Tagged: Overcoat
Hoodlum: Tim Roth’s Gray Checked Suit as Dutch Schultz
Tim Roth as Dutch Schultz in Hoodlum (1997)
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Tim Roth as Dutch Schultz, volatile gangster
New York City and Newark, New Jersey, Spring 1934 through Fall 1935
Film: Hoodlum
Release Date: August 27, 1997
Director: Bill Duke
Costume Designer: Richard Bruno
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Ninety years ago today on October 23, 1935, notorious New York gangster Dutch Schultz was fatally shot along with his accountant Otto Berman, his lieutenant Abe Landau, and his bodyguard Bernard “Lulu” Rosencrantz at the Palace Chop House in Newark, New Jersey. Transferred to Newark City Hospital, Schultz lingered for nearly a day, with his fevered final ramblings about dot-dash systems and French-Canadian bean soup meticulously recorded by police stenographer F.J. Lang before the 34-year-old criminal finally died of peritonitis.
The famous gangland slaying was fictionalized for the denouement of Hoodlum, Bill Duke’s chronicle of Schultz’s war against underworld rivals Stephanie “Madame Queen” St. Clair (Cicely Tyson), Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson (Laurence Fishburne), and Charles “Lucky” Luciano (Andy Garcia) as the Harlem numbers racket became increasingly lucrative following the repeal of Prohibition. Though the 1997 drama isn’t without its flaws, one of its strongest elements may be Tim Roth’s performance as Schultz—perhaps the best on-screen representation of the actual gangster’s appearance and temperament. Continue reading
Midnight Mary: Ricardo Cortez’s 1930s Tuxedo
Ricardo Cortez in Midnight Mary (1933)
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Ricardo Cortez as Leo Darcy, sociopathic gangster
New York, Spring 1933
Film: Midnight Mary
Release Date: June 30, 1933
Director: William A. Wellman
Costume Designer: Adrian (gowns)
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
When Midnight Mary was streaming on the Criterion Channel last year, I was impressed not just by the well-tailored costumes worn by its male characters on both sides of the law but also the amount of dialogue within this 74-minute pre-Code classic dedicated to discussing menswear, whether that’s a a lawyer’s butler modeling his new dressing gown or an underworld mook fishing for positive feedback about his new tuxedo only to receive conflicting criticism about the length of his jacket.
The movie centers around the titular Mary Martin (Loretta Young), whose hard life as an orphaned young girl led to her acquaintanceship with the smooth-talking gangster Leo Darcy (Ricardo Cortez) by her late teens. One of the most popular actors of pre-Code Hollywood, Cortez died 48 years ago today on April 28, 1977. Continue reading
Sunset Boulevard: William Holden’s New Year’s Evening Dress
William Holden and Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard (1950)
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William Holden as Joe Gillis, “well-known screenwriter, uranium smuggler, and Black Dahlia suspect”
Los Angeles, New Year’s Eve 1949
Film: Sunset Boulevard
Release Date: August 10, 1950
Director: Billy Wilder
Costume Designer: Edith Head
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Happy New Year! Billy Wilder’s iconic 1950 noir Sunset Blvd. features one of the most lavish yet depressing celebrations of this holiday, as the washed-up “silent movie queen” Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) organizes an intimate evening with her latest obsession, desperate screenwriter Joe Gillis.
“It was at her New Year’s party that I found out how she felt about me,” Joe narrates. “Maybe I’d been an idiot not to have sensed it was coming… that sad, embarrassing revelation.”
Clad in the new full evening tailcoat and white tie that Norma purchased for him, Joe strolls into Norma’s ballroom for the party… only to discover that he’s the only guest. Following an awkward tango, the two quarrel when he demands that she not fall in love with him. With less than an hour to midnight, Joe abandons the house “to be with people my own age… I had to hear somebody laugh again.” Continue reading
And Justice for All: Al Pacino’s Corduroy Jacket on Thanksgiving
Al Pacino in …And Justice for All (1979)
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Al Pacino as Arthur Kirkland, determined defense attorney
Baltimore, Fall and Winter 1978
Film: …And Justice for All
Release Date: October 19, 1979
Director: Norman Jewison
Costume Designer: Ruth Myers
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Al Pacino closed out the 1970s with his fifth Academy Award-nominated performance, portraying frazzled Baltimore lawyer Arthur Kirkland in Norman Jewison’s 1979 dark comedy …And Justice for All, satirizing the American legal system.
Kirkland’s host of issues that follow him through the fall and holiday season include troublesome clients like the unfairly arrested Jeff McCullaugh (Thomas Waites) and weekly visits to his steadfast but increasingly senile grandfather Sam (Lee Strasberg), whom he brings to Thanksgiving dinner with Sam’s slightly sharper friend Arnie (Sam Levene). Continue reading
Joseph Cotten in The Third Man
Joseph Cotten as Holly Martins in The Third Man (1949)
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Joseph Cotten as Holly Martins, moderately successful writer
Vienna, Fall/Winter 1948
Film: The Third Man
Release Date: September 1, 1949
Director: Carol Reed
Wardrobe Credit: Ivy Baker
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
I’m lurking in the shadows of moody, war-torn Vienna today to kick off #Noirvember with The Third Man, one of my favorite films noir. Celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, The Third Man was directed by Carol Reed from a screenplay by Graham Greene.
American pulp novelist Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) travels to the British sector of Allied-occupied Vienna to accept a job working for his old pal Harry Lime (Orson Welles), only to learn upon his arrival that “the best friend he ever had” is reported dead and buried after an automobile accident on his street. (“Is that what you say to people after death? ‘Goodness, that’s awkward’,” Holly responds to a new acquaintance’s platitudinous condolences.)
As a mostly penniless writer of “cheap novelettes”, Holly has little else to do but remain in Vienna and try to discover what happened to Harry, whom he soon learns from Royal Military Police officer Major Calloway (Trevor Howard) was “about the worst racketeer to ever make a living in this city.” Despite a contentious relationship with the major, Holly discovers he has a fan in his assistant, Sergeant Paine (Bernard Lee), who apologizes for having to subdue the writer and assures him that he’s read a few of his Western novels after helping him back to his feet. His personal investigation plunges him into the duplicitous underworld of the Austrian black market with characters ranging from Harry’s shady colleagues to his refugee girlfriend Anna Schmidt (Alida Valli).
With its iconic score by zither player Anton Karas, Welles’ memorable performance with his “cuckoo clock” monologue, and Academy Award-winning black-and-white cinematography by Robert Krasker, The Third Man remains not just one of the most acclaimed examples of classic film noir but also considered one of the greatest movies of all time. Continue reading
Marcello Mastroianni in 8½
Marcello Mastroianni in 8½ (1963)
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Marcello Mastroianni as Guido Anselmi, disillusioned Italian film director
Rome, Summer 1962
Film: 8½
(Italian title: Otto e mezzo)
Release Date: February 13, 1963
Director: Federico Fellini
Costume Designer: Piero Gherardi
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Italian screen and style icon Marcello Mastroianni was born 100 years ago today on September 28, 1924. A five-time winner of the David di Donatello Award for Best Actor and three-time Oscar nominee, Mastroianni may be best known for co-starring opposite Sophia Loren eight times and his half-dozen collaborations with director Federico Fellini, beginning with La Dolce Vita (1960) and including Fellini’s quasi-autobiographical 8½ (1963).
After cycling through a few titles more relevant to the fantastic chaos depicted on screen, Fellini reinforced the metafictional aspects with a title referring to the fact that this would be his eighth-and-a-half film—including six features, two shorts, and his 1951 directorial debut Luci del varietà, co-directed with Alberto Lattuada.
Often considered one of the best movies of all time by sources like the British Film Institute and director Martin Scorsese, 8½ centers around Guido Anselmi, an Italian filmmaker struggling with creative block amidst his romantic turmoil. Mastroianni was transformed for Guido to resemble Fellini himself, from his mannerisms and gait to his appearance with graying hair under that distinctive hat. Continue reading
Don’t Look Now: Donald Sutherland’s Glen Plaid Jacket
Donald Sutherland in Don’t Look Now (1973)
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Donald Sutherland as John Baxter, architect and grieving father
Venice, Italy, Winter/Spring 1973
Film: Don’t Look Now
Release Date: October 16, 1973
Director: Nicolas Roeg
Wardrobe Credit: Anna Maria Feo
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Today’s post pays tribute to the late, great Donald Sutherland (1935-2024), the Canadian-born actor who died last week at the age of 88. One of the actor’s most-discussed films is Nicolas Roeg’s haunting horror tale Don’t Look Now, for which he received a BAFTA nomination. Continue reading
Tom Hanks in Road to Perdition
Tom Hanks in Road to Perdition (2002)
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Tom Hanks as Michael Sullivan, recently widowed Irish mob enforcer and dedicated father
The Midwest, Winter 1931
Film: Road to Perdition
Release Date: July 12, 2002
Director: Sam Mendes
Costume Designer: Albert Wolsky
Tailor: John David Ridge
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
“Natural law… sons were put on this earth to trouble their fathers,” avuncular mob boss John Rooney (Paul Newman) advises his top enforcer Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks) at a time that both men are facing crises with their respective sons.
Father’s Day feels like the appropriate time to celebrate the style from this unorthodox role for America’s Dad. Tom Hanks pivoted from a career built on playing affable heroes and everymen to a dangerous Depression-era mob hitman in Road to Perdition, Sam Mendes’ 2002 drama adapted by screenwriter David Self from a graphic novel series of the same name by Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Rayner. Continue reading
The Godfather Part II: Don Fanucci’s White Suit
Gastone Moschin as Don Fanucci in The Godfather Part II (1974)
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Gastone Moschin as Don Fanucci, ruthless Black Hand extortionist
New York City, Summer 1917
Film: The Godfather Part II
Release Date: December 12, 1974
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Costume Designer: Theadora Van Runkle
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Born 95 years ago today on June 8, 1929, Italian actor Gastone Moschin may be most recognizable to audiences around the world for his portrayal of the sinister Don Fanucci in The Godfather, Part II (1974), celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
Genco Abbandando (Frank Sivero) introduces the young Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro)—and we the audience—to the sneering white-suited gangster as an enforcer for the “Black Hand”, the real-life extortion racket which preyed upon Italian-American immigrants in communities along the eastern seaboard from Boston to New Orleans, where it was linked to the 1890 assassination of police chief David Hennessy.
The Black Hand operated primarily within the United States around the turn of the 20th century, violently threatening victims who ranged from simple shopkeepers to celebrities like tenor Enrico Caruso, who enlisted the help of crusading NYPD Lieutenant Joseph Petrosino. Though Petrosino arrested two men connected with the Caruso threats, he himself would become a victim of Mano Nera when he was fatally shot in March 1909 while undercover in Sicily, investigating the history of brutal criminals he hoped to banish from the United States. The Petrosino murder increased pressure from law enforcement that all but dissolved the Black Hand’s influence by the 1920s, around the time that Prohibition provided the opportunity for younger and more ambitious crooks like “Lucky” Luciano to organize the former Black Hand threads into a structure known alternately as La Cosa Nostra (“Our Thing”) or simply Mafia.
One of the most prominent Black Hand gangsters of this era was the Sicilian-born Ignazio Lupo, known as “Lupo the Wolf” among the neighborhoods he terrorized in New York City’s Little Italy. Lupo was reportedly a direct inspiration for Mario Puzo to craft the character of Don Fanucci who first appeared in the 1969 novel The Godfather before he would be brought to life by Gastone Moschin in the cinematic sequel. Continue reading
Stavisky: Belmondo’s 1970s-Does-1930s Gray Chalkstripe Suit
Jean-Paul Belmondo in Stavisky… (1974)
Vitals
Jean-Paul Belmondo as Serge Alexandre Stavisky, debonair Russian-born French financier, impresario, and embezzler
Paris, Summer to Fall 1933
Film: Stavisky…
Release Date: May 15, 1974
Director: Alain Resnais
Costume Designer: Jacqueline Moreau
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
After a series of well-acclaimed and unconventionally presented films, Alain Resnais’ sixth feature Stavisky… was released 50 years ago today, starring the late Jean-Paul Belmondo as the famous financial fraudster Serge Alexandre Stavisky who made a fortune selling worthless bonds in interwar-era France. Continue reading