Figure 1.--Both Gonzo and his sister wear dresses in the French film, "A Sunday in the Country". It isrelatively rare for boys to be outfitted in dresses for film roles even though the practioce was very common through the early 20th century. |
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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 review pages are being added all the time. We welcome reades to submit reviews of flms that they hae seen. We are especially interested in the costuming, but tere are many otherinteresting asects of movies.
See "Eyewitness" Mark Lester
This tense crime movie directed by Lewis Allen with a screenplay by Richard Sale followed Frank Sinatra's Oscar-winning comeback in "From Here to Eternity". The action takes place in a quiet small town. Sheriff Tod Shaw is courting widow Ellen Benson, a staunch pacifist who hates guns and people who use them. The town leans that the President will pass through. And more importantly for Ellen and her son, psychopathic hit man John Baron, played by Sinatra, and two gangster associates decide that the Benson home iis perfectly suited for an assasination. The Benson home is located on the top of a hill near the railroad station. Benson's motivations are an interesting part of the film. He is depicted as acting for the fame as well as the money. The Baron gang trap the Benson family in their home. Kim Charney plays Ellen's son, Peter Benson III (Pidge). Like most American boys at the time, he wears casual hirts and jeans.
One of the great stories of the 19th century was the life of Ferdinand de Lesseps. He was a confirmed family. When he began his great life's work of building the Suez Canal (1859), he was already a widower age 54 with five sons by his first wife. Only 5 days after completing Suez, de Lesseps married his second wife (1869). The new couple had another six sons as well as six dughters. There were 7 of these 17 children still alive in 1937 when Twentieth Century Fox began making a movie about the great promoters life. It was a major $2 million project. A sizeable sum at the time. Producer Darryl Zanuck selected Tyrone Power for the fil, He was only 23-years old, hardly suitble for a man with all those children, but I supose good for the box office.
The producers decided to cut the children and wives entirely out of the film. As far as American movie goers could tell--DeLesseps was a bachelor. This was quite a plot shift for a man with 17 children! Of course with 17 childre, the DeLesseps family descendents were numerous by 1937. One of them sw "Suez" in London when it was released (1938). The family met in Paris to consider legal action against Twentieth Century Fox. The folm company was worried. Princess Irina Youssoupov had recently been awarded some $0.9 million in damages from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for having libeled her in "Rasputin and the Empress". As a result, Twentieth Century-Fox offered to scren the movie to the de Lesseps before it was released in France. The family, including two surviving sons (Mathieu and Paul) view the film, Afterwards despite bing cut out of the story with the implied implications on their parentage, the de Lesseps decided not to bring suit. They did make a few minor changes. A relieved Twentieth Century-Fox officials quickly agreed to make them. [Bachelor's]
A young black Martinique boy in 1930 is offered the chance to escape a meager existence cutting cane when he wins a scholarship. He wears shorts or knickers, usually without shoes. Rather a realistic depiction. He wins a scholarship in Fort de France. There are some interesting scenes at the school which has white and black students. They all wear white short pants suits. The short pants are all long, with white socks. Some rather old boys are pictured in shorts at the school.
"The Sullivans" is an American World War II film. It is about a real life close-knit Iowa family. The five brothers grow up during the Depression. Their father was arailway worker. The film begins with the boy's carefree life and how they stick up for each other. Then after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the tone of te film changes. The boys all enlist en masse in the Navy. They ask to be assigned to the same ship--the cruiser Juneau. The U.S, Navy after the Marines land on Guadacanal (August 1942) received the almost imposible task of protecting the Marine bridgehead from Japanese naval attacks. The Navy had to fight the Japanese largely with the ships it began the War with. Only in 1943 would large numbers of new carriers and other ships reach the fleet. The outgunned U.S. Navy fought some of the most desperate battles in its history in the waters around Guadacnal. The Juneau was one of several crisers lost in the fighting. All four of the Sullivan brothers were killed when the cruiser goes down at Guadalcanal. One of the saddest scenes in American movie history is when the telegram informing the parents of the boys' deaths arrives. As a result, the Navy changed regulations about assigning brothers to the same ship.
Johnny Calkins plays Joe Sullivan as a child (uncredited). Billy Cummings plays Matt Sullivan as a child (uncredited). Marvin Davis plays Frank Sullivan as a child (uncredited). Bobby Driscoll plays Al Sullivan as a child (uncredited). This was Bobby's second movie.
After taking control of a summer camp from its dictatorial director, a counselor puts the place under paramilitary rule for his own purposes.
This is a color musical with Butch Jenkins, a elaborate song and dance version of Eugene O'Neil's Ah, Wilderness. Butch played Mickey Rooney's younger brother. Mickey had played the younger brother himself in the 1933 film. I haven't seen the movie, but Jackie? appeared in a white sailor suit. He was 11 years old at the time, so he might not have liked that very much.
George "Foghorn" Winslow"
A lively young girl and her two brothers in the early 1900s move to Maine after a serious financial problem strikes the household. A kindly postmaster helps them move into a run-down house, whose owner is away in Europe. This rather poorly done Disney family film has some good actors in it, such as Hayley Mills and Burl Ives. The script and acting, however, is rather leaden. There are two boys with major roles. The younger boy wears Buster Brown bangs and what is described as a Buster Brown suit, but looks more like a brown sailor suits. He does wear a matching flat top sailor cap. The other boys all wear regular knickers and tease him for having girls' hair and being a sissy. He manages to get him some ovealls. Later he onjects to being dressed up in an angel costume. The other boy was quite well know at the time, because of his performance as a younger boy in The Music Man on Broadway--Eddie Hodges. His red hair is not done properly for the 1900s and he wears rather modern looking long trousers.
A doctor faces the consequences of divorce when his son opts to spend the summer with his mother rather than with him.
A shy, sensitive 15-year old takes his first steps toward manhood when he falls in love with a woman whose husband is overseas. Gary Grimes.
A young boy from the city spends a summer on his grandfather's ranch in the Argentine Pampas. He befriends the ranch foreman's son, but both vie for the same colt.
A family rents a cottage at a beach resort and has a run in with the locals. There is a son (the boy playing the son in the family with Nell Carter), but he has only a small role. A humerous John Carny vehicle. A few funny scenes like when the father sees his daughter in a revealing bikini and then turns around to find 10 jock straps hanging next door where the lifeguards live.
Touching story about 5-year old Seryozha (Borya Barkhatov) who lives with mother in a provincial town. His mother remarries. The boy is at first concerned, but his new father quickly wins him over.
Using sign language, a deaf boy with a new stepfather communicats with a trained orangutan. The boy, played by Sean Justin Gerlis, is about 10. He plays his part well.
Financial woes resulting from the death of their father force a 1910 Boston family to cheaper quarters in Maine. Hayley Mills
A disillusioned singer is given a reason to live after encountering a 14-15 year old boy (Claude Jarman Jr.) and his dog.
Bobby Blake had a small part.
HBC had thought the title of this film was "A Day in the Country". A HBC reader tells us that the title is actually "Sunday in the Country". I am not sure what the original French title was. This movie takes place probably just before or just after World War I. The main character in the movie is an old impressionist painter who lives in the country. He is expecting a visit from his son and family (2 boys and a girl) and is getting ready to walk to the railway station to meet them. The painter has two grown children, a son named Gonzo and a daughter named Irene. There are a number of conflicts in this movie between the painter and his son, the painter and his daughter, and the two children. However, I won't go into the plot. If your interested in the movie you can check it out at Blockbuster in the foreign movie section. Anyway the painter throughout the movie has flashbacks to his life when his children were at home and his wife was alive. The first of these occur when he walks out of the gate on his way to the railway station. In the background you hear children laughing and someone calling Gonzo, Gonzo, Irene, etc. Then suddenly appears two little girls. They wear very pretty dresses, more like party dresses than play dresses, and hats decorated with ribbons and flowers. The youngest girl has very long hair and the older one long hair, but cut shoulder length. The actors are of course girls, but I think the youngest represents Irene and the oldest Gonzo as young children. The old man, however, doesn't seem to recognize them. These two children reappear in the movie when the old man is out walking with his son. Of course, the old man is the only one that sees them. After they disappear from view he asks his son where they went. Later in the movie there is also a flashback scene where the painter and his wife are having a picnic on the lawn. The wife calls, Gonzo, Irene several times. Finally, two children emerge from the house, a little girl wearing a dress, and an older boy wearing a skirted suit. The boy looks to be about 10 - 12 and the girl several years younger; the same relative age difference as the two little girls (?) seen earlier in the movie. There is also a painting of two little girls which the painter keeps for sentmental reasons. I assume, his children were the models for this painting.
Precious summer sojourn of childhood recollections. It addresses the relationship between Ingmar Bergman's alter ego, Pu (Henrik Linnros), and his stern preacher-father as they spend the summer in a country home full of colorful relatives.
A renegade rides in to cause trouble for a boy and his father. Well done western.
Rather a well-meaning bore of a film which goes on for ever. An itinerent sheep drover in Australia during the 1920s revels in the freedom of the open road while his wife years for their own farm. They have a teenage boy, about 14 or 15 who wears longs throughout the film. A bit unrealistic given the period setting, Australian boys his age almost certainly have been in shorts. Obviously an American production.
Excellent screen version of the acclaimed play which introduces Franklin Roosevelt as the active head of a young, active family. Roosevelt had been the Democratic Party's vice-presidential candidate in 1920. He was widely seen as a probable future presidential candidate. The plot begins on Campobello Island where FDR as a small child spent his summers. It was hear after a swi that he contracted polio. The film focusses on the personal difficulties that a vigorous man like Rossevelt had in adjusting to be an invalid. One of the main chrcters is Louis Howe (Hume Cronyn). Hoe played a major role in advising both Franklin and Elenor. He tells Roosevelt that he has but two choices, to become a "country squire" and write books, or to get up and get back into politics. Franklin's mother Sarah, who was extremely protective of her only child as a boy, urges him to withdraw from public life. Elenor who had a difficult time with Sarah encourages him to renter politics. We watch Roosevelt come to term with his diability and slowly fashion his political combeack. No other disabled person had ever before able to win an important American election. This is the story of President Franklin Delano. The story culminates with FDR nominating New York govemor Al Smith at the Democratic Convention in 1928, the famed Happy Warrior speech. This brought him back into the political mainstream and wa a factor in his nominaion to run in the race for New York govenor. Very well-done production, although the main characters are a little too simply drawn. There are several brief scenes, with the kids togged out in shorts and knickers, sometimes with knee socks. The youngest wears a little Scottish cap. The Stars were Ralph Bellamy as FDR and Greer Garson as Eleanor.
'Suomisen Perhe' was the first fil bersion of the long running radio show about a well off Finnish family (1938-58). This appears to have been the Finnish version of the Swedush radio series, 'Familjen Björck' which was first broadcast (1936). Based on the radio series, six films were made after the Winter War and during World War II (1941-45) and a final film (1959). The radio show and films have the feel of a German Heimat film. The first film was made just before the launch of the Continuation War (1941-44) -- Finland's failed attempt to regain the territory taken by Stalin in the Winter War. After 2 decades of peace, the country was again convulsed, this time by World War II beginning with the Soviet Winter War invasion (1939-40) and then the Finnish Continuation War. Right in the middle of the two wars, 'Suomisen Family' (1941) was produced. The film shows a family trying to return to normality. Three months after release, Finland plunged into the Continuation War. Is the story of an upper-middle-class family from Helsinki in pring 1940, just after the end of the Winter War. It is set in their countryside house. The movie shows normal family activities and a some special events. We see the arrival of the grandmother and the children who have not had e a regular school year due to the War, the elder daughter preparing themself for university and who fell in love, the father having made poor financial investments.
This is a Stephen Speilberg period scifi film in the tradition of 'ET'. 'Super 8' deals with a group of friends n a small Ohio town during the summer of 1979. There are some time touches to recreate the small town 1970s feekling.
The group is making a low budget zombie movie. The title comes from the Super 8 movie film. This was a type of movie film available for personal use in the days before videos and digital photography. (It was 8 mm wide compared to the 35 mm used by movie studios.) A pickup truck causes a train derailment at the railway station where they are filming a scene. After witnessing the unexplained train crash. They find strange white cubes everywhere. the children begin to notice mysterious happenings in their town They begin to suspect that it was not an accident and decide to investigate. Particularly disturbing to the children is pets running away. Then people begin to disappear and inexplicable events happen. The local Deputy also begins to look into the happenings, but makes no headway. The Air Force gets involved. Of course aliens are involved.
Two teenagers end their lives in a suicide pact, forcing their grief-stricken parents to reexamine their lives and relationships. A bit heavy, but it is an effective treatment of the teenage suicide problem. The cast includes River Pheonix who turns in an impressive performance. River plays the surviving younger brother who is about 13 years old. He appears in short shorts at the beginning of the film.
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The investigators at Scotland Yard persue a quite man who murders a domineering wife so he can marry a younger woman with whom he has fallen in love. Raymond Severn played the page boy Merridew in The Suspect. This was Raymond's next to last film. He was about 12 years old at the time. He never went on to play any adult or even teenage roles.
This film features Grace Kelly and Alic Guiness and is mildly amusing. Kelly plays the Princess Alexandra whose mother is desperate to marry her off to the crown prince playd by Guiness. The princess has two younger brothers whoare being tutored at home. They short pants suits with with knee socks. The costuming is not quite right. It is set in the mid-19th century. Boys at the time did not wear short pants. Kneepants and knickers were becoming popular for boys, but not short pants, even longones like the boys wear. Soccer is also depicted, but this was not yet a major sport.
Lovely little made for TV movie about a young boy at a choir school. He is about 8 or 9. He loves the music, but his father who is divorcing his mother thinks that singing is sissy making the boy very unhappy. The boy has to sing a special solo which he objects to at first, but guided by a very sensitive teacher, he eventually comes to covet the part. He wears shorts and knee socks. Oliver Hickes? The film is based on a novel by the same name written by William Mayne. I recall seeing the film on TV several years ago. I do not remember much about it, but do recall that it was beautifully acted.
A con man meets his match in a backwater Australian town. His friend has a son who in the parts I saw was always wearing longs.
"Swell Guy" was one of any films made after World War II about GIs coming home. Returning GIs were generally pictured in a positive fashion. This was a bit of an exception. Jim Duncan (Sonny Tufts) who was a war corresondent is treated as a war hero and he milks it for all it is worth. He is, however, a dishonest con man. He in particlr takes advantageof his brother Martin (William Gargan). He even hit on Marin's wife Ann (Ruth Warrick). He tries to make moey by stageing fixed crap games and other schemes taking advantage of te trusting people in his home town. This esclates and he finally actually steals money--from the town charity for veterans no less. At the end of the film there is redemption as his nephews's life is in danger and only Jim can help. The film is based on a book, The Hero written by Gilbert Emery.
A hapless swim team hopes to end their 7-year losing streak.
Disney's somewhat sanitised effort Swing Kids is another movie dealing with the Hitler Youth. Movie set in NAZI Germany about apolitical youths in Hamburg. They want to dance to various non-Aryan swing artists (Benny Goodman, Count Base, etc.) and enjoy life, but are confronted by committed young NAZIs. The two protagonists are forced to join the HY, hoping they can pursue swing music at night. As the anti-Jewish atmosphere becomes increasingly strident, one of the boys watches his friend become increasingly committed to the NAZIs. Hitler Youth boys are seen in shorts, but I'm not sure to what extent they appear. The evocation of Nazi Germany is not very believable, but the costuming was quite elaborate. Promotions for the film explain that it's 1939 and NAZI Germany has "declared war on freedom", demanding conformity from its youth. Of course thisbdid not occur in 1939. But a group calling themselves Swing Kids rebel with their American "swing" music and dare to stand up against the poweful forces around them. Robert Sean Leonard (Dead Poets Society and Christian Bale (Empire of the Sun) deliver solid perormances in a flawed film. The two friends must choose between individual freedom and loyalty to the murderous Thuird Reich.
Freddie Bartholomew. Based on the story by Johann Wyss.
A shipwrecked family is marooned on an island, but build a peaceful paradise until pirates arrive. Francis (Kevin Corcoran), the younger boy, is the only one in long pants. He has bangs but the costuming is rather palin. Ernest (Tommy Kirk), the middle boy, is a teenager. Disney
The idyllic existence of a family stranded on an island is interrupted by a British mercenary.
"Bachelor's children," Time (December. 12, 1938).
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