Steve Buscemi as Enoch “Nucky” Thompson in the first episode of Boardwalk Empire.

Vitals

Steve Buscemi as Enoch “Nucky” Thompson, corrupt Atlantic City politician and bootlegger

Atlantic City, January 1920

Series: Boardwalk Empire
Episodes:
– “Boardwalk Empire” (Episode 1.01, dir. Martin Scorsese, aired September 19, 2010)
– “The Ivory Tower” (Episode 1.02, dir. Tim Van Patten, aired September 26, 2010)
– “Broadway Limited” (Episode 1.03, dir. Tim Van Patten, aired October 3, 2010)
– “Hold Me in Paradise” (Episode 1.08, dir. Brian Kirk, aired November 7, 2010)
– “A Return to Normalcy” (Episode 1.12, dir. Tim Van Patten, aired December 5, 2010)
– “What Does the Bee Do?” (Episode 2.04, dir. Tim Van Patten, aired October 16, 2011)
Creator: Terence Winter
Costume Designer: John A. Dunn
Tailor: Martin Greenfield

Background

This week, I’m taking a look at outfits worn by BAMFs in the first episodes of some of my favorite TV shows. #MafiaMonday is a great excuse to start with Boardwalk Empire, particularly the suit worn by Steve Buscemi as Atlantic County treasurer Enoch “Nucky” Thompson in the opening credits of the series’ five-season run… as well as a few early episodes.

What’d He Wear?

As seen in the credits…

The Boardwalk Empire opening credits sequence shows a clear recognition of costume design as an essential storytelling device. A series of shots of Steve Buscemi standing on a beach while liquor bottles wash up on his feet would have had a much different effect had he been dressed in his ’70s-toned layered turtleneck and topcoat à la Fargo or the mismatched black suit jacket and jeans as “Mr. Pink” in Reservoir Dogs.

Instead, we immediately meet Nucky Thompson the living legend, resplendent in a period-perfect charcoal striped three-piece suit, colorful shirt and tie with a distinctive contrast collar, a dark homburg reminiscent of The Godfather, sharp spectator shoes that are evidently immune to the effects of standing in the surf… and a red carnation, the gregariously dapper embellishment borrowed from Nucky’s real-life counterpart Enoch Johnson.

Nucky’s suit blends elements of traditional business suiting – charcoal material, pinstripes, and chalkstripes – for a distinctive look that differentiates him from the world of establishment politics and business while also avoiding the overt gangster connotations of a bolder white chalkstripe. Indeed, Nucky plays the middle like a fiddle (for the first few seasons, at least), viewed by the Atlantic City public as a generous civil servant while those in his circle know him better as the corrupt “half a gangster” just as capable of coordinating the importation of bootleg whiskey as he is of offering vocal support for the Women’s Temperance League.

The dark charcoal worsted suit, tailored by Martin Greenfield of Brooklyn, is patterned with a series of stripes alternating between a single-thread pinstripe and a wider four-thread stripe.

Three months after the final Boardwalk Empire episode aired, ScreenBid hosted an auction of many of the show’s props and costumes including the “iconic three piece suit from the opening credits,” which was made custom for Steve Buscemi but described as sized approximately 38 regular. The auction listing included several exclusive photos of the suit, including a view of the little-seen gold satin-finished lining with its faint red striping and Deco-style cricles.

Source: ScreenBid.

The long double-breasted suit jacket has straight shoulders and squared front quarters that flare out below the high button stance to resemble the “shapeless” American sack suit characteristic of early 20th century American menswear, particularly when worn unbuttoned as Nucky tends to wear it. The wide lapels have straight gorges. There is a long single vent in the back.

Nucky’s suit jacket has four-button cuffs with a “turnback cuff”, a dandyish detail evoking the Edwardian era that Nucky wore on all of his early suits. The jacket has a welted breast pocket and straight flapped hip pockets on the sides as well as a flapped ticket pocket, placed high above the waist on the right side to align with the lower row of buttons.

Episode 1.03: “Broadway Limited”

The double-breasted front has four buttons in a square formation, highly placed above Nucky’s natural waist in two rows of two buttons. The suit jacket buttons are best seen on the sole occasion that Nucky wears his jacket fully buttoned during his press conference in “A Return to Normalcy” (episode 1.12).

Perhaps to indicate the solemnity of his announcement, Nucky wears his jacket closed for the one and only time in “A Return to Normalcy” (episode 1.12).

The suit’s matching waistcoat (vest) has six buttons that fasten high on Buscemi’s chest with the lowest button left open over the notched bottom. It has four welted pockets.

The roaring twenties was the twilight of the gentleman’s pocket watch, which would gradually be eclipsed by the wristwatch over the course of the decade. Nucky wears his gold Elgin open-face pocket watch in his lower left vest pocket throughout the first season, connected on a 18″ gold chain to an ornate fob described by ScreenBid as “a trio of gold cubes with tiny ruby chips.”

The plain white dial has Arabic numerals with the “ELGIN” brand name clearly visible in the eighth episode, “Hold Me in Paradise,” when Nucky is in Chicago. (The ScreenBid auction confirmed that the same Elgin watch was used for the opening credits.) Nucky’s watch has a winding stem at 12:00 and a white sub-dial counting down the seconds at 6:00, a typical layout for open-face watches.

A few minutes past 4:30 a.m. and Nucky’s still working.

Similar watches are available online such as this pristine Elgin Grade 303 railroad watch from 1924, available from Etsy for only $99.

Nucky’s flat front suit trousers have a long rise, properly concealing the waistband under his waistcoat. They are most likely fitted to be worn with suspenders (braces), consistent with Nucky’ other suits and three-piece suit decorum, particularly in the early 20th century. They are cut straight through the leg down to the bottoms, finished with wide cuffs (turn-ups).

In the opening credits, Nucky wears a pair of black and tan calf leather wingtip oxford brogues. These spectator shoes, handcrafted in Italy for Forzieri, have a black wingtip, black lace panels for the six-eyelet black laces, black back heel quarters, and brown perforated broguing across the tan vamp.

Typically, one wouldn’t wear shoes of this quality so close to the salty ocean water, but Nucky’s kicks seem strangely immune to effects of the surf.

As of September 2017, Forzieri is still offering these Italian handcrafted spectator shoes for $660 and proudly marketing them as the shoe from “the opening credits of Boardwalk Empire.” Though Forzieri has only existed for the last quarter of a century, these duo-toned brogues are certainly reflective of the spirit of men’s footwear during the Jazz Age.

Jumping up from his feet to the top of his head, Nucky wears a homburg – the preferred headgear of that era’s most powerful men – in a villainous shade of black felt with a wide black grosgrain ribbon and grosgrain edges along the curled brim. Thanks to the ScreenBid listing, we know the hat was crafted by Dobbs, a New York millinery founded in 1908.

Nucky is perplexed by his meeting with the obnoxious George Baxter in “The Ivory Tower” (episode 1.02).

You can find a selection of Boardwalk Empire hats available from Fashionable Hats, which also includes a helpful style guide for gents looking to top off their look à la Nucky Thompson, Al Capone, or Jimmy Darmody. Fashionable Hats offers a Stetson homburg in black genuine fur felt for less than $200 that will leave you feeling like the king of the boardwalk.

Dress shirts with attached collars were still novel in 1920, having only been patented the previous year by the Phillips-Jones Corporation (now Phillips-Van Heusen) as the “self-folding collar”. Men of Nucky’s status wore shirts with starched white detachable collars that could be easily removed and vigorously cleaned more frequently than the shirts themselves.

Just before the show’s September 2010 premiere, costume designer John Dunn spoke to Esquire about the signature “keyhole-cut” collar he developed for Nucky:

We did have a particular collar specifically designed for Nucky, though: a period collar that has a little keyhole cutout in the center — when you close the collar with the collar bar, there was then a little hole that the necktie would come out of. No one else was allowed to wear that.

Dunn’s particular collar is established in the opening credits and would adorn Nucky’s neck for the show’s first three seasons. Eagle-eyed fans have noted its similarity to the “Tyfold” collar introduced to the American market in 1903 by Cluett Peabody and Co., the same company that developed the attached-collar Arrow shirt in the late 1920s.

Colorful dresser that he is, Nucky is seen in the credits wearing his white “keyhole-cut” collar with a lavender shirt subtly patterned with circles that echo the bolder purple silk tie with “maroon floral medallions,” as described by the ScreenBid auction (which also confirms the tie’s manufacturer as “John Kocis”.)

Left: Steve Buscemi, seen in the Boardwalk Empire opening credits.
Right: The suit jacket, shirt, collar, and tie worn in the credits sequence (Source: ScreenBid.)

Nucky Thompson’s cuff links worn during the opening credits, sourced from ScreenBid.

The self-shirted double (French) cuffs of Nucky’s shirts in the pilot episode were all fastened by a set of octagonal vintage silver-toned cuff links with an onyx ring around a clear stone on each link’s face.

Episode by episode…

When we first meet Nucky Thompson in the pilot episode “Boardwalk Empire”, he is about to address the Women’s Temperance League in the same suit as we saw in the credits but with a radically different shirt and tie.

His yellow dress shirt is patterned with wide white stripes that are bordered on each side and split down the center with three thin blue stripes, creating the effect of light blue stripes from a distance. His white “keyhole-cut” detachable collar also makes its debut, pinned with his usual gold collar bar.

Nucky wears a bright blue-on-blue pindot plaid silk tie with Deco-inspired sets of two white-bordered squares placed haphazardly over the surface of the tie. The left square is gradient-filled in yellow, but the right square is transparent, revealing the blue pattern of the tie’s ground.

“Boardwalk Empire” (episode 1.01): Nucky addresses the Women’s Temperance League in a yellow striped shirt and blue square-patterned silk tie.

The following episode, “The Ivory Tower” (episode 1.02), finds Nucky making the rounds of Atlantic City, first running into the obnoxious George Baxter (Allen Lewis Rickman) on the boardwalk before checking in with the imperious Commodore (Dabney Coleman) at his palatial home.

Nucky again sports a light yellow shirt, this time solid yellow rather than striped. Instead, it’s his tie that’s striped in a series of varying navy blue, mustard yellow, and brick red stripes following the European “uphill” direction of left-down-to-right.

“The Ivory Tower” (episode 1.02): Nucky grimaces during a meeting with the Commodore, wearing a solid yellow shirt with a multi-striped tie.

In both the pilot and “The Ivory Tower,” Nucky wears a knee-length camelhair overcoat with wide Ulster-style lapels and a high six-on-three-button double-breasted front. The coat has padded shoulders, swelled edges, a vertical welt pocket on each side, and a wide cuff at the end of each sleeve. In the back, an inverted box pleat on the upper back aligns with the long single vent that extends up to the half-belt.

“The Ivory Tower” also features Nucky’s new footwear, a pair of tan leather oxfords worn with burgundy dress socks. Evidently, the black-and-tan spectator shoes featured in the credits didn’t survive his trip to the beach…

Nucky spends some time in this Ritz Hotel office in “Broadway Limited” (episode 1.03), where he is visited by his erstwhile mentee, the troubled Jimmy Darmody (Michael Pitt). Jimmy’s humble tweed Norfolk suit is the yin to Nucky’s elegant yang.

Nucky appears to be wearing the lavender circle-printed shirt from the opening credits, now paired with a similar multi-striped tie from the previous episode but in an opposing stripe direction.

“Broadway Limited” (episode 1.03): Nucky wears a lavender shirt with a multi-striped tie for a day at the office.

That evening in the same episode, Nucky pays a visit to his ally Albert “Chalky” White (Michael K. Williams), dressing for the evening chill in a countrified brown heavy tweed wool top coat with a plaid pattern consisting of blue, beige, red, and black checks. The coat’s double-breasted front echoes the suit jacket beneath it with its peak lapels and “square” four-on-two button formation, also worn totally open. The coat has an inverted box pleat patch pocket with a flap on the left breast and large flapped patch pockets on the hips, below the lower row of buttons. The shoulders are padded and roped at the sleeveheads with a full cuff at the end of each sleeve. The back is accented with a Western-style pointed yoke and a half-belt.

Nucky’s brown plaid overcoat was also auctioned by ScreenBid, giving us a better look than the dark glimpses we get in “Broadway Limited” (episode 1.03).

Nucky’s opening credits suit reappears five episodes later in “Hold Me in Paradise” (episode 1.08) when Nucky is in Chicago for the Republican National Convention. He is dining with Republican Senator Walter Edge (Geoff Pierson) when he receives news of a robbery back in Atlantic City.

Nucky once again sports a solid yellow shirt for his dinner with Senator Edge, now worn with an “old gold” jacquard silk tie with an ornate floral pattern with cornflower blue center dots.

The outfit is evidently a hit as he also wears it for a press conference denouncing the D’Alessio brothers in the season finale, “A Return to Normalcy” (episode 1.12). In both of these later season appearances, he also seems to be wearing black oxford shoes.

“A Return to Normalcy” (episode 1.12): Nucky comes out strong against the D’Alessio brothers during a presser in which he wears a yellow shirt and yellow patterned silk tie.

This suit makes its final appearance in “What Does the Bee Do?” (episode 2.04) as a naughty Nucky is entertaining politicians, prostitutes, and prize-fighters when Jack Dempsey drops in on Mayor Ed Bader’s birthday party. (The real Ed Bader was born on June 8, 1874, but this episode is supposedly set before Memorial Day, sometime in the spring of 1921.)

New season, new shirt. Nucky wears a pale blue striped shirt with self-shirted double (French) cuffs and his usual detachable white keyhole collar. His tie is dark purple paisley silk.

“What Does the Bee Do?” (episode 2.04): Evidently it’s been a long night, as Nucky’s hair is a bit tousled but his pale blue striped shirt, white keyhole collar, and purple paisley silk tie remain perfectly in place.

Nucky would continue to wear charcoal striped suits through the run of the series, including a very similarly patterned single-breasted suit with double-breasted waistcoat throughout the third season, but this episode – ‘what does the bee do?’ – was the final in-show appearance of the suit that greeted boardwalk empire viewers in the credits each week.

The Music

Boardwalk Empire made great use of the burgeoning popular music of the early 1920s from vintage recordings of Tin Pan Alley hits to modern interpretations featuring the studious arrangements of Vince Giordano and his Nighthawks Orchestra often accompanied by stars of today like Neko Case, Elvis Costello, Norah Jones, Liza Minnelli, Patti Smith, and Regina Spektor.

The opening credits were a different story, using “Straight Up and Down” by The Brian Jonestown Massacre, an energetic track inspired by 1960s rock roots.

This 2011 interview in The Hollywood Reporter explains creator Terence Winter’s decision:

“I wanted unexpected,” Boardwalk creator and executive producer Terence Winter tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I didn’t want to do some Charleston, which didn’t really kick in until 1924 anyway, and everything I heard from the period had people doing the Charleston.”

While experimenting with the opening, Winter says he paired the footage of Buscemi looking out to the horizon with several different pieces of music, including Brian Jonestown’s “Straight Up and Down.” “I had been a fan of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, so we tried it, and I said to the editor, that really works for me.”

Even with so much attention paid to period details such as wardrobe and props, the fact that the theme employs a contemporary song using instruments not yet invented during the prohibition era, when Boardwalk Empire takes place, doesn’t bother Winter one bit. “It’s a show set in 1920 seen through a different perspective, not a literal look at the 1920s,” he explains. “Some people find it jarring to see 1920s clothes and hear contemporary music. I look at it as, it’s a 90-second intro and then you have all the ’20s you want.”

Can’t argue with that.

How to Get the Look

Nucky Thompson’s look is established in the credits and early episodes of Boardwalk Empire as a man who made his success at the crossroads of crooked business and crooked politics.

• Charcoal brown-striped worsted wool three-piece custom “sack suit”:
  • Double-breasted 4×2 “square”-buttoned long jacket with straight-gorge peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, flapped ticket pocket, 4-button “turnback” cuffs, and long single vent
  • Single-breasted 6-button waistcoat/vest with four welted pockets and notched bottom
  • Flat front high-rise trousers with straight/on-seam side pockets, straight leg, and wide turn-ups/cuffs
• Yellow or lavender dress shirt with front placket and double/French cuffs
  • White detachable “keyhole”-cut collar
  • Silver-toned octagonal cuff links with black onyx face
• Patterned tie with color echoing the shirt
• Black and tan leather wingtip oxford brogues
• Burgundy dress socks
• Black felt homburg with wide black grosgrain ribbon
• Gold-filled Elgin open-face pocket watch with white dial (with Arabic numerals and 6:00 sub-dial) and 18″ gold chain with ruby-studded triple-cube fob

On a chilly day, Nucky adds the extra layer of a double-breasted coat, either in luxurious camel or a rugged countrified brown plaid tweed.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the whole series, but start with the first season.

The Quote

First rule of politics, kiddo: never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

Mahershala Ali as Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes on Luke Cage (Episode 1.01: “Moment of Truth”)
(Photo credited to ComingSoon.net)

Vitals

Mahershala Ali as Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes, mob boss and nightclub owner

Harlem, November 2015

Series: Luke Cage
Episode: “Moment of Truth” (Episode 1.01)
Streaming Date: September 30, 2016
Director: Paul McGuigan
Creator: Cheo Hodari Coker
Costume Designer: Stephanie Maslansky
Key Tailor: Cherie Cunningham

Background

BAMF Style’s focus on first episodes during this first week of fall continues with a look at the well-suited villain Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes on Netflix’s Luke Cage, played to charismatic perfection by Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali.

What’d He Wear?

“Cornell Stokes needs to present himself as a wealthy, successful businessman, and, of course, he wants to wear bespoke suits and tailored suits,” explained costume designer Stephanie Maslansky in an interview with Esquire on the day the show premiered on Netflix. “Most of his clothing came from Dolce & Gabbana and Zegna, and we did have one suit custom made for him.”

Cornell Stokes dresses for a day that takes him from the office out onto the street in a sharp gray plaid worsted two-piece suit with pick stitching. The suiting consists of a dark plaid with a pink overcheck on a mid-gray ground.

The plaid suiting includes a light pink overcheck that nicely picks up the pink of his shirt as well as the large purple dots on his tie.

Cornell’s single-breasted suit jacket has slim notch lapels that roll to two black buttons that match the “kissing” four buttons on each cuff. The jacket has double vents, straight flapped hip pockets, and a welted breast pocket where he wears a purple silk pocket square folded neatly and just barely visible over the top of the pocket.

Best seen when Cornell wears his jacket buttoned, the suit jacket is tailored with a classic drape cut to emphasize Mahershala Ali’s strong physique and the character’s imposing presence.

Cornell Stokes owns a few sharp three-piece suits, but he also utilizes an odd vest to add an extra layer to his two-piece suit. In this context, “odd” refers only to the fact that the vest is non-matching; a plain black waistcoat like Cornell’s is as far from the other definition of “odd” as it gets!

An odd vest is an easy and stylish way to diversify a wardrobe. (One rule of caution when wearing an odd vest with a two-piece suit: be sure that the waistcoat contrasts enough with the suit that people won’t think you’re trying to make it look like a three-piece suit!)

Cornell wears a black twill vest with five black buttons, correctly leaving the bottom button undone over the notched bottom. The vest has three welted pockets: one on the left breast and two lower pockets. The shiny black back lining slightly tapers toward the bottom and has an adjustable fabric strap across the lower back.

Once it’s covered in blood, Cornell’s black vest satisfies all definitions of “odd”.

Cornell’s flat front suit trousers have a low rise that contrasts against the better-fitting jacket, though this lower rise trouser is consistent with trendy men’s fashion of the mid-2010s.

The waistband is fitted with buckle-tab adjusters on the right and left sides. The trousers have slightly slanted side pockets and two button-through back pockets. The bottoms are plain-hemmed.

The low rise of the trousers make them appear dangerously close to slipping off while Cornell conducts some dirty business in his office.

Set photo of Mahershala Ali filming Luke Cage. (Credited to ComingSoon.net)

Unfortunately for Cornell (but more unfortunate for Shameek), his gray plaid suit and his black odd vest are ruined when they are covered with blood that evening in his office, making “Moment of Truth” the sole episode to feature this outfit.

Cornell wears a distinctive pair of burgundy cordovan derby shoes with black-stained plain toes, sported with a pair of black cotton lisle socks.

I had some trouble tracking down a pair of quality shoes similar to the ones worn by Cornell with this suit:

• A fine pair of burgundy three-eyelet plain-toe derbies by British luxury shoemaker George Cleverley popped up for $1,425 but without the blackened toe box.
• On the other end of the price spectrum, I found a similar-looking pair of burgundy derbies at ZLAY for $98, but I can’t speak to the quality… particularly when compared against Cleverley.

The burgundy shoes coordinate well with the pinkish tones of the outfit, particularly the light pink herringbone cotton dress shirt.

Cornell’s pink shirt has a large collar with considerable spread, a plain front with no placket, and mitred cuffs that he unbuttons when he rolls up his sleeves to play his Rhodes piano.

A contemplative evening in his office calls for the first of Cornell’s several virtuoso moments on his Fender Rhodes.

Cornell’s silk tie is a field of large purple dots on a field of black, tied with a Windsor knot and fastened into place with a gleaming stickpin. Based on Maslansky’s comments to Esquire, the tie is likely from Dolce & Gabbana or Ermenegildo Zegna.

Cornell wears a polished steel wristwatch on his left wrist with a stainless case and a black leather strap. The dark blue dial has a white outer ring that may help identification. On the opposing hand, he wears a silver ring with a set-in round blue stone on his right pinky.

He also wears small silver emerald-set earrings, adding the small touch of green that Maslansky likes to incorporate into Cottonmouth’s wardrobe per her interview with Forbes.

Possible Inspiration?

Interestingly, a flashback to Cornell’s youth in “Manifest” (episode 1.07) reveals his abusive uncle “Pistol Pete” Stokes (Curtiss Cook) in a similar outfit consisting of a loudly checked gray jacket with a black odd vest, light pink shirt, and tie.

The details differ, but the base similarities are too noticeable to deny that Cornell Stokes was sartorially – in addition to criminally – influenced by his late uncle.

How to Get the Look

Cornell Stokes provides a fine template for layered business wear by adding an odd vest to his gray plaid suit.

• Gray plaid worsted wool tailored suit, consisting of:
  • Single-breasted 2-button jacket with slim notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, “kissing” 4-button cuffs, and long double vents
  • Flat front straight-leg trousers with buckle side-tab adjusters, slanted side pockets, button-through back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black twill single-breasted 5-button vest with three welted pockets, notched bottom, and adjustable back strap
• Light pink herringbone cotton dress shirt with spread collar, plain front, and 1-button mitred cuffs
• Purple dots-on-black silk tie
• (?) Silver crest-shaped tie pin
• Burgundy cordovan leather three-eyelet derby shoes with black-stained plain toes
• Black dress socks
• Polished stainless steel wristwatch with round blue-and-white dial on black leather strap
• Silver pinky ring with round blue set-in stone
• Emerald-set silver earrings

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out Luke Cage on Netflix!

The Quote

You like my Biggie photo? Me, too. You know what draws your eye when you look at that? The crown. Wanna know why? ‘Cause everybody wants to be the king.

Johnny Depp as John Dillinger in Public Enemies (2009)

Vitals

Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, maverick Depression-era bank robber

Chicago, Spring 1934

Film: Public Enemies
Release Date: July 1, 2009
Director: Michael Mann
Costume Designer: Colleen Atwood

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

It’s been quite some time since I’ve visited Public Enemies, the Michael Mann-directed action thriller depicting the life and crimes of Depression-era desperado John Dillinger. The film received mixed to positive reviews upon its release with much of the praise going to Michael Mann’s usual attention to detail as well as Johnny Depp’s performance as the Indiana-born outlaw.

Colleen Atwood’s period costumes are also worthy of attention and praise. High fashion was the signifier of success for Depression-era gangsters, and Dillinger rarely led his gun-toting cronies into a bank without being dressed to the nines.

Even when on the run, such as this scene set not long after Dillinger’s narrow escape from an FBI ambush at the Little Bohemia lodge in Wisconsin, John Dillinger made a consistent effort to dress well. (The film plays with historical accuracy to present its own narrative, pushing Billie Frechette’s arrest to after the Little Bohemia raid; in real life, Billie was arrested on April 9, 1934, two weeks before Melvin Purvis’ federal agents attempted to trap the Dillinger gang at Little Bohemia.)

Without the support of his criminal network – most of whom are now dead, arrested, or have alienated him – Dillinger turns to his sole remaining ally, his girlfriend Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard). The two abscond to the Indiana dunes on the southern shore of Lake Michigan for a late night rendezvous where Dillinger makes grand promises of an idyllic island life after the proverbial “one last job”.

The next day, the two drive into Chicago to meet an underworld contact when Billie is immediately apprehended by federal agents. All that Dillinger can do is watch in desperation as his “blackbird” is brutishly manhandled and forced into custody. The scene may sound dramatic, but – in fact – little was punched up for this cinematic portrayal.

The real John Dillinger, posing at his family’s home in Mooresville, armed with a wooden gun and a more lethal Thompson submachine gun. The date is Sunday, April 8, 1934.

In reality, Dillinger and Billie had just spent a relatively blissful weekend with Dillinger’s family in Mooresville, Indiana. After a Sunday afternoon full of coconut cream pies (Dillinger’s favorite) and now-iconic photographs of the outlaw posing with Billie and with the wooden gun he used during his infamous escape from the Crown Point jail, the two were headed back toward Chicago for a meeting with Art O’Leary, a private investigator employed by Dillinger’s attorney Louis Piquett.

According to G. Russell Girardin’s definitive Dillinger: The Untold Story:

After leaving O’Leary, Dillinger telephoned Larry Strong, supposedly a friend, and spoke to him about arranging a hideout for a few days. An appointment was made to meet Strong at his tavern, the State-Austin Inn, 416 North State Street, at eight o’clock that evening. Unknown to Dillinger, “friend” Larry had recently turned informer, and he immediately did what informers do. John Dillinger was at heart a country boy and, despite his prison experience, still somewhat naive in the ways of the underworld. He was still learning that while this society may possess a few characters endowed with redeeming qualities, on the whole it consists of conniving outcasts who mock the very notion that there is honor among thieves.

At the appointed time, John Dillinger drove to the restaurant and parked around the corner while Billie Frechette went in. Before she could walk back out and mistakenly signal Dillinger that it was safe, five or six federal agents surrounded her with pistols and machine guns.

Dillinger, watching intently, saw the commotion and drove away unnoticed. Billie would irritate her captors greatly by insisting that Dillinger had been elsewhere in the room when the agents pounced and had simply strolled past them out the door.

Dillinger, considerably irritated himself, immediately phoned O’Leary at his apartment hotel on Pine Grove to let him know “the Gs just picked up Billie in a restaurant at State and Austin… I was sitting in my car around the corner. There were too many of them for me to take her away.”

What’d He Wear?

For his meeting with Billie and her subsequent arrest, Depp’s Dillinger wears a navy worsted three-piece suit with a rust-colored chalkstripe. The stripe’s gentle contrast against the navy suiting provides a touch of subtle complexity and sophistication.

A horrified Dillinger watches as his girlfriend Billie is roughly taken into federal custody.

Three-piece suits with double-breasted jackets enjoyed the height of their popularity in the 1930s. Dillinger’s suit in this sequence incorporates many details distinctive to ’30s tailoring that aimed for the “hourglass” silhouette with widely structured shoulders with roped sleeveheads, fully cut trousers, and a high, suppressed waist line.

The double-breasted jacket’s peak lapels sweep across the front with a six-on-two button formation that Dillinger wears open throughout the scene; combined with his loosened shirt collar and tie, unkempt hair, and manic expression, the unbuttoned suit jacket adds a sense of desperation to Dillinger’s look that echoes his panicked emotions during the scene.

The jacket’s sleeves are a bit too long, totally covering his shirt cuffs when his arms are at his side (best seen in the close-up of Dillinger gripping the 1911 pistol in his right hand; see “The Gun” section below.) The jacket also has a half-belted back, an era-evoking detail that also adds a desired degree of waist suppression.

Note the half-belted back, a unique aspect of ’30s suit that pulled in the waist to emphasize the wearer’s shoulders.

Johnny Depp stands on set next to an extra decked out like a 1930s Chicago policeman. “Why the mahoska?” this officer should be asking.

The unbuttoned jacket shows off Dillinger’s vest, which also received plenty of exposure in behind-the-scenes set photos of Depp sans jacket (such as the one at right.) The single-breasted waistcoat is consistent with era styling with both a high-fastening five-button front and a high notched bottom, placed to accommodate the long rise of his trousers. The vest has four welted pockets.

The flat front trousers have an appropriately high rise to Depp’s natural waist line. They have a full, roomy cut over the hips and through the legs down to the cuffed bottoms. There is a straight pocket on each side and likely two button-through pockets in the back.

The trousers have belt loops for Dillinger’s black leather belt with its closed silver-toned rectangular buckle, a belt style known to have been worn by the outlaw both at the time of his arrest in January 1934 and when he was killed seven months later.

Though decorum says to avoid wearing belts with three-piece suits (to avoid the “bunching” effect of the buckle under the waistcoat), Dillinger needs his belt to hook onto his mahogany leather double shoulder holster for his 1911 pistols, wearing one under each arm. This double shoulder rig was custom made for Johnny Depp to wear on screen by Don Brown, owner of Ted Blocker Holsters. You can read more about Ted Blocker Holsters’ connection to Public Enemies and other major productions on their site.

Dillinger wears one of his usual white cotton dress shirts with a plain front, double (French) cuffs, and possibly a breast pocket. The spread collar is sloppily unbuttoned at the neck, leaving the collar points to lay flat over his vest and his suit lapels.

Dillinger steps out of his car, a slightly anachronistic 1935 Buick Series 40 coupe, just in time to see Billie arrested by federal agents.

Dillinger’s tie is block-striped from left-down-to-right in dark blue and brick red with squiggly thin beige stripes running over each stripe in the same “uphill” direction. The loosely worn tie is knotted so that the four-in-hand knot is only the dark blue section.

The Ted Block Holsters link above explains that they dyed the holster leather “reddish to match Depp’s shoes,” an interesting case of someone matching his shoes to his gun holster rather than to his trouser belt… although I suppose that’s more of a priority for a natty outlaw. Dillinger’s “reddish” shoes are a pair of mahogany five-eyelet cap-toe oxfords.

When the real John Dillinger was killed on July 22, 1934, Special Agent Daniel Sullivan and Inspector Samuel P. Cowley of the Bureau of Investigation (later known as the FBI) recorded a “gold ring with ruby set” when tracking Dillinger’s inventory. The ring was inscribed “With all my love, Polly” on the inside. Though “Polly” would be Polly Hamilton, Dillinger’s final girlfriend that he met shortly before his demise, Public Enemies depicts Depp’s Dillinger wearing a similar ring throughout the film on the third finger of his right hand.

Dillinger cradles Billie on the Indiana dunes as Diana Krall’s “Bye, Bye Blackbird” in the background foreshadows their imminent separation.

Visible under Dillinger’s left shirt cuff is a yellow gold dress watch with a white dial on a dark leather strap.

An intense-looking Dillinger weighs his options behind the wheel of his Buick.

The real John Dillinger resorted to back-alley plastic surgery in the final months of his life, but Public Enemies‘ Dillinger does little to hide his appearance beside donning a pair of tortoise acetate-framed sunglasses with round green-tinted lenses. An iCollector listing for these glasses claims that there was only set used during the production as they were a true vintage item dating to the 1930s.

Even Public Enemy Number 1 sees no need to adopt a stronger disguise than a pair of sunglasses.

Though I have no firsthand experience with it, Magnoli Clothiers’ “Dillinger Suit” is worth mentioning for taking inspiration from Johnny Depp’s Public Enemies wardrobe and seemingly this suit in particular. The suit is available starting at $735 and several positive reviews for it are listed on the site.

How to Get the Look

Most photos I’ve seen of the real John Dillinger show a preference for single-breasted suits (rather than double-breasted), but Johnny Depp’s costumes in Public Enemies are an elegant representation of one of the most common styles during the outlaw’s heyday in the mid-1930s.

• Navy rust-chalkstripe worsted three-piece suit:
  • Double-breasted 6×2-button jacket with peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and belted back
  • Single-breasted 5-button vest with four welted pockets and notched bottom
  • Flat front full-cut trousers with long rise, belt loops, straight side pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• White cotton dress shirt with spread collar, plain front, breast pocket, and double/French cuffs
• Dark blue and brick red block-striped tie with thin beige squiggly overstripe
• Black leather belt with silver-toned rectangular closed buckle
• Mahogany brown leather double shoulder holster (for two full-size 1911 pistols)
• Mahogany brown leather five-eyelet cap-toe oxfords
• Navy dress socks
• White sleeveless undershirt
• Thick gold ring with dark ruby flat stone, worn on right ring finger
• Yellow gold dress watch with white dial on dark leather strap
• Tortoise acetate round-framed vintage sunglasses

The Gun

Public Enemies accurately depicts the classic John Browning-designed 1911 and 1911A1 series of pistols as the weapon of choice for the Dillinger gang, who obtained most of their heavy arsenals in real life by raiding military and police armories.

The model most frequently seen used by Johnny Depp as John Dillinger is a blued pre-war Colt 1911A1 Government Model, marketed for the civilian market and chambered in the venerable .45 ACP.

Note the “diamond” walnut grips on Dillinger’s 1911A1 (as well as the excessively long sleeves of his suit jacket.)

Depp’s Dillinger carries his two 1911s in a leather shoulder rig custom designed for the film by Ted Blocker Holsters as explored above. While the concept of wielding two pistols akimbo has been popularized thanks to John Woo’s films, the real Dillinger had been reported to carry two pistols on occasion, specifically in G. Russell Girardin’s Dillinger: The Untold Story when recounting a November 1933 bank robbery in Racine, Wisconsin. This robbery was depicted early in Public Enemies and indeed found Depp brandishing a .45 in each hand (which certainly made for a #CrowningMomentOfBadass in the film’s theatrical trailer.)

By the spring of 1934, the Dillinger gang’s deepening underworld connections meant an influx of heavy firepower unavailable even to most law enforcement agencies of the era. One particularly lethal weapon in the gang’s arsenal was a Colt Super 38 modified into a fully automatic “machine pistol” by gunsmith Hyman S. Lebman of San Antonio. (The Colt Super 38 was a 1911-style pistol introduced in 1929 to fire the new, powerful .38 Super ammunition. Dillinger also used standard semi-automatic models.) Public Enemies became the first “Dillinger movie” to depict this distinctive weapon with its Thompson-style foregrip and extended 25-round magazine, using a standard 1911A1 converted to 9mm and altered to fire in automatic bursts. The weapon is most prominently used by “Baby Face” Nelson (Stephen Graham) during the Little Bohemia scenes.

You can read more about the weaponry of Public Enemies at IMFDB. If you’re interested in learning more about Dillinger and Nelson’s dealings with the shady Lebman, check out the original FBI files at Faded Glory: Dusty Roads of an FBI Era, a fantastic resource for folks interested in this period in American criminal history.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie and Bryan Burrough’s book used as source material, though the film excises much of Burrough’s well-researched material about fellow outlaws “Pretty Boy” Floyd, Alvis Karpis and the Barker gang, and Bonnie and Clyde.

I also highly recommend Dillinger: The Untold Story, an unpublished manuscript by G. Russell Girardin that was rediscovered by William J. Helmer, as a definitive source for all Dillinger-related material.

The Quote

Want to take that ride with me?

John Wayne as Lt. Jim Brannigan in Brannigan (1975)

Vitals

John Wayne as Jim Brannigan, tough Chicago PD lieutenant

London, Fall 1974

Film: Brannigan
Release Date: March 26, 1975
Director: Douglas Hickox
Wardrobe Credit: Emma Porteous

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

If McQ was John Wayne’s Dirty Harry, then its spiritual successor Brannigan was his Coogan’s Bluff, a “fish out of water” cop film that finds the Duke’s taciturn American lawman in London to secure the extradition of arch-criminal Ben Larkin (John Vernon) under the watchful – and often judgmental – eye of the quintessentially English Scotland Yard Commissioner Swann (Richard Attenborough).

Beer mugs and bullets fly as Brannigan pursues the supposedly kidnapped Larkin, all the while evading deadly traps from double-barreled shotguns to combustible commodes à la Lethal Weapon 2.

Thank you to Craig, a great BAMF Style reader and Patreon supporter, who has also lent support by sending his personal DVD copy of Brannigan (in addition to several other films) to allow me the opportunity to take screenshots and write about this much-requested film.

What’d He Wear?

For most of his adventures in London, Brannigan wears a plaid jacket, grenadine tie, and brown trousers that he occasionally punches up with a sweater vest. As John Wayne was influenced to star in McQ and Brannigan after the success of the Dirty Harry franchise that he had initially turned down, the outfit may be a nod to Clint Eastwood’s similar ensemble of a brown plaid jacket, sweater vest, and tie in the first Dirty Harry film.

The Staples

Brannigan’s flannel wool sport jacket consists of a brown, beige, and rust plaid on a muted tan ground. The jacket has notch lapels with a light brown felt undercollar revealed when Brannigan wears the collar flipped up.

The single-breasted sportcoat has a low two-button front with brown horn buttons that match the two spaced non-functional buttons on each cuff. The ventless jacket has natural shoulders with roped sleeveheads, a welted breast pocket, and straight welted – rather than jetted, flapped, or patch – hip pockets.

Brannigan investigates the second of two deadly traps set for him in his rented London pad, this one of a more lavatorial nature.

Brannigan wears a pair of brown wool plain front trousers that appear to be shaped with darts over the front, adhering to flat front-friendly ’70s fashions while  providing a roomier fit over John Wayne’s hips. Speaking of ’70s fashions, these slacks also have “frogmouth” front pockets and slightly (but only slightly) flared plain-hem bottoms, both of which were popular during the decade. Brannigan wears a wide brown leather belt with a squared brass single-prong buckle.

Promotional photo of John Wayne in Brannigan, set during the film’s climactic final gunfight.

Brannigan antagonizes the staid Commissioner Swann by insisting on continuing to wear his sidearm in London, carrying his 4″-barreled Colt Diamondback revolver in a brown mahogany leather holster with a snap-fastened retention strap on his right hip, similar to this saddle leather Galco “DAO” holster.

By the 1970s, the slip-on loafer had risen through the hierarchy of the sartorial world to such a level of acceptance that Roger Moore even wore them with James Bond’s signature dinner jackets in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), and Moonraker (1979).

Brannigan wears a pair of brown leather loafers with a split moc-toe and a half-strap across the vamp with a small brass buckle on the outside of each shoe. The purely decorative buckle is rectangular with a single bar across the opening, similar to these shoes I found on Pinterest.

The brass decoration on Brannigan’s loafers may help identify their manufacturer.

Brannigan breaks up the earth tones of his outfit the first day with a pair of burgundy cotton lisle socks. Following that, he reverts to a less interesting but perhaps more sartorially acceptable pair of brown socks that carry the line of his trousers into his loafers.

Left: Brannigan recovers “ransom money” after a kidnapping, flashing a pair of natty burgundy socks.
Right: The next day, Brannigan’s socks are decidedly less interesting in a trouser-matching shade of brown.

Outfit #1

Brannigan’s sense of style at home in Chicago is established to be more of an open-collar approach. When he calls upon Commissioner Swann at London’s exclusive Garrick Club, he is given a necktie to wear and is never seen without a tie for the duration of the film.

Brannigan most frequently wears a cream cotton shirt with a button-down collar that he sometimes wears unbuttoned to lay flat like a spread collar. The shirt has a front placket and single-button rounded cuffs. When he wears the cream shirt, Brannigan also wears a brown grenadine woven silk tie of moderate width to coordinate with the lapels of his jacket.

Brannigan sticks to earth tones when sporting a cream OCBD shirt and brown tie with his plaid jacket.

Outfit #2

Brannigan also wears the jacket with a light blue oxford cloth button-down shirt and a scarlet red grenadine tie. Like his other OCBD, this shirt has a front placket and single-button rounded cuffs.

Brannigan injects some color into his earth tones with a light blue shirt and red tie.

Though it’s difficult to tell when worn buttoned and with a sweater vest, the button-down collar is quite wide as best seen when he wears the shirt casually sans tie and with the unbuttoned collar flat over his sweater vest.

The black sweater vest is a fine wool, likely merino, with a long-ribbed waist hem and a high v-neck that covers most of the tie below the knot.

This behind-the-scenes shot of John Wayne on the Brannigan set shows his sweater vest tucked into his trousers.

Outerwear and Accessories

Brannigan wears a black balmacaan-style waterproof raincoat with set-in-sleeves, a tall collar, covered fly front, and single back vent.

It’s a bit sunny for needing a coat like that, Brannigan…

Brannigan is seen donning a gray felt short-brimmed fedora with a wide black grosgrain ribbon when preparing to run out to his car during some nighttime research. He isn’t typically a hat wearer, so the fedora is merely an excuse for a waiting assassin to mistake the hat-wearing Sergeant Jennifer Thatcher (Judy Geeson) for Brannigan, thus giving our protagonist an even more dramatic reason for wanting revenge against London’s criminal element.

All of a sudden, the non-hat-wearing Brannigan needs a hat to go outside… and on the very night that Jennifer wears a similar hat to volunteer to go out to his car for him. Interesting.

On his right wrist, John Wayne wears a simple brass Montagnard bracelet that gifted to him by the indiginous Montagnard people of Vietnam during the filming of The Green Berets in 1968. Modern Forces Living History Group reports that many American servicemen returned from Vietnam with these bracelets from the tribe, signifying friendship or respect. Manready Mercantile offers a striking replica of the “Montagnard Bracelet” in brass, copper, or steel (link), where they explain that “not only did Duke don the bracelet on his wrist until the day he passed, it’s said he lays with it to this day.”

Brannigan wears a wristwatch with the face on the inside of his wrist, a John Wayne-ism consistent with his watch-wearing habits both in real life and on screen. The brief glimpse we get reveals a steel octagonal case, plain white round dial, and drab strap.

Note the grenadine weave of Brannigan’s brown silk tie.

What to Imbibe

Last time I was here, people were gettin’ bombed a different way.

Brannigan orders himself a Guinness while drinking at the pub with Drexel.

Brannigan’s Guinness goes to waste when it’s splashed on his sweater vest, prompting an old-fashioned barroom brawl.

Later, at the home of Mel Fields (Mel Ferrar), he downs a dram of Cutty Sark.

Brannigan helps himself to Mel’s booze.

How to Get the Look

Too many earth tones for you? Swap in some color with a light blue shirt, red tie, or even burgundy socks. Want to layer up for a chilly day? Brannigan added a black merino wool sweater vest.

• Brown, rust, and beige-on-tan plaid flannel single-breasted 2-button sportcoat with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight welted hip pockets, spaced 2-button cuffs, and ventless back
• Cream cotton shirt with button-down collar, front placket, and single-button rounded cuffs
• Brown grenadine woven silk tie
• Brown wool darted front trousers with belt loops, frogmouth front pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Brown leather belt with squared brass single-prong buckle
• Brown leather slip-on loafers with half-strap and decorative brass side buckles
• Brown cotton lisle socks
• Brass “Montagnard” bracelet
• Stainless steel octagonal-cased wristwatch with round white dial and drab strap

The Gun

Lieutenant Jim Brannigan’s sidearm – and the cause of much consternation for Scotland Yard’s Commander Swann – is a blued Colt Diamondback with a 4″ barrel, chambered for .38 Special.

John Wayne with a six-shooter. You can take the Duke out of the wild west, but…

Colt introduced the Diamondback in 1966 as a scaled-down version of the popular Colt Python, particularly aimed at law enforcement agencies that forbade its officers the use of .357 Magnum ammunition as found in the Python. The Diamondback was offered in .38 Special for police use and .22 LR and .22 WMR for target shooters.

Two years after its introduction, a snub-nosed Colt Diamondback .38 with a 2.5″ barrel was carried by Steve McQueen in Bullitt, an iconic film considered an influence for John Wayne’s later police roles in McQ and Brannigan.

I’m surprised that Brannigan was armed with the Colt Diamondback rather than the full-sized Python as the latter weapon’s larger size seems more consistent with John Wayne’s image. Not only that, but the Diamondback was never authorized for Chicago Police Department officers (to my knowledge) while the Colt Python actually was authorized by the CPD during the period that Brannigan was set and filmed.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

The Quote

Too damn simple.

Footnote

Brannigan‘s costume designer, Emma Porteous, would later serve in the same capacity for three consecutive James Bond films: Octopussy (1983), A View to a Kill (1985), and The Living Daylights (1987).

Clint Eastwood as Inspector “Dirty Harry” Callahan in Magnum Force (1973)

Vitals

Clint Eastwood as Harry Callahan, tough San Francisco Police Department inspector

San Francisco, August 1972

Film: Magnum Force
Release Date: December 25, 1973
Director: Ted Post
Costume Supervisor: Glenn Wright

Background

Earth tones are a fall favorite for many, so take a few notes for your Friday date night style from Clint Eastwood’s earthy ensemble in Magnum Force, the first of four sequels featuring the incorruptible Inspector Harry Callahan.

Continuing what must be a subconscious focus on tough ’70s cop movies from Wednesday’s Brannigan post, this scene features Harry swilling Schlitz in front of the TV with Carol McCoy (Christine White), the wife of a suicidal traffic officer. When his superiors get word of a potential grocery store holdup, Harry – who had been demoted to stakeout duty – is called into action with his trusty .44.

Interestingly, Magnum Force was Christine White’s second time playing a wife whose husband suffers from nervous breakdowns; ten years earlier, she played the wife of William Shatner’s character in “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”, a famous episode of The Twilight Zone.

What’d He Wear?

Brown is a relatively uncommon color for blazers, assuming you follow the definition of a blazer as a structured odd jacket with metal buttons. In Magnum Force, Harry wears both this brown serge blazer and a more traditional navy blazer. Clint Eastwood would later wear a different dark brown blazer in the following Dirty Harry film, The Enforcer.

Harry’s brown serge wool single-breasted blazer has two gold crested shank buttons on the front as well as two smaller gold buttons spaced on each cuff. The blazer has some concessions to the decade with its fashionably wide notch lapels and long single back vent.

Harry strolls into the station with his partner Early Smith (Felton Perry). Will Early meet the same fate as Harry’s other partners on the force?

In addition to a welted breast pocket, Harry’s brown blazer has sporty inverted box pleat patch pockets with flaps.

Harry settles in for an evening with “the beer that made Milwaukee famous.”

Harry’s light taupe shirt has a large collar, plain front, rounded breast pockets, and breast pocket with a straight yoke. His maroon and gold repp tie follows the traditional American “downhill” stripe direction with a thin beige stripe bordering under each of the gold stripes.

Harry approaches his latest kill.

When Harry removes his blazer in the grocery store, he reveals his light brown leather shoulder holster, reportedly custom made by Jerry Ardolino for the films for Eastwood to carry his iconic large-framed Smith & Wesson Model 29 revolver under his left arm. You can read more about the original holster at Lawman Leather Goods.

The holster fastens to the right and left sides of Harry’s belt, a strap of wide brown leather with a large brass single-prong buckle. Harry wears taupe brown gabardine flat front trousers with slanted side pockets, two jetted back pockets (with a button through the left back pocket), and plain-hemmed bottoms.

Harry appears to be wearing the same shirt, slacks, belt, shoes, and socks that he would wear with his brown herringbone tweed jacket during the finale. He wears dark brown leather plain-toe derby shoes with dark brown cotton lisle socks that match his footwear rather than his trousers.

Harry darts through the aisles of hte grocery store in search of his target. Those shelves of white porcelain vases and flatware surprisingly made it through this action scene mostly intact!

Clint Eastwood does not wear a watch in Magnum Force.

What to Imbibe

Harry kicks back with a can of Schlitz, the classic Milwaukee-brewed beer that had dominated American beer production through the beginning of the 20th century before settling into its comfortable connotation as a working class brew of choice, very fitting with Harry’s image.

Schlitz and stuffed animals. Hell of a Friday night, Harry.

Though it isn’t featured in this scene, Olympia beer was also a Clint Eastwood favorite that he promoted in this film as well as many of his major roles through the decade.

How to Get the Look

Harry Callahan’s shades of brown reflect the earthy, no-nonsense character as well as the palette of the era.

• Brown serge wool single-breasted 2-button blazer with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, flapped inverted box-pleat patch hip pockets, 2-button cuffs, single back vent
• Taupe shirt with large collar, plain front, breast pocket, and button cuffs
• Maroon and gold striped repp tie (right-down-to-left “downhill” direction) with thin beige stripes under each gold stripe
• Taupe gabardine flat front trousers with belt loops, slanted side pockets, jetted back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Dark brown leather belt with large brass single-prong buckle
• Dark brown leather plain-toe derby shoes
• Dark brown cotton lisle socks
• Light brown leather shoulder holster (RHD) for a Smith & Wesson Model 29 revolver

The Gun

Harry Callahan’s blue steel Smith & Wesson Model 29 attained iconic status the instant Clint Eastwood drew it from his shoulder holster in Dirty Harry. Two years later, Harry carried the same weapon with a 6.5″ barrel and rosewood grips in Magnum Force.

Harry steadies his aim as he eyes the Cost Plus robbers through the store’s two-way mirror.

Harry’s line that his .44 load is “a light Special” has led some to interpret that his Model 29 is actually loaded with .44 Special ammunition rather than the more notorious .44 Magnum.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out Magnum Force or pick up the entire five-film Dirty Harry collection.

The Quote

Well, here’s three salty-lookin’ dudes!

Derrick De Marney as Robert Tisdall in Young and Innocent (1937)

Vitals

Derrick De Marney as Robert Tisdall, wrongly accused man

Keenthorne, England, Fall 1937

Film: Young and Innocent
(American title: The Girl Was Young)
Release Date: November 1937
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Wardrobe Credit: Marianne

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Alfred Hitchcock explored one of his favorite sub-genres, the innocent “man on the run” thriller, throughout his career. The trope was prominent in many of his early works, including The Lodger (1927), The 39 Steps (1935), and Young and Innocent (1937, released in the United States as The Girl Was Young.)

In this latter film, Derrick De Marney stars as Robert Tisdall, a young man falsely accused of the murder of a married actress with whom he was having an affair. The evidence against him is almost laughable – the woman was strangled with a raincoat belt and Robert is unable to produce his own coat – but reflects Hitchcock’s own mistrust of the police stemming from an incident when he was five years old and his father had asked the local constabulary to lock young Hitch away for a few minutes… a strange request to which they strangely complied.

With the help of a misplaced pair of glasses and the chief constable’s idealistic young daughter Erica (Nova Pilbeam), Robert escapes from custody and sets out to find the real murderer. (Robert’s Clark Kent-like disguise of a pair of glasses would later serve Cary Grant just as ably in Hitch’s quintessential “wrongly accused man” thriller, North by Northwest.) What follows is a surprisingly quirky romp as Robert and Erica explore the almost idyllic English countryside, encountering genteel oafs like “Old Will the China-Mender” on Robert’s quest to recover his coat from the charmingly named Tom’s Hat pub. Less charming is the murderer’s tactic of hiding himself in backface as the drummer of a minstrel band, adding a jarringly racist conclusion to Hitchcock’s otherwise impressive crane shot.

What’d He Wear?

Young and Innocent‘s sole costuming credit is Marianne, with whom Hitch had previously collaborated in The 39 Steps (1935) and Sabotage (1936). I never realized how much this film’s style had stuck with me, but I always appreciated the versatility of layering a sweater vest with a suit, particularly when the suit reflects the golden age of tailored menswear in the late 1930s.

Robert escapes by donning a pair of glasses, rendering him totally unrecognizable to the police officers who had him in custody only moments earlier!

Robert Tisdall’s suit through the majority of Young and Innocent is a dark twill, possibly gabardine wool, tailored consistently with the fashionably full-chested British drape cut of the 1930s that emphasized wide shoulders and a suppressed waist.

Contemporary promotional artwork colorized the suit in brown, appropriate for the film’s bucolic setting.

Brown suit, white shirt, tan sweater vest, and green striped tie. Whether these were the actual colors worn by Derrick De Marney or not, they certainly work for this colorized promotional art.

“The three button single breasted suit with a high roll, peaked lapel had been a permanent staple in the wardrobes of well dressed Englishmen,” writes the Gentleman’s Gazette in their fascinatingly well-researched article on London men’s fashion in 1936. Robert’s single-breasted suit jacket checks off each of these boxes with its wide peak lapels that end high above the three-button front and have long, slanted gorges.

The ventless jacket also has a narrowly welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, and four-button cuffs. The shoulders are straight and padded.

The long rise of Robert’s trousers conceals the waistband under his sweater vest, but they have double forward pleats, straight pockets along the side seams, and a single back pocket on the back right. The bottoms are finished with turn-ups (cuffs).

Robert encounters a brave new world of freedom after absconding with the public defender’s strong prescription specs.

Robert’s shirt isn’t pure white, more likely a shade of beige or light gray. Though attached-collar shirts had been popular for nearly a decade, Robert’s shirt has a more old-fashioned detachable collar fastened at the neck with front and back collar studs. The collar, however, is a modern-looking soft turndown collar with long points that matches the shirt in color and material.

The shirt also has squared double (French) cuffs that Robert wears with plain flat disc links.

Despite being wrongly accused of murder and facing the gallows, Robert can’t help but to get a few smirks in over the course of the film.

Robert’s dark tie has a series of thick stripes consisting of a white mini-grid in the classic European “uphill” direction of left shoulder-down-to-right hip. When the tie is pulled out from his vest during a scuffle at Tom’s hat, it is revealed to be of short length with a much longer tail, coordinating with the likely high rise of his trousers.

Robert wears a light-to-medium v-neck sweater vest made from a soft wool, likely cashmere based on a close-up shot when Erica places some coins on his torso as he sleeps.

Robert chows down on a loaf of bread from Erica, unconcerned about getting crumbs on his cashmere.

Robert’s shoes are dark leather cap-toe oxfords, worn a pair of dark ribbed socks.

Luckily for Robert, “Old Will the china-mender” isn’t far away!

Robert spends most of the film hat-less, but he briefly dons a tweed wool flat cap when he goes into hiding toward the end.

Note Robert’s shirt collar stud, now visible after removing his collar and tie.

The only other suit that Robert wears is a much lighter double-breasted suit seen when he is questioned on the beach immediately after Christine’s murder.

How to Get the Look

Nova Pilbeam and Derrick De Marney in Young and Innocent (1937)

Derrick De Marney’s suit in Young and Innocent is often colorized in earthy tones of brown and green for contemporary promotional art, but cooler tones in blue and gray would work just as ably for fans of his layered look.

• Dark gabardine twill English drape cut suit:
  • Single-breasted 3-button jacket with wide peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Double forward-pleated high-rise trousers with straight/on-seam side pockets, back right pocket, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Light cotton shirt with detachable soft turndown collar, front placket, and double/French cuffs
  • Plain flat disc cuff links
• Dark silk tie with white mini-grid “uphill” stripes
• Light cashmere wool v-neck sweater vest
• Dark leather cap-toe oxfords
• Dark ribbed socks

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie. And if you’re ever in need of an alias, consider “Beachcroft Manningtree”.

Emile Hirsch and Holliday Grainger as Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker in Bonnie and Clyde (2013)

Vitals

Emile Hirsch as Clyde Barrow, amateur armed robber

Texas, Spring 1932

Series Title: Bonnie and Clyde
Air Date: December 8, 2013
Director: Bruce Beresford
Costume Designer: Marilyn Vance

Background

Earlier this week, I posted about the (possibly brown) single-breasted, peak-lapel suit worn by Derrick De Marney in Hitchcock’s 1930s thriller Young and Innocent. Today’s post expands on that theme, exploring a similar suit worn by another desperate young man on the run during the 1930s.

A trigger-happy killer who rarely displayed remorse or reason, the real Clyde Barrow was certainly no BAMF, but his exploits with partner-in-crime Bonnie Parker were almost immediately romanticized by a hungry public during the early years of the Great Depression. Their story thus became fodder for several stylized cinematic adaptations, most prominently the iconic 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde with the unrealistically attractive Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty assuming the title roles.

The Bruce Beresford-directed miniseries Bonnie and Clyde aired in two parts in December 2013, taking a different approach that recreated many of the lesser known facts and figures from Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker’s crime spree.

Of course, that’s not to say that the miniseries follows historical detail. Bonnie and Clyde historians may have been interested to see filmed depictions of the gang’s exploits like the tragic killing of John Bucher, the Grapevine double murder, and the car crash that badly burned Bonnie for the last months of her life, but much dramatic license is taken in presenting these incidents, often out of order and without adhering to the known facts.

What’d He Wear?

In the series, Clyde Barrow sports a brown nailhead worsted suit for the inauspicious start to his criminal career with Bonnie. Though a full cut was certainly fashionable during the 1930s, Clyde’s oversized suit dwarfs him to the point that he is reduced to the appearance of a little boy wearing his father’s clothes. The ill-fitting suit is a realistic touch given Clyde’s modest budget as a two-bit hood.

Bonnie may be unimpressed by Clyde’s ill-fitting suit and his inability to successfully commit a crime, but she’s still in it for the long run.

The single-breasted, ventless suit jacket with its wide peak lapels is consistent with fashions of the era. The already oversized jacket is emphasized with roped, padded shoulders and a full cut. The jacket has a welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, four-button cuffs, and a two-button front that Clyde wears open.

The low-rise trouser are reverse-pleated with a full cut through the legs down to the cuffed bottoms. The baggy fit was more acceptable in the 1930s, but I would still give these trousers a longer rise and a lifted break over his shoes to reduce the aforementioned “little boy in his dad’s clothes” image. Clyde wears a wide black leather belt with a squared steel single-prong buckle, similar to belts that the real Clyde Barrow had been photographed wearing during his lifetime.

Clyde’s reduced posture from hobbling out of prison (after cutting off two of his toes) certainly doesn’t do him any favors in his oversized suit.

Clyde wears a light gray cotton shirt with a point collar, front placket, and button cuffs. Based on the space around his neck, it’s just as oversized as his suit and adds to the overall image of Clyde being overwhelmed by the ambitions of his criminality.

Abstract printed ties were en vogue during the early ’30s. “Hand painted art deco designs started in the ’20s but really found a place in the 1930s,” wrote Debbie Sessions of Vintage Dancer. “Earthy greens, yellows, peach, and blues were the predominant colors of the ’30s.” Clyde’s short, wide silk tie with its gray and gold leaves printed on a dark “midnight green” ground was typical of the era.

Clyde wears an olive felt fedora with a non-contrasting grosgrain band and a non-trimmed overwelt edge. He previously wore this same hat with his charcoal chalkstripe three-piece suit before graduating to a better looking and better proportioned gray fedora.

Clyde Barrow’s mother Cumie was a major presence in his life, despite being left out of the 1967 film. Seen here, she was portrayed in the 2013 miniseries by Tennessee-born actress Dale Dickey who has been a strong presence in movies and TV shows for the last two decades.

Following his release from prison, Bonnie takes Clyde to a Texas motel for their first night together. He sits wearing only his underwear, a pair of era-specific light blue cotton boxer shorts with a two-button fly, before Bonnie makes her move.

Clyde wears the same black leather cap-toe derby shoes seen in other early scenes with a pair of light gray socks.

How to Get the Look

Left: Emile Hirsch as Clyde in 2013.
Right: The real Clyde Barrow, circa spring 1933, wearing a similar suit that likely provided the inspiration for Hirsch’s baggy duds.

You’ll certainly want a better fitting suit, but Clyde’s early suit is consistent both with the era’s fashions and his real life counterpart’s eye for style.

• Brown nailhead worsted oversized suit:
  • Single-breasted 2-button suit jacket with wide peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Reverse-pleated low-rise trousers with tall belt loops, side pockets, back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Light gray cotton shirt with point collar, front placket, and button cuffs
• Midnight green silk tie with gray and gold leaf print
• Wide black leather belt with squared steel single-prong buckle
• Black leather four-eyelet cap-toe derby shoes
• Light gray socks
• Pale blue cotton undershorts with a 2-button waistband closure
• Olive felt fedora with olive grosgrain ribbon

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the series and visit Frank Ballinger’s Bonnie & Clyde’s Hideout site.

Paul Newman as Professor Michael Armstrong in Torn Curtain (1966)

Vitals

Paul Newman as Michael Armstrong, American physicist and amateur spy

East Berlin, September 1965

Film: Torn Curtain
Release Date: July 14, 1966
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Costume Supervisor: Grady Hunt

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Alfred Hitchcock’s 50th film, Torn Curtain, marked his one and only collaboration with Paul Newman. Production on the Cold War spy thriller was plagued by the veteran director clashing with his leads, unused to method actor Paul Newman’s constant questioning of his character’s motivation. “Your motivation is your salary,” Hitch reportedly replied.

The famously easygoing Newman was a little more enthusiastic, later recalling, “I think Hitch and I could have really hit it off, but the script kept getting in the way.”

Indeed, the serious political thriller was a departure from Hitchcock’s usual scripts, developed in response to the growing popularity of the James Bond franchise through the ’60s. Hitch had already been a presence in the genre with the now iconic North by Northwest in 1959, an instant success for the suspense, style, and wit for which the director was known.

Hitchcock had hoped to replicate his success from North by Northwest by casting Cary Grant as the lead in Torn Curtain, but the actor was making good on his recent retirement, and so Universal Pictures executive Lew Wasserman cast Paul Newman and Julie Andrews – highly bankable as two of the most popular rising stars of the decade.

Newman and Andrews played American physicist Michael Armstrong and his assistant and fiancée Sarah Sherman, respectively, traveling through Europe on what turns out to be Armstrong’s defection to the East German government. Of course, Armstrong is actually an amateur double agent whose “defection” is only a ruse to steal secrets from the Soviets.

Armstrong’s plans to return to his American spymasters via the secret π escape network are uncovered by East German security officer Hermann Gromek (Wolfgang Kieling), who follows Armstrong to the farm where Armstrong is meeting with the masters of his spy ring. What follows is a sloppy, brutal fight that Hitchcock told François Truffaut he deliberately included as a contrast to the era’s popular spy thrillers that made killing look easy.

What’d He Wear?

“It used to be said that no gentleman should wear brown in London. The increasing popularity of the color over the past years has been, presumably, proportionate to the increase in the disappearance of the gentleman,” wrote Hardy Amies in 1964, reflecting the traditional “no brown in town” attitudes that continue to influence menswear to this day.

Brown suits had long been restricted to “country wear” rather than proper business attire. By the late 1930s, men’s clothiers had developed a happy compromise for men seeking the flattering benefits of brown suiting without drawing the ire of those who stand on ceremony in the enforcement of traditional dress codes. Charcoal brown incorporates black or charcoal threads that mute the suiting into a shade of brown more acceptable to conservative dressers. (You can read more about charcoal brown at Gentleman’s Gazette.)

“A brown suit in the city? Surely you jest,” the man in gray seems to be saying to our protagonist.

A charcoal brown flannel suit à la Paul Newman’s Michael Armstrong in Torn Curtain is the perfect business suit as the October weather gets cooler here in the Northern Hemisphere, keeping you warm while offering just enough gray to satisfy the sartorial traditionalists in your office.

Professor Armstrong’s suit follows the classic American cut with its full “sack jacket” with natural shoulders and a single back vent. The notch lapels are fashionably slim for the mid-1960s, ending high to accommodate the jacket’s three-button front. The jacket has a welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, and two non-functioning cuff buttons spaced about a half-inch on the end of each sleeve.

Armstrong recovers after an unexpected bout of fisticuffs.

Armstrong’s flat front trousers with their medium rise are also consistent with American suits of the era, a contrast to the higher pleated trousers worn by his British contemporary, James Bond. Armstrong’s trousers are straight through the legs down to the bottoms finished with turn-ups (cuffs). They have straight pockets along each side seam but appear to have no back pockets.

Michael Armstrong turns on the charm for Dr. Koska (Gisele Fischer).

The trousers are worn with a black leather belt with a gold-toned single-prong buckle in a semi-rounded reverse “D” shape.

Paul Newman was a master of the all-American Ivy League staple, the oxford cloth button-down shirt. His white cotton OCBD shirt in Torn Curtain has a button-down collar with moderate spread, front placket, rounded button cuffs, and a single inverted box pleat in the center of the back.

Armstrong re-dresses after a visit to the helpful Dr. Koska.

Per this post on the company Instagram page, Newman’s shirt was likely made by Frank Foster, the London shirtmaker who has created countless bespoke shirts for royalty and stars including at least three James Bond actors.

Armstrong’s woven grenadine silk tie is a slightly bolder shade of brown. The mid ’60s were the era of the “skinny tie”, and Armstrong’s neckwear appears to be no wider than 2.5″ and tied in a half-Windsor knot to fill the tie space of his button-down collar.

Professor Armstrong appears to only wear this brown tie when wearing his charcoal brown suit (and vice versa), cycling through navy and red-toned ties when wearing his blue-gray suit or his herringbone jacket.

Not held in place by a bar, clip, or pin, Armstrong’s tie flops around freely and one shot through the bus window while he makes his way to the farm reveals the manufacturer’s tie tag on the back that may clue in a more eagle-eyed viewer into who made Newman’s tie.

The tie maker’s tag is visible just above the bottom of the frame.

Armstrong wears a pair of well-traveled brown leather plain-toe derby shoes with round laces through four eyelets. The footwear is an interesting choice as it doesn’t coordinate with his black belt – an incongruity often considered a no-no – and black shoes are considered to be acceptable with brown suits, particularly charcoal brown suits that have black thread.

His dark ribbed socks appear black but may be a very dark brown to coordinate with his trousers and shoes.

The earthy tones of his suit contrast with his city-friendly topcoat, a knee-length car coat in black and white houndstooth check.

The single-breasted car coat has a flat Ulster collar with four black buttons down the plain front from the neck to just below his waist. There is a flapped pocket on each hip, and a pointed half-tab on each cuff that closes with a single button. The back has a single vent.

Armstrong vs. Gromek.

Having lost his houndstooth car coat at the “farm” when it was stained with the deceased Gromek’s blood, Armstrong goes coat-less until the final act of the film when he is escaping East Berlin with Sarah.

Armstrong is given a heavy black wool topcoat on the π network decoy bus. This second coat has a tall Ulster collar, horizontal front yokes, and brown buttons down the single-breasted plain front. Each sleeve is finished with a distinctive flared half-tab that closes on two black buttons on the outside of each cuff.

Armstrong in disguise as he makes his escape.

Michael Armstrong wears a dress watch typical of the 1960s with a round stainless steel case, silver dial, and flat black leather strap.

Armstrong flips through a pamphlet welcoming him to Berlin.

Paul Newman wouldn’t receive the first of his famous Rolex Cosmograph Daytona watches until a few years later when he received one as a gift from his wife Joanne Woodward. Newman would continue to wear these watches – with the very specific “Paul Newman” dial that horologists can easily spot – every day from 1972 through his death in 2008. One of these Rolex watches, which he gifted to his daughter Nell’s then-boyfriend James Cox in the summer of 1984, will be auctioned next Thursday, October 26, at Phillips in New York and is expected to yield several million dollars.

How to Get the Look

Paul Newman taps into his own Ivy League-inspired sense of classic style to present an undeniably fashionable way of sporting a brown suit appropriate for both town and country.

• Charcoal brown flannel “sack suit”:
  • Single-breasted 3-button suit jacket with slim notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, spaced 2-button cuffs, and single back vent
  • Flat front medium-rise trousers with belt loops, straight/on-seam side pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• White oxford cotton shirt with button-down collar, front placket, and button cuffs
• Brown woven grenadine silk tie
• Black leather belt with gold-toned rounded single-prong buckle
• Brown leather plain-toe 4-eyelet derby shoes
• Black ribbed socks
• Steel round-cased wristwatch with plain silver dial on black leather strap
• Black-and-white houndstooth wool single-breasted 4-button car coat with Ulster collar, hand pockets, 1-button half-tab cuffs, and single vent

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

Kevin Costner as Eliot Ness in The Untouchables (1987)

Vitals

Kevin Costner as Eliot Ness, honest and intrepid federal agent

Canadian border, September 1930

Film: The Untouchables
Release Date: June 3, 1987
Director: Brian De Palma
Costume Designer: Marilyn Vance
Wardrobe: Giorgio Armani

Background

Eliot Ness joins the other “untouchables” on an action-packed mission to the Canadian border following a tip that Al Capone would be importing a shipment of booze. With the help of the Mounties who aren’t yet versed in “the Chicago way”, Ness and his band of three are able to successfully halt the shipment and get their hands on a nervous informant who’s willing to talk… once he stops “muckin’ with the G here,” of course.

The mission comes at the expense of Ness having to take a life in the line of duty. Following some counseling from his cop buddy Jim Malone (“He’s as dead as Julius Caesar… would you rather it was you?”), Ness is able to absolve himself of his guilt and returns home to discover that his wife has given birth to their son.

What’d He Wear?

The Untouchables‘ Armani-designed costumes have been praised for evoking the era if not reflecting it with total accuracy. For instance, it is difficult to imagine that a modestly paid – and honest! – federal employee like Eliot Ness would be able to afford a quality leather car coat, especially as fashionable leather outerwear was hardly as ubiquitous during the Prohibition era as it is today. Still, the jacket incorporates the style of the era and helps a modern audience get behind a “badass longcoat”-wearing hero like we’re used to.

Ness wears a dark brown leather hip-length car coat with three buttons well-spaced down the front and a thin self-belt tightened around the waist between the jacket’s two lower buttons, buckling in the front with a rounded brass single-prong buckle. The lapels have a narrow notch similar to a down-scaled Ulster collar. The cuffs are tightened with buckled belt straps. In addition to the slanted hand pocket on each side of the jacket below the belt, there is a set-in pocket with a slightly pointed flap on the left breast.

Replicas of Ness’ leather jacket abound on the internet, but – as always – the quality is questionable. Your best bet is to find a similar-looking vintage jacket that you can make your own.

A gunfight in the wilderness is no reason for a gentleman like Ness to forgo formality, so he still wears a tie albeit an appropriately rustic-inspired wool knit tie in maroon red. The Tie Bar currently offers several 100% knitted wool ties in similar colors such as wine red and burgundy, both for under $30.

His pale blue tonal-striped shirt has a point collar with such a narrow spread that his the occasional errant collar leaf bends over his tie. The shirt also has a front placket, breast pocket, and single-button rounded cuffs.

Ness in moments of confusion and stress.

Ness wears gray wool trousers with double forward pleats, straight fly, and side pockets. The trousers have belt loops that go unused as Ness instead wears a pair of dark suspenders that button to the inside of his trouser waistband and can be adjusted with silver-toned belt-style buckles.

Behind the scenes images of some of the cast on location shows Costner in costume sans jacket and waistcoat.

Ness layers up against the cold with a lozenge-patterned wool waistcoat. Although the gray-and-red mini-diamond pattern looks more like something you’d find on a sweater vest, this particular garment is styled and structured like a traditional suit vest with a high-fastening six-button front, notched bottom, and four welted pockets.

Ness meets his new son, J. Edgar John James Ness. In real life, Ness had no children until his adopted son Robert was born in 1946.

The bottoms of Ness’ trousers are tucked into his dark brown leather lace-up boots that he wears for riding. The boots’ brown laces are tied through wide silver hooks up the shaft where a slim brown leather strap tightens the top of each boot around the calf.

Ness continues to wear his usual gray felt fedora with its high, pinched crown and narrow black grosgrain band.

Wallace draws Ness’ attention to an interesting point in the ledger that may seal Capone’s conviction.

Shades of red, white, and blue in Ness’ maroon, gray, navy, and beige plaid wool scarf evokes his “All-American” sense of law and order.

Before the raid, Ness wears a pair of brown leather work gloves with a short leather strap across the front of each wrist. As soon as the action starts, he removes the gloves to better handle his shotgun.

Ness wears a yellow gold tank watch with a silver square dial on a black leather strap.

The end of Ness’ white long-sleeve undershirt sleeve pokes out next to his watch as he blasts away at the Canadian border.

A loyal family man (in the movie, at least…), Ness also wears his yellow gold wedding band on the third finger of his left hand.

How to Get the Look

Ness pairs his stylish leather jacket with warm, rugged, and fashionable layers and accessories for wintry action.

• Dark brown leather hip-length car coat with short Ulster collar, three-button front, self-belt with rounded brass single-prong buckle, flapped set-in breast pocket, slanted hand pockets, and belted cuffs
• Pale blue tonal-striped cotton shirt with narrow point collar, front placket, breast pocket, and 1-button rounded cuffs
• Maroon knitted wool tie
• Gray-and-red mini-diamond patterned wool single-breasted 6-button vest/waistcoat with notched bottom and four welted pockets
• Gray wool forward-pleated trousers with belt loops, inner-waistband suspender buttons, and side pockets
• Dark suspenders with silver-toned belt-style buckle adjusters
• Dark brown leather lace-up work boots with silver-toned lace hooks and upper shaft strap
• Gray felt fedora with high, pinched crown and narrow black grosgrain band
• Maroon, gray, navy, and beige plaid wool scarf
• Brown leather work gloves with wrist strap
• Yellow gold tank watch with silver square dial on black leather strap
• Yellow gold wedding ring

The Gun

The four Untouchables ride off to meet the gangsters, each armed for battle. The two police officers have Thompson submachine guns while federal agents Eliot Ness and Oscar Wallace are armed with the Winchester Model 1912 pump-action shotgun.

Ness with a one-handed grip on his shotgun while horseback.

The Model 1912 was designed by Winchester engineer T.C. Johnson as a development of John Browning’s earlier Winchester Model 1897. The most significant difference is the Model 12’s internal hammer as opposed to the external hammer on the Model 1897, which is used to great effect in No Country for Old Men.

Per its name, the Model 1912 was introduced in 1912 for 20-gauge ammunition. By the following year, additional models were offered that could chamber larger 16-gauge and 12-gauge shells with the latter becoming the most common over the firearm’s five decades in production. The internal tubular magazine under the barrel could hold up to six shells.

Ness reloads his shotgun after a gangster infiltrates the Untouchables’ cabin.

For those instances when a 12-gauge shotgun just won’t do the trick, Ness also keeps a few Mk 2 hand grenades – also a John Browning design – in his jacket pockey, ready to toss at a moment’s notice.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

The Quote

Didn’t you hear what I said…? What is this, a game?

Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Vitals

Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, “professor of archeology, expert on the occult, and – how does one say it? – obtainer of rare antiquities”

New England, Fall 1936

Film: Raiders of the Lost Ark
Release Date: June 12, 1981
Director: Steven Spielberg
Costume Designer: Deborah Nadoolman

Background

Following the exciting opening scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, the film transitions from a South American jungle to the genteel setting of the fictional Marshall College in Connecticut where Dr. Jones is introduced as a highly popular instructor of the college’s Archaeology 101 course.

After uncomfortably waiving off the eyelidded advances of some of his female students, our protagonist is visited by dean of students Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott) and introduced to two visitors from U.S. Army Intelligence seeking his interpretation of an intercepted German cable concerning Indiana’s former teacher, Professor Abner Ravenwood. Discovering that the Nazis are close to discovering the legendary Ark of the Covenant, Indy packs his revolver and bullwhip and sets off to Nepal.

What’d He Wear?

Tweed is something of a uniform for the Jones family of professors, as Indiana Jones wears a tweed jacket or suit in all four of the currently released films of the franchise and even his father, Professor Henry Jones (Sean Connery), sports a tweed three-piece suit through much of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Indy’s first tweed suit is a brown barleycorn tweed three-piece suit worn for classroom instruction followed by an impromptu meeting with U.S. Army Intelligence. Magnoli Clothiers offers the “Marshall Suit” inspired by Dr. Jones’ suit in Raiders of the Lost Ark in a variety of colors offered in pure premium wool (for $935) or a twill wool blend (for a discounted $735) suitings. I have no firsthand experience with this suit, but it looks very stylish and screen-accurate with plenty of great feedback from wearers.

The single-breasted suit jacket has notch lapels that roll to a two-button front. The jacket has natural shoulders with roped sleeveheads and three buttons at the end of each sleeve. The jacket’s sporty nature is conveyed with its three patch pockets – one on the left chest and one on each hip.

The ventless back is very uniquely detailed in the spirit of the 1930s with a straight horizontal yoke across the top from shoulder to shoulder and a darted half-belt pulling in the waist. An inverted box pleat splits the center from yoke down to half-belt with two additional pleats on each side of the center box pleat to give Indy a wider range of motion as he reaches to write on his chalkboard.

An inverted box pleat and half-belt were among the practices used by 1930s tailors to give wearers a greater range of motion in addition. “Bi-swing” shoulder pleats, though not found on Indiana Jones’ suit, are another element of ’30s tailoring used on some “action back” jackets.

The suit has a matching single-breasted waistcoat (vest) with six brown urea buttons; Indy correctly leaves the lowest button undone on the vest’s notched bottom. There are four welted pockets.

Indy’s cream cotton shirt coordinates with the earthy suit and Ford’s warm complexion without delivering the stark contrast of a pure white shirt. The shirt has a point collar, front placket, and rounded barrel cuffs that close with a single button.

Professor Jones delivers some hot takes on the Neolithic era.

Indy’s tie injects some muted color into his staid outfit with a pattern of spots on an olive green ground. The dots alternate between maroon with a beige center dot and beige with a maroon center dot.

Magnoli Clothiers offers the “Marshall Tie” for $55 as a great accompaniment to the suit. The 100% silk tie is described as having a “woven pattern of cream and maroon circles on an olive background,” much like Harrison Ford’s screen-worn tie.

The suit’s pleated trousers rise high enough to appropriately conceal the waistband under the vest. They have slanted side pockets, at least one jetted back pocket on the right side, and are finished with turn-ups (cuffs). Indy’s shoes appear to be brown leather oxfords.

SunglassesID.com identified Indy’s glasses in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade as the Savile Row “Beaufort Panto” model with a 14-karat gold frame, “Chestnut” rims, and half-covered cable. His similarly described glasses in Raiders of the Lost Ark are likely the same model.

Indy’s meeting with the U.S. Army Intelligence team sets the stage for his following adventures in Nepal and Egypt where he wears his iconic leather flight jacket, brown fedora, and bullwhip. You can learn more about this outfit from the experts at IndyGear.com as well as my post from July 2016.

How to Get the Look

A stylish, well-cut tweed three-piece suit with unique sporty details is the perfect solution when dressing up for autumn, and Indiana Jones looks fashionably professorial when wearing his suit of choice to instruct his fall semester students.

• Brown barleycorn tweed three-piece suit:
  • Single-breasted 2-button jacket with notch lapels, patch breast pocket, patch hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, ventless “action back” with inverted center box pleat and darted half-belt
  • Single-breasted 6-button vest with four welted pockets and notched bottom
  • Pleated trousers with slanted side pockets and turn-ups/cuffs
• Cream cotton shirt with point collar, front placket, and 1-button rounded cuffs
• Olive green silk tie with maroon and beige spots
• Brown leather oxfords
• Brown socks
• Gold-framed eyeglasses with tortoise rims and round lenses
• Brown felt fedora with dark brown 1.5″ grosgrain ribbon, tall pinched crown, and wide brim

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the trilogy.

The Quote

Didn’t any of you guys ever go to Sunday school?

Footnote

This introductory scene would later be echoed in the third film of the series, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, beginning with a close-up of Indy’s hand as he writes on the chalkboard for his students and panning out to reveal him again in a brownish tweed three-piece suit – this time a striped suit worn with a striped shirt and bow tie – before Marcus enters and ushers him away for an expository meeting that sets the central adventure in motion.

Ray Milland, Robert Cummings, and John Williams in Dial M for Murder (1954)

Vitals

• Ray Milland as Tony Wendice, conniving former tennis pro
• Robert Cummings as Mark Halliday, romantic American crime writer
• Anthony Dawson as C.A. Swann, opportunistic con man
• John Williams as Chief Inspector Hubbard, clever Scotland Yard detective

London, Fall 1953 and Spring 1954

Film: Dial M for Murder
Release Date: May 29, 1954
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Wardrobe Credits: Moss Mabry & Jack Delaney

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

This year’s Halloween post is a Suits and Suspense Spook-tacular, exploring the possible meaning behind the menswear of Hitchcock’s classic Dial M for Murder as well as an appreciation of some damn fine 1950s tailoring!

Dial M for Murder, in case you haven’t seen it, is a sophisticated yet chilling thriller starring Ray Milland and Grace Kelly as married couple Tony and Margot Wendice whose secrets from each other drive the plot. Her secret is that she’s having an affair with American writer Mark Halliday (Robert Cummings); his secret is that he wants to kill her. Rounding out the cast is John Williams reprising his role from the Frederick Knott-penned stageplay as the sagacious Inspector Hubbard and Anthony Dawson as the crooked con man contracted by Tony to carry out the deed against Margot.

This exploratory feature post is going to be a little different than past pieces, serving up every outfit worn by the major male characters over the context of the entire film. That means this post will be packed with a staggering 12 outfits… not to mention a level of extrapolary detail that reveals, if nothing else, that I spend far too much time thinking about men’s style in the movies. Time for a drink!

What’d They Wear?

Oh hi, Mark

The first scene of Dial M for Murder is a quick single-shot vignette of Mark Halliday (Robert Cummings) arriving in England, optimistic and looking forward to his tryst with the married Margot Wendice (Grace Kelly). It’s likely the fall, as it’s later revealed during the trial that the following day’s murder was committed on Saturday, September 26. (However, Mark later says that it was March 26… further complicating matters.)

Mark’s gray semi-solid suit: Single-breasted, three-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets. Likely pleated trousers with turn-ups/cuffs. White shirt with spread collar and double/French cuffs. Navy silk tie. Navy wool v-neck sweater (never seen again). Brown leather cap-toe oxfords. Brown fedora. Taupe topcoat (carried, never worn) echoes both his gray suit and brown accessories and outerwear.

Setting the Stage

We next catch up with Mark and Margot in mid-affair, exchanging smooches and Scotch in the Wendice living room. They are soon joined by Margot’s debonair husband Tony (Ray Milland), who seems blissfully unaware of the true nature of his wife’s visitor.

Tony and Mark are dressed in what is essentially the same outfit: a solid-colored two-piece suit with single-breasted, low stance two-button jackets with all of the same details (white pocket square, low straight jetted hip pockets, four-button cuffs, ventless back) and even patterned ties. It’s what each man does with this “1950s uniform” that differentiates him, particularly in Margot’s eyes as she strives to settle her inner romantic conflict.

Margot and her well-suited suitors.

Tony, in his earth tones, symbolizes home and a grounded life that would be easy and familiar for Margot. Of course, familiarity breeds contempt as the saying goes, and Margot’s warnings to Mark about Tony’s behavior and attitudes indicate that there is something less than comforting beneath his earthy surface. Mark, on the other hand, is far more vibrant in his navy suit and red tie… more colorful and exciting to Margot if not quite as safe. Red will be established as Mark’s “passion color” and his whimsically patterned tie here reflects his relatively “lightweight” attitude as he isn’t yet preoccupied with murder and the potential death of his lover. His red tie also coordinates with her red dress and shoes, though she wraps herself in a brown mink that echoes the brown-wearing Tony’s hold on her.

Mark’s navy flannel suit: Single-breasted, two-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket (with white linen folded pocket square), low straight jetted hip pockets, four-button cuffs, likely ventless back. Double forward-pleated trousers with side pockets and cuffed bottoms. White shirt with point collar and French cuffs (with gold cuff links). Maroon satin silk slim tie with decorative yellow and blue motif. Black leather shoes, probably oxfords. Pearl gray fedora with wide black grosgrain band. Gold wristwatch.

Tony’s taupe worsted suit: Single-breasted, two-button jacket with notch lapels, slanted welted breast pocket (with white linen folded pocket square), low straight jetted hip pockets, four-button cuffs, no vents. Forward-pleated trousers finished with cuffs. White shirt with English spread collar and button cuffs. Brown patterned tie, wider than Mark’s ties. Brown leather cap-toe oxfords with black socks. Khaki raincoat (carried here, more important later.)

“Captain Lesgate”

C.A. Swann (Anthony Dawson), aka “Captain Lesgate” among other names, is the only character to wear the same thing throughout his multiple appearances on screen. Where the other male characters prefer tasteful and traditional suits in the spirit of mid-1950s fashion, Swann opts for a louder array of patterns and colors that differentiate him from the rest of the Dial M for Murder pack. He doesn’t “belong” in this picture, and – thus – he is the only character not to survive it.

C.A. Swann is a simple man. All that he’s got hidden up his sleeve is a strangely fastened shirt cuff and a string of swindled spinsters.

Looking closer at Swann’s attire reveals some interesting details. Swann curiously wears his white double-cuffed shirt with one side fastened over the other like a single barrel cuff. This unorthodox manner for wearing cuff links has sparked debate on online menswear forums, with the general consensus being that this is a sloppy and immature look at best… though it does have some proponents when worn under a long-sleeved jumper like Swann does.

His red-and-navy striped tie has all the look of a traditional club or regimental tie, something one would expect of the Oxford-educated “Captain Lesgate” without any of the actual pedigree of military service. The tie itself with its curiously American right shoulder-down-to-left hip striping, is almost certainly Brooks Brothers’ BB#4 rep tie. (This tie is still available for $79.50 from Brooks Brothers.)

C.A. Swann’s outfit: Tan and brown gingham-check herringbone flannel single-breasted 3-roll-2 button sport jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, two-button cuffs, and single back vent. White shirt with point collar and French cuffs, interestingly worn like a barrel cuff. Red-and-navy right-down-to-left-striped club tie. Navy wool v-neck long-sleeve sweater. Charcoal flannel double forward-pleated trousers with side pockets and cuffed bottoms. Chocolate brown nubuck leather derby-laced chukka boots with hard leather soles. Gray gabardine twill trench coat with epaulettes, 6×3-button front, belt, straight side hand pockets, and adjustable two-button cuff tabs. Cream cashmere scarf. Gold watch, left wrist (though a later close-up depicts a steel watch on a dark brown leather band) and gold signet ring, left pinky.

A Black Tie Affair

Tony invites Mark along to a Saturday night stag party at his club, for which the rules of black tie would dictate men in dinner jackets. Lucky for Mark that he brought his tux across the pond!

Both men’s dinner jackets are consistent with the postwar silhouette of built-up shoulders, sweeping peak lapels, and suppressed waists, but the details beneath that differ wildly. Mark is attired in “a turndown collar shirt and narrow batwing tie,” resulting in what Black Tie Guide calls “the quintessential fifties tuxedo.” Consider what Ian Fleming wrote for that most tuxedoed of cultural icons, James Bond, in his inaugural 007 novel published in 1953, the same year that Dial M for Murder was filmed:

As he tied his thin, double-ended black satin tie, he paused for a moment and examined himself levelly in the mirror… He looked carefully round the room to see if anything had been forgotten and slipped his single-breasted dinner-jacket coat over his heavy silk evening shirt… He… gave a final pull of his narrow tie and walked out of the door and locked it.

– Casino Royale, Chapter 8

Tony opts for a less formal approach, sporting one of his regular white shirts with buttoned barrel cuffs! This breach in formality may be surprising coming from the Brit rather than the American, but it’s worth accounting for the context of the scene. By early 20th century standards, any situation with no women present automatically downgrades the degree of formality; formality would be further relaxed during the World War II era as men were more frequently dining out in regular business suits. Thus, Tony could be given some leeway when sporting his less-than-formal shirt with a dinner suit for a stag party at his men’s club.

Mark’s Black Tie Ensemble: Midnight blue single-breasted dinner jacket with straight-gorge satin-faced peak lapels, welted breast pocket (with white linen folded pocket square), straight jetted hip pockets, four-button cuffs, no vents. Midnight formal forward-pleated trousers with very high rise and likely plain-hemmed bottoms. White traditional formal shirt with long point collar, widely pleated front (with studs), and double cuffs. Black batwing bow tie. Navy raincoat with set-in sleeves and adjustable single-button tab cuffs.

Mark’s outfit may be more fashionable for the mid-1950s, but Tony’s more traditional ensemble proves to be timeless.

Tony’s Black Tie Ensemble: Black single-breasted “drape cut” dinner jacket with wide satin-faced peak lapels, slanted welted breast pocket (with white linen folded pocket square), straight jetted hip pockets, four-button cuffs, no vents. Black formal satin side-striped forward-pleated trousers with side pockets and plain-hemmed bottoms. White shirt with spread collar, front placket (with mother-of-pearl buttons, not studs), and single-button squared barrel cuffs. Black butterfly/thistle-shaped bow tie. Black patent leather oxfords with black socks. Black overcoat (carried).

Note Tony’s informal shirt with its front placket and button cuffs.

The Aftermath

The next day, Tony Wendice is carrying himself like a man who has gotten away with “the perfect murder”. His suit and tie are exquisitely coordinated as his navy tie echoes the blue windowpane in his beautifully textured gray flannel suit. He’s as smooth as he looks, adapting to a major wrench in his plans and still adeptly engineering things to achieve his nefarious goals. It is tailored and styled exactly the same as his previous taupe suit, but his look now channels cold calculation rather than warm groundedness.

Ice and steel. Note also the black bottle to Tony’s right, labeled “Gordon’s.” Is this the Wendice household’s preferred gin?

At this point, the only potential major obstacle could be the police, but when Chief Inspector Hubbard (John Williams) arrives at the door also sporting a gray suit and blue patterned tie, it’s clear to the viewer that these men are in the same league… at least for now.

These variations on the same theme subtly indicate a uniform of coldness as both are pressuring Margot and, in turn, indicting her.

Do you feel judged?!

The more old-fashioned Hubbard is hardly wearing the exact same thing as Tony, rather just the same colors, and he is the only major character to break from single-breasted tailoring to sport a double-breasted jacket. Hubbard’s bow tie and jumper are a clear contrast to the sleek two-piece suits of the two men who are silently vying to control Margot’s future.

The bit of fraying on the bottom right ribbing of his sweater is just enough to not outright ruin the garment, and it’s exactly the amount of wear-and-tear that one would expect to see on a man like Chief Inspector Hubbard.

Note the slight fraying on the bottom of Inspector Hubbard’s sweater.

Aside from the now-departed Swann, Hubbard’s is the most distinctly different style of menswear in the film and a clear sign that the Wendices have an “interloper” in their midst. Unlike Swann, however, Hubbard’s taste is more traditional and thus better suited (in a Hitchcock film, anyway) for a heroic role.

And speaking of heroes… Mark is the last to arrive on the scene, standing out from the gents questioning Margot by wearing a cool blue suit and a dark burgundy red silk tie. I established earlier that red appears to be Mark’s passion color, and he’s wearing it here as the only man on the scene passionately advocating on Margot’s behalf.

Mark’s navy chalkstripe suit: Single-breasted, three-button jacket with wide notch lapels, welted breast pocket (with white linen folded pocket square), straight jetted hip pockets, four-button cuffs, no vents. Forward-pleated trousers with side pockets and likely cuffed bottoms. White shirt with spread collar and French cuffs (with gold cuff links). Burgundy satin silk slim tie.

Tony’s gray flannel suit with light blue windowpane overcheck: Single-breasted, two-button jacket with notch lapels, slanted welted breast pocket (with white linen folded pocket square), low straight jetted hip pockets, four-button cuffs, no vents. Double forward-pleated trousers with belt loops and two back suspender buttons, side pockets and no back pockets, turn-ups/cuffs. White shirt with semi-spread collar, front placket, and button cuffs. Navy mini-patterned silk tie (tucked into trousers!) Red suspenders/braces with black hardware and fastenings. Black leather oxfords with black silk dress socks.

Hubbard’s gray chalkstripe flannel suit: Double-breasted jacket with low 4×2-button front, wide peak lapels, welted breast pocket (white pocket square, not neatly folded), straight jetted hip pockets, three-button cuffs, no vents. Double forward-pleated trousers with side pockets, back right pocket, and turn-ups/cuffs. White shirt with point collar, front placket, and French cuffs (with gold rectangular cuff links). Navy mini-dotted butterfly-shaped bow tie. Gray cashmere v-neck sweater (slightly frayed on bottom ribbing, right side). Black leather cap-toe oxfords. Black homburg with pinched crown. Khaki raincoat with plaid lining.

Reprieve and Retribution

Months have passed. Margot has been convicted of Swann’s pre-meditated murder and is awaiting execution. Mark channels his undying love for her into freeing her, and he’s all business when he shows up at the Wendice threshold, having set aside his red passion tie and donned a gray worsted suit, the traditional office wear of the American businessman. (It’s worth noting that this suit with its two-button jacket is not the same as the gray suit with a three-button jacket that he wore for the vignette of his arrival in the beginning of the film.)

While Mark is all business, Tony, on the other hand, is dressed in his most casual and laidback getup yet: a textured gray tweed sport jacket. His purple tie evokes the color of royalty as he’s been living the easy life in his self-imposed kingdom since Margot’s incarceration, spending her money. And yet, his tie is knotted in a small four-in-hand, almost restrictively tight as the noose grows tighter around his own neck.

Both dressed in gray, Mark and Tony look considerably less vibrant than their first meeting earlier in the film.

One interesting sartorial observation: up to this point, Mark and Tony both wore ventless jackets exclusively. Now, Tony wears a single-vented sport coat and Mark’s suit jacket has double vents. Did men’s fashion really evolve that much over the few months that Margot has been in prison?

Arriving on the scene is good old Inspector Hubbard, again blazing a trail in a dark striped flannel three-piece suit, the only three-piece suit to be worn by any character. Now, Hubbard is in all navy blue against Tony’s gray and purple; the two are no longer on the same team. Blue is the traditional color of police uniforms… law and justice has finally arrived to save the day.

Margot’s POV: an astonished Mark and rather self-satisfied Inspector Hubbard, both in navy ties, greet her upon her unexpected return home.

And, alas, this scene also offers the significance of Chekhov’s Raincoat! Hubbard had brought his raincoat for his first meeting at the Wendice home, where its sole purpose was seemingly a quick moment of comic relief as an accidental seat cushion for Mark.

Now, Hubbard uses his and Tony’s similar raincoats to conduct a series of switches to prove his theory correct. Six decades later, it seems an anachronistic device as most men rarely wear proper outerwear, let alone outerwear as standardized as the khaki gabardine raincoat was in the early 1950s.

Raincoat hijinks!

Mark’s gray worsted pick suit: Single-breasted, two-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket (with white linen folded pocket square), low straight jetted hip pockets, spaced three-button cuffs, short double vents. Forward-pleated trousers with slanted side pockets and cuffs. White shirt with spread collar and French cuffs (with gold rectangular cuff links). Dark navy silk slim tie. White suspenders (per behind-the-scenes photos). Black leather cap-toe oxfords with black socks. Pearl gray fedora with wide black grosgrain ribbon.

Tony’s gray sportcoat and slacks: Gray textured twill-striped tweed single-breasted, two-button sport jacket with notch lapels, slanted patch breast pocket (with white linen folded pockt square), straight jetted hip pockets, four-button cuffs, and short single vent. Gray flannel trousers. White shirt with spread collar and mitred button cuffs. Purple-dotted lavender silk tie, knotted in tight four-in-hand. Black patent leather oxfords. Khaki raincoat.

Hubbard’s navy chalkstripe flannel three-piece suit: Single-breasted, 3-roll-2 buttoning jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket (with white linen pocket square), straight jetted hip pockets, four-button cuffs, no vents. Single-breasted, six-button waistcoat with four welted pockets and notched bottom. Double forward-pleated trousers with side pockets and cuffed bottoms. White shirt with semi-spread collar, front placket, and French cuffs (with gold rectangular cuff links). Navy silk tie. Black leather cap-toe oxfords with perforated stitching across toe cap. Black homburg with pinched crown. Khaki raincoat with plaid lining.

What to Imbibe

Despite only four drinking characters and four days depicted on screen, the Dial M for Murder crew does quite a number on the Wendice household’s well-stocked booze collection… though they tend to limit their imbibing to only three of the most classic concoctions:

Scotch & Soda

The soon-to-be condemned man enjoys one last nip.

Who drinks it? Tony Wendice, Margot Wendice, and Mark Halliday.

What brand of booze? Johnnie Walker Red Label is the Wendice whisky of choice, and Tony even tipples a dram neat at the film’s denouement after he’s been exposed.

How do they make it? Pour some whisky straight from the bottle into a highball glass. Siphon in some carbonated water from a soda siphon bottle, and voila! You’ve got yourself a highball.

Martini

Better living through gin.

Who drinks it? Tony Wendice, Margot Wendice, and Mark Halliday.

What brand of booze? Though not seen during the actual martini-mixing process, a bottle of Gordon’s can be spotted on the Wendice bar.

How do they make it? We catch up with Tony halfway through his concocting, but he appears to be stirring gin, ice, and what is likely a small amount of dry vermouth in a glass mixing glass. (Apologies, Mr. Bond.) He then strains into three traditional martini glasses and serves them up with no garnish.

Brandy, straight

Tony’s brandy evidently meets with Swann’s satisfaction. Like he would know.

Who drinks it? Tony Wendice and C.A. Swann.

What brand of booze? “This calls for a special drink,” declares Tony upon his “reunion” with Swann. “I was planning to palm you off with an indifferent port, but let’s see what we have here,” he says before grabbing for a bottle of brandy apparently named Kennedy’s in red print on a beige square label. The brand is unfamiliar to me.

How do they make it? Tony simply pours the brandy into proper snifters for he and Swann to drink. No additions needed.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

All’s well that ends well.

The Quote

Tony Wendice: People don’t commit murder on credit.

Burt Lancaster as J.J. Hunsecker in Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

Vitals

Burt Lancaster as J.J. Hunsecker, powerful and domineering newspaper columnist

New York City, Fall 1956

Film: Sweet Smell of Success
Release Date: June 27, 1957
Director: Alexander Mackendrick
Costume Designer: Mary Grant

Background

In commemoration of Burt Lancaster’s birthday today, I’m exploring my favorite of his films, the atmospheric 1957 noir Sweet Smell of Success that starred Lancaster as acerbic columnist J.J. Hunsecker to Tony Curtis’ unscrupulous PR flack Sidney Falco.

J.J. Hunsecker is a man whose legendary power and mercurial temper is meant to intimidate nearly all in his orbit. To illustrate just how perfect Lancaster was for this role, consider that Ernest Lehman – who co-wrote the screenplay adapted from his own novelette – declined the opportunity to direct the film due to a stomach illness (though some say it was in part due to his fear of working with Lancaster.) Lancaster evidently blamed the film’s lack of success on the box office on Lehman’s withdrawal, confronting him at the after party by saying: “You could have made this a much better picture. I ought to beat you up!” to which Lehman, having evidently overcome his fear of the aggressive actor, replied “Go ahead, I need the money.”

Time has been kinder than the box office to Sweet Smell of Success, and – six decades on – the film remains an intriguing ode to 1950s New York thanks to Alexander Mackendrick’s direction, James Wong Howe’s cinematography, and the talented cast’s ability to deliver the snappy dialogue penned in a screenplay co-written by Lehman, Mackendrick, and playwright Clifford Odets, all underscored by a jazzy soundtrack composed by Elmer Bernstein and performed by the Chico Hamilton Quintet. Bernstein himself had some choice words from his experience with Lancaster:

Burt was really scary. He was a dangerous guy. He had a short fuse.

One could say the same of J.J. Hunsecker.

What’d He Wear?

J.J. Hunsecker’s primary suit in Sweet Smell of Success is a dark birdseye wool suit, likely charcoal gray or dark navy blue, worn for his introduction at the 21 Club and his final confrontation with Sidney in his penthouse apartment.

One phone call is all it takes for J.J. Hunsecker to ruin an enemy.

J.J. wears only double-breasted suits, reflecting a popular style in the mid-fifties but also projecting strength and intimidation through the style’s strong, boxy cut. His double-breasted suit jackets have low four-on-one button fronts in the “Kent” style, which he wears both open and closed. The peak lapels have slanted gorges, pointing at the wide and strongly padded shoulders. Only the three-button cuffs on this jacket differentiate the styling of this suit from his other suit, also double-breasted but in a lighter shade of flannel.

J.J. wears a white pocket square neatly folded in the jacket’s welted breast pocket. The jetted hip pockets and ventless back are consistent with typical double-breasted styling of the era.

J.J. and Sidney make their way out of 21.

The suit’s flat front trousers, best seen when J.J. wears his jacket open, are held up with a thin dark leather belt with a small square single-prong buckle. The full cut extends to the bottoms, finished with cuffs (turn-ups), that break over his dark oxford shoes and dark socks.

J.J. wears a white shirt with a long point collar that compliments Burt Lancaster’s wider head. The shirt has a front placket and squared double (French) cuffs held together by textured square links.

His first tie, worn for an evening at 21 Club, is solid dark silk. It appears to be about 3″ wide and fall about an inch short of his trouser waistband.

“Match me, Sidney.”

J.J.’s second tie, worn during the finale, is white or pale-colored silk with a subtle pinhead texture that differentiates its from the untextured light-colored tie he wore with his lighter flannel suit. Both are tied in a Windsor knot that covers the moderate tie space of his shirt’s point collar.

Leo Bartha describes J.J. as having “the scruples of a guinea pig and the morals of a gangster.” Thus, his gangsterish attire of dark suit and light-on-light tie for the final scene.

Venturing outside, J.J. dons his coat and hat. Unlike Sidney, his income and lifestyle preclude him from the expense of leaving “a tip in every hat-check room in town!” His mid-colored felt fedora, probably gray, has a wide black grosgrain band.

J.J.’s dark wool single-breasted overcoat has notch lapels that roll to a three-button front. The coat also has patch side pockets and a swollen seam down the center back.

A dedicated columnist like J.J. doesn’t even take the time to remove his coat upon getting home, lighting up one of his English Ovals, and tapping away at the Remington Rand.

Ten years after browline glasses jumped onto the fashion scene with the Shuron “Ronsir” brand, Burt Lancaster canonized this style of eyewear in Sweet Smell of Success, identified by BAMF Style reader Preston Fassel as Art Craft “Clubman” eyeglasses based on the subtle sloped studs. The Clubman is still offered from the nearly century-old brand Art Craft Optical and can be purchased for just over $100 from Frames Direct.

Mackendrick had requested that the actor wear his own black-framed browline glasses to deliver the appearance of “a scholarly brute” and filmed the overhead-lit character from a low angle with a wide lens, casting shadows over Lancaster’s eyes.

The effect of J.J.’s browline glasses was supposedly enhanced with a thin layer of Vaseline smeared over the lenses to prevent Lancaster from focusing his eyes as he judges his world with a perpetually blank gaze, as described in James Naremore’s Sweet Smell of Success: A BFI Film Classic.

The gold tank watch on J.J.’s wrist may have also been one of Lancaster’s own items. It has a rectangular case, a white square dial, and a textured strap in likely black leather.

J.J. Hunsecker coolly takes a drag from one of his English Ovals cigarettes as Sidney Falco eagerly sits by his side, waiting for another opportunity to “match” him, as needed.

Go Big or Go Home

After late evenings holding court as New York royalty at the famous 21 Club, J.J. Hunsecker rises dozens of stories to his swanky penthouse overlooking Manhattan, where he takes breaks from furiously typing his nicotine-fueled columns to observe his chosen “dirty town” from the balcony.

It’s a dirty town, but someone’s gotta love it…

Unfortunately for aspiring columnists hoping to live the Hunsecker high life, his “apartment building” was actually the Brill Building at 1619 Broadway on 49th Street, a commercial tower that housed offices and studios where some of the most popular American music from the 1930s to the 1960s was penned and recorded with acts ranging from the Glenn Miller Orchestra and Bobby Darin to Frankie Valli and Dionne Warwick headquartered in the building.

Nearly 90 years after it was built, the building remains a hub for the show business industry with Broadway Video, Key Brand Entertainment, and Paul Simon Music among its tenants.

How to Get the Look

J.J. Hunsecker is all power and intimidation in his dark double-breasted suits that take full advantage of using the contemporary 1950s fashions to flatter his strong physique.

• Dark birdseye wool full-cut suit:
  • Double-breasted 4-on-1-button jacket with peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Flat front trousers with slim belt loops, side pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• White dress shirt with long point collar, front placket, and double/French cuffs
  • Large textured square cuff links
• Light-colored pinhead-textured silk tie
• Slim leather belt with small square single-prong buckle
• Dark leather cap-toe oxfords/balmoral shoes
• Dark socks
• Mid-gray felt fedora with wide black grosgrain band
• Dark wool single-breasted three-button overcoat with notch lapels and patch hip pockets
• Black acetate-framed “browline” eyeglasses
• Gold dress watch with square white dial and black leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

The Quote

I love this dirty town.

Richard Gere as Julian Kaye in American Gigolo (1980)

Vitals

Richard Gere as Julian Kaye, high-price L.A. escort

Los Angeles, Spring 1980

Film: American Gigolo
Release Date: February 8, 1980
Director: Paul Schrader
Costumer: Bernadene C. Mann
Costume Coordinator: Alice Rush
Richard Gere’s Costumes: Giorgio Armani

Background

“The worlds of cinema and fashion are very close, the one constantly communicating with the other,” wrote Sophia Loren in her recent memoir, Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow. “Richard Gere knows something about this, having been the first to introduce Giorgio to the world by wearing Armani fashions from head to toe in American Gigolo.”

Having emerged as a suspect in the murder of one of his clients, escort Julian Kaye (Richard Gere) finds himself being questioned for a second time by LAPD detective Joe Sunday (Hector Elizondo), who is convinced of Julian’s guilt and put off by the swaggering hustler’s offer of seduction tips.

What’d He Wear?

The first outfit I covered from American Gigolo was a palette of greens and grays, anchored by a gray sport jacket with unique shoulder yokes. For his shoe shine and second meeting with Detective Sunday, Julian’s outfit falls on the warmer end of Armani’s signature “greige” spectrum with a number of gold, tan, and brown tones.

Julian’s camel-colored double-breasted jacket has long and slim peak lapels – with a buttonhole through each – that roll down to the low buttoning stance of the 4×1-button front. Although it’s double-breasted unlike many of Julian’s other tailored pieces, this narrow-fitting jacket still has the “second skin” presence and silhouette of his single-breasted jackets rather than the fuller wrap associated the double-breasted style heyday of the 1930s through 1950s.

The jacket also has a welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, two-button cuffs, and a ventless back.

By nature, camelhair sport jackets have a soft texture, but the fleece-like “fuzzy” texture of Julian’s camel tan Armani jacket in this scene takes this to the extreme, more resembling a rough terry cloth towel than any traditional suiting. The suiting is likely a brushed blend of alpaca and mohair, indicating luxurious exclusivity.

Julian’s shirt has thin brown stripes on a white ground with a narrow point collar, front placket, and mitred button cuffs. He wears an “old gold” tie with small, widely spaced dots, a print consistent with his other dotted Armani ties.

Being the subject of a murder investigation is no joke, poor Julian learns.

The notch in Julian’s mitred shirt cuff offers a glimpse of the smooth black leather strap his watch, a yellow gold Cartier Tank Américaine with the black dial facing inward. This method has been notably employed by men with military experience, although it’s a surprising choice for someone like Julian who would prefer to flaunt the fact that he wears a luxury watch like Cartier rather than hiding it on the inside of his wrist.

The Cartier is a suitable option for a professional lover like Julian as it was first famously worn on screen by Rudolph Valentino, one of the most notorious lotharios of early Hollywood. Valentino reportedly insisted on wearing his Cartier Tank in the 1926 silent “desert romance” film The Son of the Sheik. Cartier’s site offers the delightfully droll remark: “This was the Tank’s first movie role.”

Julian wears taupe brown trousers with a high rise and a darted front, worn with a brown leather belt that has a small, rounded gold single-prong buckle.

While Julian essentially “advertises” his services in other scenes by wearing his tie a little too long, he tucks it into his trousers here when not soliciting new business.

Julian’s shoes are dark brown leather cap-toe oxfords with four eyelets, worn with thin dark brown silk socks that continue the leg line from his taupe brown trousers into his shoes.

Richard Gere’s arches appear to be putting pressure on the four laced eyelets of his dark brown oxfords.

How to Get the Look

Julian Kaye showcases the effectiveness of mixing earth tones and unique suiting, aided by the fashion-forward designs of Giorgio Armani.

• Camel tan alpaca/mohair double-breasted 4×1-button Armani jacket with long peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 2-button cuffs, and ventless back
• White brown-striped shirt with narrow point collar, front placket, and mitred button cuffs
• Gold micro-dotted silk tie
• Taupe brown darted-front trousers with belt loops, straight/on-seam side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Brown leather belt with small rounded gold single-prong buckle
• Dark brown leather 4-eyelet cap-toe oxford shoes
• Dark brown silk socks
• Cartier Tank Americaine watch with a square yellow gold case, black dial, and smooth black leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

Giving pleasure to women… I’m supposed to feel bad about that?

Steve Buscemi and Kelly Macdonald on Boardwalk Empire (Episode 1.09: “Belle Femme”)

Vitals

Steve Buscemi as Enoch “Nucky” Thompson, corrupt Atlantic City politician and bootlegger

Atlantic City, January 1920

Series: Boardwalk Empire
Seasons: 1 – 2
Air Dates: September 19, 2010 – December 11, 2011
Creator: Terence Winter
Costume Designer: John A. Dunn
Tailor: Martin Greenfield

Background

In less than two hours, liquor will be declared illegal by decree of the distinguished gentlemen of our nation’s congress… to those beautiful ignorant bastards!

In the first episode of Boardwalk Empire, Enoch “Nucky” Thompson raises a glass to toast the ratification of the Volstead Act, a constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States, effective at midnight on January 16, 1920, exactly 98 years ago today.

It’s not that Atlantic City’s unabashedly crooked treasurer is a teetotaler, but the good Mr. Thompson already has plans in place to make he and his corrupt political pals fabulously wealthy by circumventing the new law of the land.

What’d He Wear?

Brown plaid and checked suits are a staple of Nucky Thompson’s wardrobe, particularly in the early years of Boardwalk Empire. In just the first two seasons, he is seen wearing a brown glen plaid suit with a salmon windowpane overcheck, a brown tonal plaid suit with a shawl-collar waistcoat, a taupe flannel plaid suit with pink and salmon checks, a taupe-and-purple striped plaid suit with dog-eared lapels, and the comparatively subtle charcoal brown windowpane suit that is the subject of this post.

The Suit

For a few days in his hotel room office – and more than a few nights out at Babbette’s supper club – Nucky wears this charcoal brown flannel twill three-piece suit with a rich peach-colored windowpane overcheck almost certainly tailored by Martin Greenfield of Brooklyn.

“A Return to Normalcy” (Episode 1.12)

The charcoal brown suiting provides a chameleon-like quality that can make the suit look dark gray or blue in certain light. According to previously cited research from Gentleman’s Gazette, charcoal brown suiting was developed in 1938 as “a new color becoming to all men”, a conservative alternative to the traditional blue and gray created by weaving dark brown yarns with black or charcoal yarns. (The late 1930s would technically make the color anachronistic for scenes set in 1920 and 1921, but just because the color hadn’t been marketed until more than a decade later doesn’t mean trendsetting trailblazer Nucky couldn’t have requested custom charcoal brown suits from his tailor.)

Nucky’s long single-breasted suit jacket has notch lapels that roll to the top of a high two-button stance, placed between the axis of the welted breast pocket and the rear-slanting flapped hip pockets. Buscemi’s Nucky Thompson always wears a red carnation in his left lapel, an affectation borrowed from the character’s real-life inspiration, Enoch “Nucky” Johnson.

“Boardwalk Empire” (Episode 1.01)

The jacket has natural shoulders, a long single back vent, and four buttons at the end of each sleeve with a “turnback” cuff, an Edwardian detail consistent on all of Nucky’s early suit jackets.

Nucky flashes his unique turnback cuffs during an afternoon of cigarettes, coffee, and the Commodore’s testimony about his near-fatal poisoning in “A Return to Normalcy” (Episode 1.12).

The matching single-breasted waistcoat (vest) has six buttons that Nucky wears completely fastened as the lowest button is placed above the cutaway of the notched bottom (though some sartorial purists would still say to never fasten the lowest waistcoat button.) The satin-covered back is bronze with brown shadow stripes to match the lining of the suit jacket. Unlike some of his other three-piece suits, this waistcoat has no lapels.

The waistcoat has four welted pockets, and Nucky wears his gold Elgin open-faced pocket watch in the lower left pocket, connected on a 18″ gold chain to an ornate fob described by ScreenBid as “a trio of gold cubes with tiny ruby chips.” The watch has winding stem at 12:00 and a white second-hand sub-dial at the 6:00 position. He wears his watch chain through a small hole between the third and fourth buttons of his waistcoat in the traditional “double Albert” style.

Nucky explains a few things to his hapless political henchmen in “Paris Green” (Episode 1.11).

The waistcoat effectively conceals the waistband of his high-rise flat front trousers, which are appropriately worn with suspenders (braces) rather than a belt. The only time we actually see Nucky’s suspenders with this suit are when he finds himself in an increasing state of undress at the hands of “Ukulele Girl” (Lauren Sharpe), a musically inclined prostitute in “Family Limitation” (episode 1.06); his suspenders in this scene are beige with a wide red stripe.

Nucky finds himself struggling to “be good” in “Family Limitation” (Episode 1.06). Note the striped lining on the back of his waistcoat.

As Nucky realistically cycles through his colorful closet, this suit makes plenty of appearances in the show’s first season and sporadic appearances in the second as he begins to phase in a new wardrobe. Interestingly, little is seen of Nucky’s footwear with this suit, although he is seen several times in a pair of black leather lace-up shoes (“Family Limitation” and “Belle Femme”), a pair of light brown leather oxfords (“A Return to Normalcy”), and a combination of both with his black-and-brown spectator shoes in the pilot episode.

A contemplative moment in the pilot episode, brought to you by Piedmont cigarettes, Fralinger’s Original Salt Water Taffy, and Tootsie Rolls.

These may be the same black and tan calf leather six-eyelet wingtip oxford brogues that Nucky notably wears in the show’s credits sequence. The original manufacturer, Italian firm Forzieri, proudly includes in the description of these handcrafted $660 shoes that they were featured in “the opening credits of Boardwalk Empire” (available for purchase here.)

Shirts and Ties

All of Nucky’s colorful cotton dress shirts have a front placket and self-shirted double (French) cuffs. Per the traditions of the early 1920s, Nucky exclusively wears dress shirts with detachable collars; the “self-folding” attached collar had only been patented in 1919 by the Phillips-Jones Corporation (now Phillips-Van Heusen) and even then was primarily the domain of the young and/or poor like Jimmy Darmody.

Nucky’s “keyhole-cut” collar was created specifically by Boardwalk Empire costume designer John Dunn, who explained the design to Esquire just before the show premiered in September 2010. “A period collar that has a little keyhole cutout in the center — when you close the collar with the collar bar, there was then a little hole that the necktie would come out of,” described Dunn. “No one else was allowed to wear that.” The “keyhole-cut” collar lasted for three seasons before the show advanced further into the roaring ’20s and men’s fashions began taking more cues from youth and practicality than old-fashioned formalism.

Below, I’ve detailed the unique shirt and tie combinations that Nucky wears in each episode that features this suit.

“Boardwalk Empire” (Episode 1.01)

The first day of Prohibition in the United States is presented as “a day in the life” for Nucky Thompson, beginning with his holding court at the Ritz Carlton, strolling the boardwalk, and meeting mob chieftains from New York and Chicago to discuss their profitable futures in the wake of the Volstead Act.

The opulent treasurer wears a lavender shirt with a subtle circle print, the same that he wears in the opening credits. His pale blue silk tie has an ornate repeating motif in salmon and cream that echoes the peach windowpane of the suit.

“Boardwalk Empire” (Episode 1.01): An immediately lovestruck Nucky sees Margaret for the first time.

In the pilot episode, Nucky wore a set of vintage octagonal silver-toned cuff links with an onyx ring around a clear stone on the face of each link.

“Broadway Limited” (Episode 1.03)

The suit makes a brief appearance two episodes later when Nucky stops into a psychic’s shop on the boardwalk to meet with Gillian Darmody (Gretchen Mol). He wars a pale blue shirt striped in alternating blue and thin rust-colored stripes. His red silk tie is covered with a blue patterned motif.

“Broadway Limited” (Episode 1.03): Judgement drips from Nucky’s face as he confronts Gillian Darmody in the tarot-reading shop.

“Family Limitation” (Episode 1.06)

This charcoal brown windowpane suit makes two appearances in the show’s sixth episode, first during a brief scene in Nucky’s office at the Ritz Carlton when he and Eli (Shea Whigham) are laying the pressure on an unwelcome Lucky Luciano (Vincent Piazza). Nucky wears the same pale blue shadow-striped shirt as in “Broadway Limited” with a copper and purple paisley silk tie. This tie would prove to be his most popular tie to wear with this suit, also showing up in the first and second season finales.

“Family Limitation” (Episode 1.06): Nucky makes it clear that Lucky Luciano isn’t welcome to enjoy any of Atlantic City’s dazzling attractions.

Later in the episode, Nucky treats Jersey City Mayor Frank Hague (Chris Mulkey) to a seafood dinner to discuss Nucky’s potential highway, followed by an evening of oysters, champagne, and a beautiful naked woman (Lauren Sharpe) serenading the gents on her ukulele.

Nucky wears his lavender circle-printed shirt from the pilot episode with a purple and maroon jacquard silk tie woven into floral medallions. (This is the same shirt and John Kocis tie combination that Nucky wears in the credits sequence with his charcoal striped suit.) Purple is the traditional color of royalty, and Nucky is certainly treated like a king in this context.

Nucky wines and dines Frank Hague.

The real Mayor Hague was reportedly so infamous for his corruption and greed that one woman oversaw his funeral procession in 1956 holding a sign that read “God have mercy on his sinful, greedy soul.”

“Home” (Episode 1.07)

Night out with the mistresses finds Nucky drinking in one of Chalky’s North Side speakeasies with Harry Price (Michael Badalucco) and avoiding getting roped into a literal Ponzi scheme as the garrulous Harry eagerly describes his investments with “this Italian fella up in Boston.”

Nucky wears a yellow shirt with subtle sets of wide white stripes that are bordered on each side and split down the center with three thin blue stripes. His tie is the navy blue, mustard yellow, and brick red “uphill”-striped silk tie that he also wore with a yellow shirt in “The Ivory Tower” (Episode 1.02) with his charcoal striped double-breasted suit.

“Home (Episode 1.07): Nucky is perplexed after an exchange with Chalky White.

“Belle Femme” (Episode 1.09)

Nucky’s visit with the Commodore and a night out with Margaret Schroeder (Kelly Macdonald) and Ed Bader (Kevin O’Rourke) is followed by an assassination attempt by the D’Alessio brothers in “Belle Femme” (Episode 1.09), all to the tune of Kathy Brier channeling Sophie Tucker for her signature hit, “Some of These Days”.

He wears a solid peach shirt with a gold silk tie that is printed with an orange and lavender leaf motif.

“Belle Femme” (Episode 1.09): Nucky tries to make sense of the Commodore’s ramblings.

“Paris Green” (Episode 1.11)

A tough conversation with Eli leads to a meeting with crooked political cronies in Nucky’s suite at the Ritz. He once again wears his lavender circle-printed shirt (as in the pilot episode and in “Family Limitation”) but now with a pink-and-gold floral-patterned jacquard silk tie with strands of blue woven in.

“Paris Green” (Episode 1.11): Nucky explains the latest shakeup in his ranks to Atlantic City’s corrupt chiefs.

“A Return to Normalcy” (Episode 1.12)

Nucky’s political crew of mayors and councilmen file into his office on Halloween for a session of planning strategy for the upcoming election day, though he finds himself frustrated with the gents’ tendency toward cracking wise and ignoring the issues that face them. Again, Nucky wears the lavender circle-printed shirt with the copper-and-purple paisley silk tie we first saw in “Family Limitation”.

“A Return to Normalcy” (Episode 1.12): Nucky can’t believe the idiots he surrounds himself with.

“Ourselves Alone” (Episode 2.02)

The suit makes its first of two appearances in the show’s second season when Nucky and Margaret arrive at Babbette’s for dinner and run into his latest and most dangerous enemies, “Commodore” Louis Kaestner (Dabney Coleman) and one-time protégé Jimmy Darmody (Michael Pitt).

Nucky wears his boldest shirt with this suit to date, sporting a burnt orange checked shirt that made a few appearances with other suits during the first season; the check consists of bold white vertical stripes bisected by muted white horizontal stripes. His busy tie coordinates with the shirt and consists of a burnt orange grid that separates the rest of the tie’s design into blue-on-white diamond-shaped square grids.

“Ourselves Alone” (Episode 2.02): A night at Babbette’s would soon be ruined by the appearance of newfound enemies Jimmy Darmody and Commodore Kaestner.

“To the Lost” (Episode 2.12)

The final appearance of this suit is a brief one in the second season finale, worn with a lavender shirt that has a series of black-and-white stripe sets. His tie is the same copper and purple paisley silk tie seen twice during the first season.

“To the Lost” (Episode 2.12): Nucky’s trusty charcoal brown windowpane suit makes its final appearance.

Outerwear

Prohibition took effect in January 1920, which would be a chilly time of year to be walking by the sea. Nucky wisely dresses for the cold in a camel knee-length overcoat with wide Ulster-style lapels and a high six-on-three double-breasted front. The coat has padded shoulders, swelled edges, a vertical welt pocket on each side, and a wide cuff at the end of each sleeve. An inverted box pleat on the upper back aligns with the long single vent that extends up to the half-belt.

He wears this coat and a dark brown homburg hat in the pilot episode and in “Broadway Limited” (Episode 1.03).

A warm double-breasted coat is just the thing for combating the frigid winter air on the Atlantic City boardwalk.

Another year has come and gone by the time of “Ourselves Alone” (Episode 2.02), set around February 1921. Nucky has upgraded his outerwear from the utilitarian Ulster-lapel topcoat to a villainous charcoal herringbone wool single-breasted overcoat with black Astrakhan fur peak lapels. He naturally tops it off with that most villainous of headgear, an all-black homburg with black grosgrain band and edge trim.

BOARDWALK EMPIRE

When not wearing an overcoat for his summer evenings in “Belle Femme” (Episode 1.09) and “Paris Green” (Episode 1.11), he dons only a tan wool felt homburg with a wide brown grosgrain and and edge trim when venturing out of doors.

No coat is needed for a warm summer evening in 1920, though a gentleman still would have worn his hat.

The Music

Vince Giordano and his Nighthawks Orchestra, led by bass saxophonist and music historian Vince Giordano, has lent its authentic sound to many period-set Hollywood productions including The Aviator, Bessie, and Boardwalk Empire.

The first season of Boardwalk Empire showcases a number of popular hits from 1920 like “Alice Blue Gown”, “Darktown Strutters’ Ball”, and one of my personal favorites, “Some of These Days”.

Penned by Shelton Brooks in 1910, “Some of These Days” made an immediate and lasting cultural impact in the soundtracks of contemporary films like Scarface (1932) and as the oft-recorded signature song of the Ukranian-born vocal powerhouse Sophie Tucker, “the Last of the Red Hot Mamas.”

When Nucky and Margaret escort the Baders to dinner at Babbette’s in “Belle Femme” (Episode 1.09) to convince Ed to make a mayoral run, Sophie Tucker is introduced as the evening’s entertainment and played to brash brilliance by Kathy Brier. Following a brief comedic set, Brier launches into a masterful rendition of “Some of These Days”, backed by the Nighthawks.

The dreamy “The Japanese Sandman” by Richard A. Whiting and Raymond B. Egan, one of the most popular songs of 1920, gets double the Boardwalk Empire treatment.

In addition to a rousing rendition by the Nighthawks in the spirit of the Original Dixieland Jass Band heard over the course of the first five episodes, Nucky and his pal Frank Hague are treated to an alluring vocal version in “Family Limitation” (Episode 1.06) as actress Lauren Sharpe accompanies herself on the ukulele.

Mayor Hague and Treasurer Thompson enjoy their entertainment for the evening.

The show’s original soundtrack, arranged by Vince Giordano, has been released in three volumes: the Grammy Award-winning Volume 1 (Seasons 1-2), Volume 2 (Seasons 3-4), and Volume 3 (Season 5).

How to Get the Look

Nucky Thompson is a colorful dresser, making the most of his eye for wearing brown and pink as opposed to the more traditional grays and blues.

With timeless style elements like a single-breasted, notch-lapel, two-button jacket, single-breasted waistcoat with no lapels, and flat front trousers, this suit remains relatively contemporary nearly a century later for wearers seeking a template for expanding their sartorial horizons.

Steve Buscemi as Enoch “Nucky” Thompson in Boardwalk Empire (Episode 1.11: “Paris Green”)

• Charcoal brown twill flannel suit with peach windowpane check:
  • Single-breasted 2-button long jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, slanted flapped hip pockets, 4-button “turnback” cuffs, and long single vent
  • Single-breasted 6-button waistcoat/vest with welted pockets and notched bottom
  • Flat front high-rise trousers with straight/on-seam side pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Lavender circle-printed dress shirt with front placket and double/French cuffs
  • White detachable “keyhole”-cut collar
  • Gold collar bar
  • Silver-toned octagonal cuff links with black onyx face
• Patterned tie with color echoing the shirt
• Beige and red-striped fabric suspenders
• Black and tan leather wingtip oxford brogues
• Gray dress socks
• Brown felt homburg with wide brown grosgrain ribbon
• Camel wool knee-length overcoat with Ulster-style lapels, 6×3-button double-breasted front, vertical welted side pockets, and half-belted back with inverted box pleat
• Gold-filled Elgin open-face pocket watch with white dial (with Arabic numerals and 6:00 sub-dial) and 18″ gold “double Albert” chain with ruby-studded triple-cube fob

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the whole series, but start with the first season.

The Quote

Everything you see here… it’s mine. Buy a drink, place a bet, ride the fuckin’ Ferris wheel.

Gallery

Cary Grant as Nickie Ferrante in An Affair to Remember (1957)

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Cary Grant as Nicolò “Nickie” Ferrante, playboy socialite

Onboard the SS Constitution in the North Atlantic, December 1956

Film: An Affair to Remember
Release Date: July 2, 1957
Director: Leo McCarey
Executive Wardrobe Designer: Charles Le Maire

Background

Happy birthday to Cary Grant, the charming maverick who personifies the intersection of style and screen during the golden age of both. The erstwhile Archie Leach defined men’s style for the better part of the 20th century and his timeless sartorial sensibilities live on through his charismatic performances on screen and, most specifically, via the advice he outlined for This Week magazine (and reprinted in GQ) in the 1960s.

Simplicity, to me, has always been the essence of good taste.

– Cary Grant on style, 1962

One of Cary Grant’s most stylish, romantic, and iconic roles was artistic playboy Nickie Ferrante in An Affair to Remember.

What’d He Wear?

What should one buy? Well, if a man’s budget restricts him to only one suit, then I would choose something unobtrusive. A dark blue, almost black, of lightweight cloth, serviceable for both day and evening wear.

Cary Grant exemplifies his own sartorial advice in An Affair to Remember, dressing for the final night of his romantic crossing on the SS Constitution in a dark navy worsted suit that he effectively wears from the afternoon into the evening for the ship’s New Year’s Eve dance. Common shipboard practices of the era deformalized the evening dress code on the final night of the voyage, operating under the assumption that most gentlemen and ladies would have had their fine evening attire already packed for the following day’s disembarking.

The single-breasted ventless suit jacket has notch lapels with an elegant roll over the top button, fastening on the second button to coordinate perfectly with his trouser waistline for an ideal balanced appearance.

Real talks on deck with Nickie and Terry.

“Learn to dispense with accessories that don’t perform a necessary function,” outlined Grant in This Week. I use belts, for example, only with blue jeans, which I wear when riding, and content myself with side loops, that can be tightened at the waistband, on business suits.”

Nickie’s double forward-pleated trousers here are thus likely fitted with his usual buckle-tab side adjusters, and the bottoms are finished with narrow turn-ups (cuffs).

Two’s company, but three’s a crowd. Get out of there, unwelcome guy.

Shirts should usually be white for the evening, but, in the city’s grime, it’s practical and permissible to wear a light blue or conservatively striped shirt during the day. The type of collar should suit the contours of the neck and face.

Nickie indeed wears a white shirt for this evening occasion with the universally flattering semi-spread collar that accommodates Grant’s wide neck and double (French) cuffs that he fastens with the same set of blue enamel-on-silver oval links that he also wears the following day with his charcoal flannel suit when the ship docks in New York City.

“Button-cuffed shirts are simplest to manage, but if you wear cuff links, as I do, don’t, I beg you, wear those huge examples of badly designed, cheap modern jewelry. They, too, are not only ostentatious, but heavy and a menace to the enamel on your car and your girl friend’s eye,” advised Grant for This Week.

Nickie wears a navy silk tie with a field of micro white pindots, barely discernible on screen but most visible in production photos. The navy tie contrasts little against the suit, providing a sharp look that effectively channels the monochromatic elegance of black tie for an evening soiree where he would otherwise indeed be attired in his dinner jacket.

Shoes? I’ve already mentioned that good shoes look better and last longer. If a man must limit himself to only one pair of shoes for city wear, then they should be black.

– Cary Grant on style, 1962

Grant again adheres to his own advice with this suit, sporting a wear a pair of black cap-toe lace-up shoes, likely oxfords, on screen with dark socks.

Briefly seen on Nickie’s left wrist is a squared gold watch case on a dark leather strap, likely the Cartier Tank wristwatch that Grant was known to wear in real life.

Cary Grant’s watch, likely the timeless Cartier Tank, is visible on his left wrist.

Aside from a brief foray into an “impoverished artiste” phase, Nickie Ferrante maintains a mostly traditional wardrobe of lounge suits in conservative shades of gray and navy blue. This particular outfit would be paralleled decades later by Daniel Craig’s James Bond in Quantum of Solace when 007 attends an evening soiree in a midnight blue lounge suit with a 3/2-roll jacket and cuffed-bottom trousers, a white French cuff shirt, a subtly patterned tonal silk tie, and black oxfords.

How to Get the Look

Deborah Kerr and Cary Grant in An Affair to Remember (1957)

When classic black tie isn’t feasible for an evening occasion, a dark navy suit with a white shirt and subdued tie a la Cary Grant in An Affair to Remember is a practical and elegant alternative.

• Navy worsted tailored suit:
  • Single-breasted 3/roll/2-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, jetted hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Double forward-pleated high-rise trousers with buckle-tab side adjusters, side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• White cotton dress shirt with point collar and double/French cuffs
  • Blue enamel-on-silver cuff links
• Navy satin silk tie
• Black leather oxfords
• Dark dress socks
• Cartier Tank yellow gold wristwatch with square white dial and black leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

I want to be worthy of asking you to marry me.

Joe Spinell as Willi Cicci in The Godfather (1972)

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Joe Spinell as Willi Cicci, slick Corleone mob family “button man”

New York City, August 1955

Film: The Godfather
Release Date: March 15, 1972
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Costume Designer: Anna Hill Johnstone

Background

When the boss says push the button on a guy, I push the button, see, Senator?

Today’s #MafiaMonday post focuses on one of the more celebrated minor characters of The Godfather, Corleone family enforcer Willi Cicci, who stands out with his slick sense of style and laidback demeanor. Imagine if Dean Martin had grown a mustache and joined the mob… that’s Willi Cicci for ya.

Cicci best gets the opportunity to explain his short yet memorable role in The Godfather when testifying in front of a Senate committee in the film’s sequel. When we first meet him in The Godfather, Cicci is getting a shave in a hotel barbershop with an unflappable, can’t-be-bothered attitude that may trick first-time viewers into thinking he is one of the many targets that Michael Corleone has marked for death on this transformative day for the New York Mafia.

Alas, Willi rises from his completed shave, enjoys a leisurely smoke in the hotel stairwell, and – upon seeing Don Cuneo (Rudy Bond) step into the revolving door in his summer white dinner jacket – blocks the door and shoots the trapped don to death.

Four years later, the fractured Corleone family is the subject of a Senate investigation. Willi Cicci, who defended himself ably after he and his boss Frankie Pentangeli were trapped in a bar, becomes a government informant for an enlightening and entertaining testimony reportedly inspired by real-life mob turncoats Joe Valachi and Joseph “The Animal” Barboza, the latter of which shares more than a passing resemblance to the swarthy Willi Cicci.

What’d He Wear?

Unlike his boss, Willi Cicci is one guy who is fine with dressing the part of the typical flashy mobster. We are introduced to Willi toward the end of The Godfather as the nonchalant hitman is settling in for a shave in a hotel barbershop.

Willi wears a gray sportcoat in what appears to be Donegal tweed with white flecks in the suiting consistent with that material. The ventless single-breasted jacket has notch lapels that roll to a low two-button stance that fastens at his waist. The shoulders are padded with roped sleeveheads, and a hint of a brown pocket square pokes out of the welted breast pocket. The jacket has patch pockets on the hips.

Like a hunter stalking his prey… if hunters wore tweed jackets and bold silk ties.

The jacket may earn the approval of discerning sartorial eyes, but Willi’s colorful choice of a shirt and tie may have said eyes rolling or turning away in disapproval. He wears a burnt orange shirt with a semi-spread collar, flapped breast pocket, and squared double (French) cuffs worn with a set of round gold links.

Willie’s silk tie is broadly striped in purple, silver, and gold in the classic American “downhill” stripe direction, crossing from the right shoulder down to the left hip.

Contrasting with his flashy upper half, Willi keeps things subdued below the belt with a pair of solid black trousers with turn-ups (cuffs), black leather cap-toe derby shoes, and black socks.

Those familiar with the demise of real-life mob boss Albert Anastasia may understand why this scene initially lowered my assumptions for poor Willi Cicci’s survival.

For all of his flash, Willi wears a surprisingly conservative amount of jewelry for a gangster. He wears a gold ring with a dark stone on the third finger – rather than the pinky – of his left hand, and he sports a gold wristwatch with a round case and gold dial on a black textured leather strap.

Willi Cicci makes the most of his pre-assassination waiting period. Gotta respect a guy with time management skills.

The next time we see Cicci, he is dressed down in a brown suede jacket, an open-neck shirt, and a pair of black sunglasses when informing Sal Tessio about a change of plans.

Joe Spinell as Willi Cicci in The Godfather (1972)

How to Get the Look

Subtlety and color coordination aren’t exactly in Willi Cicci’s sartorial lexicon, as the slick hitman dresses with colorful pizzazz when embarking on his murderous deeds on behalf of the Corleone crime family.

• Gray fleck Donegal tweed single-breasted 2-button sportcoat with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, patch hip pockets, and ventless back
• Burnt orange shirt with semi-spread collar, flapped pocket, and squared double/French cuffs
  • Gold round cuff links
• Purple, silver, and gold widely “downhill”-striped silk tie
• Black trousers with turn-ups/cuffs
• Black leather cap-toe derby shoes
• Black socks
• Gold round-case wristwatch with gold dial on textured black leather strap
• Gold ring with dark stone

The Gun

Willi Cicci uses a classic M1911A1 semi-automatic pistol as his weapon of choice for murdering Don Cuneo.

Don Cuneo, himself no sartorial slouch in a white dinner jacket, meets his end at the hands of Willi Cicci.

Unlike some productions of the era that swapped in the cosmetically similar Star Model B pistol for the ease of operating 9mm blank ammunition, Cicci’s handgun appears to be a traditional 1911 chambered for .45 ACP, based on the bore size and the lack of the Star’s brass external extractor on the right side of the slide.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie and the Godfather series as a whole.

Footnote

Willi Cicci was reportedly meant to be a more central character in The Godfather Part III, but Joe Spinell died after a tragic accident in his Queens apartment in January 1989 and his character was written out of the final script.

Cicci’s story and role is slightly expanded in the video game, The Godfather, where his first name is alternately spelled “Willie” and he is depicted as a long-time member of the Corleone crime family dating back to 1946. The game dresses Cicci in a gray suit, orange shirt, and striped tie clearly inspired by this colorful ensemble in The Godfather, though it tops him off with a gray fedora.

Albert Finney as Leo O’Bannon in Miller’s Crossing (1990)

Vitals

Albert Finney as Liam “Leo” O’Bannon, Irish Mob-connected political boss

Upstate New York, Fall 1929

Film: Miller’s Crossing
Release Date: September 21, 1990
Director: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Costume Designer: Aude Bronson-Howard

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Following an assassination attempt that he foiled with his Thompson artistry, small-town political boss Leo O’Bannon summons his troops to his office. One of said troops, Hammett-esque anti-hero Tom Reagan (Gabriel Byrne) uses the opportunity to earn the ire of his boss by revealing his affair with Leo’s main squeeze, Verna (Marcia Gay Harden).

Stewing after watching his house burn down and now learning about the blatant betrayal of his closest acquaintances, Leo literally (and yes, I mean “literally”) kicks the insolent Tom out of his office and out of his club, set to the deliciously incongruous but strangely appropriate sound of tenor Frank Patterson crooning “Goodnight, Sweetheart” in the style of British vocalist Al Bowlly.

What’d He Wear?

Caught in the middle of his evening ritual, Leo escaped from his fiery abode in only a red silk robe, pajamas, and velvet slippers. Classy? Yes. Practical for ordering revenge on the mob that tried to kill you? No.

Thus, Leo evidently finds himself some decent clothes to wear while commanding his gangsters from the office above his nightclub. The timeless ensemble of a charcoal odd jacket and gray flannel trousers is dated perhaps only by the two-tone spectator wingtips… but they’re perhaps a better fit with this outfit than the slippers would have been!

Leo’s charcoal wool jacket is double-breasted with a six-button front. The full-bellied peak lapels sweep across his torso with a broad convex lapel line, ending at sharp peaks pointing toward the wide, padded shoulders.

Leo’s jacket has a welted breast pocket, flapped hip pockets on axis with the lowest two of his six-button front, and three-button cuffs. The jacket is tailored to give the burly Leo a more athletic silhouette, built up at the shoulders and suppressed at the waist with a half-belted back. A long single vent extends up the center back to the bottom of the belted waist line.

Leo takes a moment to consider his next move.

Leo wears a pale blue cotton shirt with widely spaced blue-gray stripes that alternate between thin double sets and a thicker single stripe. The shirt has a semi-spread collar, a large breast pocket, a plain front with mother-of-pearl buttons, and square single-button cuffs that Leo unbuttons and rolls up when he realizes he needs to kick some ass.

When your boss charges at you with rolled-up shirt sleeves and a stern expression, watch out. Be especially on guard if he’s surrounded by his gun-toting flunkies.

Leo’s maroon foulard tie has a subtle box pattern, styled apropos the era with a wide blade that ends at his high waistband. The knot is a small four-in-hand that looks less balanced with the wide blade.

Rather than a belt, Leo wears maroon box-patterned fabric suspenders that look like a larger scaled version of his tie pattern. The suspenders have shiny gold-toned adjusters and black leather ears that hook into buttons along the inside of his trouser waistband.

Leo delivers “the kiss-off.” You’re on your own now, Tom.

Leo’s gray flannel trousers have a long rise and double reverse pleats, consistent with menswear fads of the late ’20s and early ’30s. They have side pockets and a full fit through the hips and legs down to the turn-ups (cuffs) with a full break over his shoes.

The guy over Leo’s left shoulder attempts to pull off a similar look but hits a few bumps along his sartorial path.

Spectator shoes enjoyed the pinnacle of their popularity during the ’20s and ’30s, and it’s fitting that a confident if somewhat oblivious type like Leo O’Bannon would wear his when trying to command respect during a night of mob war. Leo’s medallion perforated semi-brogues have a black wingtip, black heel counter, and black lace panels on white vamps.

Flashy footwear doesn’t end with his shoes. Leo coordinates his socks to his shirt and tie with a pair of maroon socks with a solid blue stripe on each side and widely spaced brick red stripes providing a gentle tonal contrast.

Leo O’Bannon in colorfully-hosed respite.

On the third finger of his right hand, Leo wears a large gold ring with a round green setting, an appropriately colored stone for a guy who channels the luck o’ the Irish.

Unwelcome shoulder rubbing is not cool, Leo.

Having left his pocket watch to burn in the blazing house fire, Leo wears no watch at all in this sequence.

How to Get the Look

Leo O’Bannon’s conservatively dressed down office outfit could form the basis for your next date night attire, with a few updates here or there to make it contemporary for 2018… rather than 1928.

• Charcoal wool double-breasted six-button jacket with wide peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and half-belted back with single vent
• Pale blue striped cotton shirt with semi-spread collar, plain front, large breast pocket, and 1-button squared cuffs
• Maroon box-patterned tie
• Maroon box-patterned fabric suspenders with gold adjusters and black leather connectors
• Gray flannel double reverse-pleated trousers with side pockets and turn-ups/cuffs
• Black-and-white leather wingtip spectator semi-brogue shoes
• Maroon dress socks with blue side stripes and widely spaced brick red stripes
• Gold ring with large green stone

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

It’s the kiss-off! If I never see him again, it’ll be soon enough!

Frank Sinatra in Tony Rome (1967)

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Frank Sinatra as Tony Rome, private investigator and compulsive gambler

Miami Beach, Spring 1967

Film: Tony Rome
Release Date: November 10, 1967
Director: Gordon Douglas
Costume Designer: Moss Mabry

Background

Over on my Instagram feed, I like to commemorate #SinatraSaturday each weekend, but today I felt Ol’ Blue Eyes deserved a dedicated post. Frank Sinatra starred as the titular character in Tony Rome, a 1967 adaptation of Marvin H. Albert’s novel Miami Mayhem. Tony Rome was Sinatra’s first cop role, playing a laidback private eye in the tradition of Humphrey Bogart who seems more interested in gambling, drinking, and skirt-chasing than actually solving a case.

What’d He Wear?

One of the three gray wool suits that Frank Sinatra wears as quintessential American cop Tony Rome is a charcoal flannel sack suit, consistent with the shapeless design that defined American tailoring for most of the 20th century. Sinatra was a client of the Rat Pack’s preferred tailor Sy Devore, though I’m not sure if this suit was made for Sinatra before Devore’s death in 1966. Sinatra would go on to wear many of the same suits and clothing from Tony Rome in his subsequent cop roles the following year, as NYPD sergeant Joe Leland in the neo-noir The Detective and reprising his Tony Rome role in Lady in Cement, though I believe this particular charcoal suit only re-appears in the former.

While a charcoal flannel sack suit may not seem to be the most exciting choice, Tony’s has a pop of distinction with its patterned burgundy satin lining.

Buttoned up for a hospital visit and dressed down for an outdoor investigation. Note the lining of Tony’s suit jacket.

The single-breasted suit jacket has narrow notch lapels that roll to a two-button front. There are swelled seams down the back of each sleeve and down the center of the back to a ventless bottom. The jacket has a welted breast pocket, flapped patch pockets on the hips, and the spaced two-button cuffs that were typical of American suit jackets in the 1960s.

Tony Rome channels Fred Mertz.

Tony’s flat front trousers are self-belted, and he wears his stiff black leather holster on the left front side of his belt for a smooth right-handed cross-draw. Like the suits, this holster would return on Sinatra’s self-belted trousers in The Detective and Lady in Cement. The trousers have side pockets, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups (cuffs).

Tony Rome, living the good life.

With his classic American suit, Tony Rome also wears a classic American shirt with a large button-down collar. This white cotton shirt has a front placket, box-pleated back, and single-button rounded cuffs. Sinatra was known to be a client of Nat Wise (now Anto) in real life, so it’s possible that they made this unique shirt for his role in Tony Rome.

Rather than the traditional full-size pocket, Tony Rome’s shirts all have a single slim pocket over the left breast effective for carrying a pen (or possibly a cigar), though we never see Tony actually keep anything in this pocket so the reason for this departure from the norm is unknown.

With this charcoal suit, Tony keeps his outfit tonal in a light gray satin silk tie worn in a Windsor knot.

Left: A uniquely sized breast pocket adorns all of Tony Rome’s white shirts.
Right: The breeze picks up Tony’s tie at the construction site, giving eagle-eyed viewers a glimpse at the manufacturer’s white label. Any ideas?

Tony sports a pair of black calf leather wingtip oxfords with four lace eyelets and full broguing, worn with black socks.

Tony kicks back with a Bud, showing pal Dave Santini (Richard Conte) the business end of his black oxford brogues.

Even as men’s everyday headgear was falling out of vogue in the post-JFK ’60s, Sinatra wouldn’t be Sinatra without one of his signature Cavanagh hats. Tony Rome wears a short-brimmed fedora in charcoal felt that neatly matches his charcoal suit.

Another of Sinatra’s real-life affectations that shows up in Tony Rome is the choice to wear a pinky ring, though Tony’s ring appears to have a small diamond as opposed to the ring Frank wore in real life that bore the Sinatra family crest.

Tony’s other accessories include a yellow gold wristwatch worn on a black leather strap and a pair of dark sunglasses that are pocketed not long after their brief and distant appearance when showing up to lunch with Ann.

What to Imbibe

Although Tony Rome was created in Frank Sinatra’s own image, nary a glimpse of Jack Daniel’s is seen guzzled by Ol’ Blue Eyes’ character. Instead, we see plenty of Budweiser cans, evidently his brew of choice that gets some prominent placement during the opening credits as well as during his conversation with Miami police lieutenant Dave Santini (Richard Conte).

Best buds drink Buds.

Of course, Tony Rome has his portrayer’s comfort for harder booze as well. During a meal with Ann, he orders “two martinis – one gin, one vodka,” to which Ann adds: “Doubles.”

Gin for Tony, vodka for Ann.

How to Get the Look

Tony Rome wears monochromatic menswear designed in traditional American styles for a day on the job… even if a charcoal flannel suit is rather incongruous for his bright Miami locale.

• Charcoal flannel sack suit:
  • Single-breasted 2-button jacket with welted breast pocket, flapped patch hip pockets, spaced 2-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Flat front self-belted trousers with side pockets, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• White poplin shirt with large button-down collar, front placket, pen pocket, 1-button rounded cuffs, and box-pleated back
• Silver satin silk tie
• Black leather wingtip 4-eyelet oxford brogues
• Black socks
• Black stiff leather cross-draw belt holster, for 2″-barreled revolver
• Charcoal felt short-brimmed fedora with wide charcoal grosgrain band
• Yellow gold wristwatch with round gold dial on black leather strap (with gold buckle)
• Gold diamond pinky ring

The Gun

Apropos his profession, Tony Rome’s blued snubnose revolver appears to be a first- or second-generation Colt Detective Special, carried in a stiff black leather cross-draw holster on the left-front side of his trouser belt.

Can’t miss at that range.

This classic cop sidearm, favored by movie lawmen and lawbreakers alike, carried six rounds of the venerable .38 Special ammunition. The first-generation Detective Special was introduced in 1927 and differentiates itself from other “belly guns” with its exposed ejector rod and Colt’s spherical cylinder latch.

A lighter-weight aluminum variant, the Colt Cobra, was introduced in 1950 and gained an infamous place in firearms history as the weapon used by Jack Ruby to kill Lee Harvey Oswald in November 1963.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

Would ya stop worryin’? I’d never leave you holdin’ the greasy end of the stick, now would I?

Footnote

“What’s the matter, couldn’t you afford a whole dress?” cracks Tony upon greeting Ann Archer (Jill St. John) at her door. This unsolicited opinion is similar to what Jill St. John’s character would hear four years later in Diamonds are Forever from Sean Connery’s James Bond… yet another connection between Tony Rome and the world of 007 as explored in a previous post.

From Ocean’s Eleven to double-00 seven.

To read more about Tony Rome, check out this deservedly but entertainingly critical post from a Sinatra superfan who noticed just how much of Frank’s acting in the film consisted of swilling Buds and pointing his index finger. And speaking of product placement…

This Blog Post Brought to You By…

Lucky Strike, the cigarette of choice for maverick private investigators.

“It’s toasted.”

Despite being a devotee of Camel cigarettes to the point that a pack of unfiltered Camels was buried with him in his coffin, Sinatra smoked through a few decks of Lucky Strikes as Tony Rome.

Gene Hackman as “Popeye” Doyle in The French Connection (1971). Over his right shoulder is Eddie Egan, the real-life inspiration for the character.

Vitals

Gene Hackman as Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle, gruff NYPD narcotics detective

New York City, December 1970

Film: The French Connection
Release Date: October 9, 1971
Director: William Friedkin
Costume Designer: Joseph Fretwell III

Background

Happy birthday to Gene Hackman, born this day in 1930! This year’s Academy Award nominations were announced last week, so today’s post explores the birthday boy’s first Oscar-winning performance as NYPD narc “Popeye” Doyle in The French Connection.

Eddie Egan was a real detective with the NYPD who, with his partner Sonny Grosso, was instrumental in a 1961 investigation that dissolved a massive heroin ring. The case would form the basis of a 1969 non-fiction book by Robin Moore that was swiftly adapted into the fictionalized film The French Connection. Gene Hackman, who by now had two Oscar nominations to his credit, was tapped for the role of “Popeye” Doyle, the profane detective modeled after Egan, while Egan himself would serve as technical advisor and play the smaller role of Walt Simonson, Doyle’s supervisor.

The movie culminates as Doyle, Simonson, and their fellow NYPD detectives finally catch up with the French kingpin Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey) on the Triborough Bridge connecting Randalls Island and Wards Island, the latter of which would be the setting of

What’d He Wear?

The conclusion of The French Connection features Popeye Doyle in one of his rumpled business suits worn with a warm overcoat, scarf, and gloves to keep the determined detective comfortable in the chilly stakeout weather of a New York City winter.

Popeye’s dark navy wool topcoat has a knee-length fit that serves him better than a full-length overcoat when dashing in and out of cars in pursuit of his suspects. When the time comes to make a bust, he pins his NYPD badge #373 to the left of the coat’s narrow notch lapels.

The single-breasted coat has three buttons to close in the front and a single non-functioning button on each of the half-tab cuffs. The lapels, cuffs, and hip pocket flaps all have swelled edges.

Production photo of a bundled-up “Popeye” Doyle.

Popeye wears the same navy herringbone scarf and dark brown cotton knit gloves that he wore with his brown suit and coat earlier in the movie.

A signature element of the Popeye Doyle aesthetic is his iconic porkpie hat, the preferred headgear of the real-life Eddie Egan though the detective refused to lend one of his own hats to the production. The wardrobe team thus obtained a different dark brown porkpie hat for Gene Hackman to wear in The French Connection.

Hat, gloves, and scarf. Popeye’s grandmother would be proud.

As the decidedly less-than-fashionable porkpie may imply, Popeye Doyle isn’t the sort to keep up with the latest style trends. He wears a gray worsted two-piece suit that appears to be a holdout from the ’60s. Little is seen of the suit under his overcoat, but it appears to have a single-breasted jacket with slim notch lapels that roll to a low two-button stance and flat front trousers with turn-ups (cuffs) that are worn with a dark brown leather belt.  (It may possibly be the same suit that Hackman would wear four years later in the sequel, French Connection II.)

Popeye runs ahead to “greet” Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey).

For a long night spent taking apart a luxury Lincoln belonging to French television personality Henri Devereaux (Frédéric de Pasquale), Popeye removes his outer layers and tucks his loosened tie between the buttons of his shirt, which looks even sloppier than if he had removed it altogether!

Popeye’s white shirt has a narrow spread collar, a plain front with plastic buttons, a breast pocket, and button cuffs that he unfastens and rolls up for his long night under the Lincoln.

A rumpled Popeye after a night of Lincoln-stripping.

Popeye wears a gray twill tie with double blue stripe sets in the American “downhill” direction, perpendicular to the left-down-to-right twill.

Popeye sports his well-worn pair of dark brown leather plain-toe derby shoes with two lace eyelets on cutaway eyelet tabs.

“…and I’m gonna nail you for picking your feet in Poughkeepsie!”

Although Popeye is typically seen wearing black cotton lisle socks with this outfit, there is a brief continuity error seen when the detectives are impounding Devereaux’s car and Hackman’s trousers ride up to reveal a pair of mustard gold socks!

A bust gives us a glimpse of Popeye’s socks, which appear to be mustard yellow rather than their usual black.

Watches in Movies identified Popeye Doyle’s watch as a Timex Marlin with a plain silver dial on a gold expanding bracelet. As this watch was marketed as a no-frills, low-cost timepiece, it’s likely that the gold finish is a gold-toned stainless steel.

Timex has since reissued the Marlin, marketing it as “the gentleman’s standard” with a starting price of $199.

How to Get the Look

Porkpie aside, Popeye Doyle’s gray suit and outerwear form the basis for a timeless business outfit that translates just as well nearly 50 years later.

• Gray worsted wool suit, consisting of:
  • Single-breasted 2-button jacket with slim notch lapels, welted breast pocket, flapped hip pockets, 2-button cuffs, and single vent
  • Flat front low-rise trousers with belt loops and turn-ups/cuffed bottoms
• White shirt with narrow spread collar, plain front, breast pocket, and squared button cuffs
• Gray twill tie with double sets of blue diagonal “downhill” stripes
• Dark brown leather belt with brass single-prong buckle
• Dark brown leather 2-eyelet plain-toe derby shoes
• Black cotton lisle socks
• Dark brown felt porkpie hat with wide ribbon and white lining
• Dark navy wool knee-length single-breasted 3-button overcoat with slim notch lapels, flapped hip pockets, half-cuffed 1-button sleeves, and single vent
• Navy herringbone wool scarf with frayed edges
• Dark brown cotton knit gloves
• Timex Marlin analog wristwatch with white dial on expanding gold bracelet

The Gun

Art imitates life as the Colt Detective Special is abundant in the hands of lawmen and lawbreakers alike in The French Connection. “Popeye” Doyle, his supervisor Walt Simonson, and federal agent Mulderig (Bill Hickman) all carry blued first-generation Detective Specials as do many of the Boca crime family mobsters that the NYPD engages during the Wells Island gunfight.

A tense Doyle with his Detective Special drawn on Wells Island.

The aptly named Detective Special was introduced by Colt in 1927 in tandem with the larger-framed Official Police, both chambered in .38 Special and aimed for usage among American police departments. Two years after The French Connection was released, Colt introduced an updated third generation of the Detective Special with the most notable cosmetic change being an extended barrel shroud to enclose Colt’s once-signature exposed ejector rod.

For some reason, Doyle’s revolver switches between a Colt Detective Special and the Smith & Wesson Model 36 “Chiefs Special”, both in the Wells Island warehouse scene and during the film’s iconic car chase. While both are blued .38 Special revolvers with wooden grips and 2-inch “snubnose” barrels, the Smith & Wesson can be differentiated with its ejector rod socket, ramp-style front sight, and five-round cylinder as opposed to the six rounds of the Colt Detective Special.

Both the Colt Detective Special and the Smith & Wesson Model 36 had been authorized for NYPD use during the ’60s and ’70s, according to Range365, and the short-barreled Model 36 was even the issued sidearm of choice for female officers.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

That son of a bitch is here. I saw him. I’m gonna get him.

Jean-Pierre Cassel as Jean-François Jardie in Army of Shadows (1969)

Vitals

Jean-Pierre Cassel as Jean-François Jardie, dashing French pilot and resistance operative

France, Winter 1942

Film: Army of Shadows
(French title: L’armée des ombres)
Release Date: September 12, 1969
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Costume Designer: Colette Baudot

Background

Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1969 French Resistance epic, released at a volatile time for France and the world at large, was barely seen by the rest of the world until decades later. Army of Shadows officially debuted in the United States in 2006 and quickly shot to the top of many critics’ “best of the year” lists.

“Melville knew that life for a fighter was not a series of romantic scenes played in trench coats but ambiguous everyday encounters that could result in death,” wrote Roger Ebert in his 2006 review. “His film is about the war within the minds of Resistance members, who must live with constant fear, persist in the face of futility, accept the deaths of their comrades and expect no reward, except the knowledge that they are doing the right thing.”

Based on Joseph Kessel’s 1943 novel that fictionalized his own experience with the Resistance during World War II, Army of Shadows follows a small but dedicated Marseilles-based network of civilian Resistance operators commanded by Philippe Gerbier (Lino Ventura) as they explore the murky morals and tactics of continuing to operate despite the seemingly inevitable fate that awaits them all.

What’d He Wear?

Jean-François Jardie, a former French military pilot, is recruited into Gerbier’s network by Félix Lepercq (Paul Crauchet), who encounters him in a Marseilles bar.

“You’ve got some nerve, wearing that pilot’s jacket,” Lepercq tells Jardie upon their meeting.

Jardie in repose as the team collects itself in Lyon.

Jardie sports a very dark brown leather jacket throughout Army of Shadows, worn like a topcoat over his suits. Per Lepercq’s comment, Jardie’s jacket indeed shares stylistic similarities to outerwear worn by European civil and military aviators and motorcyclists prior to World War II, and its short, thigh-length fit and sportier details differentiate it from the sinister long leather coats traditionally associated with the Gestapo. Jardie’s coat has raglan sleeves with plain cuffs at the ends of the sleeves.

The coat has an Ulster-like lapel with a deep notch so that it can be worn with the left lapel buttoned up to the right with the collar either flipped up and snapped or folded down over the coat. Jardie typically wears this top button undone and only the back of the collar flipped up against his neck, revealing the under-collar back strap as well as the double snaps on the right collar leaf that coordinate with the single snap on the left.

The single-breasted coat has two buttons that fasten somewhat right-of-center for a fuller wrap similar to a double-breasted jacket. The coat has a full belt that closes in the front through a rounded gold-toned single-prong buckle, positioned just above the lower of the two buttons.

A low-slung set-in pocket over the left breast closes with a single snap on a pointed flap, and the gently slanted welted hand pockets are placed just below the belt on each hip.

Jardie wears his leather pilot’s coat with three distinctive outfits in Army of Shadows. He is wearing it when he first encounters Lepercq in Marsilles, worn over a gray tweed single-breasted suit.

Jardie’s pale gray shirt has subtle tonal hairline stripes, button cuffs, and a point collar with minimal tie space. His gray repp striped tie has bold red “uphill” stripes in the classic European direction, bordered by slimmer blue stripes above and below them.

A chance meeting with an old acquaintance changes Jardie’s life.

Jardie quickly finds himself serving as a courier in Gerbier’s Resistance network, taking time out of his first mission to Paris to meet his quiet older brother, Luc (Paul Meurisse), for a lunch of rutabagas and unrationed cheese. Jean-François knows his older brother only as a reserved and quiet – if eccentric – philosopher, but Luc Jardie is, in fact, implied to be the secret chief of all French Resistance networks (based on the real mathematician Jean Cavaillès who was executed by the Nazis in February 1944.)

For his mission to Paris, Jardie wears a marine blue pinstripe suit, the same pale gray hairline-striped shirt as with his gray tweed suit, and a navy-on-blue checked tie. The double-breasted suit jacket has a 6×2-button front, peak lapels, and flapped hip pockets. The presumably pleated trousers have plain-hemmed bottoms.

The brothers Jardie, each unaware of the other’s role in the French Resistance.

After Lepercq, the agent who recruited him, is arrested, Jardie takes it upon himself to have himself arrested and jailed alongside Lepercq, who is barely alive after relentless torture at the hands at the Gestapo.

As it is now the middle of winter, Jardie adds a layer to his everyday attire, wearing a dark navy jumper under a taupe-gray suit, which appears to have a single-breasted jacket and trousers finished with turn-ups (cuffs). He also wears a different shirt, a pale blue cotton shirt with bisected white stripes and a point collar. He wears a plain navy tie with the knot barely visible above the sweater’s crew-neck opening.

Jardie glares at his interrogators.

With all of his outfits, Jardie wears a pair of cognac tan leather derby shoes and black socks.

Jardie has his bag searched by Vichy France officers who evidently don’t know to look for false bottoms.

Jardie’s Cardigan

For a nighttime mission, Jardie discards his daily getup of a leather coat, suit, and tie in favor of a dark navy knit shawl-collar cardigan and turtleneck jumper that blends him in with the night sky.

Gerbier consults with Jardie and fellow Resistance operatives before he is transported by submarine to London to meet with their chief.

Jardie’s evening mission attire also includes a pair of charcoal gray wool trousers and black leather boots.

How to Get the Look

Jean-François Jardie’s leather aviator’s jacket adds a dashing sense of adventure to his business suits.

• Dark brown goatskin leather belted jacket with snap-closure Ulster-notched lapels, two-button single-breasted front, raglan sleeves, set-in snap-flapped breast pocket, slanted hand pockets, and plain cuffs
• Taupe-gray single-breasted or marine-blue pinstripe double-breasted business suit
• Light subtly striped cotton shirt with point collar and button cuffs
• Navy blue tie
• Navy blue knit crew-neck sweater
• Cognac tan leather derby shoes
• Black socks

The Gun

The film gives us little background regarding Jean-François Jardie’s military experience, but it’s significant that he carries a French SACM mle. 1935A semi-automatic pistol, identified by IMFDB and seen only when he draws it upon hearing a sound during a covert nighttime operation.

Jardie draws his pistol.

The 1935A is one of two French pistols to carry the “Modèle 1935” designation, though the SACM 1935A and MAS 1935S share little in common other than their model numbers and the capacity of eight rounds of the unique 7.65x20mm Longue cartridge.

A French military competition for the next military sidearm in 1935 led to submissions from both Société Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques (SACM) and Manufacture d’armes de Saint-Étienne (MAS), though the latter MAS 1935S submission would be dropped in favor of the SACM 1935A. The specter of war, however, meant the French would need as many arms as it could muster, and both the SACM 1935A and the initially rejected MAS 1935S were ordered into production by October 1937.

The SACM mle. 1935A, which Jardie is seen using on screen, was designed by Charles Petter, a Swiss veteran of the French Foreign Legion, with a unique integrated fire control system that contained the trigger, hammer, mainspring, and sear assembly in one unit and would later be incorporated into the design of the SIG P210 pistol. Delivery to the French Army began in late 1939, and about 10,700 pistols were manufactured before production was halted when the Germans occupied France (and thus, the SACM factory) in June 1940. Following the ousting of the Germans in August 1944, production resumed and a total of 84,950 SACM 1935A pistols were manufactured by February 1950 when the French adopted the MAC mle. 1950 pistol in the more standardized 9x19mm Parabellum cartridge.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie. The now-iconic frame of Cassel’s Jean-François Jardie slumped in captivity while wearing this coat has been used in much of the film’s contemporary promotional artwork.

The Quote

I said five minutes, but she’ll wait a lifetime.