Tagged: Slip-on Loafers

The Gambler: James Caan’s Camel Jacket and Mustang

James Caan as Axel Freed in The Gambler (1974)

Vitals

James Caan as Axel Freed, gambling-addicted English professor

New York City, Fall 1973

Film: The Gambler
Release Date: October 2, 1974
Director: Karel Reisz
Costume Designer: Albert Wolsky

Background

Screen icon James Caan died one year ago today on July 6, 2022. Among a varied filmography from The Godfather (1972) and Thief (1981) to Misery (1990) and Elf (2003), the Bronx-born Caan specialized in roles that called for a “tough insouciance” as summarized in Ronald Bergan’s obituary for The Guardian.

The Gambler (1974) remains one of Caan’s most celebrated films, written by James Toback as a semi-autobiographical meditation on self-destruction, inspired by the gambling addiction that plagued him while he lectured at City College of New York. Fresh from his success as Sonny Corleone, Caan was drawn to the challenge of what would become one of his favorite of his own movies as “it’s not easy to make people care about a guy who steals from his mother to pay gambling debts.” Continue reading

Austin Butler as Elvis: Black Suit for a 4th of July Concert

Austin Butler as Elvis Presley in Elvis (2022)

Vitals

Austin Butler as Elvis Presley, country rock guitarist and singer

Memphis, Tennessee, July 4, 1956

Film: Elvis
Release Date: June 23, 2022
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Costume Designer: Catherine Martin
Tailor: Gloria Bava

Background

It doesn’t get much more American than Elvis.

Austin Butler went all out in his performance as the King of Rock and Roll in Baz Lurhmann’s characteristically flamboyant biopic, released last summer. Butler’s performance received particular praise—including endorsements from the Presley family—and Elvis would be nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Costume Design.

Elvis follows Presley’s brief life from boyhood through the various levels of stardom, particularly through the lens of his complicated relationship with his domineering manager, Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks). In the early years of his fame, Presley’s hip-swinging celebration of Black music is shown to so enrage the bigoted establishment that he’s being threatened with legal trouble.

The film presents his July 4, 1956 concert in Memphis as an opportunity for Presley to maintain the cleaned-up “New Elvis” image he had introduced three days early while performing “Hound Dog” on The Steve Allen Show three days earlier, stuffed into a white tie and tails as he crooned to an actual basset hound. Instead, having rediscovered the meaning behind his music among the blues joints on Beale Street, Elvis delivers a sweltering performance of “Trouble”—and lands himself right in it, arrested by the Memphis vice squad when he soundly disobeys being told to not “so much as wiggle a finger.” To avoid prosecution, Colonel Tom devises a plan for Elvis to swap out his blue suede shoes for spit-shined service derbies: “It’s either the Army or jail.”

Except that isn’t quite what really happened. Continue reading

The Little Drummer Girl: Gadi’s Blue Beach Shirt

Alexander Skarsgård as Gadi Becker in The Little Drummer Girl (2018)

Vitals

Alexander Skarsgård as Gadi Becker, aka “Peter”, mysterious Mossad agent

Naxos, Greece, Spring 1979

Series: The Little Drummer Girl (Episode 1)
Air Date: 
October 28, 2018
Director: 
Park Chan-wook
Costume Design: Sheena Napier & Steven Noble

Background

Between his breakthrough role on True Blood and his recent excellent turn as obnoxious tech entrepreneur Lukas Mattson on the last two seasons of Succession, Alexander Skarsgård’s credits included a starring role as Israeli agent Gadi Becker in Park Chan-wook’s six-episode BBC adaptation of John le Carré’s 1983 espionage novel The Little Drummer Girl.

Gadi has been re-recruited by spymaster chief Martin Kurtz (Michael Shannon) to follow an amateur acting troupe from England during their spring vacation through the Greek islands, specifically to make contact with the charismatic and flight wannabe radical Charmian “Charlie” Ross (Florence Pugh). Continue reading

Roger Moore’s Safari Suit in Octopussy

Roger Moore as James Bond in Octopussy (1983). Photo sourced from Thunderballs archive at thunderballs.org.

Vitals

Roger Moore as James Bond, British government agent

Udaipur, India, Spring 1983

Film: Octopussy
Release Date: June 6, 1983
Director: John Glen
Costume Designer: Emma Porteous
Tailor: Douglas Hayward

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

The 00-7th of June feels appropriate for celebrating Roger Moore’s penultimate James Bond adventure Octopussy, which premiered 40 years ago this week—June 6, 1983 in the United Kingdom, followed by its American premiere four days later.

As would result from a man dressed in keeping with the fashions of his era, Sir Roger’s sartorial legacy in the Bond franchise has included some divisive reference to him as the “leisure suit” Bond. While he did sport a few examples of leisure suits in his inaugural 007 film, Live and Let Die, he more frequently—and only when appropriate—wore more function-oriented safari suits and jackets. Bond Suits founder Matt Spaiser has written extensively about the contextual purpose that Moore’s safari-inspired clothing served in the Bond franchise, an effort that has hopefully reversed some of these negative attitudes.

Four years after he sported his first true safari suit in MoonrakerOctopussy reaffirmed Moore’s reputation as the safari-sporting Bond when he appropriately donned a khaki two-piece safari suit to escape from the Monsoon Palace. Continue reading

Glass Onion: Benoit Blanc’s Striped Seersucker Swimwear

Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022). Photo by John Wilson.

Vitals

Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, famous Southern detective

Spetses, Greece, May 2020

Film: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Release Date: November 23, 2022
Director: Rian Johnson
Costume Designer: Jenny Eagan

Background

Three years ago this month, eccentric billionaire tech developer Miles Bron (Edward Norton) pulled together a half-dozen of his closest friends frenemies for a weekend at his private Greek island. It’s May 2020, and—as in real life—the height of the COVID-19 lock-downs, though there appear to be no restrictions for Miles’ upper-class coterie.

While Miles welcomes some from outside his college clique, such as the laidback loafer Derol (Noah Segan), he’s unpleasantly surprised to greet the woman he had known as his former business partner Andi Brand (Janelle Monáe) and the famed detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig). Continue reading

The Professional: Belmondo’s Blue Leather Jacket

Jean-Paul Belmondo as Joss Beaumont in The Professional/Le Professionnel (1981)

Vitals

Jean-Paul Belmondo as Josselin “Joss” Beaumont, vengeful French secret agent specializing in “espionage and brawls”

Paris, Spring 1981

Film: The Professional
(French title: Le Professionnel)
Release Date: October 21, 1981
Director: Georges Lautner
Costume Designer: Paulette Breil

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Today would have been the 90th birthday of Jean-Paul Belmondo, the prolific and popular French star who rose to fame during the New Wave cinematic movement in movies like Breathless and Pierrot le Fou before he was established as a dynamic hero of action and adventure movies. Belmondo actually appeared in a 1984 movie titled Happy Easter, but—despite the egg-cellent holiday today—let’s refocus to three years earlier and Bébel’s iconic action role in The Professional, released in France as Le Professionnel. Continue reading

Roger Moore’s Ivory Dinner Jacket in Octopussy

Roger Moore and Kristina Wayborn in Octopussy (1983)

Vitals

Roger Moore as James Bond, British government agent

Udaipur, India, Spring 1983

Film: Octopussy
Release Date: June 6, 1983
Director: John Glen
Costume Designer: Emma Porteous
Tailor: Douglas Hayward

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Happy 00-7th of April! Easter weekend feels like the appropriate occasion to celebrate the debonair Roger Moore’s evening-wear for James Bond’s memorable “egg hunt” in his penultimate 007 adventure—the provocatively titled Octopussy, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this June. Continue reading

Succession: Logan’s Navy Knit Blazer-Cardigan in “The Munsters”

Brian Cox as Logan Roy on Succession, Episode 4.01 (“The Munsters”)

Vitals

Brian Cox as Logan Roy, media mogul and domineering patriarch

New York City, Fall 2020

Series: Succession
Episode: “The Munsters” (Episode 4.01)
Air Date: March 26, 2023
Director: Mark Mylod
Creator: Jesse Armstrong
Costume Designer: Michelle Matland

Background

Succession fans welcomed the premiere of the fourth and final season on Sunday night, setting up the pieces for our final chapter with the profane and power-hungry Roy family.

As in the first episode, this installment centered around a birthday party in honor of Logan Roy (Brian Cox), the misanthropic head of the Waystar RoyCo media conglomerate. Continue reading

Glass Onion: Benoit Blanc’s Striped Sweater

Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)

Vitals

Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, “in your words, the world’s greatest detective”

Spetses, Greece, May 2020

Film: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Release Date: November 23, 2022
Director: Rian Johnson
Costume Designer: Jenny Eagan

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

As its quick ascension to the #1 movie on the service suggests, many are spending their Christmas holiday and its surrounding days watching Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which had only a one-week theatrical release earlier this year before it premiered on Netflix on December 23. My wife and I watched it last night and enjoyed yet another fun, stylish, and unorthodox mystery centered around Southern-fried investigator Benoit Blanc, reprised by Daniel Craig after his entertaining turn in Knives Out. Continue reading

James Mason’s White Colonial Casual-wear in Island in the Sun

James Mason as Maxwell Fleury in Island in the Sun

James Mason as Maxwell Fleury in Island in the Sun (1957)

Vitals

James Mason as Maxwell Fleury, short-tempered plantation owner

On the fictional Caribbean island of Santa Marta, Spring 1955

Film: Island in the Sun
Release Date: June 12, 1957
Director: Robert Rossen
Costume Design: Phyllis Dalton & David Ffolkes

Background

Today’s post celebrates the great James Mason, who was born 113 years ago today on May 15, 1909. Whether playing a hero or villain or navigating a moral gray area in between, the velvet-voiced Mason brought a dignified presence to his performances.

Opposing the shining talents of Harry Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge, Mason stars in this vividly photographed but dark-hearted drama as Maxwell Fleury, a privileged aristocrat dwelling on one of his family’s estates on the eponymous island.

Upon returning home in his sleek new Jaguar roadster one afternoon, he finds Egyptian cigarettes in his ashtray that fuel his baseless paranoia regarding his wife’s marital fidelity, a suspicion that dangerously spirals as the summery Santa Marta heat intensifies. Continue reading