Hat, Coat, and Glove (1934)

An artist on trial for homicide has his lover's husband for an attorney.

Director:

Worthington Miner

Writers:

Wilhelm Speyer (from the play by), Francis Edward Faragoh (screen play) (as Francis Faragoh)

Stars:

Ricardo Cortez, Barbara Robbins, John Beal

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Ricardo Cortez	...	Robert Mitchell
Barbara Robbins	...	Dorothea Mitchell
John Beal	...	Jerry Hutchins
Dorothy Burgess	...	Ann Brewster
Paul Harvey	...	The Prosecuting Attorney
Sara Haden	...	The Secretary
Margaret Hamilton	...	Madame Du Barry
David Durand	...	Thomas Sullivan
Murray Kinnell	...	The Judge
Frederick Sullivan	...	The Court Clerk
Gayle Evers	...	The Saleslady

Storyline

An artist on trial for homicide has his lover's husband for an attorney.

---

Plot Keywords:

manhattan new york city | greenwich village manhattan new york city | trial | telephone | taxi | 

---

Taglines:

When a man on trial for murder strains his story to protect a woman's honor, he's playing with the hangman's noose! (Print Ad-Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, ((Poughkeepsie, NY)) 20 September 1934)

---

Genres:

Drama

---

Certificate:

Passed

Did You Know?

Trivia

This was originally intended to be a John Barrymore vehicle. However Barrymore's alcoholism was catching up with him and his memory repeatedly failed. After three days of production with virtually nothing shot, the producers were forced to replace him with Ricardo Cortez.

---

Goofs

Robert Mitchell's hair is graying on the sides, but when he goes to Jerry's apartment to confront him, and finds Ann instead, his hair is jet black for a few minutes, then goes back to gray.

---

Connections

Remade as A Night of Adventure (1944)

User Reviews

great even if ridiculous fun

You know that a film is going to be a camp precode treat when it begins with the protagonist, attorney Robert Mitchell (Ricardo Cortez), waxing poetic about mannequins, to the point that even the department store sales staff is giving him odd looks.

Robert is separated from his wife, Dorothea, because she wants it that way, not him. She is in love with Jerry Hutchins (John Beal). Unfortunately for Jerry, he had a brief affair with what today we would call a stalker, Ann Brewster (Dorothy Burgess). Nobody could play the precode crazy woman like Dorothy Burgess.

Ann shows up in Jerry's apartment one night, in his bed, in a negligee, demanding he love her back. He leaves and goes to see Dorothea. Robert goes to have a man to man with Jerry and winds up trapped with crazy Ann, who, for some strange reason, knows Jerry has a gun and where he keeps it. She decides to kill herself, she calls what she thinks is Dorothea's number but misdials, Robert struggles to get the gun from her but it goes off, and Ann falls dead.

The next day this woman with one deadly bullet in her is mentioned as "the bullet riddled body" in all of the newspapers and Jerry is blamed for the crime. His alibi, though, was that he spent the night with Dorothea, and he doesn't want to create a scandal and use that alibi. But he wouldn't have this problem if Robert had just called the police and said what happened. He didn't have any past relationship with Ann and she did have a history of suicide attempts. Instead Robert just left the scene, stealthily.

So Dorothea appeals to her estranged husband to save her lover by defending him in court. He agrees, as long as she agrees to come back to him. Was this his plan all along or did he just panic the night before? The trial is a riot with lots of nuttiness that only one person sees through. And then the highlight of the film is Margaret Hamilton as a milliner with a "stage name" of Madame Du Barry. That's first name "Du", last name "Barry". This great character actress steals the entire film out from under the script, cast, and director.

Lots of people pan this film, but for ridiculous dialogue and a ludicrous plot full of precode naughtiness that was actually released after the code, this one fits the bill.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 August 1934 (USA)

Also Known As:

Capa, Luva e Chapéu

Company Credits

Production Co:

RKO Radio Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

65 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Victor System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1