Lee Marvin in Point Blank (1967)
Vitals
Lee Marvin as Walker, revenge-driven armed robber
Los Angeles, Summer 1967
Film: Point Blank
Release Date: August 30, 1967
Director: John Boorman
Costume Designer: Margo Weintz
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
The legendary Lee Marvin was born 100 years ago today on February 19, 1924. After his service with the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II, Marvin began acting on the stage and screen. His lead role on the 1950s police series M Squad elevated him to starring film roles across the ’60s, including The Killers (1964), The Professionals (1966), The Dirty Dozen (1967).
After winning the Academy Award for his performance in the 1965 Western comedy Cat Ballou, Marvin wielded his considerable Hollywood clout for the production of Point Blank, including the selection of English director John Boorman.
Point Blank was adapted from the 1962 pulp novel The Hunter, written by Donald E. Westlake under his “Richard Stark” pseudonym. Although Westlake approved adaptations of his work, he was protective of his hero’s name “Parker”, which was thus changed to “Walker” for Point Blank. (When the material was re-adapted in 1999 as Payback, Mel Gibson’s character was renamed “Porter”. It wasn’t until after Westlake’s death in 2008 that the name “Parker” would be allowed for filmed adaptations like the 2013 film Parker starring Jason Statham.)
Point Blank follows The Hunter‘s general plot as our hard-boiled hero seeks the recovery of $93,000 he feels he is owed after he and his double-crossing partners robbed the mob. Walker confronts one of the mob leaders, Frederick Carter (Lloyd Bochner), who gets killed in his own trap designed to snare Walker. Finding that the cash he was expecting to be paid was just slips of blank paper, Walker leaves Carter’s bloodied corpse in the Los Angeles River bed and continues his quest.
What’d He Wear?
Lee Marvin’s characterization of Walker remains one of the best-dressed revenge-seekers in movie history with his rotating wardrobe of attractive suits and sport jackets, several of which have already been covered on BAMF Style. For his confrontation with Carter, he channels his expected payday in a dark-green wool suit with a subtle sheen that may suggest a mohair blend—an especially popular suiting during the 1960s. The color has more of a fashionable jewel-green cast than the more conventional shades of olive.
Walker’s single-breasted suit jacket has notch lapels that roll to the top of the three-button front which nicely balances Marvin’s 6’1″ height. The jacket has a welted breast pocket, flapped hip pockets that gently slant toward the back, fashionably short double vents, and two buttons spaced apart on each cuff.
Walker “talks” his way past Carter’s secretary.
The suit’s matching medium-rise trousers are styled like Marvin’s other tailored trousers in Point Blank, designed to be worn beltless with sliding side-adjuster buckle tabs on each side of the waistband. These flat-front trousers have on-seam side pockets with tapered legs down to the short-break, plain-hemmed bottoms.
Walker draws his revolver. Behind him is Stegman’s black 1966 Dodge Charger—the first model year for this iconic muscle car.
Walker wears a pale-green shirt that coordinates with the color of his suit, designed with a narrow point collar and squared single-button cuffs. Knotted in a four-in-hand, his tie also maintains this color coordination, with a closely spaced foulard arrangement of subdued olive-green squares checkered against a black ground.
Walker wears his usual russet-brown shell pebble grain leather full-brogue medallion wingtip four-eyelet derby shoes, sported here with black thin lisle socks. Following the way Walker’s shoes clicked on the floors of LAX during the opening sequence, director John Boorman had considered these shoes (said to be either Bally or Florsheim) to be so crucial to the character and integrated with his memory of the actor that—after Lee Marvin died in 1987 and his widow Pam invited Boorman to select a memento from the actor’s belongings—Boorman elected to keep these Point Blank-worn brogues, according to An Unseen Scene.
Walker wears these same shell cordovan brogues with all five suits and both sport jackets that he wears on screen.
The Gun
Walker seeks his high-caliber revenge with a blued steel Smith & Wesson Model 29—four years before Clint Eastwood would popularize this .44 Magnum revolver as “the most powerful handgun in the world” in Dirty Harry. Indeed, Point Blank may have been one of the first prominent screen appearances of the Model 29, which Smith & Wesson had introduced in 1955 on its large N-frame platform.
Walker places his Model 29 on Carter’s corpse after the shooting in the river bed, prominently displaying the signature Smith & Wesson grips.
The Model 29 was available in a variety of barrel lengths through its original production timeline, ranging from 3 inches up to 10 5/8 inches, though Walker carries a service-length 4″-barreled Model 29 that would have likely been easier for him to conceal in his waistband… though a holster really would have been the more practical choice for a weapon weighing more than 2½ pounds, especially as Walker doesn’t wear a belt.
How to Get the Look
Lee Marvin in Point Blank (1967)
“Dressing for revenge” takes a new meaning in Point Blank, in which Lee Marvin rotates through a snappy screen wardrobe of smartly tailored and often-colorful suits and sport jackets like this dark jewel-green suit with a coordinated shirt and tie as well as Walker’s usual cordovan brogues.
- Dark-green wool/mohair-blend suit:
- Single-breasted 3-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, slanted flapped hip pockets, spaced 2-button cuffs, and double vents
- Flat-front medium-rise tapered-leg trousers with buckle-tab side-adjusters, on-seam side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
- Pale-green shirt with narrow point collar, front placket, and single-button squared cuffs
- Olive-on-black checkered tie
- Russet-brown shell pebble grain leather full-brogue medallion wingtip 4-eyelet derby shoes
- Black thin lisle socks
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
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