilling car chase centered around our protagonist behind the wheel of an ordinary Pontiac, pushed to perform extraordinary stunts thanks to the late, great Bill Hickman.
If you liked seeing one Pontiac at the heart of The French Connection‘s famous chase, you’ll love seeing two Pontiacs duking it out in The Seven-Ups!
But before that…