Tagged: Wing Collar
Deadwood: Timothy Olyphant as Seth Bullock
Timothy Olyphant as Seth Bullock on the first season of Deadwood.
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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
Rudolf Nureyev’s Dancing Tailcoat as Valentino
Rudolf Nureyev as Rudolph Valentino in Valentino (1977)
Vitals
Rudolf Nureyev as Rudolph Valentino, Italian-American dancer and future silent film star
Los Angeles, Fall 1919
Film: Valentino
Release Date: October 4, 1977
Director: Ken Russell
Costume Designer: Shirley Russell
Tailor: Anderson & Sheppard
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
The sudden death of screen icon Rudolph Valentino 100 years ago today on August 23, 1926 prompted mass public mourning including approximately 100,000 mourners lining the streets of Manhattan to pay their respects. Among these was his lover—and fellow silent-era sex symbol—Pola Negri, who theatrically collapsed over his $10,000 coffin, which she had previously adorned with an eleven-foot-long bank of lilies spelling out her own name. In contrast to more tasteful tributes offered by contemporaries like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, fans launched a day-long riot by smashing the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel’s windows in attempts to get in, while there were also reported suicides from despondent devotees.
Valentino’s death at age 31 at the height of his stardom contributed to his lasting mystique and old Hollywood legends. His star had shown hard and fast during the silent film era of the roaring ’20s, following his global breakthrough in the 1921 anti-war epic The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Nicknamed the “Latin Lover” but alternately known simply as “Valentino”, the actor’s intense and exotic presence in romantic roles earned him wide devotion among female fans… and a jealous ire among men who questioned his masculinity.
The latter backlash to his persona dogged Valentino throughout his career, culminating in the actor challenging a Chicago Tribune reporter to a boxing or wrestling match. Following the writer’s failure to respond, New York Evening Journal boxing writer Frank “Buck” O’Neil took the challenge and publicly faced off against Valentino on the roof of the Ambassador Hotel in New York, refereed by heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, who would later describe Valentino as “the most virile and masculine of men.” O’Neil only landed one punch before the Latin Lover swiftly knocked him down and won the bout. Ever the gentleman, the victorious Valentino apologized to O’Neil when helping him to his feet.
The real Rudolph Valentino (1895-1926) dances with Alice Terry in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), which would transform Valentino from a supporting player into a superstar.
Valentino’s life and legend has made him a popular subject for film and TV representation, from the 1951 biopic Valentino to Finn Wittrock portraying a vampiric Valentino in the fifth season of American Horror Story. But perhaps the most notorious retelling was Ken Russell’s 1977 drama Valentino, based on Chaw Mank and Brad Steiger’s biography subttitled “an Intimate Exposé of the Sheik” and starring Russian-born dancer Rudolf Nureyev as the titular actor. Continue reading
David Suchet’s Herringbone Suit as Hercule Poirot in The Mysterious Affair at Styles
David Suchet as Hercule Poirot in the 1990 episode of Agatha Christie’s Poirot: “The Mysterious Affair at Styles”
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David Suchet as Hercule Poirot, fastidious Belgian refugee and former detective
Essex, England, Summer 1917
Series: Agatha Christie’s Poirot
Episode: “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” (Episode 3.01)
Air Date: September 16, 1990
Director: Ross Devenish
Costume Designer: Linda Mattock
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
“Queen of Crime” Agatha Christie was born 135 years ago today on September 15, 1890. Among her most prolific creations was the character of Hercule Poirot, a fussy Belgian detective whom she included in more than three dozen novels and short stories despite her own eventual exhaustion with the character she decried as “insufferable.” Poirot first appeared in Christie’s debut novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles, first published 105 years ago next month in October 1920.
Recommended by Christie’s own family for the role, David Suchet crafted the definitive portrayal of the detective throughout 13 seasons of the ITV series Agatha Christie’s Poirot, originated by writer Clive Exton in 1989. To commemorate the centenary of Christie’s birth, ITV aired the feature-length episode “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” between the second and third seasons which, to date, remains the only major English-language adaptation of Christie’s novel. Continue reading
Wicked: Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz
Jeff Goldblum in Wicked (2024)
Vitals
Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz
Emerald City in the land of Oz, circa 1900
Film: Wicked: Part I
Release Date: November 22, 2024
Director: Jon M. Chu
Costume Designer: Paul Tazewell
Tailor: Martin Nicholls
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Congratulations to Wicked costume designer Paul Tazewell, who received the Academy Award for Best Costume Design during last night’s Oscars ceremony. Jon M. Chu’s first installment adapting this mega-hit Broadway musical was nominated for ten Academy Awards, also winning for Best Production Design.
The musical itself was adapted by Stephen Schwartz from Gregory Macguire’s 1995 novel Wicked, a revisionist expansion of the universe that L. Frank Baum developed in his “Oz” books and had been immortalized in the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz. The stage and screen musical adaptations of Wicked refrain from some of the novel’s darker elements in favor of maintaining the colorful fantasy associated with the story.
We don’t actually meet the wizard until the final act of Wicked, nearly two hours into the 160-minute movie. After an intimidating introduction as a gravely, disembodied voice behind a massive robotic face, the wizard reveals himself to be a man as Jeff Goldblum strides out and introduces himself to fledgling witches Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda Upland (Ariana Grande). Continue reading
Death on the Nile: Maggie Smith in Menswear-informed Black Tie
Maggie Smith in Death on the Nile (1978)
Vitals
Maggie Smith as Miss Bowers, dependable nurse and traveling companion
Egypt, September 1937
Film: Death on the Nile
Release Date: September 29, 1978
Director: John Guillermin
Costume Designer: Anthony Powell
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Today would have been the 90th birthday of prolific English actress Dame Maggie Smith, who died three months ago in September 2024. Born December 28, 1934, Smith was a two-time Academy Award winner for her performances in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and California Suite (1978), later endearing herself to modern audiences for her roles in the Harry Potter film series and on Downton Abbey.
BAMF Style readers familiar with my appreciation for Agatha Christie novels and their screen adaptations may not be surprised to learn that I became a fan of hers following her appearances in the lavish Anthony Shaffer-penned adaptations of Death on the Nile and Evil Under the Sun, both of which starred Peter Ustinov as the fastidious Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Continue reading
The Cat’s Meow: Cary Elwes’ White Dinner Jacket as Thomas Ince
Cary Elwes as Thomas Ince in The Cat’s Meow (2002)
Vitals
Cary Elwes as Thomas H. Ince, Hollywood movie mogul
USS Oneida off the coast of southern California, November 1924
Film: The Cat’s Meow
Release Date: April 12, 2002
Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Costume Designer: Caroline de Vivaise
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
One hundred years ago this weekend was the mysterious party aboard media tycoon William Randolph Hearst’s luxury yacht that resulted in the death of pioneering filmmaker Thomas H. Ince.
Known a “Father of the Western” with more than 800 producing and directing credits to his name, Ince was celebrating his 44th birthday on Sunday, November 16, 1924 with Hearst’s invited guests aboard the USS Oneida when he reportedly suffered indigestion that led to his death of heart failure three days later. However, Hollywood lore persisted that Ince’s death was actually the result of foul play. Continue reading
The Newton Boys: Dock Newton’s Gray Morning Coat
Vincent D’Onofrio as Dock Newton in The Newton Boys (1998)
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Vincent D’Onofrio as Wylie “Dock” Newton, ex-convict and outlaw
Toronto, Summer 1923
Film: The Newton Boys
Release Date: March 27, 1998
Director: Richard Linklater
Costume Designer: Shelley Komarov
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
One hundred years ago tomorrow on June 12, 1924, the notorious Newton brothers gang committed their last* holdup after a wildly successful five-year spree that robbed at least 80 banks across ten states, about half of these in their home state of Texas where brothers Willis, Jess, Joe, and “Dock” Newton were born in Uvalde.
“If there are any bank robbers you’d want as family members, it would be the Newton Boys,” writes Duane Swiercyznski in his volume This Here’s a Stick-Up: The Big Bad Book of American Bank Robbery, in which he describes the group as “unfailingly polite, nonviolent, and professional heisters.”
In addition to their preference for courtesy over cruelty, the brothers attributed their success to initially sticking to less risky nighttime robberies targeting specific old-fashioned safes that could be more easily blown open with nitroglycerin. It was only when departing from this formula that the Newtons encountered real trouble, such as their impulsive attempt to rob daylight messengers of the Imperial Bank of Canada in July 1923… which netted C$84,000 but broke the gang’s avoidance of violence when four guards were shot and wounded.
Just under a year later, the Newtons again should have stuck to their formula rather than agreeing to what would be one of the last—but biggest—train robberies in American history. On the evening of June 12, 1924, the Newtons joined a group of professional criminals in the attempted robbery of R.P.O. train 57 outside Rondout, Illinois, about forty miles up the Lake Michigan coast from Chicago.
“Ain’t this a helluva way to make a living?” Jess reportedly joked to the conductor, whose nerves at being robbed—even by the generally nonviolent Newtons—resulted in him failing to stop the train where the bandits expected. In the subsequent confusion and darkness, one of the outsiders recruited into the job mistook Dock for one of the guards and opened fire. Continue reading
Robert Redford’s Tuxedo in The Great Gatsby
Robert Redford as Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby (1974)
Vitals
Robert Redford as Jay Gatsby, enigmatic millionaire and eager romantic
Long Island, New York, Summer 1925
Film: The Great Gatsby
Release Date: March 29, 1974
Director: Jack Clayton
Costume Designer: Theoni V. Aldredge
Clothes by: Ralph Lauren
Background
Today marks the 50th anniversary since the release of The Great Gatsby, directed by Jack Clayton from a screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola. This 1974 film was actually the third major adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s romantic Jazz Age novel to be brought to the big screen, following a now-lost silent film in 1926 and a 1949 update starring Alan Ladd, Betty Field, and Macdonald Carey.
The lavish 1974 version stars Robert Redford as the eponymous millionaire who amassed his wealth and flaunts it through riotous parties all in the hopes of reuniting with his erstwhile love, the now-married Daisy (Mia Farrow).
Roaring ’20s standards like “Who?” and “Whispering” filter up from the jazz band out in the garden as Nick Carraway (Sam Waterston) is nervously led by a gun-toting bodyguard into a handsome wood-paneled office, where Nick finally meets the enigmatic host. Jay Gatsby is immediately charming, but his talent for first impressions sizzles out for a very stilted encounter as Gatsby awkwardly explains that he just felt the two neighbors should meet.
Mercifully interrupted by a business phone call (“I don’t give a damn what Philadelphia wants, I said a ‘small town’. If that’s his idea of a small town, he’s no use to us.”), Gatsby recovers his wits enough to ask Nick to join him for lunch the following day.
Though The Great Gatsby received a lukewarm critical reception upon its release 50 years ago this week, it grossed nearly four times its budget and was a major cultural phenomenon, with Nelson Riddle’s Oscar-winning score and Theoni V. Aldredge’s Oscar-winning costume design reviving interest in music and fashions of the 1920s. Continue reading
Warren Beatty in McCabe and Mrs. Miller
Warren Beatty as John McCabe in McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971)
Vitals
Warren Beatty as John McCabe, enterprising gambler and pimp
Presbyterian Church, Washington, Fall to winter 1902
Film: McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Release Date: June 24, 1971
Director: Robert Altman
Wardrobe Credit: Ilse Richter
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
There are moments every January where I envy the idiosyncratic wardrobe of John McCabe, warmly swaddled in hefty furs as he trots into the humble hamlet of Presbyterian Church, Washington, scored by Leonard Cohen’s mournful baritone.
One of the most prolific pioneers of the “New Hollywood” movement that began in the 1960s, Robert Altman followed up his maverick success with MASH (1970) and his artistic experiment with Brewster McCloud (1970) by setting his sights on one of the most venerated genres in American cinema. Altman and Brian McKay adapted a 1959 novel by Edmund Naughton to deliver McCabe & Mrs. Miller, which the director would ultimately deem an “anti-Western” for its subversion of genre conventions and expectations. Continue reading
The Great Gatsby: Howard Da Silva as Meyer Wolfsheim
Howard Da Silva as Meyer Wolfsheim in The Great Gatsby (1974)
Vitals
Howard Da Silva as Meyer Wolfsheim, legendary gambler
New York City, Summer 1925
Film: The Great Gatsby
Release Date: March 29, 1974
Director: Jack Clayton
Costume Designer: Theoni V. Aldredge
Background
Though perhaps not as well known as his gangland contemporaries today, Prohibition-era racketeer Arnold Rothstein served as the basis for generations of fictional characters in pop culture for generations after his 1928 murder.
Born on this day in 1882, Rothstein began gambling at a young age, was reportedly a millionaire by the time he turned 30, and was most likely integral in the infamous “Black Sox Scandal” that accused eight members of the Chicago White Sox of throwing the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds.
It may be coincidence that the Volstead Act became official nationwide on his 38th birthday, a gift for the visionary Rothstein who has been considered among the first to recognize the business potential of Prohibition. He was one of the most influential figures in organized crime during the roaring ’20s, forging a bootlegging empire that included notable mobsters like Meyer Lansky, “Lucky” Luciano, and Dutch Schultz, many of whom looked up to Rothstein as a mentor.
Despite these dangerous connections, it’s likely that Rothstein met his early end due to nothing more nefarious than a poker game. After racking up a debt of more than $300,000 due to what Rothstein called a fixed game, the 46-year-old gangster was shot during a business meeting at the Park Central Hotel on November 4, 1928, dying two days later.
Though directly portrayed on screen by the likes of F. Murray Abraham (in the 1991 film Mobsters) and Michael Stuhlbarg (in the first four seasons of Boardwalk Empire), Rothstein’s legacy also includes a bevy of fictional characters that he inspired, including Nathan Detroit in the musical Guys and Dolls and Meyer Wolfsheim in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, as most clearly suggested by an exchange that cites the real Rothstein’s arguably most infamous “achievement”. Continue reading
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