Figure 1.--" Obecná skola " or " Primary School " is a film made in Czecheslovakia and released in 1991. I do not know a great deal about the film. The setting is a small Czechoslovakian village hust after World War II, around 1945-46. The costuming seems realtively accurate, but we don't remember cuffed shirts being worn in the 1940s. |
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 quintet of O'Henry short stories. The best one is "Ransom of Red Chief". It is quite a well done piece about two bungling crooks and an impossible 10-year old. The boy wears old overalls and goes barefoot. I really liked his performance and he drives the crooks to distraction. In one scene he paddles one of the crooks. They finally pay the parents to take the boy back.
O'Rourke and his Indian (Cree) half brother Cajou are fur trappers. On the way back from a northern Canadian trapping trip they find a devestated wagon train. The only surivor is Grace. A Mountie commander who hates the Crees concludes it is a Cree attack. The Sioux from across the border in America are trying to involve the Cree into the fight with Whites and in particular the 7th Calvalry. O'Rourke has to disobey orders to save the men. He also is concerned about Grace. The film stars Alan Ladd. I don;t think his son David is in the film, but there is a great picture of David with his dad in Mountie uniforms.
A circus animal trainer spends his life looking for his young son taken from him by his cruel wife. Jackie Cooper and George "Spanky" McFarland
Rather hokey World War II story about the covert operations of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). (The OSS was the preecssor of the CIA.) I've only seen the end which had extraordinarily amateurish special effects, a circling plan that could have been done better by a Cub Scout. There was interesting scene, a little French boy--I'd say about 12ish--appears wearing a smock, short pants, and knee socks. I don't know, however, how big his role was earlier. Bobby Driscoll is apparently in the film.
" Obecná skola " or " Primary School " is a film made in Czecheslovakia and released in 1991. I do not know a great deal about the film. The setting is a small Czechoslovakian village just after World War II, around 1945-46. Here 10-year-old Eda (Vaclav Jakoubec) and his friend Tonda (Radoslav Budac) attend an elementary school. The class they are in is very boisterous and because of this, their teacher quits his job, only to be replaced by the much sterner Igor Hnidzo. The costuming appears to be realtively accurate. Hopefully our Czech readers will provide us more information about the film.
Dickie Moore appeared as a baby.
A boy about 14 is played by Gene Reynolds. He is the son of a strict preacher and is caught reading a popular magazine. His father won't allow it and punishes him.
Tom and Huck overhear a plot to bilk the townspeople, but one of the villains discovers them and gives chase. Patrick Creadon, Anthony Michael Hall.
A deranged brute escapes from a mental hospital to take revenge on his cruel school mates who sent him there 10 years ago.
A French simpleton named "Abel" becomes manservant of Field Marshall Goering during World War I at Goering's hunting estate, and, later, at a Hitler Youth school. "The Ogre" stars John Malkovitch and was directed by Volker Schlondorff. The Ogre is a joint British-French-German production), about a Frenchman during World War II. The German title is "Der Unhold". I believe the French title is something like "The Monster". The film open in a Paris suburb of 1925, at St. Christopher's School for Boys. The boys are shown as wearing brown smocks (over shirts and short pants), fastentened in back with three buttons. "The Ogre", which stars John Malkovich is an intense film. The last half or so of this film is set at a German Napola in World War II. The Napola, were NAZI party training schools. They were boarding establishments which were run like military schools.
Jorge Luque,
See "The Flying Carpet."
Classic Hemingway novel about an elderly Cuban fisherman and his prize catch. A boy (Felipe Pazos) takes care of him at home. Felipe plays his part quite well.
Unneeded remake. The little Hispanic boy who idolized the old man again plays his part very well. The costuming shows how poor children dressed before the Revolution.
An unmarried woman in the mid-19th Century fears that the child she allowed her cousin to raise will never know the truth about their relationship.
A laundress rises to become the headmistress at an exclusive girls' school. Then the fun begins.
A Texas pioneer family in this Disnet film set in the 1860s adopts a mongrel dog who profoundly affects their lives and protects them from wilderness dangers.
Figure 2.--Mark Lester is seen here in the title role of "Oliver!". This looks like after he has left the orphanage, but is not yet found by his grandfather. |
Lovely musical version of Oliver Twist. Staring a young Mark Lester who was superb in the role. The acting was first rate, but the costumes were disappointing. Jack Wild played Dodger. Sir Carol Reed produced "Oliver!", a musical version of the Dickens' classic. The book had been done several times before: Jackie Coogan played Oliver in 1922, Dickie Moore played the part touchingly in 1933, and John Howard Davis appeared in the 1948 production that featured Alec Guinness' marvelous interpretation of the sly Fagin. Sir Carol needed to find a child that could sing and dance as well as act. About 2,000 boys applied and 250 actually auditioned. Clayton recommended Mark to Sir Carol and he was offered the role soon after his audition. "Oliver!" emerged as one of the colossal productions of the 1960s. It was the version thay I have been most impressed with. I was impressed with Mark's lovely performance. Some believe that his performance was lost in the competition with the strong cast. One reviewer wrote "The focus of the movie is so wide, and the logistics of the production is so heavy, that Oliver himself, dutifully played by 9-year old Mark Lester, gets flattened out and almost lost, as if he had been run over by a studio bulldozer." I think, however, that Mark's performance was superb. He played a boy completely adrift, totally incapable of controlling his situation and swept along by events and the people he comes into contact with. The feeling of powerlessness and vulnerability were critical to the part and perfectly executed. In fact Mark had some fine moments: the singing of "Where is Love?". "Who Will Buy?", and "I'd Do Anything" with an almost angelic quality. I rather agree with a New York Times reviewer who wrote "Young Mark Lester as Oliver has a kind of golden innocence, untainted by self-conscious adorability of the typical child actor, and a marvelous pure boy soprano voice. He is shy, yet game and a perfect foil for Jack Wild's Artful Dogger." Gene Shalit noted "Mark is an ideal Oliver; angelic and sweet voice..." The film was a huge financial success, grossing over $16.8 million (an impressive amount in 1969) in the U.S. and Canada alone and won the 1969 Oscar as the Best Picture.
The haunting tale of a young boy's disappearance and his subsequent (and suspicious) reappearance. A teenage street prostitute turns up to tantalize the family with the idea that he might be the missing boy.
Adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel about an orphaned boy who escapes from the orphanage and is caught up in a gang of thieves in London. Jackie Coogan.
Beautifully done black and white version of the Dickens classic. Oliver (John Howard Davies) gives a wonderful performance in this realistic production. No shorts, but Oliver is done up in a sissy suit with a lace collar. Anthony Newly plays the artful Dodger. Alec Guiness plays Fagin and some of his scenes were cut out of the film for U.S. distribution because of charges of anti-semitic overtones. Quite a contrast to the saccharin depiction in the 1968 musical version familiar to most.
Well made version starring George C. Scott as Fagan. Oliver has long blond hair, but his costuming is terrible. When Oliver is taken unbecomingly by his grandfather, you would think he would be formalled. He wears a long pants suit with a big floppy bow. Richard Charles
A 14-year old recounts hilarious moments of his Midwestern family's not-so-perfect summer vacation. James B. Sikking
An elderly, but high-spirited lady running a junk yard helps two boys build a hot air balloon. The boys charmingly play their roles. There were, however, no interesting costumes in the parts I saw. Kevin McKenzie, Dennis Dimster.
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