From my room I can hear the trains running out to the seas of Europe

[sovay]

My arm hurts and my head aches more than usual and I just sneezed, which had better be the Pneumovax, but I wish to express my delight that someone who runs a site dedicated to men's fashions on film and TV has devoted an entry to Walter Matthau in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) because I adore him in that movie and one of the things I adore about him is how good he doesn't look:



Look, I have one husband who can wear orange plaid and the other owns a tie we call the blue-ringed octopus: I'm not biased against the flamboyant. I am biased against a tie that matches a box of aspirin and looks like it was chosen so its owner could put all the mustard on his hot dog he wanted without risk. I am biased against a shirt that if it came on your TV screen at sign-off you would call the repairman the next day. The tweed jacket not pictured is a saving grace because it covers most of the shirt, but not even a raincoat improves the effect of the tie. The most I would ever attempt to argue for this ensemble is that it looks exactly like its character and avoids public indecency. But I am charmed by the analysis, even if I feel that "coordinating" is an optimistic designation for what that tie is doing. Now I just want to watch the film again.

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

That is, indeed, a tie. And a shirt. That should not be worn, particularly not together! XD

[mrissa]

That's IMPRESSIVE.

[davidgillon]

I think I have that shirt.

[choco_frosh]

Boo on health, yay on cool filmfashion!site.

[larryhammer]

who can wear orange plaid

Are you able to share pictorial evidence?

[moon_custafer]

I mean, my sartorial philosophy is “wear anything, just look like you’re wearing it on purpose,” so…

(My *personal* sartorial philosophy is “wearing a dress and tights feels about the same as wearing a t-shirt and leggings, except people will think you made an effort.”)

[minoanmiss]

There's orange plaid and then there's THAT OH MY EYES

[julian]

Walter Matthau is rumpled even when wearing a tux. This is just the outward expression of that rumple.

ETA: And I do hope everything is due to the pneumovax.

[sovay]

That is, indeed, a tie. And a shirt. That should not be worn, particularly not together!

It's so magnificently eye-searing.

[sovay]

That's IMPRESSIVE.

The men's fashion site tells me the costume designer was a legend and just for placing these two items of clothing on the same person, yes, yes, she was.

[sovay]

I think I have that shirt.

I bet it looks better on you than on Lieutenant Zach Garber of the New York City Transit Police!

[sovay]

Boo on health, yay on cool filmfashion!site.

Thank you!

[sovay]

Are you able to share pictorial evidence?

I am afraid not, but it is a genuinely nice effect.

[sovay]

I mean, my sartorial philosophy is “wear anything, just look like you’re wearing it on purpose,” so…

I'm not sure that Matthau in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three looks like he's wearing it on purpose except in the sense that he meant to grab something out of the closet that morning.

(My personal sartorial philosophy is wearing whatever I feel like, which I am sure produces un-aesthetic results, but generally makes me happy.)

[sovay]

There's orange plaid and then there's THAT OH MY EYES

At least tinted glasses were popular in the '70's?

[sovay]

Walter Matthau is rumpled even when wearing a tux. This is just the outward expression of that rumple.

That makes perfect sense to me.

ETA: And I do hope everything is due to the pneumovax.

Thank you!

[davidgillon]

I do like it ;)

On checking my wardrobe, it's actually a much smaller pattern than Matthau's, which I think stops it being quite so garish.

[sovay]

On checking my wardrobe, it's actually a much smaller pattern than Matthau's, which I think stops it being quite so garish.

That's neat: the colors are more integrated with one another, instead of fighting it out all over the shirt?

[gwynnega]

The costume designer must have had a lot of fun with this.

[sovay]

The costume designer must have had a lot of fun with this.

I unironically admire her work.

[choco_frosh]

PS: Having looked up your review of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, I now have TMG's "Hostages" stuck in my head.

[sovay]

PS: Having looked up your review of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, I now have TMG's "Hostages" stuck in my head.

I see how that happened!

[sporky_rat]

I really like that tie, though!

[sovay]

I really like that tie, though!

You are allowed to like the tie! It might treat you better.

[davidgillon]

It's a much finer, much more complex pattern, without those big blocks of colour. The bigger blocks are still about an inch, but there are 16 different elements horizontally and vertically within those blocks before it repeats, lines and hashes and different printed effects. From a distance it all just merges together into an autumnal browny-orange.

It does help it doesn't have that teal blue mixed among the reds though!

[rushthatspeaks]

It is my peculiar superpower.

[rushthatspeaks]

I could make that shirt look good.

The tie is beyond assistance.

[sovay]

I could make that shirt look good.

I bet you could.

The tie is beyond assistance.

That's its superpower.

[larryhammer]

In the immortal words of Helena, “I am amazed. I know not what to say.”

[asakiyume]

The tie matching the bayer box is brilliant!

The very long 20-year-old telenovela we just finished featured a protagonist who inclined to garish clothing, and he was adorkable.

[ethelmay]

My daughter used to date a guy who wore extremely multicolored shoes (I remember pink and yellow for sure, and I think there may have been some shade of blue or green in there). When she ribbed him about them he said placidly, "They express my cheerful nature." Which they did.

[asakiyume]

Those sound like some fabulous shoes!

[sovay]

The very long 20-year-old telenovela we just finished featured a protagonist who inclined to garish clothing, and he was adorkable.

That is a magnificent conjunction of hat and shirt. Tell me more about the twenty-year telenovela?

[sovay]

When she ribbed him about them he said placidly, "They express my cheerful nature." Which they did.

I really like that. He sounds slightly like he dressed like a Time Lord.

[selkie]

Don't you own that shirt? Hasn't it got faux-pearl buttons? Have I mentally robbed my grandfather z'l's closet for your similar frame?

[sovay]

Don't you own that shirt? Hasn't it got faux-pearl buttons? Have I mentally robbed my grandfather z'l's closet for your similar frame?

I do not own that shirt! If you want to physically rob your grandfather of blessed memory's closet, you have my address!

[ethelmay]

Multicolored running shoes were A Thing for a while (probably still are, but I have a general impression they've settled down a little). In women's shoes it got so I had the choice of wearing Barbie-frock-colored sneakers or looking like a 1970s nurse.

[asakiyume]

It's called Pedro El Escamoso, meaning something like "Pedro the Showoff." Pedro is the guy with the unusual fashion sense. He's just a funny, sweet character who self-narrates his life throughout the show. But the show is full of interesting, unexpected characters--people who seem like antagonists, you get to see other sides of them; it's just (mainly) a lot of fun to see the characters interact. The first couple of episodes are so-so: it starts, as many of these novelas seem to, at a moment from much later in the story, a very standard novela-esque moment: Pedro is trying and failing to persuade the woman he loves not to go through with marrying another man (he's driven her to the wedding). Then you go back in time to see him arrive in Bogota, basically in just his underpants (shorts, really, but they are SHORT shorts), and begin winning friends. People who start out disliking him end up liking him, and it's believable--and that's a fun thing to spend time watching. The woman he loves is a bit of a whiny weak link, but all the other characters are marvelous (and she's not that bad. I GUESS.)

[sovay]

People who start out disliking him end up liking him, and it's believable--and that's a fun thing to spend time watching.

That does sound really charming!