Tagged: Jeans
Bonnie and Clyde: Michael J. Pollard’s Type I Denim Jacket as C.W. Moss
Michael J. Pollard as C.W. Moss in Bonnie & Clyde (1967)
Vitals
Michael J. Pollard as C.W. Moss, slow-witted mechanic-turned-bank robber
Texas to Missouri, Spring 1933
Film: Bonnie & Clyde
Release Date: August 13, 1967
Director: Arthur Penn
Costume Designer: Theadora Van Runkle
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
My last post centered around one of the many quick-and-dirty Depression-set crime films released in the wake of Bonnie & Clyde‘s popularity, so let’s refocus today’s sartorial attention back on the groundbreaking 1967 drama that started it all. Starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty (who also produced the film), Bonnie & Clyde fictionalized the exploits of real-life Texas outlaws Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, whose two-year crime spree of mostly unprofitable robberies left a trail of at least twelve dead lawmen and civilians until they were ultimately killed by law enforcement in May 1934.
Robert Benton and David Newman’s Academy Award-nominated screenplay emphasized the twenty-something couple’s youth, capitalizing on the prevailing countercultural sentiment of the late 1960s in the stylized spirit of French New Wave cinema. Presumably even younger than Bonnie or Clyde is their first on-screen accomplice: small-town gas station attendant C.W. Moss (Michael J. Pollard), whose simplicity often suggests excessive exposure to fuel fumes. Moss served as a composite for several real-life associates of the gang, specifically eventual turncoat Henry Methvin and Dallas teenager W.D. “Deacon” Jones.
Born 110 years ago today on May 12, 1916, Jones was only 16 years old when the 23-year-old Clyde and 22-year-old Bonnie recruited him into their scrappy band on Christmas Eve 1932. After a car theft gone wrong resulted in the murder of Temple, Texas family man Doyle Johnson the next day, Jones became inextricably linked with the Barrow gang for more than a year until his eventual arrest in November 1933, six months before his more famous friends were gunned down in Louisiana. Continue reading
When Harry Met Sally: Harry’s Post-College Hoodie and Jeans
Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Vitals
Billy Crystal as Harry Burns, recent college graduate
Chicago to New York City, Spring 1977
Film: When Harry Met Sally…
Release Date: July 14, 1989
Director: Rob Reiner
Costume Designer: Gloria Gresham
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
I graduated from college fifteen years ago this week, and I’m still (slightly) younger than 40-year-old Billy Crystal was when he played recent University of Chicago graduate Harry Burns in the opening scenes of When Harry Met Sally. Directed by the late Rob Reiner (a qualifier which still hurts to say), When Harry Met Sally is considered by many—including yours truly—to be one of the best romantic comedies of all time.
Ironically scored to Louis Armstrong crooning “Our Love is Here to Stay”, the movie begins with Harry kissing a girlfriend whose name he wouldn’t even remember five years later. Amanda (Michelle Nicastro) introduces Harry to her friend Sally Albright (Meg Ryan), who has agreed to drive the stranger across the country to New York, which Sally has calculated should be “an 18-hour trip with six shifts of three hours each.” Continue reading
Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw: Marjoe Gortner’s Blue Cutoff Western Shirt
Marjoe Gortner and Lynda Carter in Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw (1976)
Vitals
Marjoe Gortner as Lyle Wheeler, wannabe outlaw
New Mexico, Summer 1975
Film: Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw
Release Date: April 28, 1976
Director: Mark L. Lester
Costume Designer: Cornelia McNamara
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
People typically cite two major reasons to watch the low-budget ’70s crime flick Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw… neither of which are Marjoe Gortner’s wardrobe. Is that going to stop me from writing about it for the film’s 50th anniversary? No, of course not.
Released in Los Angeles on April 28, 1976, this was also Lynda Carter’s big-screen debut, finally hitting screens nearly six months after she became an instant sensation when Wonder Woman premiered on ABC. Made with the same exploitative “guilty pleasure” watchability that defined so much of American Independent Pictures’ contemporary output, Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw is known to many for Carter’s sole (but frequent) nude screen appearance—often in varying states of undress playing the, uh, titular Bobbie Jo Baker, who abandons her dead-end job and alcoholic mother to join the charismatic car thief Lyle Wheeler on a crime spree through the southwest. Prior to his Rocky fame, Sylvester Stallone was producers’ first choice to play Lyle until ex-child preacher Marjoe Gortner was cast.
Yep, you read that right. Continue reading
Tommy Lee Jones in Jackson County Jail
Tommy Lee Jones in Jackson County Jail (1976)
Vitals
Tommy Lee Jones as Coley Blake, laconic career criminal
Southwestern United States, Summer 1976
Film: Jackson County Jail
Release Date: April 11, 1976
Director: Michael Miller
Costume Designer: Cornelia McNamara
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
The grindhouse cult classic Jackson County Jail was released fifty years ago today, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Yvette Mimieux, and the late Robert Carradine, who died earlier this year at age 71. While hardly the best known of any of its stars’ filmographies, Jackson County Jail developed a cult following in the decades since its 1976 release—including by director Quentin Tarantino, who screened it for his inaugural film festival in Austin.
The movie follows advertising executive Dinah Hunter (Mimieux), driving across the country to take a new job in New York after leaving her deadbeat husband back in L.A. Her troubles begin early after the hitchhiking hustler Bobby Ray (Carradine) and his pregnant, pill-popping girlfriend Lola (Nancy Noble) steal her AMC Pacer at gunpoint, leaving her stranded in the titular Jackson County—likely somewhere in the southwest, between Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah.
She seeks help from local bartender Dan Oldum (Britt Leach), but this also demolishes her luck as the creepy taxidermist Dan tries to sexually assault her… resulting in her arrest when a good ol’ boy deputy happens into the bar. Dinah is placed into a cell opposite to the taciturn Texan crook Coley Blake (Jones), who recently capped his extensive rap sheet by reportedly killing a man who caught him stealing melons. Continue reading
Steve McQueen’s Denim in Baby the Rain Must Fall
Steve McQueen in Baby the Rain Must Fall (1965)
Vitals
Steve McQueen as Henry Thomas, irresponsible musician and ex-convict
Columbus, Texas, Fall 1963
Film: Baby the Rain Must Fall
Release Date: January 23, 1965
Director: Robert Mulligan
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Screen and style icon Steve McQueen was born 96 years ago today on March 24, 1930. After his breakthrough success in The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Great Escape (1963), and the TV series Wanted Dead or Alive, McQueen was plucked out of westerns and war movies into more dramatic fare like Love with the Proper Stranger (1963) and Baby the Rain Must Fall (1965).
Adapted by Horton Foote from his own play The Traveling Lady, the latter film was more aligned with McQueen’s rougher and tougher screen image. He stars as Henry Thomas, a small-time rockabilly singer estranged from his wife Georgette (Lee Remick) and their six-year-old daughter Margaret Rose (Kimberley Block), whom he’s never met… until the gals surprise him in his hometown of Columbus, Texas, where he’s recently been released from a jail stint. Continue reading
Justifed: Raylan’s Grayscale Plaid Shirt and Henley in “The Collection”
Timothy Olyphant as Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens on Justified (Episode 1.06: “The Collection”)
Vitals
Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens, old-fashioned Deputy U.S. Marshal
Between Lexington, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio, Spring 2010
Series: Justified
Episode: “The Collection” (Episode 1.06)
Air Date: April 20, 2010
Director: Rod Holcomb
Creator: Graham Yost
Costume Designer: Ane Crabtree
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
I’ve recently been rewatching Justified with my wife—her first time seeing the series—and it renewed my interest in how Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) dresses while both on- and off-duty working the Eastern District of Kentucky.
Debuting sixteen years ago this month in March 2010, Justified‘s first season especially blended a case-of-the-week format with the series mythology revolving around how the Givens family feud with Harlan County families like the Crowders and Bennetts translated to Raylan’s crusade against arch criminal Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) as well as his ongoing drama with his ex-wife Winona (Natalie Zea).
One of the last standalone episodes outside of this format was the sixth episode, “The Collection”, revolving around crooked Cincinnati art dealer Owen Carnes (Peter Jason), whom Raylan increasingly suspects was murdered by his wife Caryn (Katherine LaNasa), despite being reminded that murder alone doesn’t necessarily fall under the U.S. Marshals Service’s investigative purview. Continue reading
Denzel Washington in Déjà Vu
Denzel Washington in Déjà Vu (2006)
Vitals
Denzel Washington as Doug Carlin, ATF agent and Marine Corps veteran
New Orleans, Spring 2006
Film: Déjà Vu
Release Date: November 22, 2006
Director: Tony Scott
Costume Designer: Ellen Mirojnick
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
On this Fat Tuesday, flash back to 20 years ago when the observance set the scene for Tony Scott’s sci-fi crime thriller Déjà Vu. The movie itself is fine, but it’s a shining example of Denzel Washington’s uncanny ability to elevate any material with his considerable charisma and talent.
Déjà Vu begins with an explosion aboard the Sen. Alvin T. Stumpf passenger ferry which killed 543 people—mostly civilian families and U.S. Navy personnel en route New Orleans’ first Mardi Gras celebration following Hurricane Katrina. A task force across federal agencies and local police includes ATF Special Agent Doug Carlin, given the explosive nature of the act and the responsibilities covered by BAFTE’s final letter. Continue reading
Taxi Driver: Travis Bickle’s M-65 Field Jacket
Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (1976)
Vitals
Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle, disturbed taxi driver and Vietnam War veteran
New York City, Spring to Summer 1976
Film: Taxi Driver
Release Date: February 9, 1976
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Designer: Ruth Morley
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Martin Scorsese’s violent meditation on loneliness, Taxi Driver, was released 50 years ago today on February 9, 1976—one day after its New York City premiere. Fresh off of his Academy Award win for The Godfather Part II, Robert De Niro received a second career nomination for his portrayal of “God’s lonely man” Travis Bickle, a troubled Marine Corps veteran who combats his insomnia by driving a taxi through the decaying streets of 1970s New York.
After his poorly conceived attempts to woo a sophisticated political campaign volunteer are understandably rejected, Travis refocuses his attention on the pre-teen prostitute Iris (Jodie Foster), whom he attempts to dissuade from her current profession. Meanwhile, Travis’ paranoia grows to the point that he drops just under a thousand dollars on a quartet of handguns that range in power and concealment—his scattered plans ranging from political assassination to a brothel massacre, all the while practicing his heavily armed bravado in his disorganiz-ized home:
“You talkin’ to me?”
Chilly Scenes of Winter: John Heard’s Moth-eaten Maroon Sweater
John Heard in Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979)
Vitals
John Heard as Charles Richardson, obsessive state analyst
Salt Lake City, Winter 1979/80
Film: Chilly Scenes of Winter
Release Date: October 19, 1979
Director: Joan Micklin Silver
Costume Designer: Rosanna Norton
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
The wintry weather this first full week of the year feels appropriate to slip into John Heard’s deceptively cozy wardrobe in Joan Micklin Silver’s 1979 comedy Chilly Scenes of Winter. Originally marketed by United Artists as a zany, lighthearted rom-com that the studio re-titled Head Over Heels (much to its cast and crew’s dismay), Chilly Scenes of Winter is actually an all-too-real exploration of the depths to which a seemingly sane person can fall when tortured by their concept of love.
Heard plays Charles Richardson, a seemingly normal Utah State Department of Development report analyst who begins dating his colleague Laura (Mary Beth Hurt), only to grow increasingly and desperately obsessed with winning back her affection after she ends their relationship. Continue reading
The Killer Elite: Robert Duvall’s Navy Shacket and Watch Cap
Robert Duvall in The Killer Elite (1975)
Vitals
Robert Duvall as George Hansen, mercenary-for-hire
San Francisco, Spring 1975
Film: The Killer Elite
Release Date: December 19, 1975
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Costume Designer: Ray Summers
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
My post about the late James Caan’s style in The Killer Elite for the film’s 50th anniversary last month received more attention than I expected, as well as requests to cover his co-star Robert Duvall. So, ahead of Duvall’s 95th birthday tomorrow, let’s look at how he dresses as the double-crossing mercenary George Hansen across The Killer Elite‘s second act.
After betraying his partner Mike Locken (Caan) and leaving him with a crippling bullet to the knee, George has been profiting as a freelance mercenary most recently hired to assassinate a Taiwanese politician visiting the United States. Mike had been out of commission for weeks while recovering from his wound, but his old employer ComTeg finally welcomes him back into the fold—hoping he can foil his former partner’s plot. Continue reading
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