Hats in Movies

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi,

This past week I watched movies featuring some pretty big hats on the ladies:

Ann Sothern in "Blind Date" is romanced by Neil Hamilton while wearing a hat with a big floppy brim in her face. Cute....

In "Upperclass", Mary Astor has on an impossibly tall black hat with brim and an even taller feather that keeps on colliding with the upper door frame at her costume ball. Funny....

Ann Harding finally appears in "It Happened on Fifth Avenue" arriving at an hotel and on her head is an enormous black satin donut hat, precariously lopsidedly balanced. Hilarious.....

In "Tender is the Night", Joan Fontaine first appers in a leopard skin toque and matching muff; and then later has on a large pink flying saucer hat with flamingo feathers all over it. What a hoot!!

Was this "Big Hat Week" at TCM???

Larry

[knitwit45]

Hi Larry.

I love seeing hats on women, I love wearing hats, but never seem to muster up the courage to sally forth in one. Seems sad that no one really 'dresses' anymore, I miss seeing men in suits, ladies in dresses with hats and gloves. One of the most gorgeous pieces of headwear ever was Audrey Hepburn's hat in How to Steal a Million. When I saw this movie in a theater, people actually gasped!

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi Nancy,

Yes, I remember seeing Audrey in that hat...
Certainly, she was a style setter and a great star! There's really nobody in the movies today to make you gasp - unless it's to say "Ugh"...

Larry

[Moraldo Rubini]

I love hats too. I'm awestruck, for instance, by the broken laws of physics that somehow keep the hat perched to the side of Eve Arden's head in Cover Girl. I wonder at all the marvelous Adrian hats worn on the extras in The Wizard of Oz. 'Twas the hat that led to the capitalistic downfall of Ninotchka! 'Twas the emerald green velvet hat that brought Scarlett O'Hara out of mourning! Hats are a cinematic carbon dating system. We recognize the cloche from the 1920's, and the Empress Eugenie hat that Gargo introduced in Romance and remained a sensation for women for the next decade. I even remember my father remarking that "every woman had to have an Empress Eugenie hat". How charming Judy Garland was as she flirtingly applied the handsome grey morning hat to Fred Astaire, so they could promenade 5th Avenue in Easter Parade. Hats brought another dimension to the actor's character. Dietrich's veils added to her mystery and allure; milliner Faye Bainter's pheasant feathers reflected her daffy quality in Presenting Lily Mars, Tommy Rettig's Dadaist beanie had Dr. Terilliker's hand rising from the skull with "happy fingers" ready to tickle the ivories ("It's atomic!"). My hat's off to you for bringing this up the subject, Larry.

[Vecchiolarry]

Thanks Marco,

And thanks for presenting so many other examples of hats in the movies!
Great observances...

Larry

[JackFavell]

[JackFavell]

Oh golly! I resized it but it's still huge! Sorry! Maybe it will shrink down a bit later....

[knitwit45]

[JackFavell]

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! That made me laugh out loud!

[intothenitrate]

I admit I'm not all that hat-savvy, but my Hats in Movies confession is my total weakness for that look in the early thirties that every woman seemed to wear. Short hair, permanent wave, and a smooth, form fitting hat that extended no more than an inch or two at the brim. Even within those narrowly defined parameters, there seemed to be an infinite variety. Like I said, I don't know what those are called--if there even is a name--but my heart melts every time I see a character in that style.

Sorry if that goes against the grain here...but I just LOVE it.

[JackFavell]

Do you mean like Jean Arthur in Mr. Deeds - the hat she is wearing when they spend their first night walking in the rain? I love that hat.


Here is a little bit better example:


Frankly, I think men never looked better than in the thirties when they were all sporting a fedora. I like the little brimless hats that women wore in the early thirtes - usually with a feather, a la Robin Hood.



Pat Patterson is wearing a lovely version of that Jean Arthur small brimmed hat. But Boyer, in my opinion wore the fedora better than anyone:


Give me a man in a newspaper reporter's hat and I'm in love! I can't resist. Heck, even Roscoe Karns and Frank McHugh look good in 'em.

[rudyfan]

Probably my all time favorite. I love me a fruit laden chapeau!

[klondike]

Cue Linda Ronstadt - Poor, poor, pitiful him!
Even when a pic flatters my ol' pal Frankie Jenks, you can still read it in his eyes: How many more tiny roles this year for me to stay ahead of the mortgage & the groceries?
Sometimes I ponder if perhaps he was so dang good playing bartenders & cabdrivers because he was actually working those jobs in between studio gigs!

[Uncle Stevie]

Please help me. I have a wonderful hat picture to post but I do not know how. Please help me.