Tagged: Rod Taylor
The Birds: Mitch’s Donegal Tweed Suit
Rod Taylor and Tippi Hedren filming The Birds (1963)
Vitals
Rod Taylor as Mitch Brenner, defense lawyer
Bodega Bay, California, Summer 1962
Film: The Birds
Release Date: March 28, 1963
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Wardrobe Supervisor: Rita Riggs
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Today is the 60th anniversary of the release of The Birds, Alfred Hitchcock’s avian horror yarn adapted from Daphne du Maurier’s 1952 novella and a real-life incident in August 1961 as scores of birds crashed into the streets and rooftops of the central California town of Capitola.
The Birds centers around Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren), an attractive travelers’ aid secretary from San Francisco whose flirtatious pranks with the charming attorney Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) lead about an hour north to the idyllic seaside village of Bodega Bay. Melanie’s surprise visit isn’t ultimately unwelcome, and Mitch invites her to join his little sister Cathy’s 11th birthday parry the following day. Continue reading
Rod Taylor’s Velvet-Trimmed Dinner Jacket in The Glass Bottom Boat
Rod Taylor as Bruce Templeton in The Glass Bottom Boat (1966)
Vitals
Rod Taylor as Bruce Templeton, charismatic aerospace lab chief
Long Beach, California, Spring 1966
Film: The Glass Bottom Boat
Release Date: June 9, 1966
Director: Frank Tashlin
Costume Designer: Ray Aghayan (credited with Doris Day’s costumes only)
Background
In honor of Aussie actor Rod Taylor’s birthday on January 11, 1930, today’s post explores the first movie of his that I’d seen. The Glass Bottom Boat reteamed Taylor with Doris Day after their collaboration the previous year in Do Not Disturb, this time in a Cold War-era romantic comedy where Doris’ PR flack is suspected of being a spy sent by Mother Russia to seduce scientific secrets out of Bruce Templeton, the debonair head of a NASA research facility.
Rod Taylor’s Baracuta Jacket in The Glass Bottom Boat
Rod Taylor as Bruce Templeton in The Glass Bottom Boat (1966)
Vitals
Rod Taylor as Bruce Templeton, charismatic aerospace lab chief
Long Beach, California, Spring 1966
Film: The Glass Bottom Boat
Release Date: June 9, 1966
Director: Frank Tashlin
Costume Designer: Ray Aghayan (credited with Doris Day’s costumes only)
Background
In the years since I’ve started this blog, I’ve discovered that there are many unsung “style heroes” that are often lost in the discussion of Cary Grant, Clark Gable, and Steve McQueen, including actors like Rod Taylor who brought understated elegance to flatteringly tailored suits and timeless casual attire alike.
I was first familiar with Taylor in The Glass Bottom Boat, one of my grandma’s favorite movies and one that we used to watch until we wore the VHS tape thin. Last year, I was delighted to see that my friends Shawn Bongiorno and Ryan Hall had collaborated on a series of Instagram posts that highlighted a look from the movie, and that inspired us to put our heads together and take a deeper dive at a springtime essential that Taylor wears.
Rod Taylor in The V.I.P.s.
Rod Taylor and Maggie Smith in The V.I.P.s (1963)
Vitals
Rod Taylor as Les Mangrum, gregarious Australian tractor manufacturing mogul
Heathrow Airport, London, Winter 1963
Film: The V.I.P.s
(also released as Hotel International)
Release Date: September 19, 1963
Director: Anthony Asquith
Costume Designer: Pierre Cardin (uncredited)
Background
A generation after Grand Hotel (1932) established the subgenre of the ensemble drama with a packed cast of international stars, Anthony Asquith updated the pattern for the jet age with the genteel director’s penultimate film, The V.I.P.s, which—appropriately enough, given its spiritual predecessor—had also been released as Hotel International. Continue reading
The Birds: Mitch’s Cream Sweater and Silk Cravat
Rod Taylor and Tippi Hedren in The Birds (1963)
Vitals
Rod Taylor as Mitchell “Mitch” Brenner, smooth defense lawyer
Bodega Bay, California, Summer 1962
Film: The Birds
Release Date: March 28, 1963
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Wardrobe Supervisor: Rita Riggs
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
After the massive success of Psycho in 1960, Alfred Hitchcock knew his next thriller had to go above and beyond to meet the public’s expectations from the Master of Suspense. Inspiration fell from the skies the following summer when the California town of Capitola was besieged one August day by hundreds of sooty shearwaters slamming into their rooftops and littering the streets with bird corpses. Hitch, who vacationed in nearby Santa Cruz, saw the storytelling potential in this unique type of fear and immediately set to work developing a story with screenwriter Evan Hunter, adapting Daphne du Maurier’s novella The Birds from its postwar English setting to contemporary coastal California.
The Birds: Mitch’s Tweed Jacket and Drab Trousers
Rod Taylor as Mitch Brenner in The Birds (1963)
Vitals
Rod Taylor as Mitchell “Mitch” Brenner, smooth defense lawyer
Bodega Bay, California, Summer 1962
Film: The Birds
Release Date: March 28, 1963
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Wardrobe Supervisor: Rita Riggs
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
I try to be very responsive to comments, e-mails, and suggestions on this blog, but sometimes life gets in the way. (Feel free to prod if you’re waiting for a response on something, of course!)
Three years ago, Teeritz (a wonderful commenter and blogger well-known to the BAMF Style community) suggested covering Rod Taylor’s outfits in The Birds, particularly the tweed suit jacket and side-pocket trousers worn for the day of the actual bird attack. I’m ashamed to admit that I had gone 26 years of life without seeing The Birds until last month, and my fellow Pittsburghers know that sharing the city with pigeons means that few things are more frightening than a potential avian mutiny. Continue reading