It's a Wonderful Life

[XPLSV]

Just finished watching a Christmas movie--I'm a sap for the tear-jerkers. This movie was filmed in 1946--there sure had a bunch of wonderful hats back then! Wide brims...tall crowns...

Bernie

Merry Christmas Everyone!

 

[mayserwegener]

Great flick! Jimmy Stewart rules!

 

[rgraham]

Stewart was sitting next to a guy at the bar, (after he jumps off the bridge), with the most crazy crease in his hat. It looked great from the front, but when he turned around, it looked nasty. Or, should I say, casual.

 

[Mario]

Great flick! Jimmy Stewart rules!

Absolutely! I too watched it again a few days ago.

As far as the shaping of the brim on some of my hats goes, I took a lot of inspiration from the look of Jimmy's hat in the left image (a pretty strong version of the Hollywood brim). But note the slightly twisted bash of the crown in the right photo...

 

[DanielJones]

Watched that one yesterday & listened to it on Radio Classics last week.

Cheers!

Dan

 

[theinterchange]

I like the sloppiness of the crown, personally. It fit his state of mind at that time.

There were few stars who wore hats as well as Stewart, in my opinion. I really love the hat he wore in The Man Who Knew Too Much. [that fight in the taxidermist's shop is hilarious, especially when the fish is brought into things!]

Randy

 

[Blackthorn]

Just finished watching a Christmas movie--I'm a sap for the tear-jerkers. This movie was filmed in 1946--there sure had a bunch of wonderful hats back then! Wide brims...tall crowns...

Bernie

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Keep your head down over there in Kabul, Bernie, and stay safe!

 

[AlterEgo]

"Wonderful Life" is a truly great film, but I'm riveted to any old flick, no matter how bad, when it's full of hats.

One thing I've noticed is the "imprecision" with which many of the hats in those movies are bashed. Being a perfectionist, I'd never crease any hat of mine like that, but doing so lends a genuine feel of reality to those old films.

 

[Tango Yankee]

I love the movie, and even more so having seen it in an actual theater. The ending, though, is one that probably would never make it past the test screenings of today because Mr. Potter never gets his comeuppance! We never see Mr. Potter breaking down when he realizes that friendship is worth ever so much more than money, he's not arrested for stealing the eight grand, nothing... he gets away with it and doesn't learn a lesson in morality. At best, his evil plot is foiled by George's friends who don't even know they've foiled an evil plot! Try and put out a movie with that kind of an ending these days, eh?

Cheers,
Tom

PS On a hat-related note, one of my favorite scenes (even before I got this deeply into hats) is the scene where it's pouring rain and Ernie is showing George into his new home while wearing a top hat. He presses back against the door and the front of the top hat lifts; he is holding his cupped hand in front of him after gesturing to George to enter. George looks down at Ernie's hand, and all the water that's collected on his brim and in the crown of his hat pours down into Ernie's palm.lol

 

[Joe_Frances]

I am an Uncle Billy fan myself, and old Peter Bailey too. One can notice that the villain of the piece, Mr. Potter, is not much of a hat guy.