Tagged: Khaki Shirt
Gene Hackman’s Leather Jacket in Hoosiers
Gene Hackman in Hoosiers (1986)
Vitals
Gene Hackman as Norman Dale, controversial high school basketball coach and Navy veteran
Indiana, Fall 1951
Film: Hoosiers
Release Date: November 14, 1986
Director: David Anspaugh
Costume Designer: Jane Anderson
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Welcome to Indiana basketball…
The legendary late actor Gene Hackman was born 96 years ago today on January 30, 1930. On the first anniversary of his birthday since his death last February, today’s post centers around Hackman’s celebrated performance in the 40-year-old sports drama Hoosiers as Norman Dale, hired to coach a small Indiana town’s basketball team whose roster includes names like Merle, Rade, Strap, and Whit—which I think is just great.
Though set in the fictional town of Hickory, Hoosiers was loosely inspired by the true story of the Milan High School basketball team’s victory against Muncie Central High School to win the 1954 state championship. And if you don’t think that’s a big deal, just take it from Norm himself:
I thought everybody in Indiana played basketball.
Twin Peaks: Michael Ontkean in Khakis and Fleck Jacket as Sheriff Harry Truman
Michael Ontkean as Sheriff Harry S. Truman in Twin Peaks (Episode 1.03: “Episode 2″, aka “Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer”)
Vitals
Michael Ontkean as Harry S. Truman, small-town sheriff
Twin Peaks, Washington, February and March 1989
Series: Twin Peaks (Seasons 1-2)
Air Dates: April 8, 1990 to June 10, 1991
Created by: Mark Frost & David Lynch
Costume Design: Sara Markowitz (seasons 1-2) & Patricia Norris (pilot episode only)
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
For Canadian actor Michael Ontkean’s 80th birthday, today’s post continues the Twin Peaks theme started this week with series co-creator David Lynch’s appearance as FBI Deputy Director Gordon Cole. Born just four days after Lynch on January 24, 1946, Ontkean rose to fame through the 1970s on the TV series The Rookies and the 1977 sports comedy Slap Shot before he took on the role of the even-tempered Sheriff Harry S. Truman—no known relation to the president of the same name, though the sheriff does hang the 33rd president’s portrait in his office. Continue reading
Frank Lovejoy’s M-1941 Field Jacket in Try and Get Me!
Frank Lovejoy in Try and Get Me! (1950)
Vitals
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
Alec Guinness’ Tropical Khaki Drill Uniform in The Bridge on the River Kwai
Alec Guinness in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Vitals
Alec Guinness as Lt. Col. L. Nicholson, duty-bound British Army officer and POW
Between Burma and Thailand, Spring 1943
Film: The Bridge on the River Kwai
Release Date: October 2, 1957
Director: David Lean
Wardrobe Credit: John Wilson-Apperson
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
One of the most acclaimed war epics of all time, The Bridge on the River Kwai was directed by David Lean and adapted from the 1952 novel by French author Pierre Boulle, a former POW who infused the story with a mix of firsthand insight and satirical commentary. The film became the highest-grossing release of 1957 and won six of its seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Alec Guinness, who died 25 years ago tomorrow on August 5, 2000.
In this fictionalized account of the construction of a railway bridge along the Burma-Siam route during World War II, Guinness portrayed dignified career officer Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson of the British Army, whom we meet as he leads his whistling troops into a Japanese prison camp deep in the arid Thai jungle. Continue reading
Blood Diamond: Leo’s Khaki Bush Shirt, Breitling, and Field Jacket
Leonardo DiCaprio as Danny Archer in Blood Diamond (2006)
Vitals
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
Cary Grant in Father Goose
Cary Grant as Walter Eckland in Father Goose (1964)
Vitals
Cary Grant as Walter Eckland, crude and reluctant wartime coast-watcher
Pacific Islands, Spring 1942
Film: Father Goose
Release Date: December 10, 1964
Director: Ralph Nelson
Costume Designer: Ray Aghayan (uncredited)
Background
Last month, I reflected on the elegant white suit that Cary Grant wore at the start of his stylish career in the pre-Code drama Hot Saturday. More than 30 years later, Grant was firmly established as one of the most charming—and enduringly best-dressed—stars of the era, subverting his screen reputation for his penultimate movie, the World War II-set comedy Father Goose opposite Leslie Caron. Continue reading
Midway: Charlton Heston’s Naval Aviation Khaki
Charlton Heston as CAPT Matthew Garth in Midway (1976)
Vitals
Charlton Heston as CAPT Matthew Garth, U.S. Naval Aviator
Pearl Harbor to Midway Island, Spring 1942
Film: Midway
Release Date: June 18, 1976
Director: Jack Smight
Background
Many familiar with World War II history are familiar with the significance of Monday’s date as, on June 6, 1944, the Allies landed at Normandy in northern France as part of the “D-Day” invasion that laid the groundwork for the eventual Allied victory. Two years earlier, the Americans had been engaged in yet another decisive battle that would turn the tide of the second World War.
The Battle of Midway had commenced 80 years ago today on June 4, 1942, following intelligence gathered by the U.S. Navy that allowed it to prepare for a counterattack against the Imperial Japanese Navy. Three days of battle followed, with American forces destroying all four Japanese fleet carriers that had engaged and—in both a tactical and symbolic victory—had also been part of the six-carrier force that attacked Pearl Harbor six months earlier.
Though the Americans also suffered the loss of a carrier, a destroyer, and approximately 150 aircraft, casualties were considerably higher on the Japanese side (including nearly double the amount of aircraft lost), marking an early turning point of the Pacific War in favor of the Allies and which historian John Keegan has called “the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare.”
In addition to an 18-minute color documentary directed during the battle by John Ford, the Battle of Midway has been the subject of two major movies, mostly recently in 2019. A star-studded retelling of the battle and its lead-up was produced by The Mirisch Company in 1976, starring—among many others—Henry Fonda as Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, commander of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific fleet. Having served in the Navy in real life during World War II, Fonda had actually partly narrated Ford’s 1942 documentary and also appeared as an unnamed admiral inspired by Nimitz in the 1965 epic In Harm’s Way.
The cast was rounded out by both established international stars from Robert Mitchum to Toshiro Mifune and relative newcomers like Dabney Coleman, Erik Estrada, and a non-mustached Tom Selleck. Being made just over 30 years after World War II ended meant a number of actual veterans among its cast; in addition to Fonda, Glenn Ford, Charlton Heston, Hal Holbrook, Cliff Robertson, and Robert Webber had all served.
Though most of its characters are real-life figures, Midway centers around a fictionalized hero in the form of naval aviator CAPT Matthew Garth (Heston), for whom the battle presents the culmination of his increasing personal and professional troubles. Continue reading
Jimmy Stewart’s Undercover Denim Jacket in The FBI Story
James Stewart as agent John “Chip” Hardesty in The FBI Story (1959)
Vitals
James Stewart as John “Chip” Hardesty, earnest FBI agent
Oklahoma, June 1930
Film: The FBI Story
Release Date: October 1959
Director: Mervyn LeRoy
Costume Designer: Adele Palmer
Background
One of the greatest stars of the 20th century, James Stewart—known to friends and fans as “Jimmy”—was born on this day in 1908 in Indiana, Pennsylvania, just about an hour west of Pittsburgh.
Among the less celebrated titles in the actor’s extensive filmography is The FBI Story, a J. Edgar Hoover-influenced epic exploring the early successes of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Jimmy plays our fictional all-American agent John “Chip” Hardesty, whose Forrest Gump-like decades-long career with the Bureau includes a role in nearly every major investigation from tracking down the bank-robbing “Public Enemies” of the Depression and World War II spies to the bombing of United Flight 629 in 1955.
An interesting chapter of The FBI Story sends Chip to Oklahoma in the summer of 1930 to investigate the “Reign of Terror” in Osage County, Oklahoma, represented on screen as the obsoletely named “Wade County”. These murders of dozens of Osage Native Americans throughout the ’20s were recently explored by David Grann in his fascinating book, Killers of the Flower Moon, which provided the basis for a Martin Scorsese film of the same name currently in production starring Jesse Plemons, Robert De Niro, and Leonardo DiCaprio. Continue reading
Robert De Niro in Midnight Run
Robert De Niro as Jack Walsh in Midnight Run (1988)
Vitals
Robert De Niro as Jack Walsh, tough bounty hunter
New York to Los Angeles, Fall 1987
Film: Midnight Run
Release Date: July 20, 1988
Director: Martin Brest
Costume Designer: Gloria Gresham
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
“This is an easy gig, it’s a midnight run for chrissakes!”
Bounty hunter Jack Walsh has withstood plenty of action and abuse tracking down fugitives for bail bondsman Eddie Moscone (Joe Pantoliano), but the inherent danger of bringing in Jonathan “The Duke” Mardukas (Charles Grodin), an accountant in the crosshairs of the Mafia, has Jack demanding $100,000 for the job. A pro, Jack has an easy enough time finding the Duke in New York, but bringing him back to L.A. and his hundred-grand payday brings a fresh set of challenges between the Duke’s reluctance to fly, the interference of the FBI, a rival bounty hunter sabotaging him at each step, and—oh!—a couple of deadly doofuses sent by the mob to whack the Duke… and anyone who gets in their way.
The Bridges at Toko-Ri: William Holden’s Naval Flight Jacket
William Holden as LT Harry Brubaker in The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954)
Vitals
William Holden as LT Harry Brubaker, bitter U.S. Navy Reserve aviator
Off the Korean coast, November 1952
Film: The Bridges at Toko-Ri
Release Date: December 1954
Director: Mark Robson
Costume Designer: Edith Head
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Mid-century flight must be my subconscious theme heading into the new year given my last few posts about Frank Sinatra’s jet-setting style and then Sean Connery’s charcoal traveling suit in Goldfinger. Let’s at least move forward from the fuselage to the cockpit where William Holden sits at the controls of his Grumman F9F-2 Panther in The Bridges at Toko-Ri as military aviator LT Harry Brubaker, flying for the U.S. Navy during the Korean War.
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