He is the whitest of the white trash, the kind of man who dumps raw sewage in a storm drain and kidnaps your boss as a Christmas present. And the only man to ever combine a leather belt with a bathrobe. Randy Quaid has played lovable moocher ‘Cousin Eddie’ in four separate National Lampoon films, but his most famous performance still resides at yuletide. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989, directed by Jeremiah C. Chechik) has weathered years of apathy to become something of a seasonal favourite. Watching Chevy Chase’s bipolar family man Clark Griswold lose his rag every December is now a festive tradition . Yet Clark is not really…

Producer Ross Hunter’s 1962 film If A Man Answers (directed by Henry Levin) is a sweet, silly and lighthearted romantic comedy featuring Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin. Sandra is Chantal Stacy, daughter of Boston businessman John Stacy (John Lund) and former Folies Bergere burlesque dancer and professional Frenchwoman Germaine Stacy (Micheline Presle). The film focuses on Chantal’s negotiation between the Boston practicality and the French passionate nature that runs through her genetic line. Bobby Darin, as fashion photographer Eugene Wright (“Mr. Wright”), finds himself in the middle of this mess as Chantal’s willing romantic victim. Chantal’s first scene in the Stacy master bedroom after returning from a date features Dee…

The Fortune (1975, directed by Mike Nichols) starring Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson and Stockard Channing has been unfairly judged as a madcap mess. Actually it is a slickly made screwball comedy, nowhere deserving of its turkey reputation. Costume designer Anthea Sylbert was responsible for recreating the story’s 1920s setting, an era as eclectic as it was revolutionary; as such The Fortune is as pleasing to the eye as it is funny. Sylbert worked The Fortune back to back with Chinatown (1974) and Shampoo (1975). Chinatown also starred Nicholson but was a different setting (thirties) and, for his character especially, a very different look. Shampoo was Warren Beatty’s picture; he was…

Jane Seymour was just 22 years old when she played white witch Solitaire in Live and Let Die (1973). Her wardrobe was a mixture of uniform (as tarot reader), casual (escaping the poppy fields, New Orleans airport) and sexualised (sacrificial peasant dress, various chemises). Most illustrative of her kooky characterisation however are the maxi-dresses. There is something intrinsically spiritual about a maxi dress; the way it flows and veils the body. It gels with the divine aspect of Solitaire and later, with a rapidly decreasing neckline, epitomises her sexual awakening by Roger Moore’s randy new 007. When we first meet Solitaire it is only from the waist up, sitting in…

Michael Caine created Jack Carter, yet his immaculate blue mohair suit was more than a little responsible for creating the myth.

Michael Caine created Jack Carter, yet his immaculate blue mohair suit was more than a little responsible for creating the myth.

Michael Caine created Jack Carter, yet his immaculate blue mohair suit was more than a little responsible for creating the myth.

Michael Caine created Jack Carter, yet his immaculate blue mohair suit was more than a little responsible for creating the myth.

Michael Caine created Jack Carter, yet his immaculate blue mohair suit was more than a little responsible for creating the myth.

Michael Caine created Jack Carter, yet his immaculate blue mohair suit was more than a little responsible for creating the myth.