Tagged: Spring
Kill Me Again: Val Kilmer’s White Shirt and White Cadillac
Val Kilmer in Kill Me Again (1989)
Vitals
Val Kilmer as Jack Andrews, cynical private investigator
Nevada, Spring 1989
Film: Kill Me Again
Release Date: October 27, 1989
Director: John Dahl
Costume Designer: Terry Dresbach
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
This summer’s Car Week wraps with Kill Me Again, John Dahl’s little-known (at least to me, before last year) 1989 neo-noir thriller starring the late Val Kilmer and Michael Madsen opposite Kilmer’s then-wife Joanne Whalley as a dangerous femme fatale.
I’ll admit I was drawn to this as a subject this week due to some stylistic similarities with one of my favorite “car movies”, Vanishing Point (1971), which also features a man in a white shirt and jeans desperately racing a white two-door hardtop V8 through the desert until the car meets a fiery end. In this case, it’s not the nihilistic Kowalski in a Dodge Challenger but our widowed gambler P.I. in his quarter-century-old Cadillac, racing through the sand for a bundle of stolen cash. Continue reading
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!”)
Nicolas Cage’s Red Aloha Shirt in Raising Arizona
Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter in Raising Arizona (1987)
Vitals
Nicolas Cage as H.I. McDunnough, small-time crook and new dad
Tempe, Arizona, Spring 1986
Film: Raising Arizona
Release Date: March 13, 1987
Director: Joel & Ethan Coen
Costume Designer: Richard Hornung
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
In addition to tomorrow being the official start of summer, it’s also my first Father’s Day since becoming a dad last year! So the stars feel aligned for me to write about Nicolas Cage’s Hawaiian shirt-centric style as another new dad: ex-con Herbert I. McDunnough in the Coen brothers’ sophomore film, Raising Arizona (1987).
My name is H.I. McDunnough. Call me “Hi”.
Casino: Joe Pesci’s Gray Birdseye Blazer
Joe Pesci in Casino (1995)
Vitals
Joe Pesci as Nicky Santoro, sadistic mobster
Las Vegas, Spring 1973 to Fall 1980
Film: Casino
Release Date: November 22, 1995
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Design: Rita Ryack & John A. Dunn
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
After multiple requests to expand my sartorial focus on Casino from Robert De Niro’s colorful tailoring as Ace Rothstein to Joe Pesci’s mobbed-up fits, today’s post finally zeroes in on Pesci’s style as the volatile Nicky Santoro. Continue reading
Passenger 57: Wesley Snipes’ Biker Jacket with Layered Shirts and Jeans
Wesley Snipes as John Cutter in Passenger 57 (1992)
Vitals
Wesley Snipes as John Cutter, airline security chief and ex-Secret Service agent
In flight from Miami to Los Angeles, Spring 1992
Film: Passenger 57
Release Date: November 6, 1992
Director: Kevin Hooks
Costume Designer: Brad R. Loman
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, sometimes there’s nothing more necessary than to sit back and turn off your brain to watch a pleasantly absurd ’90s action movie. Luckily for us, Kevin Hooks directed the 1992 action thriller Passenger 57—its title literally inspired after writer Stewart Raffill spied a bottle of Heinz ketchup.
Wesley Snipes stars as John Cutter, a former* Secret Service agent whose stalwart reputation has followed him into his latest career as an airline security consultant, training flight attendants like Marti Slayton (Alex Datcher) how to handle hijacking scenarios. After his pal Sly Delvecchio (Tom Sizemore) helps Cutter secure an executive position as the vice president of security for the fictional Atlantic International Airlines, Cutter boards Atlantic Flight 163… the same flight on which FBI agents are escorting the dangerous international criminal Charles Rane (Bruce Payne)—who is not insane—back to California to face trial.
With his history of commercial airline bombings that makes us—and Delvecchio—wonder why the feds would choose this particular method of transportation, “the Rane of terror” has more explosive ideas for securing his freedom, which becomes an unfortunate situation for his fellow passengers—all except passenger #57, who happens to be the nation’s foremost expert in combating air terrorism. Continue reading
The Omen: Gregory Peck’s Charcoal Pinstripe Suit
Gregory Peck in The Omen (1976)
Vitals
Gregory Peck as Robert Thorn, American diplomat
Rome, June 6, 1970 and London, June 1975
Film: The Omen
Release Date: June 6, 1976
Director: Richard Donner
Wardrobe Supervisor: Tiny Nicholls
Tailor: H. Huntsman & Sons, London
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
The Omen was released fifty years ago today on June 6, 1976—a date intentionally selected to mirror the film’s opening on June 6th at 6 a.m., when American ambassador Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) rushes through Rome to reach his wife Katherine (Lee Remick). Robert arrives to learn that the child Katherine has just delivered died moments after birth, but hospital chaplain Father Spiletto (Martin Benson) convinces him to secretly adopt a newborn orphan and raise the boy as their own without Katherine’s knowledge.
Unfortunately for Robert, Katherine, and the world at large, that boy is Damien—the Antichrist—but I suppose you’ll have that when someone’s birth is the infamous 6-6-6: the “Number of the Beast” described in the Book of Revelation.
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
A Face in the Crowd: Andy Griffith’s Silky Shirt, String Tie, and Sport Suit
Andy Griffith as Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes in A Face in the Crowd (1957)
Vitals
Andy Griffith as Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes, folksy yet power-hungry media personality
Memphis to New York City, Spring 1956
Film: A Face in the Crowd
Release Date: May 28, 1957
Director: Elia Kazan
Costume Designer: Anna Hill Johnstone
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Today would have been the 100th birthday of Andy Griffith, born June 1, 1926. Already somewhat known as a comedian for routines like his breakthrough 1953 monologue “What It Was, Was Football”, Griffith made his explosive screen debut in Elia Kazan’s excellent 1957 drama A Face in the Crowd, a devastatingly prescient depiction of how susceptible American culture is to populism and celebrity cycloning into demagoguery. Budd Schulberg adapted his own short story “Your Arkansas Traveler” into the screenplay centered around Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes, a charismatic drifter-turned-demagogue plucked from obscurity by radio producer Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal) who ascends out of control into an influential public figure. Continue reading
Dazed and Confused: Matthew McConaughey’s Ted Nugent T-Shirt and Peach 1970s Levi’s
Matthew McConaughey in Dazed and Confused (1993)
Vitals
Matthew McConaughey as David “Woods” Wooderson, Texas stoner
Central Texas, Spring 1976
Film: Dazed and Confused
Release Date: September 24, 1993
Director: Richard Linklater
Costume Designer: Katherine Dover
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Alright, alright, alright…
Richard Linklater’s nostalgic coming-of-age comedy Dazed and Confused was set fifty years ago today on May 28, 1976, during the last day of school for Lee High School, outside Austin, Texas. Linklater drew from his own experiences growing up in Huntsville, even lending actual names of classmates to the characters—eventually resulting in a lawsuit that would be swiftly dismissed. Many of the ensemble cast were then little-known actors who rose to considerable stardom, including Ben Affleck, Adam Goldberg, Cole Hauser, Milla Jovovich, Nicky Katt, Jason London, Parker Posey, and Renée Zellweger, but it’s perhaps Matthew McConaughey that emerged most memorably in his breakthrough role as David “Woods” Wooderson. Continue reading
Insomnia: Al Pacino’s Leather Jacket in the Alaskan Midnight Sun
Al Pacino as Will Dormer in Insomnia (2002)
Vitals
Al Pacino as Will Dormer, shrewd but increasingly sleepy LAPD detective
Northern Alaska, June 2002
Film: Insomnia
Release Date: May 22, 2002
Director: Christopher Nolan
Costume Designer: Tish Monaghan
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
By this time in mid-May, towns like Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow) in the northern tip of Alaska are experiencing the midnight sun, typically lasting 83 days from May 10th or 11th through the beginning of August. The mid-June setting of Insomnia—to date, the only film Christopher Nolan directed without an official writing credit—is set during this phenomenon, to the initial puzzlement of legendary LAPD homicide detective Will Dormer (Al Pacino), visiting on request to help solve the murder of young high school student. Continue reading
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