Al Pacino as Tony Montana in Scarface (1983)
Vitals
Al Pacino as Tony Montana, fearless dishwasher-turned-drug courier
Miami Beach, Spring 1981
Film: Scarface
Release Date: December 9, 1983
Director: Brian De Palma
Costume Designer: Patricia Norris
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
As this hot summer stretches into the first “Aloha Friday” of August, let’s flashback to the ’80s and Al Pacino’s explosive performance in Brian De Palma’s crime classic Scarface. The film was actually a remake of a 1932 gangster classic of the same name, which had been adapted from Armitage Trail’s contemporary novel… and which itself was loosely inspired by the infamous Al Capone. Oliver Stone’s screenplay updated the story for the ’80s by conceptualizing Pacino’s criminal protagonist Tony Montana as one of the approximately 125,000 Cuban refugees who arrived in Miami during the 1980 Mariel boatlift.
Failing to envision his low-wage dishwashing job as a step on the path toward money and power, Tony enlists his charismatic comrade Manny Ribera (Steven Bauer) to take a job by the hotheaded Omar Suarez (F. Murray Abraham) to broker a cocaine deal at the oceanside Sunray Motel in Miami Beach.
Even with Omar’s disquieting confirmation “you know how to handle a machine gun?”, the job seems simple enough… until the stakes become deadly when Tony and his ill-fated associate Angel Fernandez (Pepe Serna) are strung up in room 9’s shower by the duplicitous Hector (Al Israel), the chainsaw-toting Colombian dealer appropriately nicknamed “the Toad”. Luckily, Manny realizes something amiss and charges into the room with his MAC-10 just in time to save a defiant Tony from his losing his arm… and more.
Much to Omar’s chagrin, Tony’s ruthless resourcefulness during the caper impresses his boss, local kingpin Frank Lopez (Robert Loggia), who sets Tony and Manny up for unprecedented underworld success.
What’d He Wear?
Before he would adopt his wardrobe of colorful suits, open shirts, and gold jewelry, Tony Montana rotates through a wardrobe of colorful sport shirts festooned with bright tropical prints not unlike the aloha shirts that Tom Selleck was bringing back into fashion at the time in the Hawaiian-set series Magnum, P.I. (It was also arguably Tony’s early aloha shirts that inspired the starting look for the criminal protagonist Tommy Vercetti in the ’80s-set video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.)
For this pivotal day in Tony’s criminal career, he wears a bright red rayon shirt printed with vignettes depicting detailed illustrations of tigers among purple flowers, long mustard-and-olive leaves, and coordinated geometric patterns. The tiger print jibes with Tony’s obvious obsession with this predatory big cat, from comparing his new Porsche to one and upholstering his classic Cadillac in tiger-print cloth to dragging Manny to the zoo to look at the tigers and eventually purchasing one that he unveils to his guests during his wedding to Elvira (Michelle Pfeiffer).
Tony’s shirt follows the typical aloha fashion with its flat and casual camp collar and six faux-wood sew-through buttons up the plain front. The set-in breast pocket has a welted opening, and the short sleeves are cuffed. Though the straight hems of aloha shirts are designed to be worn either tucked or untucked, Tony keeps his untucked to conceal the Beretta pistol in the small of his back.
Hector should know better than to mess with a guy wearing a tiger-printed Hawaiian shirt… anyone wearing that shirt clearly contains the fury of a big cat just waiting to be unleashed.
Tony’s tan worsted double forward-pleated trousers were likely tailored by Universal Pictures’ prolific cutter Tommy Velasco who also made Tony’s assortment of screen-worn suits. The trousers have a medium rise to sit just below Pacino’s natural waist, where he holds them up with a narrow light-brown leather belt that closes through a gold-toned single-prong buckle. These trousers also have side pockets, a button-through jetted back left pocket, and plain-hemmed bottoms with a subtle boot-cut flare.
As Tony’s wardrobe evolves from tropical shirts to tailored suits, the only item that remains consistent are his black leather side-zip ankle boots, appropriately styled with the raised Cuban heels—not only a trendy way to add height and swagger but also a sartorial nod to Tony’s nationality. As spied when Tony leaps out of the Impala’s backseat, he wears them with plain black socks.
Tony’s humbler financial status at this point means he isn’t yet resplendent in the gold necklaces, rings, and flashy wristwatch he eventually adopts as part of his daily kit as he climbs his larcenous ladder of success.
The Car
Manny drives Tony’s crew to the Sunray Motel in a maroon 1968 Chevrolet Impala convertible, which Tony commands control of to make the group’s getaway.
Chevy had introduced the Impala as a Bel Air trim option in 1958 before it became a separate model the following year. The Impala was already redesigned for a fourth time by 1965, the same year it reached one million cars sold in the United States. It continued to be built on General Motors’ full-size B-body platform with a rear-wheel-drive train but with increasingly luxurious touches that elevated it among Chevrolet’s automotive offerings.
Part of the ’68 facelift included a redesigned front end and triple “horseshoe”-shaped taillights, while the body styles still ranged from two-door convertibles and hardtops to four-door hardtops, sedans, and wagons, while more than a half-dozen engines were available including the 250 cubic-inch straight six and V8s with 307, 327, 396, and 427 cubic-inch displacements.
Manny leisurely cruises the Impala along Ocean Drive for the group’s rendezvous at the Sunray Motel. Its 327 cubic-inch V8 powerplant would be an asset in helping Tony lead the speedy getaway after the job goes awry.
The black badging on the front fender of Tony and Manny’s Impala appears to read “327”, which would inform that it is powered by either of the two available 327 cubic-inch “Turbo-Fire” V8 engines that generated either 250 or 275 horsepower. Both engines could be mated to the full range of 3- or 4-speed manual and 2- and 3-speed automatic transmissions, but the way Tony clearly works the column-mounted shifter indicates an automatic transmission, either the two-speed Powerglide or three-speed Hydra-matic.
The Gun
In the back of his waistband, Tony carries the Beretta Model 81 “Cheetah” semi-automatic pistol that would become his regular sidearm, eventually carried in an IWB holster. The weapon is initially taken by Hector, who threatens Tony with it before tossing it into the suitcase with the ye-yo—explaining how Tony recovers it to use through the rest of the movie as he takes the suitcase with him when fleeing the scene.
Beretta introduced the “Cheetah” series in 1976 as a line of compact, blowback-operated semi-automatic pistols that varied by size, barrel length, caliber, and capacity, ranging from the .32-caliber Models 81 and 82 and .22-caliber Models 87 and 89 to the Models 83, 84, 85, and 86 that all fired the .380 ACP (9x17mm Browning Short) cartridge. Though all Cheetah models had been discontinued by 2017, Beretta recently revived the marque with the 2023 introduction of the Model 80X—essentially an update of the double-stack Model 84FS.
Oliver Stone’s screenplay describes Tony’s “Baretta”[sic] in multiple scenes, ultimately represented on screen by the Model 81 that blends compact portability with a relatively high capacity with 12 rounds of .32 ACP in its double-stack magazine. The Model 81’s double-stack magazine (and subsequently wider grips) give it three more rounds than the Model 82, the other .32-caliber Cheetah pistol.
Pacino’s actual screen-used Beretta Model 81, serial #D87019W, was fitted with aftermarket black rubber Pachmayr grips. The pistol and its faux suppressor (used when Tony confronts Frank Lopez later in the film) can be seen at The Golden Closet and Heritage Auctions.
A tiger-printed shirt, a Beretta Cheetah, and eventually a pet tiger… I wonder if Tony Montana has an affinity for big cats?
After Manny busts up the chainsaw party with his MAC-10, Tony grabs a Beretta M1951 from one of Hector’s downed henchmen, chasing Hector outside with it and exacting his own justice by shooting him in the middle of Ocean Drive.
Also a Beretta, the older M1951 is a larger full-size combat pistol that was developed by the Italian armed forces in the late 1940s to replace the smaller and lower-powered Beretta M1934. The short-recoil pistol has a single-action trigger and feeds from eight-round box magazines of 9x19mm Parabellum ammunition.
Note the larger frame of this Beretta, characteristic of the M1951 and later to be carried over into the iconic and still-issued 92 series.
A Beretta M1951 is later depicted as Manny’s preferred sidearm, though it’s not clear if this is meant to be the same one as Tony picked up from Hector’s henchman.
How to Get the Look
Al Pacino as Tony Montana in Scarface (1983)
The last we see of Tony Montana’s style before adopting the bright suits, silk shirts, and gold jewelry expected of a successful Miami drug kingpin, he wears a bright red shirt frantically printed with tigers ready to pounce—visually communicating his own demeanor as he’s been eagerly waiting to carve out his own blood-red path to the top.
- Red tiger, floral, and geometric-print rayon aloha shirt with camp collar, six wood buttons up the plain front, welted set-in breast pocket, and cuffed short sleeves
- Tan worsted double forward-pleated trousers with belt loops, side pockets, button-through back-left pocket, and slightly flared plain-hemmed bottoms
- Light-brown leather narrow belt with gold-toned single-prong buckle
- Black leather side-zip ankle boots with Cuban heels
- Black socks
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
The Quote
Why don’t you try stickin’ your head up your ass? See if it fits.
The post Al Pacino in Scarface: Tony Montana’s Red Tiger-Print Shirt appeared first on BAMF Style.