Tagged: Fall
Gene Hackman’s Leather Jacket in Hoosiers
Gene Hackman in Hoosiers (1986)
Vitals
Gene Hackman as Norman Dale, controversial high school basketball coach and Navy veteran
Indiana, Fall 1951
Film: Hoosiers
Release Date: November 14, 1986
Director: David Anspaugh
Costume Designer: Jane Anderson
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Welcome to Indiana basketball…
The legendary late actor Gene Hackman was born 96 years ago today on January 30, 1930. On the first anniversary of his birthday since his death last February, today’s post centers around Hackman’s celebrated performance in the 40-year-old sports drama Hoosiers as Norman Dale, hired to coach a small Indiana town’s basketball team whose roster includes names like Merle, Rade, Strap, and Whit—which I think is just great.
Though set in the fictional town of Hickory, Hoosiers was loosely inspired by the true story of the Milan High School basketball team’s victory against Muncie Central High School to win the 1954 state championship. And if you don’t think that’s a big deal, just take it from Norm himself:
I thought everybody in Indiana played basketball.
Rocky: Sylvester Stallone’s Black Leather Jacket
Sylvester Stallone in Rocky (1976)
Vitals
Sylvester Stallone as Robert “Rocky” Balboa, ambitious boxer and mob enforcer
Philadelphia, Fall/Winter 1975
Film: Rocky
Release Date: December 3, 1976
Director: John G. Avildsen
Costumer: Robert Campbel
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Happy New Year! Fifty years ago tonight, scrappy southpaw Rocky Balboa went the distance against the heavyweight champ, turning a Philadelphia club fighter into an American myth—so, in the spirit of “new year, new you”—let’s punch into the style of Sylvester Stallone’s era-defining breakthrough role. Continue reading
Rob Reiner in This is Spinal Tap
Rob Reiner as Marty Di Bergi in This is Spinal Tap (1984)
Vitals
Rob Reiner as Marty Di Bergi, documentary filmmaker
Across the United States, Fall 1982 to Spring 1983
Film: This is Spinal Tap
Release Date: March 2, 1984
Director: Rob Reiner
Costume Stylist: Renee Johnston
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
To celebrate the life of the late Rob Reiner following his and his wife Michele’s tragic deaths over the weekend, today’s post turns it up to eleven with his directorial debut: the 1984 mockumentary—if you will, rockumentary—This is Spinal Tap.
As the son of comedy legends Carl and Estelle Reiner, Rob established his own career on the 1970s sitcom All in the Family as Mike “Meathead” Stivic, whose passion for political activism mirrored the actor’s own. “I could win the Nobel Prize and they’d write ‘Meathead wins the Nobel Prize’,” the two-time Emmy-winning Reiner once commented of the nickname’s lasting association. Though he continued to act, Reiner pivoted behind the camera with a prolific and wide-ranging filmography as the director of genre-spanning modern classics like Stand By Me (1986), The Princess Bride (1987), When Harry Met Sally… (1989), Misery (1990), A Few Good Men (1992), and The American President (1995)—adept at everything from rom-coms and courtroom drama to fantasy and suspense.
Designed to satirize more hagiographical music documentaries, This is Spinal Tap popularized—if not effectively launched—the mockumentary: a comedic format that continues to thrive through titles like Abbott Elementary, Borat, Documentary Now!, The Office, Parks & Recreation, and What We Do in the Shadows.
Reiner allows Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer to shine as the fictional metal band Spinal Tap, also appearing on screen as Marty Di Bergi, a filmmaker tasked with chronicling the titular band’s American comeback tour. Continue reading
Marriage on the Rocks: Dino’s Red Sweater and Green Slacks
Dean Martin in Marriage on the Rocks (1965)
Vitals
Dean Martin as Ernie Brewer, playboy advertising executive
Los Angeles, Fall 1965
Film: Marriage on the Rocks
Release Date: September 24, 1965
Director: Jack Donohue
Costume Designer: Walter Plunkett
Background
As we’re gliding through December, my playlist is increasingly loaded with Christmas classics—often sung by the great mid-century entertainers like Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, and Rat Pack icons Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.
After the Rat Pack’s heyday in the early ’60s had all but ended, the latter two pallies co-starred in Marriage on the Rocks, released sixty years ago in September 1965 amidst their career highs that included Sinatra recording September of My Years and appearing in an Emmy-winning documentary about his life and career, while Martin had just debuted his long-running variety show on NBC after knocking the Beatles from the top of the charts with “Everybody Loves Somebody”. Continue reading
Bob Newhart’s Red Leisure Jacket on Thanksgiving
Bob Newhart as Dr. Bob Hartley in “Over the River and Through the Woods”, the fourth-season Thanksgiving-themed episode of The Bob Newhart Show.
Vitals
Bob Newhart as Robert Hartley, PhD, deadpan psychologist
Chicago, Thanksgiving 1975
Series: The Bob Newhart Show
Episode: “Over the River and Through the Woods” (Episode 4.11)
Air Date: November 22, 1975
Director: James Burrows
Created by: David Davis & Lorenzo Music
Men’s Costumes: Ralph T. Schlain
Clothes by: Botany 500
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
One of the most iconic Thanksgiving-themed TV episodes of all time aired fifty years ago this week: “Over the River and Through the Woods”, from the fourth season of The Bob Newhart Show, the 1970s sitcom starring Bob Newhart and Suzanne Pleshette as Chicago couple Robert and Emily Hartley.
The demands of a psychologist’s patients during the holidays keep Bob home in Chicago for Turkey Day, though he’s hardly remiss to be missing Emily’s family’s annual gala in Seattle that includes square dancing and skipping stones across Puget Sound. Come Thursday, Bob hosts his fellow “Thanksgiving orphans”: orthodontist and office-mate Dr. Jerry Robinson (Peter Bonerz) his airheaded next-door neighbor Howard Borden (Bill Daily), and his chronic patient Elliot F. Carlin (Jack Riley), who declares “you know you’re at a bad party when Elliot Carlin is the happiest man in the room.” Continue reading
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
Farewell, Friend: Alain Delon’s Casual Jacket and Turtleneck
Alain Delon in Farewell, Friend (1968)
Vitals
Alain Delon as Dino Barran, discharged French Army doctor
Marseilles, France, December 1963
Film: Farewell, Friend
(French title: Adieu l’ami)
Release Date: August 14, 1968
Director: Jean Herman
Costume Designer: Tanine Autré
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Last year, the world said adieu to French screen and style icon Alain Delon, who was born 90 years ago tomorrow on November 8, 1935. Among his prolific filmography that includes Plein Soleil (1960), L’Eclisse (1962), The Leopard (1963), Le Samouraï (1967), and La Piscine (1969), one of Delon’s less-remembered films is the 1968 French-Italian heist caper Adieu l’ami—which translates to Farewell, Friend (also re-released as Honor Among Thieves). The film established Charles Bronson’s stardom in Europe, though it wouldn’t be released in the United States for another five years. Continue reading
Back to the Future: Doc Brown’s Snakeskin Robe for a Scientific Breakthrough
Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown in Back to the Future (1985)
Vitals
Emmett “Doc” Brown, eccentric inventor and amateur chronophysicist
Hill Valley, California, November 5, 1955
Film: Back to the Future
Release Date: July 3, 1985
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Costume Designer: Deborah Lynn Scott
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
If my calculations are correct… 70 years ago today was a red-letter date in the history of science: November 5, 1955. For those who haven’t seen Back to the Future, this was the day that Hill Valley’s resident mad scientist Emmett “Doc” Brown slipped from standing on his toilet to hang a clock, hitting his head on the bathroom sink—triggering his concept of the flux capacitor, which would make time travel possible.
Even a freshly bandaged Doc (Christopher Lloyd) seems unaware of that day’s significance when he’s visited by Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox)—not a space man from Pluto but a high school student from 1985 who was flung thirty years into the past by the DeLorean that Doc had transformed into a time machine. Continue reading
Killer’s Kiss: Jamie Smith’s Nailhead Jacket and Knitwear
Jamie Smith as Davey Gordon in Killer’s Kiss (1955)
Vitals
Jamie Smith as Davey Gordon, washed-up welterweight boxer
New York City, Fall 1954
Film: Killer’s Kiss
Release Date: October 1, 1955
Director: Stanley Kubrick
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Stanley Kubrick’s independently produced sophomore film Killer’s Kiss was released 70 years ago this fall—premiering in New York City on September 21, 1955, followed by a wider release on October 1st.
Pittsburgh-born Jamie Smith stars as burned-out ex-boxer Davey Gordon, whose growing romantic involvement with his neighbor—the alluring blonde taxi dancer Gloria Price (Chris Chase, credited as Irene Kane)—sets him dangerously at odds with her shady employer, Vincent Rapallo (Frank Silvera). Inventively shot and economically packaged (if somewhat underwritten) on a $75,000 budget, this tight thriller clocks in just under 70 minutes, benefiting from on-location shooting across New York from Penn Station and Times Square to the Brooklyn waterfront and “Hell’s Hundred Acres” in SoHo.
As Davey and Gloria plot their escape from the neon-lit nights of 1950s New York, the storyline and atmosphere read like a blend of Detour (1945) and Sweet Smell of Success (1957), making this little-known landmark noir an ideal starting point for Noirvember! Continue reading
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