Tagged: Pacific Northwest
Robert Mitchum’s Western Wear in River of No Return
Robert Mitchum with Marilyn Monroe in River of No Return (1954)
Vitals
Robert Mitchum as Matt Calder, taciturn farmer, widowed father, and convicted back-shooter
Pacific Northwest, Summer 1875
Film: River of No Return
Release Date: April 30, 1954
Director: Otto Preminger
Costume Designer: Travilla
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
The first week of August would contain major milestones in the lives of Robert Mitchum and Marilyn Monroe, two of the biggest stars of the ’50s, as Mitchum was born August 6, 1917, and Monroe died August 4, 1962. Mitchum and Monroe shared the screen just once, as the leads in Otto Preminger’s western River of No Return.
Released 70 years ago at the end of April 1954, River of No Return was a refreshingly small-scaled, personal, and generally non-violent story in contrast to the classic westerns associated with John Wayne and John Ford at the time. Indeed, Frank Fenton’s screenplay was adapted from a story by Louis Lantz that had itself been inspired by the 1948 Italian film Bicycle Thieves. Most was filmed on location in Calgary through the summer of 1953, followed by studio shots in L.A. and long shots in Idaho, where the Salmon River doubled for the eponymous waterway.
Mitchum stars as Matt Calder, a widower recently released from prison who seeks his virtually unknown nine-year-old son Mark (Tommy Rettig) who had been left in them care of saloon singer Kay Weston (Marilyn Monroe) in a rowdy northwestern boomtown. After the reunited father and son save Kay and her fiancé Harry (Rory Calhoun) from the dangerous rapids near their homestead, Harry attacks Matt and absconds with his horse while Kay remains with the Calders.
Eventually, Matt, Kay, and Mark take Harry’s log craft to embark on a journey down the treacherous river to confront Harry in Council City. “The Indians call it the River of No Return,” Matt explains to Kay and Mark. “From here on, you’ll find out why.” Continue reading
Warren Beatty’s Brown Trucker Jacket in The Parallax View
Warren Beatty as Joe Frady in The Parallax View (1974)
Vitals
Warren Beatty as Joe Frady, maverick political reporter
Seattle and Los Angeles, Spring 1974
Film: The Parallax View
Release Date: June 14, 1974
Director: Alan J. Pakula
Costume Designer: Frank L. Thompson
Background
The Parallax View was released 50 years ago today on Flag Day 1974—an appropriate observance for this second of Alan J. Pakula’s trio of politically themed paranoid thrillers that also included Klute (1971) and All the President’s Men (1976).
Warren Beatty provides one of the arguably best performances of his career as Joe Frady, an investigative reporter for an Oregon newspaper who is tipped to a deadly political conspiracy by ex-girlfriend Lee Carter (Paula Prentiss) shortly before she too died under questionable circumstances attributed to a drug overdose. At a time when, in Joe’s words, “every time you turned around, some nut was knockin’ off one of the best men in the country,” Lee witnessed the assassination of a presidential hopeful three years earlier. Continue reading
Warren Beatty in McCabe and Mrs. Miller
Warren Beatty as John McCabe in McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971)
Vitals
Warren Beatty as John McCabe, enterprising gambler and pimp
Presbyterian Church, Washington, Fall to winter 1902
Film: McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Release Date: June 24, 1971
Director: Robert Altman
Wardrobe Credit: Ilse Richter
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
There are moments every January where I envy the idiosyncratic wardrobe of John McCabe, warmly swaddled in hefty furs as he trots into the humble hamlet of Presbyterian Church, Washington, scored by Leonard Cohen’s mournful baritone.
One of the most prolific pioneers of the “New Hollywood” movement that began in the 1960s, Robert Altman followed up his maverick success with MASH (1970) and his artistic experiment with Brewster McCloud (1970) by setting his sights on one of the most venerated genres in American cinema. Altman and Brian McKay adapted a 1959 novel by Edmund Naughton to deliver McCabe & Mrs. Miller, which the director would ultimately deem an “anti-Western” for its subversion of genre conventions and expectations. Continue reading
Rambo’s First Blood Field Jacket
Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo in First Blood (1982)
Vitals
Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo, tough and resourceful Vietnam veteran who’s more than “just another smart-ass drifter”
Hope County, Washington, December 1981
Film: First Blood
Release Date: October 22, 1982
Director: Ted Kotcheff
Costume Designer: Tom Bronson
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Six years after exploding to stardom having written and starred in Rocky, Sylvester Stallone returned to a similar formula playing a tough guy with a heart of gold and unbreakable determination whose five-letter name began with an “R” in First Blood, adapted by Stallone, Michael Kozoll, and William Sackheim from David Morrell’s 1972 novel of the same name, with Morrell himself having said that he prefers the film over his own novel! Continue reading
Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Jack Nicholson as Randle P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
Vitals
Jack Nicholson as Randle P. McMurphy, cheeky petty criminal undergoing psychiatric evaluation
Oregon State Hospital, Fall 1963
Film: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Release Date: November 19, 1975
Director: Miloš Forman
Costume Designer: Aggie Guerard Rodgers
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Today is Jack Nicholson’s 85th birthday, a worthy occasion for recalling one of his most iconic roles: the irreverent and incorrigible Randle P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Warren Beatty’s Blue Levi’s Jacket in The Parallax View
Warren Beatty as Joe Frady in The Parallax View (1974)
Vitals
Warren Beatty as Joe Frady, maverick political reporter
Rural Washington state, Spring 1974
Film: The Parallax View
Release Date: June 14, 1974
Director: Alan J. Pakula
Costume Designer: Frank L. Thompson
Background
Happy birthday to Warren Beatty, born 84 years ago today on March 30, 1937. A rising star through the ’60s, Beatty established himself as a forced to be reckoned with when he spearheaded production of Bonnie & Clyde in 1967, not only starring in but producing the acclaimed gangster film. Following his innovative success with Bonnie & Clyde, Beatty slowed down his career to only occasional movies, frequently going several years without acting while putting much of his energy into political activism and—more notoriously—dating his way through many of Hollywood’s hottest before marrying Annette Bening after the two co-starred in Bugsy.
One of Beatty’s most notable post-Bonnie & Clyde films was The Parallax View, the second in a trio of Alan J. Pakula’s paranoid political thrillers of the ’70s. Continue reading