Tagged: Summer
The Long Goodbye: Sterling Hayden’s Avant-Garde Writing Tweeds
Sterling Hayden in The Long Goodbye (1973)
Vitals
Sterling Hayden as Roger Wade, larger-than-life alcoholic writer
Los Angeles, Summer 1972
Film: The Long Goodbye
Release Date: March 7, 1973
Director: Robert Altman
Men’s Costume Designer: Kent James (uncredited)
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Sterling Hayden storms into The Long Goodbye like a force of nature, a happily hulking 6’5″ direct counter to Elliott Gould’s laidback characterization of private eye Philip Marlowe. It’s a magnificent performance, underscored by Hayden’s own classic noir credentials from films like The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and The Killing (1956) brought to Robert Altman’s inversive deconstruction of the genre.
A year after portraying the crooked Captain McKlusky in The Godfather, Hayden stepped into the ragged tweeds and fisherman sandals of Roger Wade, a gruff, buff, and hard-drinking Hemingway-esque writer who reflects on suicide and “beautiful broads” in the same train of thought. Continue reading
Death by Lightning: Michael Shannon’s Frock Coat for President James Garfield’s Assassination
Michael Shannon as President James A. Garfield in Death by Lightning (Episode 4: “Destiny of the Republic”)
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Michael Shannon as James A. Garfield, Ohio farmer-turned-20th President of the United States
Washington, D.C., Summer 1881
Series: Death by Lightning
Episode: “Destiny of the Republic” (Episode 4)
Streaming Date: November 6, 2025
Director: Matt Ross
Creator: Mike Makowsky
Costume Designer: Michael Wilkinson
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
President James Garfield died 145 years ago today, more than two months after he was shot on July 2, 1881 by Charles Guiteau—the culminating incident of last year’s excellent miniseries Death by Lightning, starring Michael Shannon and Matthew Macfadyen as Garfield and Guiteau, respectively. Adapted from Candace Millard’s book Destiny of the Republic, the four-part series takes its title from Garfield’s own stated sentiment regarding the unlikelihood of preventing political murder: “Assassination could be no more guarded against than death by lightning,” which Shannon’s Garfield responds in the third episode when his wife Lucretia (Betty Gilpin) and secretary Joe Brown (Archie Fisher) urge stricter security measures given the president’s fondness for meeting with the public. Continue reading
Christopher Plummer’s Cream Suit in The Return of the Pink Panther
Christopher Plummer in The Return of the Pink Panther (1975)
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Christopher Plummer as Sir Charles Litton, retired jewel thief
The Middle East, Summer 1974
Film: The Return of the Pink Panther
Release Date: May 21, 1975
Director: Blake Edwards
Wardrobe Supervisor: Bridget Sellers
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
If you’re one of the sartorial purists who subscribe to rules like “no white after Labor Day”, then let this post serve as inspiration for the upcoming weekend; if you don’t believe in such restrictions, then this post can inspire you all year long.
After an eleven-year hiatus (ignoring Alan Arkin’s take on the role in ’68), director Blake Edwards and actor Peter Sellers brought the bumbling Inspector Clouseau back to the big screen in The Return of the Pink Panther. Unlike subsequent films that seemed to redefine the titular “Pink Panther” as Clouseau himself, this title correctly refers to the reappearance of the priceless pink gem from the first film.
Clouseau again finds himself facing off against the master thief Sir Charles Litton, now portrayed by Christopher Plummer since David Niven—who played Sir Charles Lytton in the Pink Panther—was now unavailable. The role was then offered to Douglas Fairbanks Jr., only four months older than Niven, who would have brought a similar dashing gravitas. After Fairbanks also declined, the role ultimately went to Plummer, who was twenty years younger than both Niven and Fairbanks and infused a more sinister than suave characterization.
This time, however, Sir Charles is innocent and—realizing he has been framed for the diamond’s theft—flies from his villa in Nice to the fictional Middle Eastern nation of Lugash to clear his name. Continue reading
Deadwood: Timothy Olyphant as Seth Bullock
Timothy Olyphant as Seth Bullock on the first season of Deadwood.
Vitals
Timothy Olyphant as Seth Bullock, taciturn Canadian-born lawman and hardware store owner
Deadwood, Summer 1876 to 1877
Series: Deadwood
Air Dates: March 21, 2004 to August 27, 2006
Creator: David Milch
Costume Designer: Janie Bryant
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
One of my favorite shows of all time, Deadwood aired its final episode 20 years ago tonight on August 27, 2006, shot down in its prime by HBO before series creator David Milch could fully execute his vision. Milch micro-lensed his poetically profane reflection on civilization through the real-life settlement of Deadwood, from its rugged origins as a lawless frontier mining camp to an incorporated town in Dakota Territory within a year. While Deadwood frames its narrative with actual figures and events, the series dramatizes and fictionalizes when needed to serve the story’s greater impact.
Though arguably an ensemble series (and one of the best to do it), Deadwood‘s closest equivalent to a lead character is Timothy Olyphant’s portrayal of real-life lawman Seth Bullock. Continue reading
Burt Reynolds in Double Denim as Gator McKlusky
Burt Reynolds in Gator (1976)
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Burt Reynolds as Bobby “Gator” McKlusky, paroled moonshine runner
Okefanokee Swamp, Summer 1975
Film: Gator
Release Date: August 25, 1976
Director: Burt Reynolds
Costume Designer: Norman Salling
Background
Burt Reynolds followed up his sweaty 1973 “hick flick” White Lightning with his self-directed sequel Gator, widely released 50 years ago today on August 25, 1976. The three-year gap had been kind to Reynolds, who had since grown his stardom… and that trademark mustache. (Unlike Sterling Archer, I prefer White Lightning over its lighter-hearted sequel.)
Reynolds reprises his role as moonshiner Bobby “Gator” McKlusky, recently released after serving 26 months in a Georgia state prison where he proudly learned how to make “quality license plates”. As in White Lightning, Gator is called back into government service, this time to help nab his one-time pal “Bama” McCall (Jerry Reed), now a ruthless crime boss in the fictional Dunston County. Of course, the government has to catch Gator first, kicking things off with a raucous speedboat chase through the Okefanokee Swamp. Continue reading
Gary Cole’s Brown-and-Green Leisure Suit in A Very Brady Sequel
Gary Cole as Mike Brady in A Very Brady Sequel (1996)
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Gary Cole as Mike Brady, architect and family man
Los Angeles, Summer 1996
Film: A Very Brady Sequel
Release Date: August 23, 1996
Director: Arlene Sanford
Costume Designer: Rosanna Norton
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Earlier this summer, my corner of Twitter was briefly ablaze with people celebrating the adaptations of The Brady Bunch that hit big screens back to back in the ’90s, specifically the breakfast scene in A Very Brady Sequel where the insecure middle-child Jan (Jennifer Elise Cox) conceptualizes her made-up boyfriend over blueberry pancakes, only for her older sister Marcia (Christine Taylor) to shut it down with “that’s funny, I’ve never heard of a George Glass at our schœl,” as parents Mike (Gary Cole) and Carol (Shelley Long) look on—the latter pouring an approximate gallon of sugar into her coffee.
The conceit of both The Brady Bunch Movie and the subsequent A Very Brady Sequel maintains the family’s groovy ’70s style, but transplants them—and their MCM home with its astroturfed lawn—directly into the ’90s, where they couldn’t be more obliviously out of place. Released thirty years ago this week on August 23, 1996, A Very Brady Sequel revived a few second-season subplots—including George Glass, the home’s horse statue, and a trip to Hawaii—while also lampshading the fact that the series never addressed the fate of Carol’s first husband by introducing him as the conniving Roy Martin (Tim Matheson). Continue reading
Robert Redford in All is Lost
Robert Redford in All is Lost (2013)
Vitals
Robert Redford as “Our Man”, a resourceful aging sailor
Indian Ocean, July 2012
Film: All Is Lost
Release Date: October 25, 2013
Director: J.C. Chandor
Costume Designer: Van Broughton Ramsey
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Robert Redford was born 90 years ago today on August 18, 1936, making this the first observance of the late actor’s birthday since his death in September 2025 at age 89. One of the prolific actor’s strongest performances from the later period of his career was J.C. Chandor’s survival-at-sea thriller All is Lost, which premiered at the 66th Cannes Film Festival in May 2013 before its wider release that October.
The 76-year-old Redford is the sole actor who appears on screen—unnamed but credited as “Our Man”, a resilient and robust mariner who was sailing solo through the Indian Ocean when a shipping container crashed into his starboard side of his CAL 39, the Virginia Jean. The collision immediately destroyed the Virginia Jean‘s power and external communications, leaving Our Man completely isolated to solve the compounding problems himself without the ability to call for assistance. “All is lost here, except for soul and body, that is, what’s left of them,” Redford’s character narrates. Continue reading
Evil Under the Sun: Roddy McDowall’s Nautical Breton Stripes
Roddy McDowall in Evil Under the Sun (1982)
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Roddy McDowall as Rex Brewster, flamboyant gossip columnist
Adriatic Sea, Summer 1939
Film: Evil Under the Sun
Release Date: March 5, 1982
Director: Guy Hamilton
Costume Designer: Anthony Powell
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Having returned from my own beach vacation this weekend, today’s post draws from a summery classic that was some of the earliest inspiration on my interest in men’s style: Guy Hamilton’s 1982 adaptation of the Agatha Christie mystery Evil Under the Sun.
This was the third Christie adaptation produced by John Brabourne and Richard Goodwin for EMI Films in less than a decade, beginning with Murder on the Orient Express (1974) which starred Albert Finney as eccentric Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Death on the Nile (1978) was the first to star Peter Ustinov, who became the first actor since Austin Trevor (in the 1930s) to play Poirot multiple times on screen when he first reprised the role in Evil Under the Sun. This movie feels considerably lighter than its predecessors in its tone and sun-baked setting, transferred from the novel’s provincial English coast to an exotic fictional island in the Adriatic Sea but filmed on Mallorca.
Principal characters like Poirot, the Redferns, and the Marshall family remained mostly unchanged in Anthony Shaffer’s screenplay, while others were either composited, jettisoned, or reimagined; for instance, the athletic spinster Emily Brewster from the novel was transformed into the extravagant Rex Brewster (Roddy McDowall), a gossip columnist writing an unauthorized tell-all biography of scandalous—and recently married—Broadway diva Arlena Stuart Marshall (Diana Rigg). Continue reading
Frankie Avalon’s Red Paisley Party Shirt in Beach Party
Frankie Avalon in Beach Party (1963)
Vitals
Frankie Avalon as Frankie, lovestruck surfer
Malibu, California, Summer 1963
Film: Beach Party
Release Date: August 7, 1963
Director: William Asher
Costume Design: Marjorie Corso & Renié
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Four years after Gidget launched the beach party subgenre, the formula was refined with less morals and more midriffs in the simply titled Beach Party. Released 63 years ago today on August 7, 1963, Beach Party was the first of about a dozen similar movies released by American International Pictures that occasionally veered from the beach into ski country or the race track but almost always featured pop singers Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello in leading roles.
Filmed across the beaches of Southern California over three weeks in the spring of 1963, Beach Party established a blueprint that most of its successors would follow: a score by exotica stalwart Les Baxter supplemented by the surf rock stylings of Dick Dale and his Del-Tones; a supporting cast of older, most established stars—like Bob Cummings, Dorothy Malone, and Morey Amsterdam in this first film; and the easy chemistry between Frankie and Annette.
Frankie and Annette played essentially the same teen lovers driven apart by an easily explained misunderstanding that is invariably resolved by the close of each approximately 90-minute runtime. In Beach Party, it’s Dolores’ hesitation that drives Frankie away—straight into the arms of the buxom “Hungarian goulash” Ava (Eva Six), one of the women whom he serenades with “Don’t Stop Now” during the raucous party at Big Daddy’s. Continue reading
Walter Matthau’s Gray Striped Suit as Charley Varrick
Walter Matthau in Charley Varrick (1973)
Vitals
Walter Matthau as Charley Varrick, clever crop-dusting pilot and bank robber
Albuquerque to Reno, Summer 1973
Film: Charley Varrick
Release Date: October 19, 1973
Director: Don Siegel
Costume Designer: Helen Colvig
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Although International Crop Duster’s Day is observed on May 27th, August 3rd was established as Airplane Crop Duster Day to commemorate U.S. Army pilot Lt. John A. Macready’s first-ever aerial crop-dusting flight on this day in 1921. More than a half century later, Walter Matthau broke from his usual comedic roles to portray the the titular crop-duster who broke bad in Charley Varrick, Don Siegel’s 1973 adaptation of John H. Reese’s crime novel The Looters.
Down on his luck as “the last of the independents” as he bills himself, Charley had organized a bank robbery in Tres Cruces, New Mexico, that tragically resulted in the death of his wife Nadine (Jacqueline Scott) and another accomplice. Charley and his remaining accomplice, hotheaded Harman (Andy Robinson), spirit away with the $765,118 haul—a surprisingly hefty take which tips Charley off to the fact that they must have robbed a Mafia drop bank.
Without waiting for confirmation beyond TV news only reporting that less than $2,000 was taken, Charley swiftly begins securing plans to make his final escape. Continue reading
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