Tagged: Smith & Wesson Model 36
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!”)
Keith David’s Printed Polo and Desert Boots in Dead Presidents
Keith David in Dead Presidents (1995)
Vitals
Keith David as Kirby, small-time neighborhood crime boss
The Bronx, Spring 1969
Film: Dead Presidents
Release Date: October 4, 1995
Directed by: The Hughes Brothers
Costume Designer: Paul A. Simmons, Jr.
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Always the coolest guy in anything he’s in, the prolific Keith David was born June 4, 1956 and celebrates his 70th birthday today by receiving his long-overdue star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. David’s strong screen presence shone from the start, from his credited screen debut in The Thing (1982) that launched an unstoppable career spanning nearly five decades and counting.
David co-starred in the Hughes brothers’ 1995 crime drama Dead Presidents as Kirby, an avuncular Bronx crook who acts as de facto second father to local youngsters like Anthony Curtis (Larenz Tate). Shortly before Anthony is shipped off to Vietnam with the Marine Corps in early 1969, he unknowingly becomes Kirby’s getaway driver while collecting some debts in the neighborhood. Continue reading
Taxi Driver: Travis Bickle’s M-65 Field Jacket
Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (1976)
Vitals
Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle, disturbed taxi driver and Vietnam War veteran
New York City, Spring to Summer 1976
Film: Taxi Driver
Release Date: February 9, 1976
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Designer: Ruth Morley
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Martin Scorsese’s violent meditation on loneliness, Taxi Driver, was released 50 years ago today on February 9, 1976—one day after its New York City premiere. Fresh off of his Academy Award win for The Godfather Part II, Robert De Niro received a second career nomination for his portrayal of “God’s lonely man” Travis Bickle, a troubled Marine Corps veteran who combats his insomnia by driving a taxi through the decaying streets of 1970s New York.
After his poorly conceived attempts to woo a sophisticated political campaign volunteer are understandably rejected, Travis refocuses his attention on the pre-teen prostitute Iris (Jodie Foster), whom he attempts to dissuade from her current profession. Meanwhile, Travis’ paranoia grows to the point that he drops just under a thousand dollars on a quartet of handguns that range in power and concealment—his scattered plans ranging from political assassination to a brothel massacre, all the while practicing his heavily armed bravado in his disorganiz-ized home:
“You talkin’ to me?”
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
Robert Redford’s Blue Bank Robbery Suit in The Old Man & the Gun
Robert Redford and Sissy Spacek in The Old Man & the Gun (2018). Photo credit: Eric Zachanowich.
Vitals
Robert Redford as Forrest Tucker, aging and amiable bank robber and escape artist
Texas, Summer to Fall 1981
Film: The Old Man & the Gun
Release Date: September 28, 2018
Director: David Lowery
Costume Designer: Annell Brodeur
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
After screen legend Robert Redford’s death earlier this month at age 89, I revisited his final leading role in David Lowery’s The Old Man & the Gun—a project Redford chose for his feel-good farewell film because he wanted his “last acting job to be fun.” Lighthearted yet elegiac, this crime caper premiered at the Telluride Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival before its wider release seven years ago tomorrow. Continue reading
French Connection II: Gene Hackman’s Windowpane Jacket and Aloha Shirt
Gene Hackman as “Popeye” Doyle in French Connection II (1975)
Vitals
Gene Hackman as Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle, gruff NYPD narcotics detective
Marseille, France, Spring 1975
Film: French Connection II
Release Date: May 21, 1975
Director: John Frankenheimer
Costume Designer: Pierre Nourry
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
A lot of people may not even know they made a sequel to The French Connection. And why’s that? Because they didn’t really need to make it. But Gene Hackman’s portrayal of the profane detective “Popeye” Doyle was lightning in a bottle, and the late actor went two for two in bringing Popeye to the screen.
The French Connection‘s director William Friedkin was more reluctant than its star to get involved, citing French Connection II and follow-ups to The Exorcist as “shit… simply made to cash in on the title.” Hackman may have agreed with Hurricane Billy but was admirably never shy about admitting when a movie was simply a “money job,” as he tersely described The Poseidon Adventure to Ben Stiller when the two co-starred in The Royal Tenenbaums.
And so Hackman reprised his Academy Award-winning role for French Connection II, released fifty years ago today on May 21, 1975. The sequel—which indeed does not include the definite article “The” in the title—picks up the action shortly after its predecessor, with NYPD narc Doyle still on the trail of the elusive and urbane drug kingpin Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey), who absconded to his native Marseille after the events of The French Connection. Continue reading
Glen Powell in Hit Man: Gary’s Western-Inspired Wardrobe as “Ron”
Glen Powell as Gary Johnson in Hit Man (2023)
Vitals
Glen Powell as Gary Johnson, mild-mannered psychology professor moonlighting as an undercover police contractor
New Orleans, Fall 2022
Film: Hit Man
Release Date: May 24, 2024
Director: Richard Linklater
Costume Designer: Juliana Hoffpauir
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
After a limited two-week run in theaters, Hit Man debuted on Netflix at the beginning of this month and quickly became the service’s #1 most-watched movie in the U.S. The screenplay by director Richard Linklater and star Glen Powell fictionalizes the life of Gary Johnson, a college professor and successful “fake hitman” whose undercover police work led to more than 70 arrests of people seeking the services of a contract killer.
Hit Man is Linklater’s second cinematic depiction of stranger-than-fiction true crime based on a Texas Monthly article by Skip Hollandsworth (the first was Bernie in 2011), though the production and setting were moved from Houston to New Orleans to take advantage of Louisiana tax credits.
Described in the epilogue as the “chillest dude imaginable,” the real Gary Johnson—whom the same epilogue is sure to insist was never actually involved in any murders—died in 2022 at the age of 75 before getting to see this dark comedy that riffed on his life story.
Though sensationalizing his life for dramatic purposes, Hit Man includes many details from Johnson’s life, like his cats Id and Ego, his unassuming politeness, and the random opportunity that elevated him to the city’s most in-demand assassin who signals his identity to prospective clients with a single response phrase:
All pie is good pie.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Bullet Train
Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Bullet Train (2022). Photo credit: Scott Garfield.
Vitals
Aaron Taylor-Johnson as “Tangerine”, snarky contract killer
Tokyo to Kyoto, Japan, Spring 2021
Film: Bullet Train
Release Date: August 5, 2022
Director: David Leitch
Costume Designer: Sarah Evelyn
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Rumors continue swirling around who will be cast to replace Daniel Craig as James Bond. Henry Cavill, Richard Madden, Regé-Jean Page, and Aidan Turner have all been named as serious contenders, though English actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson often emerges as a current favorite for the likely choice. Thus, today’s 00-7th of the month post will focus not on a previous Mr. Bond but a possible future characterization of the sophisticated agent…by playing an contractor taking his codename from a “sophisticated” fruit. Continue reading
Taxi Driver: Travis Bickle’s Tanker Jacket
Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (1976)
Vitals
Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle, disturbed taxi driver and Vietnam War veteran
New York City, Spring to Summer 1976
Film: Taxi Driver
Release Date: February 9, 1976
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Designer: Ruth Morley
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Happy International Taxi Driver Day to all cabbies whose alienation doesn’t drive them to a violent murder spree shooting up a brothel! This observance commemorates when the first gas-powered taxi cabs reportedly arrived on the streets of London on March 22, 1907.
The profession was immortalized in Martin Scorsese’s 1976 film Taxi Driver, written by Paul Schrader and filmed on location in New York City during the scorching summer of 1975. Two years after his first Academy Award win (for The Godfather, Part II), Robert De Niro received his second Oscar nomination for his performance as Travis Bickle, the lonely Marine-turned-cabbie whose PTSD, insomnia, and paranoid psychosis becomes a dangerous powder keg in the squalid decay of 1970s New York. Continue reading
The Seven-Ups: Roy Scheider’s Leather Jacket and Pontiac Ventura
Roy Scheider as Buddy Manucci in The Seven-Ups (1973)
Vitals
Roy Scheider as Buddy Manucci, renegade NYPD detective
New York City, Winter 1972
Film: The Seven-Ups
Release Date: December 14, 1973
Director: Philip D’Antoni
Costume Designer: Joseph G. Aulisi
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Philip D’Antoni’s sole directorial effort The Seven-Ups was released 50 years ago today, starring Roy Scheider in his first major leading role as the lead of a group of renegade NYPD detectives who specialize in securing arrests for crooks who will serve sentences of at least seven years… hence being known as “the seven-ups.”
The Seven-Ups could be argued as a spiritual continuation of The French Connection, which D’Antoni had accepted the Academy Award for producing two years earlier. Both movies were filmed and set during a gritty winter in early 1970s New York City, focused on crusading cops unafraid to break a few rules—including Scheider as an Italian-American detective named Buddy, inspired by the real-life Sonny Grosso.
Both The French Connection and The Seven-Ups also featured a thrilling car chase centered around our protagonist behind the wheel of an ordinary Pontiac, pushed to perform extraordinary stunts thanks to the late, great Bill Hickman.
If you liked seeing one Pontiac at the heart of The French Connection‘s famous chase, you’ll love seeing two Pontiacs duking it out in The Seven-Ups!
But before that…
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