Tagged: Field Jacket
Frank Lovejoy’s M-1941 Field Jacket in Try and Get Me!
Frank Lovejoy in Try and Get Me! (1950)
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Frank Lovejoy as Howard Tyler, unemployed family man and World War II veteran
Central California, Spring 1950
Film: Try and Get Me!
(Original title: The Sound of Fury)
Release Date: November 15, 1950
Director: Cy Endfield
Men’s Wardrobe: Robert Martien (uncredited)
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
In recognition of Veteran’s Day, today’s Noir-vember post focuses on one of the many films noir driven by the plight and cynicism of American servicemen in the years following World War II.
Originally released under the less lurid title The Sound of Fury, Try and Get Me! was adapted by Jo Pagano from his own 1947 novel The Condemned, which drew from the real-life 1933 lynching of two men who had confessed to kidnapping and murdering California heir Brooke Hart—the same incident which also inspired Fritz Lang’s 1936 film Fury. (For the trivia-inclined: Hart was kidnapped 92 years ago this week, on Thursday, November 9, 1933.)
The movie begins in the fictional town of Santa Sierra, California, where a seemingly innocent bowling alley conversation between the down-on-his-luck Howard Tyler (Frank Lovejoy) and gregarious fellow ex-serviceman Jerry Slocum (Lloyd Bridges) leads to the strong-willed Jerry enlisting Howard as his getaway driver for a series of holdups that escalate to a deadly kidnapping. Continue reading
Blood Diamond: Leo’s Khaki Bush Shirt, Breitling, and Field Jacket
Leonardo DiCaprio as Danny Archer in Blood Diamond (2006)
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Leonardo DiCaprio as Danny Archer, arms dealer and diamond smuggler
Freetown, Sierra Leone to Cape Town, South Africa, January 1999
Film: Blood Diamond
Release Date: December 8, 2006
Director: Edward Zwick
Costume Designer: Ngila Dickson
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Blood Diamond has been requested by several BAMF Style readers through the years. The movie is set during the brutal Sierra Leonean Civil War, which began 34 years ago tomorrow on March 23, 1991, when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebelled against Joseph Momoh’s government.
In his third Oscar-nominated performance, Leonardo DiCaprio’s portrayal of Rhodesian gun runner and diamond smuggler Danny Archer has been cited among his appearances in The Aviator (2004) and The Departed (2006) as a breakthrough into more mature roles for the actor. Continue reading
The Deer Hunter: Robert De Niro’s Hunting Gear
Robert De Niro in The Deer Hunter (1978)
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Robert De Niro as Mike Vronsky, steel worker
Southwestern Pennsylvania, Fall 1967 and Winter 1973
Film: The Deer Hunter
Release Date: December 8, 1978
Director: Michael Cimino
Costume Supervisor: Eric Seelig
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Michael Cimino’s acclaimed second film The Deer Hunter was released 46 years ago today on December 8, 1978. Aside from the sequences set in Vietnam, the film primarily takes place among the steel towns of western Pennsylvania. As we’re currently in the midst of the two-week deer-hunting season for Pennsylvania riflemen, let’s look at how Robert De Niro dressed as the titular outdoorsman Mike Vronsky. Continue reading
Kramer vs. Kramer: Dustin Hoffman’s M-65 Field Jacket
Dustin Hoffman and Justin Henry in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
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Dustin Hoffman as Ted Kramer, ad man and divorced dad
New York City, January 1979
Film: Kramer vs. Kramer
Release Date: December 19, 1979
Director: Robert Benton
Costume Designer: Ruth Morley
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
One of my more recent posts focused on a movie where Dustin Hoffman played a conniving con artist, so let’s allow him to redeem himself as a workaholic learning how to be a more present dad in Kramer vs. Kramer, Robert Benton’s 1979 divorce-centric drama that won Hoffman his first Academy Award for Best Actor—in addition to Oscars for his co-star Meryl Streep, Benton’s screenplay and directing, and the Best Picture trophy.
Hoffman and Streep play the titular Kramer couple, who split after eight years of marriage when an overwhelmed Joanna leaves Ted and their seven-year-old son Billy (Justin Henry) in the New York apartment they once shared. Ted initially struggles with the demands of parenting, but he grows from an aloof workaholic to an engaged dad over the year and a half that he raises Billy exclusively before Joanna re-enters their lives and requests custody. Continue reading
A Bridge Too Far: Sean Connery in British Battledress and Denison Smock as Roy Urquhart
Sean Connery in A Bridge Too Far (1977)
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Sean Connery as Major General Roy Urquhart, courageous British Army officer
Holland, Fall 1944
Film: A Bridge Too Far
Release Date: June 15, 1977
Director: Richard Attenborough
Costume Designer: Anthony Mendleson
Background
Operation Market Garden commenced eighty years ago this week through late September 1944, a daring yet ultimately ill-fated Allied attempt to secure key bridges throughout the Netherlands and advance into Germany. This major World War II operation was immortalized in the star-studded 1977 war epic A Bridge Too Far, directed by Richard Attenborough and adapted by William Goldman from Cornelius Ryan’s nonfiction volume of the same name.
Among the film’s ensemble cast, Sean Connery’s charisma commands the screen as Major General Roy Urquhart, the British officer tasked with leading the 1st Airborne Division (“Red Devils”) during the operation. Despite Connery’s star power, the real General Urquhart had no idea who Connery was, though his daughters were thrilled at the casting. Attenborough chose Connery not only for his acting chops but also for his striking resemblance to a younger Urquhart.
In a memorable scene before the airborne assault, Connery’s Urquhart reveals to General Browning that he’s never actually jumped out of a plane—an amusing confession for the man leading an airborne division. The moment becomes even more ironic as they spot asylum escapees laughing at them from the roadside, prompting Urquhart to quip, “Do you think they know something we don’t?” Continue reading
MASH: Donald Sutherland as Hawkeye
Donald Sutherland as Captain “Hawkeye” Pierce in M*A*S*H (1970)
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Donald Sutherland as Capt. Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce, U.S. Army surgeon
Korea, Summer 1951 through Winter 1952
Film: M*A*S*H
Release Date: January 25, 1970
Director: Robert Altman
Background
Today would have been the 89th birthday of Donald Sutherland, the prolific and versatile Canadian actor who died last month at the age of 88. Born July 17, 1935 in New Brunswick, Sutherland rose to prominence as a steady supporting player through the ’60s—perhaps most notably in The Dirty Dozen (1967)—before his first major starring role in yet another war film, M*A*S*H (1970), adapted by screenwriter Ring Lardner Jr. from Richard Hooker’s novel MASH: A Novel of Three Army Doctors. (The popularity of the film resulted in the eventual development of a TV show—starring Alan Alda as Hawkeye—that ran for nearly four times as long as Korean War hostilities.)
Set during the Korean War, M*A*S*H centered around around the irreverent Army doctor Captain Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce during his tenure at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. He’s assisted in his hard-drinking hijinks by fellow surgeons “Trapper John” McIntyre (Elliott Gould), Duke Forrest (Tom Skeritt), dentist “The Painless Pole” Waldowski (John Schuck), and former football star “Spearchucker” Jones (Fred Williamson), all while battling the uptight majors Frank Burns (Robert Duvall) and “Hot Lips” Houlihan (Sally Kellerman).
At one point, Major Houlihan asks the compound chaplain Father “Dago Red” Mulcahy (René Auberjonois) how “a degenerated person like [Hawkeye] could have reached a position of responsibility in the Army Medical Corps!” to which Mulcahy simply responds, “He was drafted.”
Sutherland’s Golden Globe-nominated performance established him as a star as his career ascended through the ’70s with starring roles in Klute (1971), Don’t Look Now (1973), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), and Ordinary People (1980) while also continuing to provide memorable supporting appearances in movies like Little Murders (1971), 1900 (1976), and Animal House (1978).
What’d He Wear?
Apropos his rebellious attitude, Donald Sutherland’s Hawkeye never presents himself in a perfect example of a U.S. Army uniform, instead mixing regulation gear with personal accoutrements that craft a distinctively irreverent look. Continue reading
The Longest Day: John Wayne’s M1942 Jump Uniform as Benjamin Vandervoort
John Wayne as Lt. Col. Benjamin H. Vandervoort in The Longest Day (1962)
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John Wayne as Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin H. Vandervoort, commanding officer of 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, U.S. Army
England to France, June 1944
Film: The Longest Day
Release Date: September 25, 1962
Directed by: Ken Annakin (British & French sequences), Andrew Marton (American sequences), and Bernhard Wicki (German sequences)
Wardrobe: John McCorry (uncredited)
Background
Eighty years ago today on June 6, 1944—a date immortalized as “D-Day”—the Allies began landing hundreds of thousands of troops in Nazi-occupied France, laying the foundation for liberating the continent and ending the European theater of World War II within the year.
D-Day often conjures images of daring Allied troops storming the beaches at Normandy under heavy German gunfire, but there were many other elements within Operation Neptune, from aerial and naval bombardments and local resistance operations to the airborne invasion preceding the famous amphibious assault.
Irish-born war correspondent Cornelius Ryan captured all of these aspects when he published The Longest Day, his definitive chronicle of D-Day pulled from his firsthand experience during World War II and his own exhaustive research to follow. Three years after the book was published in 1959, Ryan co-adapted his volume into an epic film that would pull together a wide international cast and crew, with Ken Annakin directing the sequences among the British and French, Andrew Marton directing the American sequences, and Bernhard Wicki directing the sequences from a German perspective. Actual D-Day participants from both the Allied and Axis powers served as consultants for the film, which also starred a number of World War II veterans like Eddie Albert, Henry Fonda, Kenneth More, Rod Steiger, and Richard Todd.
The Longest Day was a commercial and critical success, garnering five Academy Award nominations and setting a then-record as the highest-grossing black-and-white film to date. Among its star-studded cast was John Wayne, portraying the real-life 82nd Airborne parartooper Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin H. “Vandy” Vandervoort (1917-1990). Though Duke was nearly 30 years older than the real Vandervoort, his ruggedly macho screen persona instantly communicated Vandy’s reputation among no less than General Matthew B. Ridgway, who described the officer as “one of the bravest, toughest battle commanders I ever knew.”
The real Lt. Col. Benjamin H. Vandervoort during Operation Overlord in June 1944, with the broken left ankle that didn’t stop him from leading his battalion in defending Ste.-Mère-Église.
A Bridge Too Far: James Caan’s M-1943 Combat Uniform as Staff Sergeant Dohun
James Caan in A Bridge Too Far (1977)
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James Caan as Staff Sergeant Eddie Dohun, determined U.S. Army paratrooper
Holland, Fall 1944
Film: A Bridge Too Far
Release Date: June 15, 1977
Director: Richard Attenborough
Costume Designer: Anthony Mendleson
Background
Established in the United States after the Civil War, Memorial Day honors the memory of American military personnel who died during their service. This year takes on additional poignancy as the 80th anniversary of many pivotal World War II campaigns that cost American lives, from D-Day to the Battle of the Bulge.
My great-uncle, Sergeant Joe Kordas, was among these fallen troops when he was killed in action on October 4, 1944 while serving in Holland with the 82nd Airborne. As I was born 45 years later, I naturally never had the opportunity to meet my uncle, but his memory is among those I honor on Memorial Day.
My understanding is that Uncle Joe was part of the 82nd Airborne Division’s fourth and final combat jump, parachuting into Holland in September 1944 as part of Operation Market Garden. This Allied offensive was designed to create an invasion route into the Netherlands as a combined force of American and British airborne forces (“Market”) would seize nine bridges, which British land forces (“Garden”) would then follow over. The largest airborne operation of the war to that point, Operation Market Garden was not an Allied victory and criticized by one of its planners as attempting to take “a bridge too far,” a phrase borrowed by historian Cornelius Ryan for his 1974 volume of the operation that was subsequently adapted for the screen by William Goldman.
More than a decade after he starred in his own star-studded World War II screen epic, The Great Escape, Richard Attenborough was again behind the camera for A Bridge Too Far, his third directorial feature. Chronicling the operation from the American, British, Polish, Dutch, and German points of view, A Bridge Too Far boasted a talented international cast including—but certainly not limited to—Dirk Bogarde, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Edward Fox, Elliott Gould, Anthony Hopkins, Gene Hackman, Hardy Krüger, Laurence Olivier, Ryan O’Neal, Robert Redford, Maximilian Schell, and Liv Ullmann.
Most of this cast played real-life figures or composites of them, with one of my favorite performances being James Caan’s portrayal of Staff Sergeant Eddie Dohun, a noncommissioned officer in the 101st Airborne based on the real-life Sergeant Charles J. Dohun, to the extent that A Bridge Too Far was the first of Caan’s films I chose to rewatch after learning of the actor’s death in July 2022. Continue reading
Al Pacino’s Field Jacket as Serpico
Al Pacino in Serpico (1973)
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Al Pacino as Frank Serpico, NYPD plainclothes officer
New York, Winter 1971
Film: Serpico
Release Date: December 5, 1973
Director: Sidney Lumet
Costume Designer: Anna Hill Johnstone
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Released 50 years ago today on December 5, 1973, Serpico chronicles the decade-long law enforcement career of Frank Serpico, a real-life New York Police Department plainclothes officer who exposed widespread corruption in the department, portrayed by Al Pacino in his second Academy Award-nominated performance. (This continues a trend of celebrating Pacino’s cinematic milestones, as readers may recall that this week is also the 40th anniversary of Scarface.)
Presented as an idiosyncratic individualist more beatnik than beat cop, Serpico hardly fit the traditional police mold with his idealistic values and hippie lifestyle, often putting him at odds with his colleagues as he refuses to take their bribes. After years of trying, Serpico finally manages to get public attention onto these levels of corruption with a New York Times article published in April 1970 that he celebrates with his fellow honest cops, Bob Blair (Tony Roberts) and Inspector Lombardo (Edward Grover), respective stand-ins for the real-life David Durk and Paul Delise.
Unfortunately, the media attention further ostracizes Serpico within the department to such a degree that, less than a year later on February 3, 1971, he nearly dies after being shot in the face with a .22 during a Brooklyn narcotics bust.
“Guess who got shot? Serpico,” a duty lieutenant informs a colleague at the film’s start. “Think a cop did it?” he gets asked. “I know six cops who’d like to.” Continue reading
Jimmy Stewart in The Flight of the Phoenix
James Stewart as Frank Towns in The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)
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James Stewart as Frank Towns, experienced cargo pilot and war veteran
Libyan desert, Spring 1965
Film: The Flight of the Phoenix
Release Date: December 15, 1965
Director: Robert Aldrich
Costume Designer: Norma Koch
Background
James Maitland Stewart had to fly. His earliest memories of flight involved colorful covers of Literary Digest depicting the Great War, then in progress, and the incredible use of air power by both sides. Jim tacked up each magazine cover on the wall in his bedroom. “Airplanes were the last thing I thought of every night and the first thing I thought of every morning,” he would say as an adult.
— Robert Matzen, Mission: Jimmy Stewart and the Fight for Europe, Chapter 1
Born 115 years ago today on May 20, 1908, Jimmy Stewart had a lifelong passion for flight that followed him through his career, from the model airplane he lovingly constructed with Henry Fonda during their salad days on Broadway through his celebrated service flying dangerous combat missions as a U.S. Army Air Forces officer during World War II. Reticent to discuss his service after the war, Stewart flew B-24 Liberators on 20 combat missions over Europe and, by war’s end, was one of only a handful of Americans to rise from the rank of private to colonel in only four years.
Aviation continued to be a theme of Stewart’s life during his postwar film career, often starring in flight-themed dramas like No Highway in the Sky (1951), The Glenn Miller Story (1954), Strategic Air Command (1955), and The Spirit of St. Louis (1957), playing famed aviator Charles Lindbergh.
One of the last—and perhaps best—of Stewart’s aviation-centered films is The Flight of the Phoenix, Robert Aldrich’s 1965 survival drama based on Elleston Trevor’s novel of the same name. Stewart plays civilian cargo pilot Frank Towns, described by his navigator Lew Moran (Richard Attenborough) as “one of the few really great pilots left in this push-button world of yours.” Continue reading
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