I had my Buzz 1942 USAAF chinos fixed so they break just once, but the wide leg can make them, not too short, but the break isn't very obvious.
In that picture of Peck, he's wearing 'Pinks & Greens' uniform, the pants of which really are wide (rather, they are straight legged, so they look wide to us modern boys), but in fact, they are about the same width and cut in the leg (for their waist size) as the khaki cotton uniform pants that always look way too short in photos of aircrew (who wear them without gaiters like infantry would have).
They turned out really well! They high rise and wide leg is really flattering and compared to other high street pairs I've had, the cloth's pretty heavy. They go really well, as you'd expect, with an A-2 - my other half laughed when I wore them together for the first time, asking whether or not I was awol and that this was in danger of happening to me:
I'll post some pics when I get back to my flat.
The clip's from the Armstrong & Miller Show, which is sadly is no longer on the go, but also produced this gem:
[video=youtube;lwNQf08Kxsw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwNQf08Kxsw[/video]
Will post some pics soon!
View attachment 36302
In between those extremes is no break, quarter break, half break, and full break. Nothing worse than the "stork legs" look.