Tagged: Los Angeles
Sam Elliott’s Aloha Shirt in Lifeguard
Sam Elliott in Lifeguard (1976)
Vitals
Sam Elliott as Rick Carlson, charismatic 32-year-old beach lifeguard
Southern California, Summer 1975
Film: Lifeguard
Release Date: July 23, 1976
Director: Daniel Petrie
Wardrobe Credit: Margo Baxley
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Before his magnificent mustache and gravely voice made him a mainstay of Westerns, Sam Elliott’s breakthrough performance was in the romantic drama Lifeguard, released fifty years ago today on July 23, 1976.
In the half-century since its release, Lifeguard continues to polarize audiences as some praise it as a thoughtful character stufy of American masculinity in crisis while others disregard it as a vapid endorsement of statutory rape. While my own response falls somewhere in between, I do agree with even the film’s detractors that Sam Elliott’s undeniable charisma can’t help but to shine through even the more problematic elements of Ron Koslow’s screenplay. As the filmmakers cycled through potential leads like Beau Bridges and Adam Roarke, Elliott was considered after director Dan Petrie and his wife Dorothea noticed the actor’s masculine yet mustache-less performance opposite Roarke in the 1972 eco-horror film Frogs.
A former lifeguard himself, Elliott stars as a career lifeguard Rick Carlson working the beaches of Los Angeles County, where his easy-go-lucky barefoot life picking up chicks is washed into an identity crisis after he receives an invitation to his 15-year high school reunion while also countering his father (George D. Wallace) constantly criticizing his vocation: “You know what’s crazy? I still wonder what you’re gonna be when you grow up!” Although swayed by the promise of more “acceptable” success selling Porsches in the Valley, Rick ultimately decides to continue his sun-baked career as a professional lifeguard, having honed his abilities to the point where the only drowning allowed on his beach is drowning in tail. Continue reading
Paris, Texas: Harry Dean Stanton’s Red Road Trip Shirt and Ranchero
Harry Dean Stanton in Paris, Texas (1984)
Vitals
Harry Dean Stanton as Travis Henderson, once-wandering drifter
Los Angeles to Houston, Fall 1983
Film: Paris, Texas
Release Date: September 19, 1984
Director: Wim Wenders
Costume Designer: Birgitta Bjerke
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
One of my favorite actors, Harry Dean Stanton, was born 100 years ago today on July 14, 1926 in Kentucky. Following his U.S. Navy service during World War II, Stanton began an acting career that lasted more than six decades until his death from heart failure at age 91 in September 2017 after completing his penultimate film Lucky, which also afforded Stanton the rare starring role. He was a close, respected friend of many A-listers like Francis Ford Coppola, David Lynch, and Jack Nicholson, who included Stanton as best man in his 1962 wedding and habitually scrawled “H.D. Stanton” on the sets of his films.
Stanton typically made the most of supporting roles in films like Cool Hand Luke (1967), Dillinger (1973), The Godfather Part II (1974), Alien (1979), Escape from New York (1981), Christine (1983), Red Dawn (1984), Pretty in Pink (1986), Wild at Heart (1990), Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), The Green Mile (1999), and The Avengers (2012)—a filmography so prolific that Roger Ebert once declared that, with the sole exception of Dream a Little Dream (1989), “no movie featuring either Harry Dean Stanton or M. Emmet Walsh in a supporting role can be altogether bad.”
Despite his prolific supporting career, Stanton was cast in leading parts for back-to-back films released in 1984: Alex Cox’s dark sci-fi comedy Repo Man and Wim Wenders’ elegiac road drama Paris, Texas. The latter won the Palme d’Or when it premiered at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival and, though overlooked by most American award bodies, has grown its cult reputation as one of the greatest movies ever made. With additional style provided by Ry Cooder’s original score and Robby Müller’s masterful cinematography, the script was written by L.M. Kit Carson and Sam Shepard, who offered Stanton the part after the two connected at a Santa Fe film festival. Continue reading
Mel Brooks’ Bird-Attracting Charcoal Flannel Suit in High Anxiety
Mel Brooks in High Anxiety (1977)
Vitals
Mel Brooks as Dr. Richard Harpo Thorndyke, anxious psychologist
Los Angeles to San Francisco, Spring 1977
Film: High Anxiety
Release Date: December 25, 1977
Director: Mel Brooks
Costume Designer: Patricia Norris
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
The 2,000-Year-Old Man turns 100! Born Melvin James Kaminsky on June 28, 1926 in Brooklyn, prolific writer, director, producer, actor, and comedian Mel Brooks is one of less than two dozen entertainers to date to have attained EGOT status over a career that delivered iconic stage and screen comedies like The Producers (1967), Blazing Saddles (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), and Spaceballs (1987).
One of his most prominent (and stylish) on-screen performances was in High Anxiety, Brooks’ affectionate satire of Alfred Hitchcock’s films—crafted with the Master of Suspense’s own endorsement. (Following a private screening, Hitchcock’s only criticism was that Brooks used three too many shower rings in a parody of Psycho‘s famous “shower scene”; the director later sent a congratulatory case of wine to Brooks, noting that the movie itself was “splendid!”)
Cliff Robertson’s “Big Kahuna” Beach Style in Gidget
Cliff Robertson and Sandra Dee in Gidget (1959)
Vitals
Cliff Robertson as Burt “The Big Kahuna” Vail, beach bum and Korean War Veteran
Malibu, California, Summer 1959
Film: Gidget
Release Date: April 10, 1959
Director: Paul Wendkos
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Now that it’s summer, let’s flash back to the beach party movie that started it all. Before Frankie and Annette and before we ever followed Elvis to Hawaii, there was Gidget.
Czech-born writer Frederick Kohner was inspired to pen a novel by his daughter Kathy, who was nicknamed “Gidget” (a portmanteau for “girl” and “midget”) while learning to surf on the beaches at Malibu. Gidget, the Little Girl with Big Ideas became a top seller after it was published in 1957, so Kohner sold the rights to Columbia Pictures—awarding five percent of the $5,000 sale to Kathy—where screenwriter Gabrielle Upton adapted it for the screen. With journeyman director Paul Wendkos at the helm, Gidget was shot in just 26 days through the early summer of 1958, primarily on location at Leo Carrillo State Park in Malibu.
Gidget was a breakthrough role for Sandra Dee in the titular starring role as 16-year-old Francine Lawrence, who doesn’t share her girlfriends’ interest in man-hunting and rather wants to spend her summer learning how to surf. She makes a splash at the local beaches, where the regular surfers adopt her as their mascot. The boys like “Moondoggie” (James Darren) all idolize the beach-dwelling “Big Kahuna” (Cliff Robertson), who describes himself simply:
I’m a surf bum! You know: ride the waves, eat, sleep—not a care in the world.
The Rockford Files: Jim’s Beige Safari-style Fishing Jacket
James Garner as Jim Rockford in a promotional photo for The Rockford Files (1974-1980)
Vitals
James Garner as Jim Rockford, wisecracking private detective and ex-convict
Los Angeles to Las Vegas, Summer 1974
Series: The Rockford Files
Episodes:
– “Backlash of the Hunter” (Pilot episode, dir. Richard T. Heffron, aired 3/27/1974)
– “In Pursuit of Carol Thorne” (Episode 1.10, dir. Charles S. Dubin, aired 11/8/1974)
Creator: Roy Huggins & Stephen J. Cannell
Costume Designer: Charles Waldo
Background
Our first scene with James Garner’s titular Malibu-based private eye on The Rockford Files catches Jim Rockford after fishing with his father, Joseph “Rocky” Rockford (played by Robert Donley in the pilot, before he would be recast with Noah Beery Jr.). Rocky accompanies his son back to his trailer parked at Paradise Cove, where Jim’s lovely new prospective client Sara Butler (Lindsay Wagner) awaits him. Jim leads Sara into his “cheap, tax-deductible, earthquake-proof” office, where he introduces his now-iconic fee of:
$200 a day, plus expenses.
Writing a check (dated June 6, 1974, precisely dating the setting), Sara then hires Jim to look into his father’s under-investigated murder two months later. In the tradition of great detective fiction, the complexities of the case deepen while Rockford gets knocked around by a few heavies before knocking boots with the gorgeous femme fatale. A break in the case sends Jim and Sara speeding east across the Mojave Desert in his famous bronze Pontiac, resulting in a gunfight with Rockford’s unregistered cookie jar gat.
Since June 18th is annually recognized as National Go Fishing Day, let’s look at how Jim Rockford dressed for that day of fishing in his introductory scene. Continue reading
Sterling Hayden’s Four-Pocket Sport Jackets in The Killing
Sterling Hayden in The Killing (1956)
Vitals
Sterling Hayden as Johnny Clay, professional armed robber and ex-convict
Los Angeles, Fall 1955
Film: The Killing
Release Date: May 19, 1956
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Wardrobe Credit: Jack Masters
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Stanley Kubrick’s third directorial feature The Killing arrived in select theaters 70 years ago today on May 19, 1956. The limited release hurt its box office, though it was well-received by critics and even received a BAFTA nomination for Best Film. In addition to establishing Kubrick as a more mainstream talent, it remains a quintessential example of heist film noir, influencing filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino who described his own debut Reservoir Dogs as his own take on The Killing.
Kubrick collaborated with pulp novelist Jim Thompson on the hard-boiled screenplay, adapted from Lionel White’s novel Clean Break. The action centers around recently paroled Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden), who is already planning his next heist: the two-million-dollar robbery of a thoroughbred racetrack. Johnny’s scrappy gang includes two track employees, a crooked cop, a self-destructive former associate, and a sharpshooter whose job will be to shoot the favored horse and create chaos that distracts from the robbery. Continue reading
Breezy: William Holden’s Shawl-Collar Cardigan
William Holden and Kay Lenz in Breezy (1973)
Vitals
William Holden as Frank Harmon, cynical realtor and “nobody’s fool”
Los Angeles, Fall 1972
Film: Breezy
Release Date: November 18, 1973
Director: Clint Eastwood
Men’s Costumer: Glenn Wright
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Born 108 years ago on April 17, 1918, William Holden was one of the most bankable stars of the 1950s with an Oscar-winning performance in Stalag 17 (1953) as well as roles in enduring classics like Sunset Blvd. (1950), Sabrina (1954), and The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). After his career struggled through the ’60s, Holden embarked on a comeback as grizzled outlaw leader Pike Bishop in Sam Peckinpah’s violent 1969 western The Wild Bunch, though this didn’t generate as much momentum as the now middle-aged actor had hoped as new stars like Clint Eastwood dominated the scene.
The two actors’ paths would cross by 1972, when Holden was so grateful to be approached for the lead in Eastwood’s upcoming film Breezy that he agreed to star at no salary—accepting only a cut of the profits. (When there turned out to be no profits, even against Breezy‘s modest budget under a million dollars, SAG compelled Eastwood to pay Holden $4,000.)
Eastwood’s friend and frequent collaborator Jo Heims penned Breezy as an age-gap romance with equal parts tenderness and wit. This may strike viewers as a surprisingly sensitive story for Eastwood to direct at this stage in his career, at the time best known for acting in Westerns, war films, and hard-boiled crime stories like Dirty Harry (1971), and with only two directorial credits before it. It’s to Clint’s credit that he not only accepted the assignment to challenge his contemporary screen image but also willingly stepped off screen—save for a brief cameo at Fisherman’s Village—and cast the more age-appropriate Holden in the leading role of the disillusioned divorcee Frank Harmon.
“You know, I’ve been that guy,” Holden reportedly told Eastwood after he was cast. “Yeah, I thought so,” Eastwood replied. Continue reading
Body Double: Craig Wasson’s Tan Corduroy Sport Jacket
Craig Wasson and Deborah Shelton in Body Double (1984)
Vitals
Craig Wasson as Jake Scully, sensitive struggling actor
Los Angeles, January 1984
Film: Body Double
Release Date: October 26, 1984
Director: Brian De Palma
Costume Designer: Gloria Gresham
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
After a long, cold winter, the promise of a milder spring invites us to trade heavy wool coats and thick sweaters for lighter, transitional layers—think the corduroy-anchored wardrobe of Jake Scully in Brian De Palma’s Hitchcock-inspired Body Double. This 1984 erotic thriller stars Craig Wasson (born 72 years ago today on March 15, 1954) as Jake, a claustrophobic struggling actor who loses his most promising gig, his girlfriend, and his apartment in one swift collapse.
The cuckolded Jake ultimately stumbles into a promising new arrangement, house-sitting a swingin’ Hollywood Hills pad for the enigmatic Sam (Gregg Henry), who explains it’s “one struggling actor helpin’ out another, that’s what it’s all about, right?” Filmed at the John Lautner-designed modernist Chemosphere off Mulholland Drive, the joint comes with a telescope conveniently pointed into the neighboring home of striking brunette Gloria Revelle (Deborah Shelton).
Jake’s voyeurism grows over the next few days of watching Gloria’s onanistic dancing until he believes she has a more dangerous stalker and takes matters into his own hands, drawing him into a horny Rear Window-meets-Vertigo intrigue that includes an adult film star named Holly Body (Melanie Griffith) and a murder-by-power-drill incident. Continue reading
Ben Gazzara’s Navy Suit for The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
Ben Gazzara in The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)
Vitals
Ben Gazzara as Cosmo Vitelli, strip club owner and emcee
Los Angeles, Fall 1975
Film: The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
Release Date: February 15, 1976
Director: John Cassavetes
Wardrobe Credit: Mary Herne
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
John Cassavetes re-teamed with his friend and frequent collaborator Ben Gazzara for The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, a gritty neo-noir originally released 50 years ago today on February 15, 1976. The original cut ran over two hours, but feedback from audience—and Gazzara himself—resulted in Cassavetes recutting it down to a tighter 108-minute version that was re-released in 1978, maintaining its tone and ambiguously bleak ending.
“My name, if you don’t know it by now, is Cosmo Vitelli, and I own this joint,” Gazzara’s scrappy cabaret owner announces to his audience. “You know, they say everything is sex; sex is everything. Here at the Crazy Horse West, we give you a lot more than that.” Continue reading
Mark Frechette’s Revolutionary Rags in Zabriskie Point
Mark Frechette and Daria Halpern in Zabriskie Point (1970)
Vitals
Mark Frechette as Mark, revolutionary college dropout and forklift driver
Los Angeles to Death Valley, California, Summer 1968
Film: Zabriskie Point
Release Date: February 5, 1970
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Costume Designer: Ray Summers
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Michelangelo Antonioni refocused his existential “Antoni-ennui” lens onto the American campus counterculture for the offbeat drama Zabriskie Point, which premiered 56 years ago today on February 5, 1970, four days before its wider release. Poorly received by critics and audiences upon its release, Zabriskie Point earned a cult following in the decades to follow as newer audiences appreciate the raw style and performances, the deeply human story photographed by cinematographer Alfio Contini against the vast California desert, and a contemporary rock soundtrack featuring Pink Floyd, Jerry Garcia, The Rolling Stones, and The Youngbloods.
“Who the hell is he?” someone asks of our protagonist in the opening scene. Indeed, the moviegoing public may have wondered the same thing. After directing the likes of Alain Delon, Richard Harris, David Hemmings, Marcello Mastroianni, and Monica Vitti, Antonioni anchored Zabriskie Point with non-professional actors Mark Frechette and Daria Halprin in its leading roles. Casting director Sally Dennison discovered Frechette at a bus stop during the 20-year-old carpenter’s shouting match with a man leaning out of a window three stories above them. “He’s twenty, and he hates,” Dennison tersely explained in her recommendation to Antonioni. Continue reading
You must be logged in to post a comment.