Figure 1.--Billy Lee appears here in a military school uniform in the 1940 film, "The Road to Hapiness". |
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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.
Formulae Lassie movie. I didn't watch the whole thing, but I don't think any boys are involved showing 1960s fashions.
Billy Lee appears with actor John Boles. Billy Lee is wearing the typical dress of boys who attended military school in the late 30's. Boys attending boarding school were often depicted as going to military schools. Billy is seen dressed in military attire in a number of other films also, including "Mike Fright" (1934), "Sons of The Legion" (1938) and "Sudden Money" (1939)
Often cited as the first Soviet sound film. It deals with the orphaned, homeless children left in the wake of the Revolution and the subsequent war between the Reds and Whites. The film focuses on the difficult job of trying to educate the children.
The "Road to Perdition" was released in 2002. Many reviewers rave about the film. The production values are truly excellent and there are some find performances. Some reviewrs object to the violence and consider the production rather over-reaching. A HBC reader was impressed with the camera work. Everything about the film felt authentic, and even the acting was solemn and subtle, but never boring. One of the leads is a boy. His father is a gangster. He allows the boy to join the family business. The film is set in the 1930s and the period costuming is excellent. From cold weather gear, to every day attire, to "dress up"/Sunday Best clothes, to pajamas, collars and shirt prints, etc.
The boys wear knickers in the film, however, short pants are pictured in the original book illustrations.
Quirky but fact based little film focusing on a variety of actual scatological and quasi-medical procedures developed by Dr. Kellog, brother of the cereal magnate. The doctor running the institute is particularly taken with enemas among other procedures. The film has accurate turn of the century costuming.
Robin of Locksley is a modern adaptation of the adventures of Robin Hood. When a school friend from a poor family is injured and requires a series of operations, 16 years old Robin Mc Alister uses his
sophisticated electronic gadgetry and his own computer smarts to transfer money from a wealthy corporation to the friend's hospital fund.
George "Foghorn" Winslow" plays the little brother and in one scene he has to model a his sister's new party dress that has to be hemmed. His mother, sister, brother, and father all see him in the dress.
An elderly man is surrounded by his children and grandchildren for his birthday at a summer beach house. Some of the boys wear casual shorts, apprppriate for 1980s America. Every one cherishes the old man who was a screenwriter and blacklisted during the 1950s. The old man tells one of the grandchildren, Cy Blue Black (Macaulay Caulkin), that he wants a Vikings funeral. Cy is about 5 or 6 and plays his part quite nicely. He usually appears in shorts. The kids work on an old boat, "Rocket Gibraltar", which they want to present to him as a birthday present. The film had little impact when released, but is well done and worth seeing.
George "Foghorn" Winslow
One of the best D.H. Lawrence stories brought to the screen. A sensitive boy (John Howard Davies) receives a toy rocking horse for Christmas. He is about 10 years old, but he acts much younger. He says "Mummy" and still is cared for by a nanny with his little sisters. A boy with younger sisters was probably likely to be kept under a nanny longer than would be the case normally. The boy can predict the winners of horse races and helps his family gain financial security. He is dressed in shorts and knee socks and usually wears proper sandals. I can think of few movies where a boy is so extensively shown in shorts, especially cord shorts which I think are rarely depicted in the movies. He also get's dressed up in a short pants suit which he wears without socks, but with his sandals. The boy plays his part very well. If I remember right he dies at the end, very sad story. John Howard Davies and John Mills.
Silvester Stallone's son (Sage) plays Rocky's son. He is about 13 or so. There is no notable costuming, hardly worth sitting through a Rocky movie to see.
A divorced computer programmer tries to impress his son and set a new world's record for nonstop roller skating.
A man searches for his sons after being released from a 4-year prison term.
Franco Zeffirelli's "Romeo and Juliet" is a beautiful production of the Shakespeare play. In the text Juilet is said to be 14 years old, and although Shakespeare gives no definite age
for Romeo, he is clearly a teenage boy (probably about 17). The roles were played by Leonard Whiting as Romeo and Olivia Hussey as Juliet. The costuming is sumputous and depicts late medieval-early Renaissance Italian dress very accurately. The young men all wear very short doublets with stockings (very much like modern tights). Romeo wears doublets--velvet short jackets worn over rather full white shirts. The doublets have semi-detachable sleeves so that part of the shirt can be seen underneath. This was typical dress for a youth of Romeo's age and affluent class.
Trevor Morgan was "The Rookie", starring Dennis Quaid. He plays Quaid's charactor as a 12-year old. The costuming was pretty accurate for the period, especially the baseball uniform he wore. He wore button-up shirts and blue jeans. His little brother wore the same kind of shirt with Bermuda-legenth shorts.
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This was George "Froghorn" Winslow's first film and it starred Cary Grant and Betsy Drake as parents of a family which included their own children and several adopted children. Betsy Drake played a child psychologist who combined love and discipline beautifully as a mom. Cary Grant as dad was not always so sure of his wife's theories, but he always consented to her wishes with good humor. They have three kids of their own generously open their home to two foster children. This was George "Foghorn" Winslow's first film. He was about 5 and recommended by Cary Grant who stared in the film about a couple that can't resist adopting hard to place children. It is one of the better-costumed American films. The family has three children, including two boys. George plays "Teeny" beautifully with his astute dead-pan seriousness. He wears shorts short pants throughout, even in the dead of winter. He has a little boy suit with a collarless Eton-type jacket. He doesn't wear knee socks. He has an older brother who is 11 or 12 and appears several times in a short pants scout uniform, even in the winter scenes! On two occasions he appears with many other short panted scouts. He also appears in play shorts, but interestingly his chums are all wearing longs. His dress suit, however, has longs. The family takes in an obnoxious girl. The next foster child is a boy, who is about 12. He is aflicted with polio. The storyline includes the problems (and their resolution) of each of the
adopted children, but this boy's difficulties received more film time. Like the girl he is obnoxious. In one scene after a little smacking, he takes off all his clothes and takes off down the street. As it is an American film, it is all very discrete. He eventually fits in nicely and becomes a model boy and scout. He appears in play shorts and then in a scout uniform. He even goes on a long winter hike all bundled up in a winter jacket, but in shorts! When he gets his new suit, he shows it off proudly, says "longies just like Popis'." None of the older boys wear short pants suits. The older of Cary and Betsy's two sons is an active Boy Scout (played by Patrick Curtis), and the adopted boy, the polio victim, joins the troop, eventually becoming an eagle scout. His determination
to overcome his affliction and be one of the troop are quite moving, and his eagle scout award ceremony really touches the heart. The scouts wear both long and short trousers uniforms in the film. They may have been a bit ahead of their time in opting for the
shorts uniform at one of the troop meetings and the award ceremony. The boys wear T shirts and shorts and a high topped sneakers on vacation, but otherwise sports shirts and long trousers typical of the early 50's. Curriously if I remember correctly, the handicapped boy goes on a long hike in the dead of winter in the short pants uniform. At a dance party, the boys wore long trousers suits and ties. In much of the film the boys wear long sleeved sports shirts and long trousers, and lace-up shoes, typical of the early '50s in the U.S.
See "The Wild Reeds".
This Angela Landsbury film is in the same vein as Gypsey and Aunty Mame. It is theoretically a syory about Louise Randall Pierson. The story is a bit hokey, but an enjoyable 1940s Hollywood film. It is about an early turn of the century girl who sets out to persue life as a modern woman and encounters numerous road blocks. We first see her a young independent-minded teenager. She goes to business school, famces some trouble with her first boss, and winds up with a famoily of four, two boys and a girl. The children are seen playing. One boys wears short pants and kneesocks and the other overalls. The difference is not addressed in the film. Polio strikes the family. Her first husband can take the challenge when combined with the loss of his job and her modern spirit. The younger boy is later seen in a sailor cap and suit while his older brother wears a flat cap and suit. Later both boys wear knickers. The children are played by quirte a number of young actors as they, but included are Johnny Caukins and John Sheffield.
Claude Jarman Jr. was 14-15 years old.
"The Round Up" / "La Rafle" is a 2010 French film about the first big operation against the Jews in France. This is a topic most French film makers have avoided. It was directed by Roselyne Bosch and produced by Alain Goldman. The actors include Mélanie Laurent, Jean Reno, Sylvie Testud and Gad Elmaleh. It is an account of the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup (Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv) in Paris. The name comes from the biycycle stadium where those arrested were held in terrible conditions during the hot Paris summer. The events are depicted through they eyes of Joseph, an 11-year Jewish school boy, and are based based on true experiences and actual events. What Jseph does not know is that by mid-1942, the Germans have completed their killing infrastructure in Poland. They have begun killing Polish Jews in large numbers and are now ready for transports of Jews from the West. The French police knew where to look. French Jews had been carefully registered. And they were required to wear the yellow badges 'Juif' star-of-David badges to make them easier to pick up. The film begins as Joseph goes off the school wearing his badge. Some of the peoole he passes are sympatheic, others are hostile. Jo, his Jewish friends, their families, and begun to learn how to live in the new circumstances of anti-Semetic France under German rule. Many have lost their jobs and property, but they were still allive and not yet in camps. Some have takjen shelter on the Butte Montmartre. Than everything changes without warning (July 16, 1942). The Paris police (not the Germans) suddenly begin the mass arrests of Jews. Some 13,000 men, women, and children are cramed into the Vélodrome D'Hiver. The film ranges from Vel' d'Hiv, to Vichy and the Berghof where the fate of these and others Jews are being decided.
We see both the unsuspecting victims and their murderes. Some managed to flee and hide. Others not understanding the machinery of murder that had been organized followed instructions.
Eight year old Ivan Olsen, a timid grade school boy, is teased by the school bully, tyrannized by his insensitive teachers, and pestered by his Tarzan-fan father. He only begins to learn his own self worth when he is befriended by a nearby dock worker. Eric Roberts, Alex Svanbjerg, Otto Brandenburg, Peter Schoder.
James Neubauer was in Rumor of Angels which opened at the Toronto Film Festival.
A boy (Wille Aames) who is about 12 finds a runaway elephant. No interesting costumes. He goes swimming in ridiculously long bathing trunks. Disney made for TV movie.
A made for TV movie is about an injured boy being raised and over protected by two women. The movie itself unfortunately has a typically ridiculous American premise based on the fathers detective work. Fred Savage did as well with his part as could be expected. He appears in short pants at the beginning. His mother calls out of the window to warn him not to run and hurt himself. He calls his screen father "daddy", unusual even for younger boys. By the 1980s many kids played in some sort of organize youth sports and thus had uniforms. In one scene he was sent to change out of his baseball uniform. "I'm a kid, kids don't smell."
Some reviewers were impressed with Marl Lester's performance in this film. One reported, "Mark Lester, the endearing Oliver of "Oliver!", is charming and affecting as the blond, inhibited boy desperate to communicate who finally finds his voice and the communication he yearns for through his colt and patient friends."
True story of a poor mother's struggle to collect back child support from her estranged husband, a man believed dead for several years.
This Kalem Studio silent film has a cast includng Judson Melford.
Johnnie Thomas is a lonely, unhappy boy on the run from a foster home. He befriends Yama, an escaped leopard from an animal park. A tender, hopeful story unfolds.
River Pheonix plays a 17-year old breaking away from his family. His parents bombed a factory in the 1960s and have been running from the law ever since. River plays his part beautifully. He wears glasses in the film. He had become a very proficient actor. He has a younger brother in the film, but I don't know anything about him.
Three boys in Miami attempt to take a stranded Russian sailor to Cuba. Rather an inanely done movie, but the boys are interesting and are a good illustration of contemprary dress patterns. Actually they play their parts quite well, it is a shame to waste their efforts on such a poor movie. I don't know of any especially interesting scenes, but the father of one of the boys remembers growing up in Hungary and remembers still being in short pants when his father was killed. At the end of the film Leaf Phenoix wears short pants. Chris Makepease, Peter Billinsley, and Leaf Phenoix.
A Soviet submarine runs aground off Nantucket. Several boys are involved, but I don't remember any interesting costumes.
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