Tagged: Costume design by Theadora Van Runkle
Bonnie and Clyde: Michael J. Pollard’s Herringbone Jacket and Jeans as C.W.
Michael J. Pollard as C.W. Moss in Bonnie & Clyde (1967)
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Michael J. Pollard as C.W. Moss, slow-witted mechanic-turned-bank robber
Iowa, Summer 1933
Film: Bonnie & Clyde
Release Date: August 13, 1967
Director: Arthur Penn
Costume Designer: Theadora Van Runkle
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
W.D. “Deacon” Jones may not be as famous as Bonnie Parker or Clyde Barrow, but the Dallas teenager was once among their closest companions in the notorious Barrow gang.
At only 16 years old, Jones was running jobs and riding shotgun on robberies, a role later blended with the gang’s informant Henry Methvin to create the fictionalized composite character C.W. Moss in Arthur Penn’s landmark 1967 film Bonnie & Clyde. Jones lived long enough to see the movie and admitted in a Playboy interview that “Moss was a dumb kid who run errands and done what Clyde told him… that was me, all right.”
Having survived countless shootouts during nearly a year riding with the Barrow gang, Jones ultimately couldn’t escape the fate that had claimed his contemporaries. Fifty-one years ago today in Houston during the early morning hours of August 20, 1974, the 58-year-old Jones was shot three times with a 12-gauge shotgun during an altercation outside a friend’s house. Continue reading
The Godfather, Part II: Fredo Corleone’s Pink in Havana
John Cazale as Fredo Corleone in The Godfather Part II (1974)
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John Cazale as Fredo Corleone, insecure mob family sibling
Havana, Cuba, December 1958
Film: The Godfather Part II
Release Date: December 12, 1974
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Costume Designer: Theadora Van Runkle
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
John Cazale was born 90 years ago today on August 12, 1935 in Suffolk County, Massachusetts. Though his career was heartbreakingly brief, John Cazale—born 90 years ago today on August 12, 1935 in Suffolk County, Massachusetts—remains considered as one of the finest actors of his generation. Incredibly, all five feature films he appeared in during the 1970s were nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
Among these unforgettable roles, his most enduring may be Fredo Corleone—the insecure, overmatched middle brother of the Corleone crime family. Cazale first played Fredo in The Godfather (1972), but it was The Godfather Part II (1974) that gave him the tragic spotlight as Fredo, desperate for power and recognition, betrays his younger and more successful brother Michael (Al Pacino), setting off a slow-burning familial powder keg that mirrors the revolutionary unrest simmering around them in the streets of Havana. Continue reading
The Godfather, Part II: Hyman Roth’s Birthday Party Knit Shirt
Lee Strasberg as Hyman Roth in The Godfather Part II (1974)
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Lee Strasberg as Hyman Roth, mobster and gambling kingpin
Havana, New Year’s Eve 1958
Film: The Godfather Part II
Release Date: December 12, 1974
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Costume Designer: Theadora Van Runkle
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Released 50 years ago this month, The Godfather Part II expands the Corleone crime family chronicles to include Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg), a respected gangster inspired by the real-life Meyer Lansky. Al Pacino had been one of Strasberg’s students at the Actors Studio and recommended his former acting coach for the role that would eventually garner Strasberg his sole Academy Award nomination.
Decades after his rumrunning partnership with the Corleones during Prohibition, the aging Roth is now based in Miami, where he’s visited by Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) to discuss a history-making collaboration. The two travel to Havana to work with representatives from American corporations and Fulgencio Batista’s corrupt Cuban government to take over a Reno casino—all while Roth is plotting to fatally double-cross Michael.
Of course, it’s the last week of December 1958, so the Batista government’s days are numbered as Fidel Castro’s rebels are getting closer to their New Year’s Eve victory. However, the primary celebration on Hyman Roth’s mind is his 67th birthday, which he celebrates on a Havana rooftop with Michael, Roth’s right-hand man Johnny Ola (Dominic Chianese), and other criminal cohorts. Continue reading
The Godfather, Part II: Michael Corleone’s Black Pinstripe Suit
Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part II (1974)
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Al Pacino as Michael Corleone, calculating Mafia boss
Washington, D.C., Winter 1959
Film: The Godfather Part II
Release Date: December 12, 1974
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Costume Designer: Theadora Van Runkle
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Just over a week after its New York City premiere on December 12th, The Godfather Part II was widely released 50 years ago today on December 20, 1974. The follow-up to Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 epic continued chronicling the ambitions of underworld boss Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) following his ascension to power after the death of his father and the orchestrated murders of his enemies.
By the latter half of Part II, the tension between Michael’s public persona and private life reach a boiling point as he’s faced with the consequences of his ruthlessness. Called to testify in front of a Senate subcommittee investigating organized crime, he maintains composure while defending his reputation—starkly contrasted by the emotionally charged confrontation with his wife Kay (Diane Keaton).
Kay’s revelations about the loss of what would have been their third child strains their already fragile marriage to a pivotal breaking point that underscores Michael’s increasing isolation and the personal cost of his choices. Continue reading
The Godfather, Part II: Fredo’s Plaid Dinner Jacket
John Cazale as Fredo Corleone in The Godfather Part II (1974)
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John Cazale as Fredo Corleone, insecure mob family sibling
Lake Tahoe, Fall 1958
Film: The Godfather Part II
Release Date: December 12, 1974
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Costume Designer: Theadora Van Runkle
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Born 89 years ago today on August 12, 1935, the late John Cazale racked up perhaps the most impressive screen batting average during his brief but significant film career. After more than a decade acting in theater, Cazale made his feature film debut as the weak-willed Corleone sibling Fredo in The Godfather (1972), a role he reprised to great acclaim two years later in The Godfather Part II (1974).
Cazale made one more film for Francis Ford Coppola, The Conversation (1974), before he again teamed with Al Pacino as a pair of hapless bank robbers in Dog Day Afternoon (1975). The Deer Hunter (1978) was Cazale’s next film and his fifth and final big screen credit prior to his death from lung cancer in March 1978 at the age of 42.
As this is the 50th anniversary year of The Godfather Part II, considered by many to be one of the greatest films of all time, let’s use Cazale’s birthday as an opportunity to celebrate his remarkable performance as the doomed Fredo Corleone. Continue reading
The Godfather Part II: Don Fanucci’s White Suit
Gastone Moschin as Don Fanucci in The Godfather Part II (1974)
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Gastone Moschin as Don Fanucci, ruthless Black Hand extortionist
New York City, Summer 1917
Film: The Godfather Part II
Release Date: December 12, 1974
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Costume Designer: Theadora Van Runkle
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Born 95 years ago today on June 8, 1929, Italian actor Gastone Moschin may be most recognizable to audiences around the world for his portrayal of the sinister Don Fanucci in The Godfather, Part II (1974), celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
Genco Abbandando (Frank Sivero) introduces the young Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro)—and we the audience—to the sneering white-suited gangster as an enforcer for the “Black Hand”, the real-life extortion racket which preyed upon Italian-American immigrants in communities along the eastern seaboard from Boston to New Orleans, where it was linked to the 1890 assassination of police chief David Hennessy.
The Black Hand operated primarily within the United States around the turn of the 20th century, violently threatening victims who ranged from simple shopkeepers to celebrities like tenor Enrico Caruso, who enlisted the help of crusading NYPD Lieutenant Joseph Petrosino. Though Petrosino arrested two men connected with the Caruso threats, he himself would become a victim of Mano Nera when he was fatally shot in March 1909 while undercover in Sicily, investigating the history of brutal criminals he hoped to banish from the United States. The Petrosino murder increased pressure from law enforcement that all but dissolved the Black Hand’s influence by the 1920s, around the time that Prohibition provided the opportunity for younger and more ambitious crooks like “Lucky” Luciano to organize the former Black Hand threads into a structure known alternately as La Cosa Nostra (“Our Thing”) or simply Mafia.
One of the most prominent Black Hand gangsters of this era was the Sicilian-born Ignazio Lupo, known as “Lupo the Wolf” among the neighborhoods he terrorized in New York City’s Little Italy. Lupo was reportedly a direct inspiration for Mario Puzo to craft the character of Don Fanucci who first appeared in the 1969 novel The Godfather before he would be brought to life by Gastone Moschin in the cinematic sequel. Continue reading
Bonnie and Clyde (1967): Warren Beatty’s “Air Ties” and Vests
Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty in Bonnie & Clyde (1967)
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Warren Beatty as Clyde Barrow, Depression-era bank robber and gang leader
Across the American South and Midwest, Spring 1932 to 1934
Film: Bonnie & Clyde
Release Date: August 13, 1967
Director: Arthur Penn
Costume Designer: Theadora Van Runkle
Background
Ninety years ago today on the morning of May 23, 1934, a light-gray Ford V-8 sedan traveling northeast on a rural Louisiana highway slowed as it approached a truck stopped by the side of the road. Suddenly, volleys of rifle fire peppered the car, obliterating the young couple in the front seat. After an estimated 167 rounds were fired, a half-dozen lawmen emerged from their ambush positions and approached the Ford, in which wanted outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were now unquestionably dead.
Despite their bloody crime spree that left at least a dozen men dead, Bonnie and Clyde captivated the fascination of a Depression-era public that often celebrated the exploits of contemporary outlaws like John Dillinger and “Pretty Boy” Floyd. The scrappy couple was hardly as criminally capable as their fellow “Public Enemies”, but Clyde’s remarkable ability to escape police traps and Bonnie’s frequent involvement added a romantic element that made them a newspaper favorite, especially after the discovery of undeveloped photos depicting the Barrow gang at play, including Bonnie smoking one of Clyde’s cigars—crafting a public image she would greatly resent—and holding him at gunpoint with one of the gang’s cut-down shotguns.
Among the many photos found at the gang’s abandoned Joplin, Missouri hideout after an April 1933 gunfight was this snapshot of Clyde and Bonnie in front of one of their many stolen Ford V-8 coupes, likely photographed earlier that year by their teenage gang member W.D. Jones. In the 1967 film Bonnie & Clyde, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway posed in a similar manner, but this reenactment didn’t make the final cut.
The frequent news coverage during their lifetime ensured that Bonnie and Clyde wouldn’t be quickly forgotten after their deaths, inspiring a string of “couple of the run” crime movies like You Only Live Once (1937) and the films noir They Live By Night (1948) and Gun Crazy (1950). The couple’s story formed the basis for the highly fictionalized The Bonnie Parker Story, an exploitative 1958 quickie from American International Pictures starring Dorothy Provine as the “cigar-smoking hellcat of the roaring thirties” and Jack Hogan as her simping partner-in-crime, uh, “Guy Darrow”.
The outlaw couple would be immortalized on screen after the release of Bonnie & Clyde in 1967, produced by Warren Beatty who also starred as Clyde opposite newcomer Faye Dunaway as a redoubtable Bonnie Parker. Continue reading
The Godfather, Part II: Tom Hagen’s Gray Striped Suit
Robert Duvall as Tom Hagen in The Godfather, Part II (1974)
Vitals
Robert Duvall as Tom Hagen, levelheaded Mafia lawyer
Nevada and Washington, D.C., Winter 1958 through Spring 1959
Film: The Godfather Part II
Release Date: December 12, 1974
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Costume Designer: Theadora Van Runkle
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Today is the 93rd birthday of Robert Duvall, the prolific actor born January 5, 1931 whose extensive filmography includes the first two films of The Godfather saga as Tom Hagen, the orphan informally adopted by the Corleone family—and whose cool head and legal savvy resulted in his position as the family’s trusted consigliere.
As this is the 50th anniversary year of The Godfather Part II, today’s post will explore Tom’s character and costume in this masterful second installment, set across the late 1950s as Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) continues consolidating his power and seeks to legitimatize the family’s interest as Tom had long advised him to do.
Although he’s been transitioned from consigliere to being the family’s lawyer in Las Vegas, Tom still serving as Michael’s right-hand man, with duties beyond legal counsel including everything from buying Christmas presents for the don’s children to blackmailing a senator whom they’ve framed for the murder for a prostitute. Continue reading
The Godfather, Part II: Fredo’s White Suit on New Year’s Eve
John Cazale as Fredo Corleone in The Godfather Part II (1974)
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John Cazale as Fredo Corleone, insecure mob family sibling
Havana, New Year’s Eve 1958
Film: The Godfather Part II
Release Date: December 12, 1974
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Costume Designer: Theadora Van Runkle
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Happy New Year! Ringing in 2024 also celebrates the 50th anniversary of The Godfather, Part II, Francis Ford Coppola’s mob epic that many consider equal or even superior to its masterpiece predecessor.
In the spirit of this weekend’s celebration, let’s travel back to New Year’s Eve 1958 as the weak-willed Fredo Corleone (John Cazale) joins his powerful younger brother Michael (Al Pacino) in Havana to negotiate their family’s casino interests—unaware that all their work will be undone by Fidel Castro’s revolutionaries within 24 hours.
Of course, both Corleones are also tragically unaware that the events of the evening will reveal to Michael that he’s been betrayed by his own brother, whom Michael would bestow with a now-iconic kiss of death at midnight:
The Godfather, Part II: De Niro’s Blue Two-Toned Shirt as Young Vito
Robert De Niro as Vito Corleone in The Godfather, Part II (1974)
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Robert De Niro as Vito Corleone, née Andolini, Sicilian-born immigrant-turned-gangster
New York City, Summer 1917 to Spring 1920
Film: The Godfather Part II
Release Date: December 12, 1974
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Costume Designer: Theadora Van Runkle
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
On screen legend Robert De Niro’s 80th birthday, today’s post revisits his star-making, Oscar-winning role as the young Vito Corleone in The Godfather, Part II.
Born August 17, 1943, De Niro’s birthday falls the day after the traditional August 16th observance of the Feast of San Rocco—the backdrop of the young Vito’s 1917 assassination of Black Hand extortionist Don Fanucci (Gastone Moschin) that propels his gangland ascension. Continue reading
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