Figure 1.--Christian Bale is seen here in his school uniform in "Empire of the Sun" before the Japanese arrive. Notice the peaked hat and trim on the blazer. |
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You can also slect the movies available on HBC by using this alphabetical movie listing. At this time only a few movies have been analized by HBC for clothing information, but more pages are being added all the time. We encourage readers to send us information on their favorite movies.
A man loses his son in a Brazilian forest. He is raised by Indians and later denies his father when his father returns to rescue him. A HBC reader reports that The Emerald Forest is one of his favourite films. The boy is played by Charlie Boorman, son of John Boorman the film director. He also appears in Boorman's Excalibur.
A very popular German children's book was Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kästner. There are four versions of this film: German (1931), English (1935), England (1947), German (1954), and U.S. (Disney, 1964. HBC is familiar with the last two which are loosley similar. The fitst Kästner film to be made into a film was "Emil and the Dectectives" (1931). It was made in Germany before the NAZIs seized power. After that there would be no more productions in Germany until afer World War II and the defeat of the NAZIs. The only British film to be called 'Emil and the Detective' was made by a British film company in 1935. Emil travels to London in this version. The 1935 English language version of Emil was also released in the United States. This version is proving hard to find. The British Ealing film titeled "Hue and Cry" (1947) is loosely based on this story. Disney, however, always takes diabolicle liberties with any film adaptation. The clothes of the characters in the Walt Disney 1964 film are interesting. Some children seem to be dressed similar to children in the 1930s. One boy wears a Peter Pan collar and this makes his dress look old fashioned. The story line is changed from Emil getting robbed to Emil and the children stopping a heist at a large bank.
More than 20 years in the life of a nanny who marries her employer, inherits his fortune, and accused of his murder. I haven't seen the film, but presumably some boys are involved.
A well-liked and idealistic instructor learns a lesson in human nature in the 2002 film, "The Emperor's Club". As the film opens, Professor William Hundert teaches western civilization at an all boys academy. The time appears to be about 1970. Professor Hundert is well regarded by colleagues and respected by his students as knowledeable and inspiring. Each term begins with Hundert asking a student to read from a memorial to a long-forgotten conqueror. No one remembers the
conquest made so long ago, because the conqueror made no contribution to civilization. Timeless lessons such as this give relevance to Hundert's course and engage the boys' interests.
Movie based on J.G. Ballard's autobiographical novel about his experiences in a Japanese detainee camp during World War II. He begins as a smug little British schoolboy (complete with blazer, cap, and shorts) singing in a choir in Shanghai. The peaked cap and blazer, with contrasting trim, as well as the longisg shorts are quite accurate costuming. Jim is played by 13-year old Christian Bale. He handles the 11-year old role at the beginning well, but is not a very believable 15-year old at the end of the movie. He is pictured as an intelligent, dreamy child leading a privileged life. That ends suddenly when the Japanese strike. An only child, he is separated from his parents when the Japanese seize the city and round up the Europeans. He almost starves as the Japanese refuse to take him prisoner until two disreputable Americans he becomes attached to are captured. In the internment camp Jim eventually gives up on the British who have standards, but are hapless and weak. He is drawn to the Americans, a ratty bunch who know how to survive. A great ending with the dramatic appearance of a U.S. P-51, although Jim's Japanese friend is killed. The movie has a consistently visionary quality. The novel was quite good and so is the movie. The musical sound track is particularly effective.
A doddering old colonel relives the past through flashbacks. Two boys are involved in the early scenes, but only briefly. They first appear in pajamas and bathrobes. Later they wear suits. One wears a checked knee pants suit with stockings.
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This is the film version of Graham Greene's famous novel, "The End
of the Affair" about adultery and Catholic guilt. A boy in this film set in the 1940s wears a peaked school cap. He also wears a gabardine school overcoat, grey short trousers, white shirt, red tie, and black shoes. The boy called Lancelott Parkes was working as a spy for his dad who was a private detective. They were spying on Julianne Moore's charactor. An Australian reader describes it as "finely scripted film". There are various scenes of the mysterious school boy. The stars are Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore (as the writer Bendrix and his lover, Sarah Miles). The boy wears traditional schoolboy British clothing from the period before World War II and just afterwards--black shoes, flannel shorts, grey knee socks, school tie, and peaked cap. He seems to be about 11 or 12 years old. Most of the action occurs in 1940. Much of the time we see him in a rain coat, because there is nearly constant rain in this film--part of the gloomy atmosphere deliberately intended by the director Neil Jordan. Throughout the film until the very end, the boy suffers from the disfigurement of a birth mark on the left side of his face. At the end, the birthmark miraculously disappears, a happening that is not explained but that contributes to the religious (Rocman Catholic) theme of the story. The film came out in 1999, but did not have a huge success in the U.S. though it was acclaimed in
Britain.
Uninteresting film about the aftermath of nuclear war. One boy who is about 10 plays a key role as a kind of psychic. No interesting costumes.
East Lyme School kids
I'm not sure about the nationality of the film. It is one of the few big-budget Western World War II films that addresses the War on the Eastern Front where the outcome was actually determined. The film is more realistic than most movies and captures the savegery of the war on the Eastern Front. It is about an actual event, the confrontation between a Soviet and German sniper at Stalingrad, the most important battle of the War. The film seems historically correct in large measure. It depicts how poorly trained and equipped Red Army soldiers were thrown at the Germans with political units to shoot any that faltered.
The hero of the film is a naive country solider Vassili Zaitsev (Jude Law). He saved the life of Political Officer Danilo (Joseph Fiennes) who hen makes him into a propaganda weapon against the Germans. The NAZIs call in Major Konig (Ed Harris), a famed sniper and head of the Wehrmacht sniper school. A prominent role is Sasha (Gabriel Marshall Thompson), a Russian boy who feeds information to both the Germans and Soviets. I found this part ofthe film not very believable as I don't think anyone could have easily moved between the lines. Also I don't think the Germans befriended Russian boys. Another scene that was unbelieveable was the Jewish girl who provided the romantic story in the film learned that her parents were killed by litening to German radio traffic. This was not the kind of information transmitted by radio. The Eizrnsatzgruppen did send enigma messages, but thet dealt with numbers killed, not the details of the killing. Also the way in which the Jews were killed did not sound right. (To save bullets they were tied together in pairs and only one was shot. They were then thrown in a river wear the dead body dragged the other down.) This does not sound right in that it would have required a great deal of effort on the Germans' part.
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"Les Enfants Du Marais" (Children of the Marshlands) is set in France in the early 30s. The Narrator Cri-Cri, who has two brothers, is the 5 year old daughter of marsh-dweller Riton, a good hearted fellow who could always do
with a glass of wine, Or two, Or three. Riton still pines for his first wife, who ran off more than 10 years ago. Although he remarried, his real source of companionship is self sufficient Garris, who stumbled through the region after he was demobilised from W.W.1 and has been living in the neighboring cabin since it's 92 year old owner bequeathed it to him the day he died. A solid individual, unafraid of hard work, Garris finds his head turned by Marie, maid to a family in town. A wash in memorable characters winningly portrayed, "Children Of The Marshland" is an utterly satisfying old-fashioned tale of simple pleasures, good manners and strong allegiances told with a sure hand. Story of one decisive summer in the early 30's follows a cross section of individuals, some of whom live of fish, frogs and odd jobs in modest cabins on the marsh and some who live in style in the neighboring town. This movie depicts the clothing that would have been worn in that era. It follows the 5-year old Cri Cri who falls in love with one of the rich town children Pierrot who is about 9 years old. They eventually, in later life get married.
A bumbling young Jewish boy hopes of becoming a stage musician.
I am unsure how to define the nationality of this made for television production. Europeans of various nationalities were involved, it was made in English, and registered in Singapore. It is set in occupied France during World War II and based on the book Daddy by Loup Durand. It deals with a very sensitive topic, Jewish bank accounts. The boy playing Thomas Sangster (Thomas von Gall) is engaging and the film suspensful. Thomas is a brilliant chess champion with a phenomenal memory. These lines set the story. Thomas: "I have to put the secret in a safe place." David Quatermain: "Is it that important? Thomas: It's more important than my grandfather's life. It's more important than my mother's. And it's certainly more important than mine." The film unfortunately tends to gloss over a very serious issue and the extent to which individuals besides NAZI villans were involved in the Holocaust. The costuming is reasonably accurate. It also tends to over emphazize the help French Jews received. One of the few groups helping French Jews was an American group which operated before the Torch innasions (November 1942).
Ernest (especially obnoxious character in American TV ads) is a camp handyman, but appointed to counselor when a group of juvenile delinquents arrive. There are a lot of boys pictured fleetingly in shorts. The juvenile delinquents with Ernest all wear longs.
Stars Martin Halm as a teen age youth. The film deals with what HBC considers to be inappropriate relations and should be avoided.
The true story of Ernie Kovack's 2-year search for his two children who abducted by his former wife after a bitter custody battle.
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Adventures of two runaways in Japan. One boy is an American (Jon Provost) who plays Tony Sanders. The other is Japanese (Roger Nakagawa) who plays Hiko. The American boy is separated from his parents when their plane is forced down. He enlists the help of a Japanese boy to find his parents, but they avoid the police thinking they will be arrested. The picture shows him reunited with his screen father played by Cameron Mitchell (Dick Sanders) who went on to play Buck Cannon in the TV series "High Chaparal". Clint Eastwood was also in this film playing Dimbo Pilot. Both boys wear short pants, but they are long baggy ones. Jon wears knee socks. Japan looks very different than today. A lot of Japanese children are pictured and many of the boys are in shorts, but none are in the short shorts that they began to wear in the 1950s. (HBC is unsure just when the shorter style shorts became more common in Japan. I believe it was the 1950s.) Jon is probably about 6 years old. The boys are taken in by Gishas and given a bath, all quite modest. The boys are against the idea at first, but are pictured playing up to their necks in water in the deep stand up type bath that the Japanese use. Jon's costuming rather reflected trends in American boys' wear. Younger boys, especially those from affluent families might wear short pants suits, but few continued to wear them very long after they began school. Jon of course began a long run as Timmy on the American TV production of Lassie in which he appeared in a checkered shirt and long pants (usually jeans), and sneakers (Keds).
The NAZIs operated a large number of concentration camps all over Europe. There were several different types of camps ranging from labor to punishment to death. The Germans established death camps primarily, but not exclusively to kill Jews. This a made for TV movie was directed by Jack Gold and is the true story, acurately depicted, of what happened in the NAZI death camp at Sobibor. Sorbibor was not a labor camp. Its only purpose was to kill Jews and other victims. It was a place where many Jews were killed and those that lived served their NAZI masters in the killing process on borrowed time. Here some worked in the sorting sheds, going through the luggage of those that had been put through the gas chambers, others worked in the forests but these were mainly Russian POWs. Then there were those who had trades such as cobblers or tailors for example. One of these was a young goldsmith by the name of Stanislaw 'Shlomo' Szmajzner (Simon Gregor) and his younger brother Moses (Eli Nathenson). In one scene Moses is sent to
another part of the camp, which in fact is where the gas chambers are to collect some gold for his brother to work on. It is when he reaches this part of the camp and sees the naked men, women and children going to be gassed then he realises the full horror of what has happened to his own parents. When he returns to the main camp he tells his brother who swears vengeance. The actual escape involved the killing of both German and Ukrainian guards. A huge undertaking with around 600 prisoners involved. The big revolt should happen on October 13th 1943, but the unexpected arrival of an SS troop from the labour camp at Ossowa, caused a delay for 24 hours. On October 14th 1943 commander Reichleitner, Gustav Wagner and Hubert Gomerski were on leave. The absence of Wagner and Gomerski, two of the cruellest SS men in Sobibor, seriously weakened the guard garrison. At about 4 p.m. deputy commander Johann Niemann visited the tailor shop to try on a new uniform. There he was killed by Yehuda
Lerner with a blow from an axe. The revolt had begun, there was no turning back. Ten Germans, two "Volksdeutsche" and eight Ukrainian guards were killed, SS-Oberscharführer Werner Dubois was seriously injured. Some 300 prisoners managed to escape from Sobibor, but most were killed in the relentless manhunt. Those who had not joined the escape for various reasons were all killed.
Bobby Breen
A crusty millionaire hears about two clairvoyant children and tries to control their supernatural powers by imprisoning them. Ike Eisenmann plays the boy. No interesting costuming.
Remake of the Disney movie. Twins hope to learn the secret of their origin as they flee a millionaire who wants to exploit their mystic powers. I saw tidbits and there does not look to be any interesting costuming, but the boy is nice.
Griffith O'Neal
A Canadian reader reports, "There is a french film called "Etre et avoir". (Having and being). This film is the story of a school life in a village of France. Story of children along a school year and the story of an outstanding teacher. It is something like " cinéma vérité". It is a new film I saw in 2002.
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One of the best know German films about the Hitler Youth and World War II is Europa, Europa. German title: "Hitlerjunge Salomon". This title stresses the Jewish plot line as Solomon is an obviously Jewish name. The English-language title conveys nothing about the film. It is about a Jewish boy who ends up in the HJ during the war. It is particularly poignent because it is the true story of Solomon (Solly) Perel, a 13-year-old German-Jewish boy. Solly with his family leave Germany for Poland after his sister is killed in NAZI violence. Later Solly and his brother flee again when the Germans invade Poland. Solly is separated from his family during the period between the Hitler-Stalin pact (August 1939) and the German invasion of Russia (June 1941). "You must stay alive!" was his mother's parting admonition. With these words ringing in his ears, 14-year-old Solomon Perel and his brother set out from Nazi-occupied Poland hoping to find safety across the new Soviet frontier. The boys become separated and the films focuses on the younger boy, who is about 15 when the Germans invade Poland. Like large numbers of other Jews fleeing the Germans, Perel faced staggering odds against his survival. What actually transpired was far different from what anyone could have imagined. By a twist of fate, the young Jew found unexpected refuge ... as a student in an elite Hitler Youth boarding school. Europa, Europa recounts Solomon Perel's harrowing struggle living in a nightmare from which there seemed no escape. Solly wears short pantss when the Germans find him and he presents himself as Folk-Deutch whose parents were killed by the Russians. He makes it to the Russian zone who place him in an orphanage. Virtually all the boys at the orphanage wear shorts and there are many younger boys. When the Germans invade Russia he is taken in by German soldiers who do not realize he is Jewish. He masquerades as an Aryan. He spends some time with the soldiers until he is sent to an elite Hitler Youth school in Berlin. Most of the boys are older teenagers. Many of the boys in the film wear shorts and knee socks.
A British reader writes, "The first film I saw about Jewish evacuees was as follows: "The Evacuees" (1976) – Jack Rosenthal's classic WWII drama about Jewish brothers evacuated from Manchester, an industrial city which was a Lufwaffe target, to Blackpool. No more info at the moment. They were wearing short trouser suits I recall and the people they were billited with were an elderly couple. It was a Sunday when the boys arrived so supper was a cold meat salad. The meat offered to the boys was boiled ham! There was no thought of this being inappropriate by the carers. Foods food none of this unclean food nonsence. Culture shock for the boys."
The director was Alan Parker. The cast included: Maureen Lipman , Margery Mason, Gary Carp, and Ray Mort.
A young couple masquerading as mother and son become romantically involved.
The movie starred Maureen O'Harra and John Forsythe. Tim Hovey is featured in this film. I have not seen the film and do not know the full plotline. Tim dresses as a girl (dress and wig) to escape publicity, I'm not sure why this is necessary. Perhaps HBC readers will know more.
A young orphan is befriended by a man who works for a traveling circus. I haven't seen this and don't know who the orphan is, probably a girl.
Family adventure depicting the furry little Ewoks facing an army of evil marauders. A cute little blond boy is involved in the movie, but I'm not sure just what his role is.
A HBC reader has mentioned this film, but HBC knows nothing about it. Charlie Boorman, son of John Boorman the film director, plays an ethereal blond lad in this film.
A righteous Quaker couple help runaway slaves. If this is the movie I am thinking of, the family has four kids, one a young boy, Little Jessie.
Three boys (a dreamer. a whiz-kid, and a social misfit) combine their talents and construct a homemade, junkyard spacecraft. After zipping through space they have a crazy encounter with some goofy odd-ball aliens. Ethan Hawkes, Jason Presson, and River Phoenix are all great in their parts. You really get to know the boys, although they wear longs. River plays the brainy, scientific one in glassess and he describes a dream where he wakes without his clothes in school and has to hide in the bathroom.
Rather boring horror story with David Niven. There are two children and are used to add a touch of innocence. The boy name is Jacques. He is about 7 years old and the son of a very rich family. His mother is american, but he is French. He is dressed in short pants, including some brief-cut continental shorts. He wears white knee socks with a black short pants suit in one scene. While these shorts were commonly worn, they do not often appear in films. In this case the shorts add to the innosence of the children and the horror and danger.
Also titled "Sudden Terror" Mark Lester and his family traveled to Malta. "Eyewitness" was a remake of the Cornell Woolrich story, "The Boy Who Called Wolf" which Bobby Driscoll played in "(The) Window" (1949). What a pity most of Mark's film, except for "Oliver" were uninteresting. In mediocre thriller, he plays a boy who no one will believe when he claims to have witnessed a murder. Mark is about 12-years old and quite a competent actor even encumbered with a poor script. He wears jeans during most of the movie, despite being English and the hot climate on Malta. If I remember right a lot of the Maltese children do wear short pants.
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