Posts tagged ‘fur stole’

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2009/11/22

Furs in Film – Blond Cheat

Another lower wattage star power film today. Though not Born Reckless, it features a young Joan Fontaine prior to the height of her career. Blond Cheat is from 1938 and is about rich people, so they could have cast any random starlet, and the costume department would have had a winner on their hands.

Blond Cheat – The Film

A slightly more twisty pot in this one than the usual boy-meets-girl thing. An officer in a loan company, Michael Ashburn (Derrick DeMarney) is tasked with safeguarding some very expensive diamond earrings. No big deal right, keep the little box in his pocket and he’s home free… But wait! The earrings are “non-removable” and currently attached to a young blond woman named Julie Evans (Joan Fontaine). Michael apparently isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, so he buys this and spends the evening with Julie, blowing off his social-climbing fiancee. That’s the first half hour, things get more complicated from there, but the one thing this film an every boy-meets-girl film has in common is Mike and Julie live happily ever after.

Blond Cheat – The Furs

This film has some great shorter fox in it, trims and wraps. During Mike and Julie’s first date Joan Fontaine wears one of those common silver fox stoles of the period, with head/legs still attached. They have a proper name, though my search through Google turned up mostly vintage eBay listings. I believe I may have mentioned before I have a kind of love/hate relationship with them, as I love them anytime the aforementioned head/legs aren’t visible. Blond Cheat is a bit of a tossup there, as it has scenes of both. Fortunately it is, by far, the least notable fur in the film.

This is Julie and Mike’s first “date”, as Mike virtuously safeguards the earrings. Here’s the silver fox fur stole, now visible only a blaze of thick fur across her right shoulder, one of the best ways to film this particular piece.

In another good shot, you can see Mike hasn’t lost track of those earrings yet. Not to be too nit-picky about the title of the film and Miss Fontaine, who is lovely, but there were a lot “blonder” actresses who could have done this role.

In order to dine and be arrested with Julie the previous evening, Mike blew off a date with his gold-digging fiance, Roberta Trent (Lilian Bond), who appears the next morning hunting him down. She appears in this lovely fox trimmed dress with a match fox muff.

And proceeds to smoke in an annoyed fashion with Mike as he tries to explain.

A little later thankfully Roberta hasn’t taken this outfit off, and we see a nice shot of the fox trim and matching muff as Mike meet’s with his fiancee’s equally gold digging parents. You will also notice the extremely long haired fur muff on Roberta’s mother, who is played by a woman named Cecil. Have to say I never cared for fur like this, as it simply is too long, and too much like human hair… which I am a big fan of, when it is on top of a lady’s head.

In a shorter sequence, as Julie and Roberta continue to spar over Mike, Roberta appears in this coat with a full silver fox fur collar.

Finally, Joan Fontaine appears in this white fox wrap in a dueling dinner date sort of set up. Not the largest ever seen, but a fine one nonetheless.

Not sure if this is the best fur in the film or Lilian Bond’s muff accessorized fox trim from earlier wins that prize. Sadly, for some of the fox wrap’s on-screen time; it’s shown mostly in the background of a wide shot.

There is this fine direct shot of the back for a few seconds.

To close things out the director of photography makes up the earlier wide shots with the cozy if “foggy” carriage ride where we see Joan wrapped up nicely with white fox.

This is another good film for fur runtime. Though I didn’t meticulously document each instance of their first encounter, Miss Fontaine remains costumed in her silver fox stole throughout her character’s first meeting with Mike Ashburn. Both the fox trimmed dress of Lilian Bond and the later white fox wrap on Joan both appear in two scenes instead of one. The barely over 60 minute runtime also helps out there.

Fur Runtime: approx 15 minutes
Film Runtime: 62 minutes
On-Screen Fur Ratio: 24%

Should note both Lilian Bond and Joan Fontaine have brief smoking in fur sequences as well.

The Gallery: Fur Fashions of the 1938 film Blond Cheat

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2009/10/25

Furs in Film – The Hotel New Hampshire

Were I possessed of any sense of timing, this would have been a great week to post the Dr. Phibes update. Halloween, etc… Lacking any suitable alternatives from the horror genre (again, not a lot of furs there, and “SyFy” doesn’t show Dracula’s Daughter anymore); I’ll go with young Jodie Foster in fox fur stoles. Never a bad fall back position. The film in question is The Hotel New Hampshire. It’s notable to me because I’ve capped it multiple times, and I still have no clue what’s happening in this movie no matter how many times I fast forward through it.

The Hotel New Hampshire – The Film

Off to Wikipedia, where I learn the film is based on a book of the same name by John Irving. Then I read the plot summary of the film on Wikipedia and quickly realize why I’ve never really been able to put everything together since it seems there’s enough material in there for eight different films. There’s at least 2 different Hotels New Hampshire, a plot to blow up the Vienna State Opera, and very “non-traditional” family interaction. This isn’t the first R-rated film I’ve profiled, but it’s the first one that suggests I actually point that out.

The Hotel New Hampshire – The Furs

With the massive amount of “stuff” that happens, it’s fortunate the costumers were well aware that it was 1984 and, accordingly, provided a fine selection of nice, thick fox furs, and one coyote. The latter is featured most prominently in a few scenes, whereas Jodie Foster’s fox stoles are not quite as lovingly documented.

On the one hand, attempting to set up the backstory of each sequence with this film is tricky due to sheer mass of said backstory, so for this one, let’s go with… nice looking blush fox collar:

In the second Hotel New Hampshire, in Austria, John Berry (Rob Lowe) encounters one of the ladies of easy virtue that lodges there. Again, it’s 1984 and we follow the “all hookers wear fox” rule.

John Berry, amongst the myriad other plot threads for his character, is in love with his sister, Franny (Jodie Foster), so he resists the temptation, something the hooker doesn’t particularly appreciate.

After the whole terrorist plot to blow up something in Vienna part of the film ends, the family returns to the states, with “Susie the Bear” in tow. Susie is played by Nastassja Kinski, who did this film right after the remake of Unfaithfully Yours, another film that I should put up here someday.


Susie spent a lot of time in a bear costume, thus the “the Bear” part of her name, so the fact that she wears this coyote fur coat a lot is probably “significant.” I agree, because it’s Natassja Kinski in a big coyote fur coat, and that is significant. It would only be more significant if it were fox.


We now get to what the intro paragraph teased, Jodie Foster in a black fox fur stole. In the film, Franny Berry writes a book and becomes famous. Then she writes another one and becomes less-famous. This is the press conference where the latter fact is driven home.


Jodie storms off, her stole complimenting the primary red suit jacket nicely. A combination of a fox dyed that color and the stole would have worked better, I think.


Later, as more massive amounts of plot have happened, Susie and John get together for another chat, giving us another opportunity to see Natassja in fur.


Franny eventually marries a guy from high-school that, eons ago in this film, helped break up a little a non-consensual sex act. White fox as a bridal fashion accessory just isn’t as common as it should be, even back then.


This is John hugging Franny, which is awkward for all sorts of reasons, not the least of which are those shorts.


Eons later in the film, Franny has committed suicide and the surviving members of the family mourn, including Susie, who shows up one last time in her big coyote fur coat.


Suffice to say, there’s stuff in The Hotel New Hampshire that could make viewers of a more delicate constitution a bit uncomfortable. So, fairly warned be thee, says I. Still, it’s a good flick for the number of furs, and especially for 80′s sex symbol Natassja Kinski in the big coyote stroller. I would have put Kinski in a fox instead of a coyote, but if you really need to see her in a full length fox for a long time, that’s what the 1984 version of Unfaithfully Yours is for.

The Furs of The Hotel New Hampshire – Full Gallery

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2009/10/18

Furs in Film – The Dolly Sisters

Films show up here for 2 reasons, what I’ve come to call “1 Epic Fur” or “Fur Overload.” 1 Epic Fur is pretty obvious, that’s the The Great Bank Hoax from last week, or the poster child of the entire “genre” The Awful Truth. Fur Overload is the Roberta‘s of film, a bunch of good stuff all in one place. Sometimes there are crossovers, such as The Dolly Sisters, which is loaded with beautiful furs, and anchored by something that would make it noteworthy if there weren’t a single other fur in the entire film.

The Dolly Sisters – The Film

The film The Dolly Sisters is a biopic of the real Dolly Sisters, who were identical twins famous for working in early film and on Broadway in the early 19th Century. Though the original sisters were identical twins (and brunettes), there wasn’t a spare Betty Grable laying around so in the film, the sisters aren’t quite so identical. June Haver fills in as the other sister, and she looks quite a bit like Betty, though no one is going to confuse the two. The film traces their rise from Hungarian emigrants to stardom, though the ending is a bit happier than it was in reality, especially for Jenny Dolly.

The Dolly Sisters – The Furs

This film is full of great fur fashion, though one particular piece does stand out above all the rest. Since it’s better to save it up for the end, so to speak, I’m going to run through the furs outside of the film’s chronological order. I’m also going to shamelessly add something that I know isn’t really fur, but looks pretty good nonetheless. The Dolly Sisters is well stocked all around, in terms of both the stars and supporting characters in lovey foxes and another furs.

We do open somewhat chronologically with the Sisters Dolly, Betty Grable and June Haver, doing a little command performance set up by Uncle Latsie (S.Z. Sakall playing the “S.Z. Sakall role”). Yes, those are feathers, not fur, but ultimately they’re meant to be evocative of fur, and they’re nice and big, and pastel, so I’m including them.

This film is interesting in that Betty Grable doesn’t show up in gray fox, something her costume designers saw fit to wrap her in many times over her film career (Moon over Miami, Down Argentine Way, etc.). Gray fox does make an appearance in this reasonably short sequence.

As the Dolly sisters grow in prominence, they do some shows in Paris. These ladies appear as part of the opening to one of their stage performances. Not sure why they decided to divorce the cigarette holder from the white fox stole.

The sisters, successful, return home in these heavily mink trimmed coats. When the “trim” is the entire sleeve, that’s trim I can love. The big shawl collars are a perfect match.

This is Jenny Dolly’s love interest Harry Fox (John Payne), and her romantic rival in the story, Lenora Baldwin (Trudy Marshall), tastefully outfitted in a fox stole the likes of which probably wasn’t all that common for the time period, but these are the kind of anachronisms I enjoy the most.

We’re going to skip to the happy ending of the film for a moment, where many Jenny and Harry reunite at the big show. Here’s the show’s MC, who’s got an excellent white fox collar going on there.

Lenora holds onto Harry, oblivious that she’s about to lose this little romantic entanglement. It’s hard to tell here, but she’s wearing a black fox stole over her arm.

Better close up of the MC’s fox collar. No, can’t remember who this is, but she wears “giant white fox collar” well.

Close up of Trudy Marshall as Lenora, with the black fox stole on her shoulder this time.

Here’s the best shot of the stole and the collar together. The black fox stole has a full three tiers, very nice and full, and makes for a nice juxtaposition to the big white fox collar.

And here we are, the reason The Dolly Sisters would be on this site if there weren’t a single other fur in the film. This coat is technically only “trim” but this is my favorite kind… the kind where is damn hard to tell it’s only trim.

Fortunately the director of photography was obviously no dummy, and set up this shot just to show off this beauty in its entirety. As you can see, it is in fact an enormous set of white fox cuffs and huge fox collar, backed up by the trim along the sweep of the coat.

Closer now, the ¾ shot gives us the perfect view of the best part of this coat, the collar and cuffs in all their silky white glory.

This part of the film chronicles a real incident in Jenny Dolly’s life, a car accident in 1933. Perhaps the date explains the giant white fox coat.

In the movie Jenny loses control of the car and she, and this amazing white fox coat, careens over a cliff. In the movie she awakens later with a band-aid on her face.

In the film, Jenny Dolly recovers fully and reunites with her man at the show with the MC and her white fox collar shown earlier above. The Dolly Sisters is a musical from 1945, so happy endings were pretty much mandatory. The reality was that after the wreck and the subsequent set of surgeries (not just a band-aid), the real Jenny Dolly hung herself in her hotel room in 1941. Yeah, that would have been a bit of a downer ending for a big budget musical, so they played around a little with the facts. Historical inaccuracies aside, the film provides a great showcase for fur fashion, and the massive white fox trimmed coat from Jenny’s accident is one of the best you’ll find anywhere.

Full Gallery – Fur Fashions of The Dolly Sisters

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2009/09/07

Furs in Film – Lady Be Good

Lady Be Good – The Film

An Oscar winning film you’ve probably never heard of, mostly because there’s a bunch of Oscars most people don’t consider all that memorable and they’ve been around for along time, thus the winner for Best Original Song in 1942 isn’t really what get’s featured on the usual Oscar B-reel. That would be Lady Be Good, by the way, for the song “The Last Time I Saw Paris.”

The movie itself, like many musicals, is about a struggling songwriting team, played by Ann Southern and Robert Young, who end up writing a big hit, and making the big time. Like, for some strange reason, many of the films I’ve profiled here, they end up getting a divorce because of all that fame. If classic Hollywood has taught me anything, it’s “get a divorce, you’ll encounter women in great fur coats along the way.” Naturally this little hiccup in their relationship doesn’t outlast the third act, and everyone gets married again, and, depending on your views about marriage, lives happily ever after.

Lady Be Good – The Furs

This is another good example of an early ’40′s film costumed like it’s 1939. The film features both Ann Southern and top bill Elanor Powell in large foxes, including some white fox that would be rare in the next ten or thirty years or so. Two very large white foxes appear, in fact, one a coat, one a wrap, as well as a silver fox wrap, that, thankfully, portends the end of fashion’s love affair with the head and legs remaining attached to any combination of silver fox and stole. Those stoles were the sour pill in an otherwise perfect decade of fur fashion.

Newly successful songwriting team of Dixie Donegan (Southern) and Eddie Crane (Young) zip to their societal rounds in whatever passes for a limo at the time. Dixie is wrapped up in a big white fox wrap with veil that accents it well.

Eddie leaves Dixie behind to continue clubbing. Eddie’s hard partying ways will eventually lead to, you guessed it, divorce for the happy couple. I’d like to point out, briefly, I love the name Dixie Donegan.

Bending over to say hello to the doggie is Elenor Powell, playing the equally alliterative but less interestingly named Marilyn Marsh. I put this up mostly because in the still, though it looks like Ann Southern has bunny ears, it’s just her feet.

The costume designer liked veils in this flick, as Elenor displays her black net veil as a complement to her silver fox wrap. Bonus points awarded for the matching black gloves, of course. She’s a long, slim cigarette holder away from perfection.

The cast assembles at the justice of the peace, or maybe a minister. The finer points are hazy to me at this point. Though I’m sure mink fans are pleased, I must state Elenor’s mink get’s a buy because of Ann’s fox.

Not sure why they insisted on the heavy metal breaking up the lines on the fox, I could certainly do with out it, but it doesn’t sully the overall product too much. A rare example of a large white fox coat in the 40′s.

Overall, the 1941 Lady Be Good was positively epic for the time. If the costumer designer was stuck in the 30′s, that’s fine by me. I wish costume designers were still stuck in the 30′s. I have noticed a conspicuous lack of white fox trimmed dresses on prime time television and films these days. Really, would it be so conspicuous if Claire Bennet’s cheerleader outfit was made of fox, or Kara Thrace lounged around the ready room in a crystal fox flight jacket? No, not at all. Oops, my genre cred is showing.

And… here’s a link to the full Lady Be Good Gallery.

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2009/08/14

Monore and Grable in White Fox

Marilyn Monroe and Betty Grable wearing white fox fur to the premier of How to Marry a Millionaire. Fox wraps and stoles were generally the best you could do in the mink dominated world of 50′s Hollywood, and these are some great examples:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22078413@N02/3815833663/

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2009/01/22

Furs on TV – Knots Landing

Soap.net abandoned me a while back. I knew I was in trouble the minute I saw commercials for 90210 appearing. As I knew it would, the network’s line-up was slowly overtaken by 90′s soaps. With the exception of 60 minutes in the wee hours of the morning for Ryan’s Hope (more on that later), the network is devoid of any worthwhile programming.

Knots Landing – The Show

I was at the time coming off taping Dallas after having done Dynasty. All the while Knots Landing ran concurrently. I knew it was a long lasting show, and that my odds of it being replayed from the beginning were low, but I kept my focus on the big 2. So what I have of Knots runs from about season 3 until… well, until the 90′s happened and ruined fur on television. So there may be a few choice moments I missed, but this gallery represents most of the “decent” furs ever seen on the show.

Knots Landing was adapted as a Dallas spin-off, about a cul-de-sac in the LA burbs of the same name. Climate wise, it was no Denver, and wardrobe wise it wasn’t either. Still, as an 80′s nighttime soap, the humble residents of this particular suburban cul-de-sac did wrap up very glamorously from time to time, lead mostly by Donna Mills who arrived in season 2 to pump up the fur count much like Joan Collins in Dynasty.

Knots Landing – The Furs

Fitting that Donna starts us off then, in a coat with a full lynx collar and cuffs. Abby Ewing’s “signature” heavy eye makeup is on display here and everywhere (or it wouldn’t have been much of a signature). I never watched Knots as a kid, so it wasn’t exactly her fault I find it exceptionally “enticing.” I now understand most females find it exceptionally “slutty.”

Fur stoles. Perhaps the costumers were trying to work with the climate and still fit fur in, thus there were quite a few fox fur stoles on display in Knots Landing. Here Donna in blue fox…

…and Constance McCashin in crystal fox.

Joan Van Ark’s character was central to the show, and since she wasn’t meant to be a member of the gliteratti, she rarely ended up in fur. This hurt Knots’ overall fur quotient. Where as Dynasty’s female cast seemed to compete to wear the most, outside of Abby, the pickings on Knots were slim. Here’s Val in a rare red fox coat.

To say Donna’s character Abby got the best furs is a bit unfair, since she got the most, but Constance McCashin’s Laura Sumner did have some memorable ones, especially this large lynx fur coat.

Val’s “other” notable fur was another stole, this one in white fox.

Michele Lee’s character Karen was in the same boat as Val, a regular ole housewife who wasn’t supposed to look glamorous. Thus she rarely got any fur. This black fox stole was one of her only notable appearances on the show wearing fur.

Back to the really good stuff, with Abby wearing a big full length blue fox coat while engaging in what is no doubt completely innocent chit-chat with a shirtless male. It does appear he’s happy to see her like that, though.

Getting later into the show the furs became very few and far between. Fortunately when they did appear, they were worth it. Here’s Donna Mills in lovely full length lynx fur coat.

Paper Dolls didn’t work out, so Nicollette Sheridan found more long term work here on Knots Landing. Sadly she didn’t show up until 86, and she only got one decent fur, but boy, was it decent…

Here’s a perfect illustration of why I generally don’t bother capture mink images in any form. This is Michelle Phillips in a full length black mink playing Nicollette’s character’s mother, with daughter Paige in the background. To me, there’s no contest. Nicollete’s huge, thick, full length beauty screams youth and passion, fire and energy with more than a hit of sensuality. Michelle might as well be going to church.

Of the big 80′s nighttime soaps, Knots was certainly the poor cousin to Dallas and Dynasty in the fur department. The core problem was the setting and characters, most of whom weren’t ever meant to be quite as “flashy.” They were housewives living on a suburban cul-de-sac. Probably should be happy the overall 80′s aesthetic blended as much fur into the show as it did. Comparatively, they’ve certainly run a higher fur-per-episode count than similarly themed Desperate Housewives. Oh, what a difference a couple decades make.

Full Gallery: Furs on Television – Knots Landing

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2008/11/27

Furs in Film – Lady of Burlesque

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

As a follow on to a decade of awesome fur fashion, the 1940′s stunk nearly as much as the 90′s. Their only redeeming grace, the fact fur didn’t simply vanish, it simply became far more conservative. Mink ruled the day, in coats and jackets. Elegant and… boring. I refer to it as “church fur”. The one’s the old ladies could be found in on freezing Sunday mornings. Fortunately there’s a few beacons of power fur to be found.

Lady of Burlesque – The Film

Perhaps Barbara Stanwyck’s aura of power fox held over from the 30′s just long enough to influence the costumers on Lady of Burlesque. Perhaps it was the more “bawdy” burlesque setting. Either way, 1943′s Lady of Burlesque featured a few notable foxes shining in a sea of otherwise dour mink to be found in the neighboring theaters.

Based on the novel The G-String Murders by notable burlesque queen Gypsy Rose Lee, Lady of Burlesque stars Stanwyck as Dixie Daisy. Dixie stands in for Lee, who starred in her own novel, solving the g-string strangulations of a couple of strippers in a converted opera house, aided by her would-be comedian boyfriend.

Lady of Burlesque – The Furs

Dixie is pestered by Biff Brannigan (Michael O’Shea) before her opening number, which will prominently feature this huge white fox fur muff with long tails.

Dixie opens the show with “Take it off the A string, Play it on the G String”. Hampered by censors, the suggestive nature of the song isn’t quite lived up to in the dance, but Dixie accentuates her movements with the huge fox muff nicely

The movement of the tails during the dance is a nice touch, though the giant silver bird covering up the body of the muff is an annoying distraction. Why hide such a great piece of fox?

Later Dixie and Biff meet for drinks at the bar. Dixie wears a large cape or jacket that looks to be a very plush fox, though may be coyote. Color can be useful from time to time.

This scene is an example of a good director of photography. During the entire sequence Barbara Stanwyck and her fox fur are almost never out of frame.

Their conversation at the bar switches between 2 angles, but never letting Barbara leave frame. This technique should be mandatory for any shot with a beautiful lady in a beautiful fur talking chatting with some idiot male.

You know that lovely stereotype of the haughty Russian vamp in fur with a long cigarette holder? Here’s Stephanie Bachelor as “Princess Nirvena.”

The Princess, much like Ginger Rogers’ Countess Scharwenka isn’t quite the old world royalty she claims to be, but that doesn’t stop Stephanie from tearing up the scenery with her accent, fur stole, and cigarette holder.

Close up of the Princess. Miss Bachelor’s look here is prefect, though it could certainly use even more fur.

Princess Nirvena and Dixie meet briefly before Dixie goes on stage. The Princess Nirvena in her dark fox stole and Dixie in a white fox stole, perhaps a less than subtle play on their characters’ inner natures.

Dixie and company do a comedy bit which segues into a dance number during some backstage commotion. The white fox stole is gamely flung about much like the fox muff in the opening number. Though I’m not really a fan of the “mask” and “paws” style that was common for stoles back then.

Lady of Burlesque is definitely a novelty for the use of large fox furs in the 40′s. That alone is worth notice. Stephanie Bachelor’s pitch perfect smoking, fur-clad faux Russian vamp could have used a much bigger fox for her outfit, but that is a small nitpick. Though Barbara gets the better furs overall, Stephanie steals this one.

Fur Film Gallery – Lady of Burlesque

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2008/11/13

Furs in Film – Morning Glory

Did two color posts in row, how did that happen? Let’s get back to the 30′s, where the financial analysts of today get all their Depression predictions from. One hopes it won’t take another one of those to usher in a new period of mega fox fashion in Hollywood.

Fortunately, the 1933 Katharine Hepburn film Morning Glory provides a couple huge fox furs in case they need an example.

Morning Glory – The Film

Adapted from the play “Zoe Adkins” by Howard j. Green, Morning Glory tells the tale of Eva Lovelace, a young actress with aspirations of becoming a Broadway star but little in the way of experience. After being passed over in auditions she meets Adolphe Menjou, playing a theatre coach who agrees to give her a few pointers on the whole “acting” thing. Back when this wasn’t complete cliché, Eva ends up going from bit part to star when the leading lady throws a tantrum and quits.

Morning Glory – The Furs

Eva tries to break into Broadway by going to auditions. Unfortunately, more experienced, and better dressed actresses are there ahead of her. Geneva Mitchell as Gwendoline Hall relaxes in this large fox stole and muff combo when noticing Eva in the waiting room.

Eva’s attempts to chat up Gwendoline aren’t well received. This closeup of Geneva in the fox stole is excellent.

Gwendoline finishes up her audition and meets Rita Vernon on the way out. Rita is played by Mary Duncan, and wears a nice chinchilla jacket and muff.

Rita and Gwendoline appear delighted to meet one another at the same audition.

But they are actresses, after all…

Rita secures the lead the role in the play, and provides us this nice closeup of the collar of her chinchilla jacket in the process.

We move to the end of the film, after Rita walks out and Eva steps up to become the star. Since Katharine Hepburn never really faded from the public eye like many of the screen legends of her day, it’s sometimes hard to picture her during the time became famous. This is Katharine Hepburn at age 26, wearing an enormous white fox wrap.

The white fox fur wrap is technically just white fox trimmed, but the trim is that lovely enormous kind that make the golden sequined body of the wrap a mere distraction to the thick, fluffy fur.

Hepburn in close up, face surrounded by white fox. Screen legend, indeed. She won her first Oscar for this role, and I think the white fox may have helped.

From a fur fashion perspective, Morning Glory is an uneven film. It starts with Geneva and Mary in their audition furs and drys up until Katherine appears at the end in that massive white fox fur wrap. The nice thing about the wrap is Miss Hepburn spends the remainder of the film wearing it. The final scene plays out backstage after her successful turn in the staring role, and lasts a good five to ten minutes.

Fur Film Gallery – Morning Glory.

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2008/11/06

Furs In Film – Let’s Do It Again

The fact that there was a 50 year gap between the 30′s and 80′s is troubling to say the least for those of waiting for the next fashion cycle to look kindly upon the idea of huge fur coats. This is not to say though that those 40 years were completely devoid of “inspirational” furs. (Admittedly, the 70′s weren’t half bad.)

Let’s Do It Again – The Film

I’ve found the 50′s, though somewhat hung up on shorter haired, far more conservative fur coats, to have been a heyday of very large fox stoles. From 1953, Let’s Do It Again boasts one of the single largest ever committed to film. Why? Perhaps it isn’t coincidence that Let’s Do It Again is based on the same play as an earlier film, 1937′s The Awful Truth.

Like many 50′s remakes, this one is a musical, and again takes us down the madcap, zany path of jealousy and divorce. Jane Wyman fills in for Irene Dunne as Connie Stuart, married (and remarried later) to Gary, played by Ray Milland. Connie intends to make her husband jealous with a hayseed named Frank McGraw played by Aldo Ray. Divorce and eventual reconciliation ensue. Who cares, on with the fur…

Let’s Do It Again – The Furs

Jane Wyman starts things off with a comparatively conservative gray fox wrap. This richly gray fox is a fur Betty Grable was put in quite a bit.

I won’t belabor the wrap, it’s a fine “appetizer”.

This is the “main course.” Four tiers of floor length blush fox stole. The sheer size of this mega fox is fully revealed when first encountered.

Though the massive white fox coat from The Awful Truth slips away far too soon, the remake does a fine job of showcasing this beauty from all angles.

Another closer show, giving a peak into the rich depths of the full blush fox fur.

Jack gives Connie a ride back home. The giant fox stole covers virtually every inch of Jane Wyman.

Finally they arrive, where hi-jinks ensue and eventually Miss Wyman sheds this wonderful piece for good.

The stole may be the showcase fur, but Let’s Do It Again isn’t completely finished. Later Connie visits a party in particularly “sexy” mood, donning this ensemble of fur wrap, fur muff, and long cigarette holder.

The sequence is short, but incredibly sensual as she vamps down the hallway wearing the furs and the holder.

I’m not certain what kind of fur this is. Seen it on Kay Francis before, and it’s certainly very full and visually appealing. The large fur muff is quite memorable.

A petty gripe with Let’s Do It Again would have to be Jane Wyman’s signature hairstyle. Readers may be able to infer I’m not a particular fan of severely short hairstyles. A couple extra feet of rich brunette would have settled nicely on that giant fur stole.

Fur on Film Gallery – Let’s Do It Again

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2008/09/26

Furs in Film – Roberta

This series of posts will focus on a single film, one in which fur fashion is notably well represented. This set is based on a recent update of one of the first galleries.  I’m leaving both galleries up, just to see how much better I am at this than I used to be.

First in the series is the 1935 film Roberta. Roberta is based on a 1933 Broadway musical of the same name, which, in turn, was based on a novel by Alice Duer Miller named Gowns by Roberta. Unlike today, when novels go straight to film, there was a more common interlude on Broadway.

The Film

Roberta the film is basically the story of a football player John Kent inheriting a noted Paris fashion house after his aunt Roberta passes away. This kind of thing happens all the time, of course. The football player happens to fall in love with the chief designer, played by Irene Dunne. The plot takes the usual boy-meet-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-and-girl-reunited twists. The important part is this particular Paris fashion house of 1935 shows some great furs.

The Furs

Ginger Rogers, playing Lizzie Gatz playing Countess Scharwenka, opens the show with a nice silver fox trimmed outfit.

Countess Scharwenka is soon the victim of the kind of statistical improbability that can occur only on film, in that old beau Huck Haines from Indiana is tagging behind his football playing pal with his band. She ups the glamor quotient with a lovely cigarette holder when confronted by Huck about her “exotic origins.”

The first fashion interlude features some decent stuff. This long, multi-tailed silver fox stole is one.

This is a beauty with huge collars and cuffs, possibly coyote or more likely blush fox, but lacking color its difficult to tell.

The Countess and Huck watch this show from the sidelines, with the Countess still draped in some fur of her own.

Later, in the “boy-experiences-conflicting-emotions-about-the-arrival-of-an-old-girlfriend” phase of the love story, Sophie, John Kent’s old girlfriend, shows up. She’s a rich snob, so fortunately for us, that means a very full lynx collar on her coat. It receives all the attention it deserves as she plays the entire scene in it.

This phase of the romance doesn’t last long, but long enough for John to dump Sophie in her “bad outfit”. Personally, I find quite a bit to like in the big black fox trim on this gown.

The “big show” at the end starts with quite a few beauties. This is a an extremely youthful Lucile Ball, yes the I Love Lucy one, in a big feathery coat whose origins I can’t even guess on. Before she got a bit older, and a lot more annoying, Miss Ball was an amazing beauty during her film run in the 30′s.

A few more, including this long sliver fox cape that is, unfortunately, completely removed in order to show off the far less interesting gown underneath.

Finally the “climax” of the film and the film’s furs, this custom gown with one of the largest white fox wrap/collars in recorded history. My jaw dropped on seeing this for the first time. I’d argue this is one of the top 10 film furs of all time.

If it had been shown only briefly, perhaps the legend wouldn’t be quite so sweet, but this is a musical, and this is a musical number. This mammoth white fox gets the screen time it deserves, from close up to this perfect framing shot that provides the best vantage to drool over this beauty.

Gratuitous bonus shot, because if any fur deserves it, this one does.

Ending here would have been fine for all concerned, but what makes Roberta the film worthy this recognition is that it’s not quite over yet. Ginger arrives stage left in another sliver fox cape, this one with a wonderfully high collar and heavy, thick cuffs. Though it’s removed with a sad amount of haste, it’s still a lovely addition.

Finally, Irene Dunne appears in this rather modest outfit at the very end, as our two lovers work out their misunderstanding and proceed to live happily every after. Perhaps an example of “one fur too many”, as it’s not exactly the one I’d have chosen to close the film on.

This long list isn’t exhaustive of all the big furs seen in this film.  There’s a few extra gems in the full Roberta Gallery.  This is the new gallery, the old Roberta Gallery is from a while back and gives me a sense of how much I’ve improved at this.

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