Cary Grant’s Tuxedo in Notorious

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Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman in Notorious (1946)

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Cary Grant as T.R. Devlin, American government agent

Rio de Janeiro, Spring 1946

Film: Notorious
Release Date: September 6, 1946
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Costume Design: Edith Head (gowns only)

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Released 80 years ago this September, Notorious marked the second of four screen collaborations between Alfred Hitchcock and Cary Grant—who was born 122 years ago today on January 18, 1904. Written by Ben Hecht, Notorious is vintage Hitch at full boil, blending noir-tinged espionage with a romance daring enough to taunt the censors, all delivered with the Master of Suspense’s unmistakable mix of wit, menace, and nerve-shredding tension.

Notorious reaches a boiling point during a party hosted by the urbane yet dangerous Alex Sebastian (Claude Rains) and his new wife Alicia (Ingrid Bergman)—in fact a honeyspot spy recruited by American agent T.R. Devlin (Grant) to seduce her way into Sebastian’s circle of German emigrés hiding in post-World War II Brazil. Continue reading →

Our Man Flint: James Coburn’s Tuxedo

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James Coburn in Our Man Flint (1966)

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James Coburn as Derek Flint, bon vivant superspy

New York City to Marseilles, Spring 1965

Film: Our Man Flint
Release Date: January 16, 1966
Director: Daniel Mann
Costume Designer: Ray Aghayan

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

James Coburn originated the character of Derek Flint in Our Man Flint, one of the many spy spoofs in the wake of ’60s Bondmania, released sixty years ago today. Technically, the film premiered a month earlier in St. Ann’s Bay in Jamaica, though it wasn’t widely in theaters until the American release on January 16, 1966. It would be followed the next year by a sequel, In Like Flint—which also happens to be Austin Powers’ favorite movie… and, indeed, you can see plenty of shagadelic DNA in the Flint series. Continue reading →

The Grey: Liam Neeson’s Winter Survival Gear

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Liam Neeson in The Grey (2011). Photo credit: Kimberley French.

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Liam Neeson as John Ottway, world-weary oil company sharpshooter

Alaskan Wilderness, Winter 2011

Film: The Grey
Release Date: December 11, 2011
Director: Joe Carnahan
Costume Designer: Courtney Daniel

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

After a few reader requests that piqued my interest in survival stories, I recently watched The Grey, which premiered 14 years ago n January 2012 following its debut the previous month during the annual “Butt-Numb-a-Thon” film marathon in Austin.

Adapted by director Joe Caranhan and Ian MacKenzie Jeffers from the latter’s short story “Ghost Walker”, The Grey centers around Liam Neeson as the spiritually exhausted John Ottway, who describes his situation in the opening voiceover:

A job at the end of the world: a salaried killer for a big petroleum company. I don’t know why I did half the things I’ve done, but I know this is where I belong, surrounded by my own: ex-cons, fugitives, drifters, assholes. Men unfit for mankind.

Continue reading →

Sean Connery’s Sheepskin Coat and Plaid Suit in The Offence

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Sean Connery in The Offence (1973)

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Sean Connery as Detective Sergeant “Johnny” Johnson, jaded police detective

Berkshire, England, Spring 1972

Film: The Offence
Release Date: January 11, 1973
Director: Sidney Lumet
Costume Designer: Evangeline Harrison

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Sean Connery and director Sidney Lumet’s third of five cinematic collaborations, The Offence, was released on this day in 1973. Adapted by John Hopkins from his own stage play This Story of Yours, the film was the first of two projects that United Artists agreed to finance through Connery’s production company Tantallon Films in exchange for the star returning to play James Bond in Diamonds are Forever.

As his first post-Bond film, Big Tam specifically chose The Offence to demonstrate his range and expand his screen image beyond the 007 persona, resulting in perhaps one of his greatest performances. Continue reading →

Chilly Scenes of Winter: John Heard’s Moth-eaten Maroon Sweater

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John Heard in Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979)

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John Heard as Charles Richardson, obsessive state analyst

Salt Lake City, Winter 1979/80

Film: Chilly Scenes of Winter
Release Date: October 19, 1979
Director: Joan Micklin Silver
Costume Designer: Rosanna Norton

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

The wintry weather this first full week of the year feels appropriate to slip into John Heard’s deceptively cozy wardrobe in Joan Micklin Silver’s 1979 comedy Chilly Scenes of Winter. Originally marketed by United Artists as a zany, lighthearted rom-com that the studio re-titled Head Over Heels (much to its cast and crew’s dismay), Chilly Scenes of Winter is actually an all-too-real exploration of the depths to which a seemingly sane person can fall when tortured by their concept of love.

Heard plays Charles Richardson, a seemingly normal Utah State Department of Development report analyst who begins dating his colleague Laura (Mary Beth Hurt), only to grow increasingly and desperately obsessed with winning back her affection after she ends their relationship. Continue reading →

Dillinger (1973): Ben Johnson’s Indigo Chalkstripe Suit as Melvin Purvis

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Ben Johnson as Melvin Purvis in Dillinger (1973)

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Ben Johnson as Melvin Purvis, experienced federal agent

Northern Illinois, Winter 1933

Film: Dillinger
Release Date: July 20, 1973
Director: John Milius
Costume Designer: James M. George

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

The Depression-era desperado roundup of 1934 which eventually took down the likes of John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, “Pretty Boy” Floyd, and “Baby Face” Nelson began in the last days of 1933 when a 24-man strike force of federal agents and local police surrounded the rented cottage where “Tri-State Terror” Wilbur Underhill was spending his honeymoon with his new bride Hazel Jarrett Hudson… as well as his partner-in-crime Ralph Roe and his girlfriend Eva May Nichols. The subsequent gunfight resulted in one of the women’s deaths and Underhill mortally wounded.

Despite the title character’s removal from these events, John Milius’ 1973 directorial debut Dillinger gets these general circumstances correct, though it relocates the action from outside Shawnee, Oklahoma to “northern Illinois” and places rising FBI star Melvin Purvis (Ben Johnson) onsite to single-handedly lead the counterattack against Underhill, silently portrayed by Dillinger‘s cinematographer Jules Brenner. Continue reading →

The Killer Elite: Robert Duvall’s Navy Shacket and Watch Cap

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Robert Duvall in The Killer Elite (1975)

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Robert Duvall as George Hansen, mercenary-for-hire

San Francisco, Spring 1975

Film: The Killer Elite
Release Date: December 19, 1975
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Costume Designer: Ray Summers

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

My post about the late James Caan’s style in The Killer Elite for the film’s 50th anniversary last month received more attention than I expected, as well as requests to cover his co-star Robert Duvall. So, ahead of Duvall’s 95th birthday tomorrow, let’s look at how he dresses as the double-crossing mercenary George Hansen across The Killer Elite‘s second act.

After betraying his partner Mike Locken (Caan) and leaving him with a crippling bullet to the knee, George has been profiting as a freelance mercenary most recently hired to assassinate a Taiwanese politician visiting the United States. Mike had been out of commission for weeks while recovering from his wound, but his old employer ComTeg finally welcomes him back into the fold—hoping he can foil his former partner’s plot. Continue reading →

Rocky: Sylvester Stallone’s Black Leather Jacket

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Sylvester Stallone in Rocky (1976)

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Sylvester Stallone as Robert “Rocky” Balboa, ambitious boxer and mob enforcer

Philadelphia, Fall/Winter 1975

Film: Rocky
Release Date: December 3, 1976
Director: John G. Avildsen
Costumer: Robert Campbel

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Happy New Year! Fifty years ago tonight, scrappy southpaw Rocky Balboa went the distance against the heavyweight champ, turning a Philadelphia club fighter into an American myth—so, in the spirit of “new year, new you”—let’s punch into the style of Sylvester Stallone’s era-defining breakthrough role. Continue reading →

Blow: A Colorful New Year’s Eve Sport Jacket

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Johnny Depp as George Jung in Blow (2001)

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Johnny Depp as George Jung, successful cocaine smuggler

Miami, New Year’s Eve 1979

Film: Blow
Release Date: April 6, 2001
Director: Ted Demme
Costume Designer: Mark Bridges

Background

I’ll be the first to admit my hypocritical cowardice. I’ve written many posts celebrating turtlenecks, but it wasn’t until this year that I truly started embracing them in my personal style, the result of a New Year’s resolution to myself. “What kind of resolution is that?” you might ask. “Didn’t you become a father this year? Why are you worried about turtlenecks?” you may also ask. And I’ll ignore all those questions.

I always had a soft spot for Blow, Ted Demme’s Scorsese-inspired movie following the rise and fall of the late drug dealer “Boston George” Jung, played to trichological perfection by Johnny Depp. Even at the height of George’s success, Depp convincingly sells George as the kind of himbo whose right connections at the right place at the right time converged for him to make millions smuggling cocaine for the Medellín Cartel through the 1970s and ’80s.

During a New Year’s Eve party (scored by KC and the Sunshine Band’s disco hit “Keep It Comin’, Love”), George learns from one of his partners that his old partner Diego Delgado—a thinly veiled stand-in for the real-life Carlos Lehder—has double-crossed him, cutting George out to conduct his own smuggling operations from Norman’s Cay… though it takes George a few beats to comprehend that “Norman Cay” isn’t a person but a place. Continue reading →

The Family Stone: Luke Wilson’s New Plaid Polo Jacket on Christmas Morning

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Luke Wilson as Ben Stone in The Family Stone (2005)

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Luke Wilson as Ben Stone, documentary film editor

New England, Christmas 2005

Film: The Family Stone
Release Date: December 16, 2005
Director: Thomas Bezucha
Costume Designer: Shay Cunliffe

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Merry Christmas!

Released twenty years ago this month, The Family Stone (written and directed by Thomas Bezucha) has quietly earned its place in the modern Christmas-movie canon—not through spectacle or sentimentality, but by capturing something far more recognizable: the particular emotional chaos of being home for the holidays with people who know you a little too well.

Already an emotionally demanding watch, The Family Stone feels newly poignant in the wake of Diane Keaton’s death in October 2025 at age 79. Her characteristically stylish, warm yet acerbic, and ultimately devastating performance as the matriarch Sybil Stone has long been the film’s emotional anchor, and revisiting it now adds an unavoidable layer of grief and gratitude to a story already steeped in both.

Headed by the formidable Sybil and her husband Kelly (Craig T. Nelson), the Stones live in the fictional New England town of Thayer, likely somewhere in Massachusetts’ Pioneer Valley. Each Christmas, their five adult children—and an assortment of significant others—descend on the family home for a few days of overlapping traditions, unresolved resentments, and aggressively honest conversation.

Most families have a Ben. Luke Wilson’s youngest Stone sibling is the laid-back, free-spirited one—sometimes too laid-back, if his two consecutive missed flights are any indication. An excessive stoner even by his liberal New England family’s standards, Ben’s unbothered demeanor ultimately establishes him as the family diplomat: the only one who really gets along with his brother Everett’s tightly wound girlfriend Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker), gradually thawing her icy, defensive exterior. Continue reading →