Old film with a skirted boy

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rivegauche
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Old film with a skirted boy

Post by rivegauche »

More media than news. I watched the start of an Orson Wells film called The Magnificent Ambersons, a B&W film onBBC4 this evening (25 January), I the early sequences, a young boy with ringlets terrorises his town, Then there is a scene with his parents where he is wearing a pleated chequered skirt. It is a bit kilt-like but it is a skirt. No comment on this, The film was made in 1942.
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Myopic Bookworm
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Re: Old film with a skirted boy

Post by Myopic Bookworm »

Interesting: thanks for the pointer.

The film starts with a very pointed historical snapshot of changing fashions in menswear, modes of transport, etc., and the opening section is set in the late 19th century. Given the context of 1940s America looking back romantically at the 1890s, I think the character represents an exaggerated reference to the by-then archaic "Little Lord Fauntleroy" style (and makes a deliberate contrast with his unmannerly behaviour). The "skirt" is, I think, a reference to (or parody of) late Victorian mock-Scottish fashion: the tartan skirt is accompanied by a lot of lace and a pretentious cane, set against a view of a baronial mansion, in the manner of a wealthy heir from the Scottish Highlands.

Scottish style was quite popular in late 19th-century England. We have a photograph of a town in Berkshire, southern England, taken in that period, and one of the figures in the foreground is clearly a boy in a kilt.
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Re: Old film with a skirted boy

Post by skirted »

If i Rember correctly, there is a Sherlock Homes movie, where a boy is in a dress at or near the beginning , and gets commented on buy Sherlock as a nice dress.
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