Tagged: John Cassavetes

Rosemary’s Baby: John Cassavetes’ Light Blue Summer Sport Jacket

John Cassavetes and Mia Farrow in Rosemary’s Baby (1968). Photo by Paul Slade.

Vitals

John Cassavetes as Guy Woodhouse, ambitious actor

New York City, Summer 1965

Film: Rosemary’s Baby
Release Date: June 12, 1968
Director: Roman Polanski
Costume Designer: Anthea Sylbert

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Happy Mother’s Day! In honor of one of cinema’s most infamous pregnancies, today’s post looks at the enduring style of Rosemary’s Baby—Roman Polanski’s 1968 adaptation of Ira Levin’s best-selling horror novel, which had been published less than six months before filming began.

Though the film’s fashion legacy largely belongs to Mia Farrow’s iconic pixie cut and stylish wardrobe as the titular Rosemary Woodhouse, her on-screen husband Guy—a struggling actor played by John Cassavetes—also exhibits a sharp and understated sense of style. Continue reading

The Killers (1964): John Cassavetes On the Run in Corduroy

John Cassavetes and Angie Dickinson in The Killers (1964)

John Cassavetes and Angie Dickinson in The Killers (1964)

Vitals

John Cassavetes as Johnny North, race car driver-turned-robber

Southern California, Spring 1960

Film: The Killers
Release Date: July 7, 1964
Director: Don Siegel
Costume Designer: Helen Colvig

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Earlier this week, I kicked off #Noirvember with a look at Burt Lancaster as the hapless and doomed “Swede” Anderson, whose murder at the start of Robert Siodmak’s seminal noir The Killers kicks off the series of flashbacks investigating what led to his decision to give in to the two armed killers.

Two decades later, the material was revisited by director Don Siegel and screenwriter Gene L. Coon, who drifted even further from Ernest Hemingway’s source material to focus on the two slick hitmen who set about learning more about the man they had been hired to kill, now reimagined as a race car driver named Johnny North.

Continue reading