Tagged: Fall
Moonrunners: Kiel Martin’s Fringed Buckskin Jacket and Blue Jeans
Kiel Martin in Moonrunners (1975)
Vitals
Kiel Martin as Bobby Lee Hagg, daredevil moonshine driver and part-time guitar picker
Georgia, Fall 1973
Film: Moonrunners
Release Date: May 14, 1975
Director: Gy Waldron
Costume Designer: Patty Shaw
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Two rambunctious and fast-driving cousins speed through a fictional county in the deep south, running moonshine for their uncle Jesse while evading local sheriff Roscoe Coltrane and his connections to a corrupt local crime boss who drives a white Cadillac—all set to the music and homespun voiceover of outlaw country legend Waylon Jennings. And no, I’m not talking about The Dukes of Hazzard.
Four years before the Dukes debuted on CBS, Gy Waldron’s B-movie Moonrunners premiered in drive-in theaters across the South fifty years ago tomorrow on May 14, 1975.
Moonrunners could have been lost in the traffic jam of cheap ’70s hick flicks about moonshine and muscle cars until it was plucked from potential obscurity by Warner Brothers’ perplexing—but indeed prophetic—suggestion that it could form the basis for a successful TV show. Now best known as the rawer progenitor to The Dukes of Hazzard, Moonrunners has essentially all the same elements and characters but distilled into a dirtier, hornier jar of shine—seasoned with the visceral authenticity that comes from filming on location in rural Georgia and not a WB backlot. Continue reading
The Panic in Needle Park: Al Pacino’s Deck Jacket and Layers
Al Pacino and Kitty Winn in The Panic in Needle Park (1971)
Vitals
Al Pacino as Bobby, desperate drug addict
New York City, Fall 1970
Film: The Panic in Needle Park
Release Date: July 13, 1971
Director: Jerry Schatzberg
Costume Designer: Jo Ynocencio
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
On Al Pacino’s 85th birthday, let’s look back at the Manhattan-born actor’s first leading screen role that launched his prolific career.
Born April 25, 1940, Pacino studied acting through the ’60s at the HB Studio and Actors Studio, which led to a handful of acclaimed stage roles. His manager, Martin Bregman, then helped him land what would become his breakout film performance as hustler and heroin addict Bobby in The Panic in Needle Park, directed by Bregman’s fellow client Jerry Schatzberg, a photographer who had just completed his directorial debut Puzzle of a Downfall Child.
“I had made my theater bones playing these types of street characters, so I was grateful to have that choice for a first film,” Pacino later recalled in his 2024 memoir Sonny Boy. “The Panic in Needle Park turned out to be a showcase for me. It’s still lauded today, and Jerry Schatzberg did such a magnificent job.”
Written by John Didion and John Gregory Dunne, The Panic in Needle Park centers around Bobby and his girlfriend Helen (Kitty Winn), navigating their worsening heroin addictions among a network of fellow junkies whose presence in a section of New York’s Upper West Side resulted in the titular “Needle Park” nickname. Continue reading
The Conversation: Gene Hackman’s Puppytooth Suit and Raincoat
Gene Hackman as Harry Caul in The Conversation (1974)
Vitals
Gene Hackman as Harry Caul, anxious audio surveillance expert and saxophonist
San Francisco, December 1972
Film: The Conversation
Release Date: April 7, 1974
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Costume Designer: Aggie Guerard Rodgers
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Released today in 1974, The Conversation featured a characteristically great starring performance from the late Gene Hackman. Hackman stars as San Francisco surveillance specialist Harry Caul, a paranoid loner described by one of his few pals as “the best bugger on the West Coast.”
Director Francis Ford Coppola later shared that, though Hackman initially struggled to connect with the repressed and introspective Caul due to their contrasting personalities, he ultimately came to regard the role as one of his personal favorites. Continue reading
The Gambler: James Caan’s Tan Cardigan
James Caan as Axel Freed in The Gambler (1974)
Vitals
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
The Limey: Peter Fonda’s Layered Shirts at Big Sur
Peter Fonda as Terry Valentine in The Limey (1999)
Vitals
Peter Fonda as Terry Valentine, shady rock producer/promoter
Big Sur, California, Fall 1998
Film: The Limey
Release Date: October 8, 1999
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Costume Designer: Louise Frogley
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Steven Soderbergh’s stylish 1999 crime film The Limey follows paroled English career criminal Wilson (Terence Stamp) on a quest for revenge after his daughter’s mysterious death, leading him to her final boyfriend—L.A. rock promoter Terry Valentine (Peter Fonda). As Wilson’s pursuit grows increasingly deadly, Terry high-tails it to his Big Sur beach house, where he holes up with his latest girlfriend Adhara (Amelia Heinle) and a handful of boyguards, including security chief Jim Avery (Barry Newman).
Soderbergh filmed The Limey on location in Big Sur, a picturesque region on California’s Central Coast. Spanish settlers originally named this unexplored coastal expanse “el sur grande” (“the big south”). As more English-speaking inhabitants arrived over the following decades, the name was simplified to the Spanglish “Big Sur”. This name was officially adopted 100 years ago today when the U.S. Postal Service approved a petition to rename the local post office from Arbolado to Big Sur on March 6, 1915. Continue reading
Star Trek: Spock’s Pea Coat in “The City on the Edge of Forever”
Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock on Star Trek, Episode 1.28: “The City on the Edge of Forever”
Vitals
Leonard Nimoy as Spock, time-traveling starship officer
New York City, Fall 1930
Series: Star Trek
Episode: “The City on the Edge of Forever” (Episode 1.28)
Air Date: April 6, 1967
Director: Joseph Pevney
Creator: Gene Roddenberry
Costume Designer: William Ware Theiss
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Last year, a BAMF Style reader smartly suggested writing about the classic workwear commandeered by two USS Enterprise officers upon “passing through ripples in time” and landing in Depression-era New York City in the landmark Star Trek episode “The City on the Edge of Forever”.
Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and his part-Vulcan first officer, the brilliant Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), were forced to leap through a portal on a mysterious planet, in pursuit of their cordrazine-crazed medical officer “Bones” McCoy (DeForest Kelley), whose actions on the other side of the portal inadvertently altered the past to a degree that erased the Enterprise and its crew from existence. Without their advanced technology at his disposal, Spock is forced to improvise “to construct a mnemonic memory circuit using stone knives and bearskins” and determine how Bones’ actions affected the future, eventually finding Kirk’s new love interest, pacifist missionary Edith Keeler (Joan Collins), to be at the center of it all.
As actor Leonard Nimoy died ten years ago today on February 27, 2015, today’s post follows up on my previous entry about Captain Kirk’s found workwear by exploring Spock’s purloined pea coat and jeans. Continue reading
Succession: Tom’s Cashmere Puffer Vest and White Sneakers in Norway
Matthew Macfadyen as Tom Wambsgans on Succession, Episode 4.05 (“Kill List”)
Vitals
Matthew Macfadyen as Tom Wambsgans, obsequious corporate media executive
Møre og Romsdal, Norway, Fall 2020
Series: Succession
Episode: “Kill List” (Episode 4.05)
Air Date: April 23, 2023
Director: Andrij Parekh
Creator: Jesse Armstrong
Costume Designer: Michelle Matland
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Working my way through the winter blues, I’m returning to some of the luxuriously simple cool-weather looks from the final season of Succession—specifically the fifth episode trip to Norway, where the Roy siblings hope to land a deal with tech giant GoJo.
Included among the Waystar RoyCo contingent is the spineless yet calculating Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen), whose machinations and devotion to the company’s late CEO Logan Roy (Brian Cox) placed him in a better position for advancement than Logan’s own children… including his daughter Siobhan (Sarah Snook), whom Tom had married before betraying to advance his good graces with Logan. Continue reading
Paul Schneider as Dick Liddil in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Paul Schneider and Brad Pitt in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
Vitals
Paul Schneider as Dick Liddil, smooth-talking outlaw and incorrigible “innamoratu”
Missouri and Kentucky, Fall 1881
Film: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Release Date: September 21, 2007
Director: Andrew Dominik
Costume Designer: Patricia Norris
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
The James Gang committed over 25 bank, train, and stagecoach robberies from 1867 to 1881. But, except for Frank and Jesse James, all of the original members were either now dead or in prison. So, for their last robbery at Blue Cut, the brothers recruited a gang of petty thieves and country rubes, culled from the local hillsides.
— Hugh Ross’ narration from The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Based on the last few months of the infamous bandit leader’s life, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford illustrates how Jesse (Brad Pitt) and Frank James (Sam Shepard) had fallen from their notorious “glory days” of riding with the Youngers, now reduced to a band of fanboy ruffians like the simple-minded Ed Miller (Garret Dillahunt) and brothers Charley (Sam Rockwell) and Bob Ford (Casey Affleck). One of the more capable members of this new iteration of the gang is Dick Liddil (Paul Schneider), though even he seems more interested in how many women he can “diddle”. Continue reading
Two-Lane Blacktop: Dennis Wilson as “The Mechanic”
Dennis Wilson in Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
Vitals
Dennis Wilson as “The Mechanic”, an unnamed car mechanic
Arizona through Tennessee, Fall 1970
Film: Two-Lane Blacktop
Release Date: July 7, 1971
Director: Monte Hellman
Costume Designer: Richard Bruno
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
This week would have been the 80th birthday of Beach Boys drummer and co-founding member Dennis Wilson, whose sole acting credit was Monte Hellman’s 1971 road movie Two-Lane Blacktop. Born December 4, 1944 in Inglewood, California, Wilson was the sole Beach Boy—even among his bandmate brothers Brian and Carl—who could actually surf, despite the band’s many songs celebrating surf culture.
Though Two-Lane Blacktop has gained a cult following in the decades since its unceremonious release in the summer of 1971, this wasn’t Wilson’s first brush with cults as he had briefly been acquainted with Charles Manson during the year before the infamous Tate-LaBianca murders.
Wilson was cast only four days before production began in August 1970. Casting director Fred Roos had recommended him to Hellman, who later explained to Marc Savlov for the Austin Chronicle that he had confidence in the inexperienced Wilson as “he had lived that role, that he really grew up with cars. It was almost as though he were born with a greasy rag in his back pocket.”
Wilson starred opposite James Taylor, a fellow popular musician making his screen debut—and, to date, sole credit—as the restless young men racing their ’55 Chevy around the country. No names are given for any of the film’s major characters, with Taylor and Wilson credited simply as “The Driver” and “The Mechanic”, respectively. Continue reading
Maestro: Lenny’s “Holiday Houndstooth” Jacket and Turtleneck on Thanksgiving
Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein in Maestro (2023)
Vitals
Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein, acclaimed conductor
New York City, Thanksgiving 1971
Film: Maestro
Release Date: November 22, 2023
Director: Bradley Cooper
Costume Designer: Mark Bridges
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Happy Thanksgiving!
Bradley Cooper’s Oscar-nominated sophomore directorial effort Maestro was released one year ago this month on Thanksgiving Eve 2023, the day before Cooper himself spent Turkey Day with the family of Leonard Bernstein, the legendary American conductor he portrayed on screen.
Also co-produced and co-written by Cooper, Maestro spans nearly fifty years of Bernstein’s life—prominently chronicling his tumultuous marriage to the stylish Costa Rican performer Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan).
The real Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), conducting rehearsals at London’s Royal Albert Hall for the Igor Stravinsky Memorial Concert in April 1972.
“There’s one scene in particular that I cannot stop thinking about,” wrote Britt Hayes for The Mary Sue. “And it involves a certain little guy from Peanuts.” Continue reading
You must be logged in to post a comment.