Tagged: Sport Coat & Slacks
French Connection II: Gene Hackman’s Windowpane Jacket and Aloha Shirt
Gene Hackman as “Popeye” Doyle in French Connection II (1975)
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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
Rosemary’s Baby: John Cassavetes’ Light Blue Summer Sport Jacket
John Cassavetes and Mia Farrow in Rosemary’s Baby (1968). Photo by Paul Slade.
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John Cassavetes as Guy Woodhouse, ambitious actor
New York City, Summer 1965
Film: Rosemary’s Baby
Release Date: June 12, 1968
Director: Roman Polanski
Costume Designer: Anthea Sylbert
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Happy Mother’s Day! In honor of one of cinema’s most infamous pregnancies, today’s post looks at the enduring style of Rosemary’s Baby—Roman Polanski’s 1968 adaptation of Ira Levin’s best-selling horror novel, which had been published less than six months before filming began.
Though the film’s fashion legacy largely belongs to Mia Farrow’s iconic pixie cut and stylish wardrobe as the titular Rosemary Woodhouse, her on-screen husband Guy—a struggling actor played by John Cassavetes—also exhibits a sharp and understated sense of style. Continue reading
A Matter of Life and Death: David Niven’s Houndstooth Jacket
David Niven in A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
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David Niven as Squadron Leader Peter David Carter, charismatic Royal Air Force pilot
Southern English Coast, Spring 1945
Film: A Matter of Life and Death
Release Date: November 1, 1946
Directed by: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Costume Designer: Hein Heckroth
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Powell and Pressburger’s marvelous Technicolor fantasty-romance A Matter of Life and Death begins eighty years ago today, “the night of the second of May, 1945.”
Less than a week until the German surrender that effectively ended the European theater of World War II, a Lancaster bomber is returning through the fog over the English Channel after a Royal Air Force mission over Germany that resulted in the aircraft’s terminal damage. His radio operator dead and the rest of the crew bailed out on his orders, the poetic Squadron Leader Peter David Carter (David Niven) sits alone at the controls, communicating to the charming U.S. Army Air Forces technician June (Kim Hunter), who attempts in vain to reassure the pilot while he offers his own reassurance that he isn’t afraid to meet whatever awaits him:
Hello, June, don’t be afraid. It’s quite simple—we’ve had it, and I’d rather jump than fry. After the first thousand feet, what’s the difference? I shan’t know anything anyway. I say, I hope I haven’t frightened you… you’ve got a good voice, you’ve got guts, too! It’s funny, I’ve known dozens of girls—I’ve been in love with some of them—but an American girl who I’ve never seen, who I never shall see, will hear my last words. It’s funny. It’s rather sweet! June, if you’re around when they pick me up, turn your head away.
With his own parachute damaged and the Lancaster hurtling toward a fiery fate, Peter stoically accepts the inevitability of death (“I’ll be a ghost and come and see you! You’re not frightened of ghosts, are you? It’d be awful if you were.”) and relays a few final messages for June to pass along to his mother and sisters before bailing from the craft. Continue reading
Blue Velvet: Kyle MacLachlan’s Black Jacket
Kyle MacLachlan in Blue Velvet (1986)
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Kyle MacLachlan as Jeffrey Beaumont, inquisitive college student
Lumberton, North Carolina, Spring 1985
Film: Blue Velvet
Release Date: September 19, 1986
Director: David Lynch
Costumer: Ronald Leamon
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Today marks the 66th birthday of Kyle MacLachlan, star of the late David Lynch’s neo-noir thriller Blue Velvet. Lynch and “Kale” had first collaborated two years earlier for the director’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune, which was met with poor reception. Undeterred, Lynch shifted direction with Blue Velvet, a more personal project that delved into his now-familiar themes of surrealism and the dark, oft-criminal underbelly of Americana.
MacLachlan stars as Jeffrey Beaumont, a college student who returns to his hometown of Lumberton, North Carolina to help his family following his father’s heart attack. Taking a secluded shortcut to his parents’ home after a hospital visit, Jeffrey discovers a severed ear in a vacant field… launching him into a dangerous conspiracy involving a sultry lounge singer and a sadistic gangster. Continue reading
The White Lotus: Ethan’s Cream Jacket and Navy Cap in Sicily
Will Sharpe as Ethan Spiller on The White Lotus (Episode 2.01: “Ciao”)
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Will Sharpe as Ethan Spiller, prosperous tech entrepreneur
Sicily, Summer 2022
Series: The White Lotus
Episode: “Ciao” (Episode 2.01)
Air Date: October 30, 2022
Director: Mike White
Creator: Mike White
Costume Designer: Alex Bovaird
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
The White Lotus returns tonight with the premiere of its third season, set in Thailand. Each season of Mike White’s darkly comic anthological series is loosely connected, following different casts of characters across exotically located resorts under the fictional White Lotus hospitality chain. The first season was set in Hawaii, chosen as its seclusion provided ideal conditions for filming under safety protocols informed by the then-new COVID-19 restrictions. Following the success of the premiere season, the sophomore season took the action to Sicily, retaining the themes of illicit drugs, romantic intrigue, and unexpected violence.
The appropriately named second-season premiere “Ciao” welcomed the guests arriving at the White Lotus resort in Taormina for the week, including the newly wealthy but emotionally unfulfilled Ethan Spiller (Will Sharpe) and his wife Harper (Aubrey Plaza), a haughty lawyer initially repulsed by his gauche college pal Cameron Sullivan (Theo James). A gregarious finance-bro to Ethan’s sullen tech-bro, Cam and his trophy wife Daphne (Meghann Fahy) approach life with more outward enthusiasm, though Harper initially pushes through to discover the imperfect cracks of the Sullivans’ surprisingly complex union. Continue reading
Oliver Reed’s Houndstooth Jacket and Turtleneck in And Then There Were None
Oliver Reed and Elke Sommer in And Then There Were None (1974)
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Oliver Reed as Hugh Lombard, adventurer and accused murderer (or is he?)
Fars, Iran, Fall 1973
Film: And Then There Were None
(also released as Ten Little Indians)
Release Date: September 24, 1974
Director: Peter Collinson
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
First released in West Germany four months earlier, the third major screen adaptation of Agatha Christie’s classic mystery And Then There Were None arrived in the United States fifty years ago today on the last day of January 1975*. This was actually the second of three versions of the story to be produced by Harry Alan Towers, the controversial British filmmaker who was evidently quite obsessed with making his mark on Christie’s famous story each decade. (For those who may be unfamiliar, the story centers around ten strangers summoned to a secluded island house, where a mysterious recording accuses them of getting away with murder in the past before each are systematically murdered themselves.)
Towers’ first attempt was the 1965 film Ten Little Indians, which was more of a remake of the 1945 screen adaptation of And Then There Were None (with its “happy” ending) than an original take on Christie’s source novel. The ’65 version also transported the story from a remote English island to an Alpine mansion and glamorized some of the characters, such as replacing the religious spinster with a glamorous actress and converting the drunken socialite into a popular singer—allowing for pop idol Fabian to croon on screen as part of his new contract with Fox. Among its other minor changes to the ten doomed guests was star Hugh O’Brian getting “the Tony Danza treatment” as Christie’s leading man, renamed from Philip Lombard to Hugh Lombard.
This latter change was inexplicably carried over to Oliver Reed’s characterization of the roguish Mr. Lombard in the 1974 adaptation, which borrowed liberally in many other ways from the previous version, including Towers copying much dialogue verbatim from his ’65 screenplay. Other than being the first major adaptation of the story to be filmed in color, the 1974 version also distinguishes itself with yet another new setting, this time moving the action to an elegant—but inexplicably abandoned—hotel in the Iranian desert. Continue reading
Die Hard: Hart Bochner as Harry Ellis
Hart Bochner as Harry Ellis in Die Hard (1988)
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Hart Bochner as Harry Ellis, coked-out Nakatomi Corporation executive
Los Angeles, Christmas 1987
Film: Die Hard
Release Date: July 15, 1988
Director: John McTiernan
Costume Designer: Marilyn Vance
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
As the season of holiday festivities continues, let’s flash back to one of the most famous office Christmas parties in cinematic history—the Nakatomi Corporation’s Christmas Eve extravaganza that was ruined by a dozen armed terrorists led by the charismatic Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman).
Gruber’s takeover definitely ruined plans for Harry Ellis (Hart Bochner), Nakatomi’s sleazy director of international development who masks his holiday loneliness with plenty of cocaine and half-hearted pickup attempts toward his colleague Holly Gennero (Bonnie Bedelia), so he’s none too pleased when her husband John McClane (Bruce Willis) arrives at the party from New York… even as John ultimately proves to be the group’s only chance to fight back against the terrorists.
After Gruber kills their boss Joe Takagi (James Shigeta), Ellis fortifies with a bump and decides to take things into his own hands (“I negotiate million-dollar deals for breakfast, I think I can handle this Euro-trash”), though he’s too coked-out to realize that he’s fatally out of his element against this professional, motivated, and happenin’ group of killers. Continue reading
And Justice for All: Al Pacino’s Corduroy Jacket on Thanksgiving
Al Pacino in …And Justice for All (1979)
Vitals
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
The Rockford Files: Jim’s Navy-and-Beige Houndstooth Jacket for “The Kirkoff Case”
James Garner in The Rockford Files (Episode 1.01: “The Kirkoff Case”)
Vitals
James Garner as Jim Rockford, wisecracking private detective and ex-convict
Los Angeles, Summer 1974
Series: The Rockford Files
Episode: “The Kirkoff Case” (Episode 1.01)
Air Date: September 13, 1974
Director: Lou Antonio
Creator: Roy Huggins & Stephen J. Cannell
Costume Designer: Charles Waldo
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
This is Jim Rockford. At the tone, leave your name and number. I’ll get back to you…
Following the TV movie “Backlash of the Hunter” that served as the pilot when it aired six months earlier, The Rockford Files officially premiered 50 years ago tonight when NBC aired the first canonical episode “The Kirkoff Case” at 9 p.m. on Friday, September 13, 1974. Continue reading
California Split: Elliott Gould’s Tan Sport Jacket and Printed Shirts
Elliott Gould in California Split (1974)
Vitals
Elliott Gould as Charlie Waters, garrulous gambler
Los Angeles to Reno, Winter 1973
Film: California Split
Release Date: August 7, 1974
Director: Robert Altman
Costumer: Hugh McFarland
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
If I had a nickel for every great 1974 movie where the male lead had a bandaged nose for a significant portion of its runtime… well, California Split and Chinatown would yield me only 10 cents, but it would be well worth it for their shared existence.
Robert Altman’s excellently chaotic meditation on gambling, California Split, was released 50 years ago today on August 7, 1974, starring Elliott Gould and George Segal as a pair of two-time losers who meet over an L.A. card game. Initially more of a recreational gambler, Segal’s Bill Denny grows increasingly addicted through his friendship with Gould’s Charlie Waters, a charismatic hustler constantly on the make between card games and the horse track for his next big score. Continue reading
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