Tagged: Fedora
White Heat: James Cagney’s Chalkstripe Suits and 1949 Mercury
James Cagney with Margaret Wycherly in White Heat (1949)
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James Cagney as Arthur “Cody” Jarrett, ruthless gang leader and devoted son
Los Angeles, California and Springfield, Illinois, Fall 1949 to Spring 1950
Film: White Heat
Release Date: September 2, 1949
Director: Raoul Walsh
Wardrobe Credit: Leah Rhodes
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Closing out Noirvmber but speeding into this winter’s Car Week, Raoul Walsh’s hard-boiled 1949 masterpiece White Heat erupts at the intersection of film noir and the classic Warner Brothers gangster film, which its star James Cagney had a hand in pioneering through his roles in The Public Enemy (1931), Angeles with Dirty Faces (1938), and The Roaring Twenties (1939). The latter had been his final criminal role for nearly a decade, as he evolved toward romantic and comedic roles including his Academy Award-winning performance as George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942).
But as his subsequent movies were unsuccessful with audiences, Cagney reluctantly returned to both the cinematic underworld and Jack L. Warner’s kingdom when he signed on to play the volatile gang leader Cody Jarrett in White Heat. Virginia Kellogg’s story was loosely inspired by the myth surrounding the ill-fated “Ma” Barker and her sons during the Depression-era crime wave, purchased for $2,000 by Warner Bros., where Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts spent six months adapting into a fictional screenplay where—much to Jack Warner’s frustration—they only envisioned Cagney to play Cody.
Following a $300,000 mail train robbery in the Sierra Nevada mountains that left four crewmen dead, Cody leads his gang’s retreat from their mountain hideout, splitting off with his sultry wife Verna (Virginia Mayo) and domineering mother (Margaret Wycherly) to hole up in a motel on the outskirts of Los Angeles. We’ve already seen Ma’s powerful influence over her son, both supporting him when he has his mind-splitting migraines and gently suggesting that he execute a wounded gang member rather than take the chance he’ll talk.
When Ma risks a trip into town to buy Cody’s favorite strawberries for him, she picks up a police tail that has Cody again at the wheel of their Mercury to make their getaway. After a night-time police chase through the streets of L.A., Cody ducks the Mercury into a drive-in theater and develops his plan to take the fall for a hotel heist in Illinois that was the same day as their deadly train robbery, giving himself a 2,000-mile alibi:
While those hoodlums were killing those innocent people on the train, I was pushing in a hotel in Springfield! Couldn’t be in both places at once, could I?
Kenneth Branagh’s Antarctic Exploration Gear as Ernest Shackleton
Kenneth Branagh in Shackleton (2002)
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Kenneth Branagh as Sir Ernest Shackleton, prolific polar explorer
Antarctica, December 1914 to August 1916
Series: Shackleton
Air Dates: January 2-3, 2002
Director: Charles Sturridge
Costume Designer: Shirley Russell
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
The Channel 4 series Shackleton aired in two parts during the first week of January 2002, winning Emmy Awards in two of the seven categories for which it was nominated among nods from the BAFTA Awards and Golden Globes. Kenneth Branagh stars as the titular Sir Ernest Shackleton, specifically depicting his leadership of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition toward the end of what many call the “Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration”. Though the specific expedition failed in its scientific objective, his leadership and the resourceful group’s survival have become legendary as a feat of, well, endurance. Despite this, Shackleton wisely avoids hagiography as it presents the titular adventurer with virtues and flaws intact.
After securing funding and approval from the British Admiralty despite looming war across Europe, Shackleton’s crew departed from Plymouth in August 1914 aboard the Endurance. Shackleton had purchased this Norwegian-built three-masted schooner, which was originally christened Polaris before he renamed it from his family motto (“By endurance, we conquer”), thus its journey from England through the South Atlantic was its maiden voyage. Following stops in Buenos Aires and South Georgia Island, Shackleton and his crew of 28 men—and 69 dogs—finally departed for the Antarctic on December 5th.
The real Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922), photographed aboard the Endurance by Frank Hurley, circa 1914-1915.
Shackleton commanded the Endurance through the Weddell Sea, while Aeneas Mackintosh helmed a supporting party aboard the Aurora through the Ross Sea. Hoping to make landfall by Christmas, the seagoing expedition stretched into January 1915 when the Endurance became beset in pack ice. To conserve fuel for a potential return to South Georgia, Shackleton cut the engines and began drifting in the ice… for nine months.
110 years ago today on October 27, 1915—one year and a day after the Endurance left Buenos Aires—Shackleton finally gave his crew the orders to abandon ship, establishing a camp on the ice after—aside from Frank Hurley’s photographs and Leonard Hussey’s banjo—each man was instructed to dump all but two pounds of personal possessions from aboard the ship. Endurance finally sank just over three weeks later on November 21, 1915, starting a new chapter as the crew realized their mission shifted from science to survival.
My job now is to make sure you all live: every single one of you. To do that, I cannot afford to be sentimental. If I am, you will die—die starving, die frozen, die mad. I’ve seen it before, I do not intend to see it again.
Hoodlum: Tim Roth’s Gray Checked Suit as Dutch Schultz
Tim Roth as Dutch Schultz in Hoodlum (1997)
Vitals
Tim Roth as Dutch Schultz, volatile gangster
New York City and Newark, New Jersey, Spring 1934 through Fall 1935
Film: Hoodlum
Release Date: August 27, 1997
Director: Bill Duke
Costume Designer: Richard Bruno
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Ninety years ago today on October 23, 1935, notorious New York gangster Dutch Schultz was fatally shot along with his accountant Otto Berman, his lieutenant Abe Landau, and his bodyguard Bernard “Lulu” Rosencrantz at the Palace Chop House in Newark, New Jersey. Transferred to Newark City Hospital, Schultz lingered for nearly a day, with his fevered final ramblings about dot-dash systems and French-Canadian bean soup meticulously recorded by police stenographer F.J. Lang before the 34-year-old criminal finally died of peritonitis.
The famous gangland slaying was fictionalized for the denouement of Hoodlum, Bill Duke’s chronicle of Schultz’s war against underworld rivals Stephanie “Madame Queen” St. Clair (Cicely Tyson), Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson (Laurence Fishburne), and Charles “Lucky” Luciano (Andy Garcia) as the Harlem numbers racket became increasingly lucrative following the repeal of Prohibition. Though the 1997 drama isn’t without its flaws, one of its strongest elements may be Tim Roth’s performance as Schultz—perhaps the best on-screen representation of the actual gangster’s appearance and temperament. Continue reading
Sinners: Michael B. Jordan’s Suits as the Smokestack Twins
Michael B. Jordan as Elias and Elijah Moore in Sinners (2025)
Vitals
Michael B. Jordan as the Smokestack Twins: Elias “Stack” Moore and Elijah “Smoke” Moore
Clarksdale, Mississippi, October 1932
Film: Sinners
Release Date: April 18, 2025
Director: Ryan Coogler
Costume Designer: Ruth E. Carter
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Sinners has been one of the biggest movies of 2025, with the highest opening weekend box office for an original film since Nope in 2022. Produced, written, and directed by Ryan Coogler, Sinners is set 93 years ago tonight from October 15 to 16, 1932 as the snappily dressed twin Moore brothers—recently returned from Chicago, where they were gunmen for the mob—have returned to their Mississippi Delta hometown to open a juke joint.
Smoke: Chicago ain’t shit but Mississippi with tall buildings instead of plantations.
Stack: And that’s why we came back home. Figure we might as well deal with the devil we know.
The Two Jakes: Jack Nicholson’s Gray Donegal Tweed Jacket
Jack Nicholson as J.J. Gittes in The Two Jakes (1990)
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Jack Nicholson as J.J. “Jake” Gittes, world-weary private investigator and ex-policeman
Los Angeles, Fall 1948
Film: The Two Jakes
Release Date: August 10, 1990
Director: Jack Nicholson
Costume Designer: Wayne A. Finkelman
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
I had only just turned one when The Two Jakes was released 35 years ago today on August 10, 1990, so I can’t say whether anyone was really asking for a sequel to Roman Polanski’s 1974 neo-noir masterpiece Chinatown. What I can say is that there’s been surprisingly steady interest from BAMF Style readers in how Jack Nicholson’s wardrobe evolved from Anthea Sylbert’s Oscar-nominated designs for the 1930s-set Chinatown to suit the sequel’s setting in the fall of 1948. Continue reading
Niagara: Joseph Cotten in Shades of Gray
Joseph Cotten as George Loomis in Niagara (1953)
Vitals
Joseph Cotten as George Loomis, former sheep rancher and Korean War veteran
The Canadian side of Niagara Falls, Summer 1952
Film: Niagara
Release Date: January 21, 1953
Director: Henry Hathaway
Costume Designer: Dorothy Jeakins
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
One of 20th Century Fox’s biggest box-office hits of 1953, Niagara is one of the most accessible movies to be described with the seemingly oxymoronic “color noir,” blending elements of dark film noir with stunning three-strip Technicolor, photographed by cinematographer Joseph MacDonald.
The action is set at picturesque Niagara Falls—specifically on the Canadian side, though the American side became New York’s first state park 140 years ago today when Governor David B. Hill signed legislation creating the Niagara Reservation on April 30, 1885. The tradition of newlyweds journeying to Niagara Falls dates back to at least 1801, when Aaron Burr’s daughter Theodesia joined her new husband Joseph Alston at the falls.
The destination’s self-dubbed reputation as the “Honeymoon Capital of the World” inspired producer Charles Brackett, who co-wrote the script for Niagara with Richard Breen and Walter Reisch. The story centers around the honeymooning Cutlers—Ray (Max Showalter) and Polly (Jean Peters)—who arrive at the Rainbow Cabins, only to find their reserved suite still occupied by George Loomis (Joseph Cotten) and his sultry wife Rose (Marilyn Monroe), who explains to the couple that George was recently discharged from an Army mental hospital. Continue reading
Midnight Mary: Ricardo Cortez’s 1930s Tuxedo
Ricardo Cortez in Midnight Mary (1933)
Vitals
Ricardo Cortez as Leo Darcy, sociopathic gangster
New York, Spring 1933
Film: Midnight Mary
Release Date: June 30, 1933
Director: William A. Wellman
Costume Designer: Adrian (gowns)
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
When Midnight Mary was streaming on the Criterion Channel last year, I was impressed not just by the well-tailored costumes worn by its male characters on both sides of the law but also the amount of dialogue within this 74-minute pre-Code classic dedicated to discussing menswear, whether that’s a a lawyer’s butler modeling his new dressing gown or an underworld mook fishing for positive feedback about his new tuxedo only to receive conflicting criticism about the length of his jacket.
The movie centers around the titular Mary Martin (Loretta Young), whose hard life as an orphaned young girl led to her acquaintanceship with the smooth-talking gangster Leo Darcy (Ricardo Cortez) by her late teens. One of the most popular actors of pre-Code Hollywood, Cortez died 48 years ago today on April 28, 1977. Continue reading
Kiss of Death: Richard Widmark as Tommy Udo
Richard Widmark as Tommy Udo in Kiss of Death (1947)
Vitals
Richard Widmark as Tommy Udo, psychopathic mob hitman
New York City, Spring 1947
Film: Kiss of Death
Release Date: August 13, 1947
Director: Henry Hathaway
Wardrobe Director: Charles Le Maire
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Born 110 years ago today on December 26, 1914, Richard Widmark made his explosive and Academy Award-nominated screen debut in Henry Hathaway’s 1947 noir thriller Kiss of Death, filmed on location that spring in New York City and the surrounding area. Though Hathaway had fought Darryl F. Zanuck on casting Widmark, the director and actor developed a mutual respect for the other that would lead to five additional cinematic collaborations and Widmark serving as pallbearer during Hathaway’s 1985 funeral.
After a Christmas Eve jewelry heist gone wrong, Nick Bianco (Victor Mature) shares a jail cell with the sadistic Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark), a psychopathic criminal “picked up just for shovelin’ a guy’s ears off his head…. traffic ticket stuff.” Refusing to name his accomplices, Nick is sentenced to 20 years in Sing Sing, handcuffed on the train to Tommy who remembers that it’s his birthday… making this an especially appropriate post for today!
Joseph Cotten in The Third Man
Joseph Cotten as Holly Martins in The Third Man (1949)
Vitals
Joseph Cotten as Holly Martins, moderately successful writer
Vienna, Fall/Winter 1948
Film: The Third Man
Release Date: September 1, 1949
Director: Carol Reed
Wardrobe Credit: Ivy Baker
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
I’m lurking in the shadows of moody, war-torn Vienna today to kick off #Noirvember with The Third Man, one of my favorite films noir. Celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, The Third Man was directed by Carol Reed from a screenplay by Graham Greene.
American pulp novelist Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) travels to the British sector of Allied-occupied Vienna to accept a job working for his old pal Harry Lime (Orson Welles), only to learn upon his arrival that “the best friend he ever had” is reported dead and buried after an automobile accident on his street. (“Is that what you say to people after death? ‘Goodness, that’s awkward’,” Holly responds to a new acquaintance’s platitudinous condolences.)
As a mostly penniless writer of “cheap novelettes”, Holly has little else to do but remain in Vienna and try to discover what happened to Harry, whom he soon learns from Royal Military Police officer Major Calloway (Trevor Howard) was “about the worst racketeer to ever make a living in this city.” Despite a contentious relationship with the major, Holly discovers he has a fan in his assistant, Sergeant Paine (Bernard Lee), who apologizes for having to subdue the writer and assures him that he’s read a few of his Western novels after helping him back to his feet. His personal investigation plunges him into the duplicitous underworld of the Austrian black market with characters ranging from Harry’s shady colleagues to his refugee girlfriend Anna Schmidt (Alida Valli).
With its iconic score by zither player Anton Karas, Welles’ memorable performance with his “cuckoo clock” monologue, and Academy Award-winning black-and-white cinematography by Robert Krasker, The Third Man remains not just one of the most acclaimed examples of classic film noir but also considered one of the greatest movies of all time. Continue reading
Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street
In the spirit of Halloween tomorrow and following a suggestion received from a BAMF Style reader earlier this year, today’s post explores the costume of a cinematic horror icon who needs little introduction.
Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
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Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger, supernatural serial killer
Suburban Ohio, Spring 1981
Film: A Nightmare on Elm Street
Release Date: November 9, 1984
Director: Wes Craven
Costume Designer: Dana Lyman
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Next month will mark the 40th anniversary of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Wes Craven’s iconic slasher film that introduced the world to the terrifying Freddy Krueger, the pizza-faced killer who can target his victims through their dreams—a concept inspired by the mysterious deaths among Hmong refugees who mysteriously died in their sleep following disturbing nightmares.
Craven embodied the terror of a monster who can attack people at their most vulnerable in the form of Freddy Krueger, the undead spirit of a vindictive child murderer. I have to respect Craven’s own vindictiveness, borrowing the name from his childhood bully Fred Krueger and immortalizing it as one of the most grotesque monsters in horror cinema history. Continue reading