Figure 1.--This is the jacket that Butch wore in his 1947 film, "My Brother Talks to Horses". |
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.
A visually stunning, delightfully whimsical turn of the familiar story line of separated twins whose paths cross, this time aboard the Orient Express. I haven't seen this, but assume the twins are pictured as children at the beginning.
A little girl and her brother play dress up in long dresses, shawls, makeup, and high heals. In another scene a brother comes out of the house wearing his sister's bras.
Second part of "The Gorky Trilogy." The boy begins earning a living at the age of 8. He is placed with a bourgeois family that promises him an education, but makes him a drudge. Secretly he borrows books. He runs away and works on a river boat.
Hientz
My Bill stars Kay Francis as a once well-to-do, now impoverished mother bringing up four children on her own. The boys, played by Dickie Moore and Bobby Jordan, wear longs throughout the movie, but in a few scenes there are some boys wearing shorts, short sleeved shirts, ankle socks, and leather lace-up shoes. Dickie Moore's character is just like the one he played in Our Gang: a spirited, spunky guy, tough on the outside but with a heart of pure gold. His
older brother is played by Bobby Jordan, who was one of the Deadend Kids. Bobby goes completely out of character in this film. His hair is neatly combed and shorter than in his Deadend Kids days, and he wears
eyeglasses and a suit and tie throughout the movie! Bobby was about 15 at the time the film was made. His character is just as prim as his appearance suggests. As Kay Francis struggles to make ends meet, Bobby and two sisters decide they want to live with a wealthy aunt; only Dickie remains loyal to their mom. Bobby and his sisters soon regret their choice, as the aunt is an old tyrant. Dickie inherits a lot of money from someone he has befriended, and the family is reunited
at film's end.
Chris Makepeace, Matt Dillon, and Adam Baldwin. Comedy set in a Chicago public school. A rich teenager is sent to a public and is terribly bullied. He eventually turns the tables on the bully who is tormenting him. After moving to Chicago, a teenager (Chris Makepease) is tormented by a gang in his high school until he devises a scheme to retaliate.
Three teenagers plan to break out of reformatory and rob an armored car. Nothing of special interest, the boys are a bit old and the reformatory is not strictly run.
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Butch Jenkins is adorable as the little boy who talks to horses to find if they are going to win races. Jackie was particularly well liked in this role. Similar to the British film, "The Rocking Horse Winner." Lewie Penrose is 9-years old and played by Butch is able to talk to horses attracts a lot of interest, including that of gangsters who are interested in race handicapping straight from the horses' mouths. There were quite a few important actors in this film including Peter Laughton, Spring Byington, and Eddie Arnold .
The first part of the trilogy, "My Childhood" (1971) is of greatest interest to HBC. It is the first installment of The Bill Douglas Trilogy. The two boys with the lead roles are not porofessional actors. The main character, Jamie, is wonderfully played by Stephen Archibald. Douglas found Stephen and his brother (cast as Tommy) when the two boys approached him for cigarettes in an Edinburgh bus station. Jamie is growing up in a mining village during the 1940s. There is little money, food, are affection. Jamie lives in squalor with his half-brother Tommy and elderly grandmother, a true Dickensian figure. There are some perty gritty scenes. Tommy’s father brings home a rare gift--a canary. When the cat eats the canary, Tommy beats the cat to death. The Douglas production has sparse dialogue, using visual images to make his point. A reviewer
describes " ... haunting and often dreamlike expressions of a harsh emotional landscape".
Lukas Haas
Silent star William Farnum heads the caste in this entertaining film about a 12-year old runaway. Danny Barker (Tom Neal/Lanny Rees) and his German shepherd Shep feel unwanted so they run away. Unknown to Danny he is the heir to a family inheritance. His self-centered foster parents use all their means to find him so they can gain access to his wealth. Danny and Shep befriend an old man bumming his way across the country. Together they foil kidnappers and his greedy foster parents. Includes a humorous swimming scene.
My Dog Skip is based on a story by Willie Morris. A smart Jack Russell terrier (great little dogs) helps a lonely, shy boy come out of his shell, make friends, and grow up. The film is superbly faithful to period (1942-44) clothing details. The main character, a 9-year old boy played very well by Frankie Muniz, wears collared short-sleeved shirts,
short pants, crew-length socks, and leather lace-up shoes in the many of the early scenes. At his birthday party when he receives Skip as a present, he also wears suspenders with his shorts. Other boys wear white "T"-shirts, denim overalls, jeans, sneakers, and casual,
zippered jackets for cooler weather. [HBC note: I am not sure how common it was for younger boys to wear white "T"-shirts. Some teenagers did in the 1950s, but not to school. My impression is that younger boys usually wore colored stripe "T"-shirts and not white ones, but would be interested in reader input on this.] At school a couple of the boys wore shorts, which was very common in the hot, humid late summer and late spring weather of Mississippi, where the film is set and was filmed. One other fashion typical of the time, colorful, horizontally striped T-shirts, were worn by some of the boys. Several of the boys wore baseball caps for casual wear, and others wore a very common cap for boys. It's something like the flat cap, with a fuller crown, topped by a button. The button is
covered with the same material as the cap. The cap's brim is rather short. This is a really fine, well made film with a terrific cast, though a couple of the subplots were not well developed and seemed a little forced. A HBC reader writes, "My Dog Skip is a wonderful film. A sensitive, beautiful theme song is the icing on this film's cake. Well worth seeing." The film seemed to launch Frankie Muniz's career who made a name for himself in the TV series, "Malcomb in the Middle".
Predictable Doris Day musical, partially autobiographical. She has a son who appears at the airport in a tearful good-bye scene immaculately dressed in a suit and the little peaked caps boys used to wear when they dressed up. It is a long pants suit. HBC believes that a short pants suit would have been more likely, buteven younger American boys did have short pants suits by the late 1940s. HBC is unsure how accurate such costuming was. In fact, we do not at this time have a good idea on just how decisions on children's costuming were made.
See "La Gloire de mon père".
A heart attack prods a workaholic busisnessman to recall the days of his youth.
Run of the mill Carry Grant movie where he winds up with two wives. Two children are involved. The boy is about 10 or so and appears in a bathing suit. He dresses up in a long trouser suit.
An idealistic boy (Roddy McDowall) develops a bond of friendship with an outlaw horse. Roddy plays a sensitive, if not sissy boy for his age, but wears long trousers. He is becoming a teenager and is 14 or 15. His other 1943 film, probably his most famous--"Lassie Comes Home--, has him still in short pants and knee socks.
Lovely little film set in Madison, Pennsylvania. The boy who is depicted at 10 or 11 is just on the brink of adolescence and has first girl friend. The boy is beautifully played by McaCally Caulkin and he gets his first on screen kiss. The girl is played by Anna Chumsley. The boy spends a good bit of the film in play khaki shorts. He seems to be wearing a military web belt with the shorts. He also wears a colored shirt which he always tucks in. I don't think he dresses up in shorts. Anna wears a pair of blue jean cutoffs. From his clothes (striped tee-shirts, shorts, and old-fashioned Keds), the film is set in the 1950s, but a reader says it is 1972. One columnist complained that the fact the boy dies during the film was not being included in the studios promotional campaign.
ending.
Sequel with the same little girl, but Austin O'Brien replaces high-priced Macaly Caulkin. Austin first appeared in the Schwartzenager flop, "Last Action Hero." Austin has an engaging smile, but I doubt if there is any interesting costuming.
Raul Flores, Henry Celis
Ingemar is poised uneasily between childhood and adolescence, just as his namesake, Johanson, is fighting for the heavyweight crown. Director Lasse Hallstrom has Ingemar withstanding life's major setbacks by virtue of his remarkable wit. Someone else, Ingemar invariably opines, has it much, much worse. A wonderful film about childhood. Anton Glanzelius is marvelously mischievous as Ingemar. He has devilish eyebrows and even at 11/12 knows how to use them. He proves to much for his sick mother to handle. He is sent to live with his uncle in the country where he develops a crush on a buxom local woman. Also some nice scenes between Ingemar and his new girl friend, Saga, who is a real tomboy. The movie is set in the 1950s. He wears long pants, but a few of the other boys wear shorts.
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Scottish film My Life so Far was filmed in Argyll at Ardkinglas House and around Loch Fyne. The film is the memoir of family in post World War I era. The family lives on an estate and is headed headed up by a strong disciplinarian matriarch (Rosemary Harris). The family includes her daughter (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), her inventor husband (Colin Firth), their 10-year old son (Robbie Norman), and his older sister (Kelly MacDonald). Through the household comes a number of suitors hoping to impress the young woman, including a flyer (Tcheky Karyo). The elder woman's son (Malcolm MacDowell) shows up at the estate with of all things, a French maid (Irene Jacob)--throwing the family into turmoil. The young boy is smitten with her and his father is disturbed by his own feelings. The boys wear short trousers and kilts, usually with bkazers and coat jackets.
Jackie Searl who is about 19 appears.
See "Le Château de ma mère".
Sad story of a 12-year old boy caught up in World War II. Ivan (Kolya Burlaiev) serves as a scout. He sneaks behind enemy lines to spy on the Germans who killed his parents. After two years he becomes frail and is sent back to school. The boy, however, realizes his childhood is over and returns to the front where he is killed.
A wealthy man looses his son in a custody battle with his wife. George "Foghorn" Wilson starred in this 1952 film with Richard Widmark playing his dad. Widmark is the divorced father with custody of young George. I haven't seen this one for a long while, but I think the father had fallen for a gold digger, and young George, who played second fiddle to this femme fatale for much of the film, eventually shows dad the error of his ways! George wore either a shorts suit or an Eton suit with shorts in one scene. George won the Critics Award.
Mickey Rooney plays with Tom Mix.
A high school student is about to flunk if he doesn't come out with a dazzling science project. John Stockwell.
Ted Eccles. A folk singer befriends a 13 year old boy who he finds trying to live alone in the Canadian mountains. A beautifully done little movie about a very nice boy. The boy does skinny dip, but the scenes are disappointingly discrete.
A Broadway actress is adopted by six abandoned children that she finds living on her property in the country.
This Spencer Tracey film is set in England. The movie begins whn Edward was 1 year old. Strangely we nevr see Edward as a boy. He turns out to be a terror. One scene is set at his prep school where he is in Conventry. Boys watching cricket wear open neck shirts, shorts, and sandals without socks. Other boys are seen in the complete uniform with caps. They wear long trousers. I am not sure how realistic this was since it was an merican film. Short trousers were widely worn at prep schools in the 1930s, but some may have had long pants uniforms.
Nice little film loosely based on "Christmas Story," at least the summer sequel. Ralphie (a different actor) is about 10 or 11. He is being bullied and we wants a killer top to compete. The concept is good, but the script very week. The boy playing Ralphie is a nice little chap, but wear longs. A few boys in the background wear shorts (not many), as does his little brother. While Ralphie wears longs, the film is of some interest because the story line is set from a boy's point of view.
A high school boy (Matt Lattanzi) becomes romantically involved with his French tutor.
Mark Twain's irreverent fantasy about a daydreaming Missouri boy who fantasizes an encounter with a mysterious magical youth of dubious origin in medieval Austria. Christopher Makepeace and Lance Kerwin.
Based on the diaries of the 19th century hermaphrodite Hercule Barbin. The movie is the haunting true story of a young "woman" with androgynous features raised in a convent school. She is sent as a school mistress to a distant provincial town where she is attracted to a female. school teacher.
Disney film featuring two brothers, one cute little guy and his older curly-haired brother (Johnny Whitaker). The boys are spending the summer with their writer mom in a seaside resort. They run into trouble and mom hires a nanny for them. Unfortunately the boys wear longs.
A wealthy, bored youth and his guardian are ship wrecked on a remote island populated by dangerous monsters. Peter Cushing.
Darryl Hickman
Lance Kerwin, Chris Makepease
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