Tagged: Corduroy Jacket
The Amityville Horror: James Brolin’s Corduroy Jacket and Cargo Pants
James Brolin and Margot Kidder in The Amityville Horror (1979)
Vitals
James Brolin as George Lutz, surveyor and stepdad
Long Island, New York, Fall 1975
Film: The Amityville Horror
Release Date: July 27, 1979
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Men’s Costumes: Richard Butz
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Fifty years ago next month, George Lutz and his family moved into 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville on the south shore of Long Island. Amity, as you know, means friendship (as the mayor in Jaws has made clear), but there’s nothing friendly about the paranormal activity that drove the Lutz family from that Dutch Colonial Revival house after only 28 days.
Though the veracity of the events have been called into question (and, I believe, generally debunked), they remain in the forefront of public consciousness thanks to Jay Anson’s 1977 book The Amityville Horror and its subsequent film adaptations—the best-known and best-regarded of which being the 1979 horror thriller of the same name starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder as George and Kathy Lutz. Continue reading
Rock Hudson’s Corduroy Jacket on McMillan & Wife (“Murder by the Barrel”)
Rock Hudson on McMillan and Wife (Episode 1.01: “Murder by the Barrel”)
Vitals
Rock Hudson as Stuart “Mac” McMillan, San Francisco police commissioner and former defense attorney
San Francisco, Fall 1971
Series: McMillan & Wife
Episode: “Murder by the Barrel” (Episode 1.01)
Air Date: September 29, 1971
Director: John Astin
Creator: Leonard B. Stern
Costumes: Burton Miller
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Screen icon Rock Hudson was born 100 years ago today on November 17, 1925. After launching his career as a romantic leading man through the 1950s and ’60s, Hudson redefined the second phase of his career with a dramatic role in John Frankenheimer’s excellent experimental drama Seconds (1966) and the espionage thriller Ice Station Zebra (1968)—the latter a favorite of both Hudson himself and eccentric superfan Howard Hughes. Unsatisfied with the screen roles he was being offered, even after creating his own production companies, Hudson turned to television with the mystery series McMillan & Wife.
Hudson starred as San Francisco police commissioner Stuart “Mac” McMillan with Susan Saint James as his titular wife, Sally. The series may be the closest spiritual successor to The Thin Man films, as Mac and Sally’s witty banter and affectionate, equal-footed partnership recall the dynamic charm of William Powell and Myrna Loy’s Nick and Nora Charles. What sets McMillan & Wife apart from contemporaries, however, is that Mac isn’t a typical TV detective but a high-ranking commissioner, whose background as a criminal defense attorney gives him a greater familiarity with the city’s crooks and their cohorts.
Like the other NBC Mystery Movie pilots that debuted during the 1971-1972 season (specifically Columbo and McCloud), McMillan & Wife became a hit and the first canonical episode, “Murder by the Barrel”, aired less than two weeks later after its feature-length debut. Continue reading
Al Lettieri in The Getaway: From Chalk-striped Suit to Corduroy and Chambray
Al Lettieri in The Getaway (1972)
Vitals
Al Lettieri as Rudy Butler, menacing and duplicitous armed robber
Texas, Spring 1972
Film: The Getaway
Release Date: December 13, 1972
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Men’s Costumer: Kent James
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
From The Godfather and The Getaway to McQ and Mr. Majestyk, if you needed a swarthy, mean, and snakishly charming son-of-a-bitch in the early ’70s, chances are you would call Al Lettieri. A bona fide tough guy who channeled his real-life connections to less reputable characters into his dynamic performances, Lettieri was only 47 years old when he died of a heart attack fifty years ago today on October 18, 1975.
Adapted from pulp author Jim Thompson’s 1958 crime novel of the same name, The Getaway was released in the final weeks of 1972—Lettieri’s breakthrough year, following the release of The Godfather in March. Continue reading
And Justice for All: Al Pacino’s Corduroy Jacket on Thanksgiving
Al Pacino in …And Justice for All (1979)
Vitals
Al Pacino as Arthur Kirkland, determined defense attorney
Baltimore, Fall and Winter 1978
Film: …And Justice for All
Release Date: October 19, 1979
Director: Norman Jewison
Costume Designer: Ruth Myers
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Al Pacino closed out the 1970s with his fifth Academy Award-nominated performance, portraying frazzled Baltimore lawyer Arthur Kirkland in Norman Jewison’s 1979 dark comedy …And Justice for All, satirizing the American legal system.
Kirkland’s host of issues that follow him through the fall and holiday season include troublesome clients like the unfairly arrested Jeff McCullaugh (Thomas Waites) and weekly visits to his steadfast but increasingly senile grandfather Sam (Lee Strasberg), whom he brings to Thanksgiving dinner with Sam’s slightly sharper friend Arnie (Sam Levene). Continue reading
Society of the Snow: Numa Turcatti’s Corduroy Trucker Jacket
Enzo Vogrincic as Numa Turcatti in Society of the Snow (2023)
Photo by Quim Vives
Vitals
Enzo Vogrincic as Numa Turcatti, Uruguayan law student and college soccer player
Andes Mountains, Fall 1972
Film: Society of the Snow
(Spanish title: La sociedad de la nieve)
Release Date: December 13, 2023
Director: J.A. Bayona
Costume Designer: Julio Suárez
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
On October 13th, 1972, an Uruguayan plane crashed in the Andean mountain range. Forty of us passengers and five crew members were on board the plane. Some say it was a tragedy, others call it a miracle. What really happened? What happens when the world abandons you? When you have no clothes and you’re freezing? When you have no food and you’re dying? The answer is in the mountain. We have to go back to the past to understand that the past is what changes the most…
Society of the Snow begins with the narration of Numa Turcatti (Enzo Vogrincic), a 24-year-old law student and footballer encouraged by friends to buy a cheap plane ticket to Chile on Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, joining his friend Gastón Costemalle (LOUTA) who was traveling with the Old Christians Rugby Club to play a match in Santiago. The flight departed from Montevideo 52 years ago today, followed by an overnight stop in Mendoza, Argentina.
The following day—Friday the 13th of October, 1972—Numa became one of 33 initial survivors when this FH-227D crashed into the Andes just inside the Argentinian side of the Chilean border. Numa’s narration describes this inhospitable pocket of nature where the temperature plunges to −22 °F at night as “a place where life is impossible.”
While official search efforts were called off after the first eight days, the young men endured a total of 72 days through an inspiring mix of fierce determination, resourcefulness, and teamwork, all while continually facing hardships like injury, disease, extreme weather, and avalanches that reduced them to less than half of their number. With an already dwindling food supply exhausted, the small group of remaining survivors resorted to cannibalism of their dead companions to stay alive—an unimaginable decision yet one that almost certainly saved the lives of the sixteen who were ultimately rescued in December 1972.
Skillfully directed by J.A. Bayona, Society of the Snow doesn’t shy away from these more disturbing facts of the incident while remaining a tasteful retelling that celebrates the survival of these sixteen while simultaneously honoring the memory of the dead. Wendy Ide of ScreenDaily cited the latter as one of the film’s greatest strengths, applauding that “Bayona is at pains to ensure that the voices that are foregrounded are not necessarily those of the crash victims who eventually make it home.” Continue reading
National Treasure: Nic Cage’s Urban Outfitters Outfit
Nicolas Cage in National Treasure (2004)
Vitals
Nicolas Cage as Benjamin Franklin Gates, treasure hunter and cryptographer
Philadelphia to New York City, Fall 2004
Film: National Treasure
Release Date: November 19, 2004
Director: Jon Turteltaub
Costume Designer: Judianna Makovsky
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Happy 4th of July to my fellow Americans!
On this day in 1776, the Second Continental Congress unanimously ratified the Declaration of Independence that announced the separation of the thirteen American colonies from British rule. Primarily drafted by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration remains one of the most sacred and influential documents in global history and underwent centuries of preservation and protection until it was ultimately stolen by Nicolas Cage in 2004.
At least he warned us first.
Appropriately titled given Mr. Cage’s reputation, National Treasure was released 20 years ago this November and centers around a historically informed search for a long-buried Freemason treasure trove. A rumored map on the back of the Declaration of Independence provides guidance to Cage’s well-meaning treasure-hunter Benjamin Franklin Gates as well as his assistant Riley Poole (Justin Bartha) and the lovely government archivist Dr. Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger) reluctantly roped into their mission.
Unfortunately for our heroes, Ben’s rival Ian Howe (Sean Bean) is also in pursuit of the treasure… but Ian is British, so one can only imagine the disrespect he would show the Declaration if he were the one to steal it first.
What’d He Wear?
The morning after Ben and Riley successfully liberate the Declaration during a gala event at the National Archives, they follow the early-00s product placement gods to an Urban Outfitters in Philadelphia (actually Pasadena), where they can purchase clothes more appropriate for evading detection while on the run in the City of Brotherly Love than their formal fits. Continue reading
Ray Milland in Panic in Year Zero!
Ray Milland in Panic in Year Zero! (1962)
Vitals
Ray Milland as Harry Baldwin, California family man-turned-survivalist
Sierra Nevada Mountains, Spring 1962
Film: Panic in Year Zero!
(also released as End of the World)
Release Date: July 5, 1962
Director: Ray Milland
Wardrobe Credit: Marjorie Corso
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
In addition to his prolific acting career that won him the Academy Award for his performance in The Lost Weekend (1945), Welsh star Ray Milland also directed a handful of films and television episodes. His penultimate directorial effort was Panic in Year Zero!, a survival thriller written by John Morton and Jay Simms that underscored contemporary apocalyptic anxieties during the atomic age.
Every footpath will be crawling with men saying “no matter what, I’m going to live,” and that’s what I’m saying too. My family must survive!
Milland also starred in his film as Harry Baldwin, the resourceful patriarch of a well-to-do family from southern California leading a fishing trip to the Sierra Nevada mountains with his wife Ann (Jean Hagen) and their teenage children Rick (Frankie Avalon) and Karen (Mary Mitchel).
Shortly after the Baldwins hit the road one early morning in March, their journey is interrupted by a thermonuclear explosion that destroys Los Angeles—part of a massive targeted attack that also decimated major cities across the world from New York City and Chicago to London, Paris, and Rome. As they gradually understand the scope of the situation, the family’s vacation transforms into a struggle to survive amidst the quickly decaying morality of a society driven to desperation. Continue reading
Cagney’s Corduroy Jacket in White Heat
James Cagney in White Heat (1949)
Vitals
James Cagney as Arthur “Cody” Jarrett, ruthless gang leader and devoted son
Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, Fall 1949
Film: White Heat
Release Date: September 2, 1949
Director: Raoul Walsh
Wardrobe Credit: Leah Rhodes
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
One hundred years ago this week, brothers Ray, Roy, and Hugh DeAutremont attempted to rob a Southern Pacific Railroad “San Francisco Express” as it sped through the Siskiyou Mountains of the Pacific Northwest. Panicking when the heist didn’t go according to plan, the three brothers murdered four employees on the train and were forced to flee empty-handed. Famous forensic criminologist Edward Heinrich’s investigation eventually identified the DeAutremont brothers as the perpetrators, and the trio were captured after a four-year manhunt.
The “Siskiyou Massacre” of October 11, 1923 formed the basis for the opening scene in Raoul Walsh’s 1949 noir thriller White Heat, one of the great gangster movies of all time that returned James Cagney to the genre that made him famous. Continue reading
The Big Chill: William Hurt’s Tan Corduroy Jacket
William Hurt in The Big Chill (1983)
Vitals
William Hurt as Nick Carlton, former radio psychologist and war veteran
Beaufort, South Carolina, Fall 1983
Film: The Big Chill
Release Date: September 28, 1983
Director: Lawrence Kasdan
Costume Designer: April Ferry
Background
Today is the 40th anniversary of the release of The Big Chill, Lawrence Kasdan’s 1983 comedy-drama centered around seven friends from college (played by Tom Berenger, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Mary Kay Place, and JoBeth Williams) who reunite after more than a decade for the funeral of a fellow UMich alum who committed suicide.
Scored by the rock and R&B hits from their late ’60s college heyday, the movie focuses on the ennui of adulthood as this handful of baby boomers are forced to reconcile their current realities with the idealistic visions they had for their future when they were young, energetic, and relatively free of responsibility.
It was easy back then, no one ever had a cushier berth than we did… it’s only out here in the world that it gets tough.
David Hemmings in Blowup
David Hemmings and Vanessa Redgrave in Blowup (1966)
Vitals
David Hemmings as Thomas, hip London photographer
Swinging London, Fall 1966
Film: Blowup
Release Date: December 18, 1966
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Costume Designer: Jocelyn Rickards
Background
Some people are bullfighters, some people are politicians… I’m a photographer.
August 19 being World Photography Day feels like an apt opportunity to delve into Blowup, Michelangelo Antonioni’s enticing and meandering mystery that won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and was nominated for two Academy Awards despite its then-unprecedented sexual content that defied the mainstream movies released under the aging Motion Picture Production Code that had been enforced in Hollywood for over three decades. Indeed, Blowup‘s critical popularity and box-office success has been credited as one of the final blows that killed the restrictive “Hays Code” once and for all, in favor of the MPAA rating system that ushered in a new, uninhibited era of American cinema.
Blowup centers around Thomas (David Hemmings), a stylish young photographer living the swinging London dream, though kept so busy that he bemoans “I haven’t even got a couple of minutes to have my appendix out.” Continue reading