Those Awful Hats (1909)

Set in an early cinema house, this comic short illustrates the problems with the gals' hats obscuring the movie patron's line of vision.

Director:

D.W. Griffith

Writer:

D.W. Griffith

Stars:

Mack Sennett, Flora Finch, Linda Arvidson

Cast

Credited cast:
Mack Sennett	...	Man in checkered jacket and top hat
Flora Finch	...	Woman with largest hat
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Linda Arvidson	...	Theatre Audience
John R. Cumpson	...	Theatre Audience
George Gebhardt	...	Theatre Audience
Robert Harron	...	Theatre Audience
Anita Hendrie	...	Theatre Audience
Charles Inslee	...	Theatre Audience
Arthur V. Johnson	...	Theatre Audience
Florence Lawrence	...	Theatre Audience
Gertrude Robinson	...	Theatre Audience
Dorothy West	...	Theatre Audience

Storyline

A gentleman with a top hat, and a series of women with ever more ludicrous hats enter a movie theatre. They refuse to remove them, until a giant bucket forcibly removes one hat. All but one woman then remove their hats, and the bucket returns to remove the woman.

---

Plot Keywords:

hat blocks view | manners

---

Genres:

Comedy | Short

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 January 1909 (USA)

Also Known As:

Those Darn Hats

Company Credits

Production Co:

American Mutoscope & Biograph

Technical Specs

Runtime:

2 min 2 min

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Several sources (including the BFI) credit Arthur Marvin as the cinematographer instead of G.W. Bitzer

---

Connections

Featured in The Story of Film: An Odyssey: Episode #1.1 (2011)

User Reviews

Rudimentary But Rather Interesting

This ultra-short film (only 2 minutes long) uses very rudimentary techniques, but it's rather interesting. It's about a theater full of people watching a movie, so there are two different screens combined into one image, and while the 'special effect' is not very good by the standards of later eras, it was probably a clever idea for its time. The light-hearted nature of this feature is an interesting contrast to the ultra-serious films that Griffith usually made.