DAME MAY WHITTY CHARACTER ACTOR EXTRAORDINAIRE

Here is a period dress worn by much loved character actor Dame May Whitty  as she portrayed "Miss Thwaites" in the film Gaslight. (MGM, 1944)

This is a three-piece brown wool crepe period dress and jacket with black embroidery and beading finished with pompom fringe.  The costume has a typed label "1311-7178 D M Witty".  Irene designed the costumes for the film. Dame May Whitty as “Miss Thwaites” wears the costume in two scenes when she attempts to visit Ingrid Bergman with little luck.

Gaslight is a 1944 mystery-thriller adapted from a play. It was actually the second version to be filmed with the first being released in the United Kingdom four years before.

The following photos show better detail of the design to the lapel and jacket.

The design to the neckline is just beautiful as you can.  MGM paid great attention to detail and costumes is where they excelled when it came to detail.

This is a photo of the rear of the gown.

The 1944 version where this costume comes was made at MGM, directed by George Cukor and starred Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer, Joseph Cotten, and 18-year-old Angela Lansbury in her screen debut.

Dame May Whitty who also starred in the film was born in Liverpool, England and started theatre at a young age. It was not until 1935, at the age of seventy an following the success she had on stage in “Night Must Fall” that she took part in the film version in 1937 and received an Oscar nomination.  It was from here that she started a new career playing the “old lady” characters on the screen.

Some of these included “The Thirteenth Chair” (1937), “The Lady Vanishes”(1938), and “Mrs Miniver” (1942).

This is the original trailer for the film:

A wonderful period costume from an MGM film classic.

I recently found out (and a big thank you to James for finding it) that the costume was used again some years later by character actress Florence Auer in the 1949 MGM film "That Forsyte Woman" where she played Ann Forsyte Heyman. It actually gets more screen time in this film than it did in 'Gaslight". I believe that the costume appears in another film as well around that time. It is amazing to see how many times that costumes were reused! Here is are two pictures of Ms Auer in costume.

Thanks again James for your sharp eye in finding it for me!! 

KATHARINE HEPBURN “Christopher Columbus…..what riches!”

This period blue check wool day dress was worn by Katharine Hepburn in the original and loved 1933 RKO film version of “Little Women”.

Costume were designed by Walter Plunkett.



Everyone who appreciates and loves classic Hollywood has a favourite Katharine Hepburn film. Little known is that Hepburn herself considered this to be one of her personal favorites and is reported to have one said that she defied anyone to be as good as shoe was in the character of Jo. Hepburn considered her personality to be like hers and that part suited what she described as her exaggerated sense of things.



The costume is worn by Hepburn in the scene where she visits on her neighbour Laurie played by Douglass Montgomery. Hepburn utters the much remembered phrase from the film when she sees the mansion which Laurie resides in with his Grandfather and shouts out “Christopher Columbus…..what riches!” She also fences with Laurie in this scene.





The film Little Women tells the Louisa May Alcott novel of sisters Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy March growing in Concord, Massachusetts, during the Civil War.



Hepburn plays the tomboyish Jo, who dreams of becoming a famous author.

The film broke theatre attendance records during its first week and Hepburn won the Best Actress award at the Venice Film Festival,



Directed by George Cukor and made at RKO studios, the film also starred Joan Bennett, Paul Lukas and Francis Dee.

There have been a number of film versions made of this classic novel including the MGM version in 1948 with June Allyson, Elizabeth Taylor and Peter Lawford.

This 1933 version remains a personal favourite.

JUDY HOLLIDAY NOT BORN YESTERDAY!

Here is a beautiful 1940’s dress worn by Judy Holliday in the 1949 MGM film classic “Adam’s Rib”.





The film was written by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin and directed by George Cukor. It starred Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. This was Judy Holliday in her first major film role. The film is considered one of the great classic romantic comedies of the 1940’s.



The film was used by Columbia as her audition for re-creating her role on film of her Broadway success in Born Yesterday. Holliday went on to win the Academy Award for Best Actress for Born Yesterday.





Holliday is also best remembered for her role in Bells Are Ringing which she also performed on Broadway and then reprised her role on film. Holliday also starred in the film ‘The Solid Gold Cadillac”.





Below is the trailer to the film where you can see Judy Holliday in costume:



Holliday passed away from illness in June 1956 far too young at age 43.