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You can also slect the movies available on HBC by using this alphabetical movie listing. Movies are amazing little fashion time capsules, especially films set in contemprary films. At this time only a few movies have been analized by HBC for clothing information, but more pages are being added all the time. We encourage readers to send along their comments about these films.
Mickey Rooney
Bobby Blake had a small part.
Very bad David Niven film. He thinks he is dead and entering heaven. He comes across a boy who is sitting down along the beach without his clothes on. He is playing a flute and shepherding goats, modestly done. You can tell it is a British film. While all in good taste, this never would have been allowed in an American film.
An Apache warrior sets out to trap the Army scout who helped a woman and her son escape captivity.
This is one of the outstanding films of the 1980s. Few films capture Ameican boyhood in the 1950s as well as this one. It is a a coming of age/boy bonding movie set in the 1950s. What starts out as a exciting adventure becomes a journey of self discovery for a sensitive boy and his three colorful companions. The main charcters were: Corey Feldman, River Phoenix, Wil Wheaton and Jerry O'Connell. One of his friends played by River Phoenix is abused by his father. The boys wade through a swamp and then undress when they find leaches. The boys are all about 12 years old. Fine peformances by River and the other boys. One boy, Vern the plump kid, was on the Carson show in 1986. It seems him and his friends had been up to a lot of pranks in the hotel they stayed at. One night even draining the hotel swimming pool. The boy was very embarrassed that he had been found out. Based on a book by Stephen King. The costuming is very true to the 1950s. The bys wear stripped "T"-shirts, Keds and jeans. An Australian reader writes, "You are very right in saying that "Stand By Me" was a really 5-star movie about four 12 year old year old boys from 1950s America. I liked this film too and it took me back to my carefree days of my youth and I too wore simular jeans and shirts and those haircuts. Will Wheaton is a boy who was more like myself plus River's version too and I could relate to these two particular charactors."
Reasonable scifi film. The alien being has taken over the body of a young man and keeps a retinue of human boys of different ages, costumed in loin cloths similar to Egyptian clothes. The humanoid civilization on the planet are kept in a state of slavery. They wear very plain, ragged costumes. While the Egyptian warrior class have very fancy outfits.
Spencer Griffith is a shy 7th-grader. No one pays much attention to him. A meteor falls on a local junkyard, Spencer finds a Cybersuit from a far away galaxy. Spencer's life is changed when he puts on the suit. He becomes very wise and incredibky strong. Joseph Mazzello plays Spencer. He wears contemprary American clothes.
Darryl Hickman
Starman (USA versions late 1960s) aka SuperGiant (Japan, circa late 1950s). starring Ken Utsui as Satman (Super-Giant, the man of steel). Japan's first cinematic super-hero influenced by the American television show, "The Adventures of Superman," and created by the Toho Studio's rival Shintoho Studios. Imported to the US by Walter Manly Enterprises, re-edited and re-titled into four Starman features which aired on American television
from late 1960's through the 1970's. Staman was the creation of The High Council of the Emerald Planet from the Marpet Galaxy, being a lone agent for the High Council to intervene in the affairs of Earthmen when disaster threatened Earth and the universe. Little is known about Starman, the character, except that he was literally a "man of steel" created by the High Council, but being a robot, android of some organic sper-creature is unknown. Starman is an excellent fighter with the strength of a thousand mortal men, and is equipped with The Globe Meter. The Globe Meter is worn on the wrist and has three functions: to fly through space, to detect radiation, and to translate all Earthly languages. Starman wears a simple
costume of white tights and boots, an open-faced cowl equipped with a single antennea, and a rounded cape which is attached to his sleeves fluttering like wings when he flies; he also has a black waist belt with a large crystal as a buckle. Like the gigantic flying turtle called Gamera, Starman is the friend to all earth children.
Two sets of identical twins, separated at birth, meet 30 years later on the eve of the French Revolution.
This is a made for TV-movie that reminds one of The Railway Children. The main character is Henry ( Thomas Sangster ). He wears a bowler hat. I'm unsure how common this was for the period. I think it is unlikely for a poor orphan. The other boys wear flat caps. Henry has a friend Bob at the station. Bob is the the station porter at Whatmidwell Station. He finds a stray dog and adopts it. The dog is a great Jack Russel terrier. The dog soon becomes a kind of station mascot. Bob is sweetb on Harriet, the new teacher at the local orphanage. The pooch becomes known as Station Jim and becomes a local hero. He takes on the moles off Stationmaster Pope's garden. He also saves the orphans when a fire breaks out. Jim makes friends with one of the orphands--Henry who has a thing about trains. He dreams that one day a train will take him home from the orphanage. Then Whatmidwell leans that Queen Victoria is coming. She will be received at the station and of course Jim again proves his worth. Then there is the plot line of the effort to close the orphanage and put the children to work. The kids of course win out with the help of the dog. It's all a bit cheesey - but as usual the BBC costuming is excellent and the trains are great.
Much of the movie deals with the reminiscences of luckless baseball player Billy Wyatt. In particular he remembers the special times he had with his former baby sitter and teen-aged Svengali played by Jody Foster. She's wacky because she likes to drive fast, smoke, drink, and like all "free women" run up and down deserted beaches. Jody baby sits young Billy (William McNamara/Thacher Goodwin?) who is about 12 years old. In the promotional clips they are in a convertible and he is drinking and smoking when, I think, his parents in a limousine pass them. Mark Harmon as a boy wore the short shorts of the early 80s, but with his tube socks pushed down instead of pulled up. Typical t-shirts as well.
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This is a lovely little film made during the Soviet era. It is about a little 7 year old boy named Sasha. He is
studying the violin and has trouble with bullies. He dresses like a British boy with short pants, kneesocks, and "T" strap sandals. Unlike British boys in the 1970s, Sasha wears patterned shorts and kneesocks. Most other boys wear long pant, but some wear shorts. Another violin student wears a large white collar and short pants with long stockings. A little boy being bullied hat Sasha helps wears shorts and long stockings as well. There was a short scene before his violin class when Sasha makes friends with a little girl tht has a huge hair bow. Sasha makes friends with a steam roller driver. His cultured mother disapproves when Sasha comes home with his hands all greassy.
'Stella Dallas' was one of the most important films of 1937 with Barbara Stanwyck at her height. She received an Oscar nomination for best actress for her performance. The film is based upon a popular novel by Olive Higgins Prouty and was the second and by far the best film version. It was directed by King Vidor and stars John Boles as Stephen Dallas, the upper-class man whom Stella from a working-class family marries. There are some interesting shots of children's clothes in the film. In the first shot, we see Stella's daughter Laurel as a little girl of about 2 yeatrs of age being held by one of Stella's lower-class friends--(Ed Munn, a drunkard, played by Alan Hale. The little girl's father, who lives in New York and is separated by distance from Stella (played by John Boles), suddenly comes home to find his wife Stella in the company of another man--Ed. We also see boys at a party wearing short pants suits--an upper class style in the 1930s. Most school age American boys at the time wore either knickers or long pants suits. The boys wear ankle siocks rather than knee socks, a fashion we see in America during the inter-War era. The costume designers have chosen rather curious cap styles for the boys.
A tender little TV movie with two boys. George (Kendall Cunningham) and Benn (Tim Redwine) play two brothers. George is about 8 or 9 years old and has been injured in an accident for which 13-year old Ben is inadvertently responsible. George is in a wheel chair, Ben and some of his friends wears long below the knee shorts. Both boys give very sensitive performances. The youngest brother is confined to a wheelchair after jumping from a classic old wrought iron bridge when a couple of years younger and lands in the river . A log hits him in the lower back and this little guy has operation after operation in the hope of walking again and his older brother takes on the burden of causing the accident on his young shoulders. This causes him problems at school and with the long arm of the law. He takes the younger brother out into the driving rain to visit the grave yard in some strange hope of some unexplained miracle happening to his brother via dogtags but makes thing worse. A well known blonde lady about 40 years old plays a tight but good role as the strong willed mum. Christopher Reeve makes a couple of appearances in the movie and the mum re-marries a nice guy and everything comes to fruition. I'm not sure if the little
boy walks again but like 'Wide Awake' it is an underestimated movie and I really had a tear in my eyes several times during the movie the older boy had a haircut much like mine aged 14 years before the tides of the long hair appeared on me.
He seems the perfect father, to each of his two families. A teenager daughter becomes suspicious of her mother's new husband. Violence results when the father's expectations are not lived up to my those he loves.
I didn't watch much of this. The children I saw were older teenagers. It is about a family which moves into a town with supposedly perfect teenagers.
An Australian reader writes, "I saw my old school blue peak cap, but not with the same badge on the Christmas Special of "Steptoe And Son", an English 1974 BBC production. The son was looking for his dad's old birth certificate for a passport so they could travel to Switzerland for Christmas. The son, Harry H. Corbet, would not look inside the understair's room as he was locked in there during the blitz in World War II. The son had no proper uniform so he says looking meanly at his father. The son did not go to a school with a posh uniform because his family was too poor. His farher was a Rag and Boneman. He did have a blue peaked cap though this was the only uniform item. Only that cap from Scrubber public school. Wilfrid Brambel went in the understairs room and found an old rusty tin with the certificate in it and that blue peak cap. The cap looked very close to the one I wore in grades 1 and 2 at my old primary school till school caps disappeared all together."
A childlike woman's long-buried trauma resurfaces when her young nephew comes to visit her and her protective sisters. Reasonably acted made for TV-movie. The boy wears longs.
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A HBC reader has mentioned "Stolen Summer". It was the first Project Greenlight project film. It's the story of a Catholic boy who is trying to insure that his friend, who is Jewish, can go to heaven. The friend has lukemia. The sick boy has a number a "tasks" to perform in order to be "worthy". It also shows the culture clash between the fathers of the two boys. It is a sentimental film, but very well acted. The kids wear the 70's type of clothes (the film's period), including garish colored pants and shorts, including cutoffs with white and dark socks. The film, I believe, is set in Chicago.
A boy accidentally kills his brother and retreats emotionally behind a wall of stone. Jason Presson plays the younger brother. Beautifully made movie, but very sad.
A young boy played by Joey Cramer competes against an expert Indian in a dog sled race in an effort to save his grandfather's farm. I missed this I got involved in a PBS alternative. Unlikely to be any really interesting scenes.
Scott Baio plays a young boy, Jack, who idolized his older brother. When the older brother becomes impatient with all the attention, Jack turns to drug using friends for solace.
I don't know much about the film, but it appears to be one of those Italian family sagas and the boys wear short pant suits.
A luminously photographed tale of a lonely boy who lives in isolation with his fisherman father, he is befriended by an aborigine and a pelican who is forced to choose between his beloved companions and the cruel outside world. Filmed in the storm swept wilderness of South Australia. Greg Rowe a South Australian schoolboy actor was chosen to play the character of "Storm Boy" (1976) and the sequel titled "Blue Fin" (1977). The movie was filmed in the Coorong at the Fluerieu Peninsula some 88 km from Adelaide and his attire were medium grey shorts and a woolen jumper a rather torn woolen jumper. The story was about a very demanding father who was divorced (story recited slightly inaccurate) where the young lad had to do everything including doing the fishing etc but overrall it was a good family movie done by the South Australian Film Company. An Australian reader tells us, The movie was based on Colin Thiele's paperback novel of the same name, Thiele was a respected writer in Australia and abroad. "There was a contest amongst Australian schools to who could play the character. Incidently I went in the competition in 1976 but obviously I missed out. I dressed up in my prep shorts with a slightly torn front pocket and a ripped white gingham shirt and had a photo taken." David Gullpilil played the mysterious but wonderful adult friend 'Fingerbone Bill' but sadly he has not made a lot of films which is a shame. Hardy Kruger played his dad. The wild skies, the beach, the sunset over the sea are fine examples of the beautiful but timeless visions of scenery and mystery that made "Storm" Boy great viewing and not to mention the old shack they lived in.
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The Four Feathers1939) was redone in 1955 as Storm Over the Nile. The story was basically the same as The Four Feathers (1939). The young Harry Faversham (Paul Streather) again wears an Eton suit and collar. The plot was little changed from the original film. The story was redone again as The Four Feathers (1977).
This French film is 'Le Roman du'n Tricheur' ('The Story of an Impostor'). The film ws made in 1936. We don't know too much about the plot, but the story concerns a 12-year-old boy who suddenly loses his entire family and is forced to make his way in the world entirely on his own and by the use of his own wits. This involves pretense, trickery, and impersonation. We see him as a boy of 12 only for the first 20 minutes of the film after which he grows up and continues his adventures. In the early sequences when he is a boy of 12, we see him wearing a suit with short trousers, and shirt and tie, and tan long stockings (but worn with round garters rather than a garter waist).
"The Story of Three Loves" (1953) is a trilogy of love stories told in flashback form. The second sketch is about Tommy, a rich American boy about 11 years old who is fed up with his annoying French governess (Leslie Caron). The boy is played by Ricky Nelson. He was well known to American audiences as a result of the popular, long running TV sitcome, "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet". I didn't know that he also made movies. Tommy has no interest in the French lessons, the discussions of art forms, or the lectures on history his governess offers. He played a rather cranky child in this role. Tommy wishes that he were a man so that he could free of all that. A witch grants him his request for four hours. Tommy, as a man, meets his governess and falls in love with her. At midnight, though, he becomes a boy again. Ricky and a slightly older boy wear longs. As I recall, for his role as 11-year old Tommy, Ricky
wears sport coats and long trousers and in one scene pajamas. They are in Rome during the 1950s where shorts were very common. Tommy doesn't like being a kid and having a governess who keeps reading gushy poetry to him. A boy about 13 or 14 appears briefly in shorts in the last sketch. He has only a brief part, he tells the main character that there is a caller.
A writer is troubled by a woman's charges that his television play motivated her son to acts that resulted in his death.
Unknown to the ground crew a young boy stowaway on a space shot. The boy, EJ (Morgan Paull), and his friend, Joey (Michael Link) wear long pants througout even though the movie was made in Florida.
"Johnny Gets His Gun" was the working title for "Straight from the Shoulder" released in 1936. I know nothing about the film except that David Holt plays Johnny--Ralph Bellamy's son. A still show Bellany showing Johnny out to box.
A cantankerous bush pilot and an orphaned runaway learn a dramatic lesson in survival when they are forced to crash land in the Canadian wilderness. Michael Sharrett.
An heiress is haunted by the childhood murder of her rich aunt. Two boys are with her, a prissy sissy boy she dislikes and a problem plagued poor boy who she admires. The poor boy runs away and she eventually marries the prissy boy. The children are seen for about 15-20 minutes at the beginning of the film. If I remember right they both wear longs. Darryl Hickman
A schoolteacher claims that he has seen a sea monster and three of his students want to prove him right. Two boys in the movie in typical Disney-American fashion wear jeans and long trousers.
A close relationship develops between a fugitive and a runaway adopted boy during a trek through northern England. The boy is brilliantly played by Jon (Whitley?). The boy's expression and voice inflections are so naturalistic that it is uncanny. The film is worth seeing for his performance. He is about 7, and wears longish shorts.
An amnesia victim must choose between the new love of his life an the unknown wife and family that seek to reclaim him. Several boys are involved. The actor's (Beau Bridges) own son plays the part of his young blond son in the film and an older son plays the part of the other son. The boys all wear longs. Even while suffering from amnesia, blond boys seem very familiar to him.
A young British school boy's (Alida Valli?) trip to meet his father in Venice turns out to be an unsettling experience. The boy is about 8 years old and spends most of the time in his school uniform or a grey suit, both with shorts (rather longish) and short socks. He first appears on a plane complete with cap and a smart blazer. Rather a competent little actor who plays his role convincingly. There are a few street scenes with Italian boys in short shorts. An obnoxious older British boy appears briefly, also in longish shorts, but only briefly.
Ranchers quarrel over the fate of a wild horse that critically injured the boy who tried to tame it. A HBC reader writes, "The late great country star Marty Robbins sang 'The Strawberry Roun' a song about a high spirited horse nobody could tame or break in. I do know if the song appeared in this movie of the same name as I have yet to have the pleasure of viewing it".
Jackie Searl has a small part as an obnoxious child star goaded on by an even more obnoxious mother. He is dressed in a long pants suit with a manly fedora-style hat. He was about 13 or 14 at the time.
Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland.
Tommy Rettig
A wonderful German film directed by Edgar Reitz about the period in Germany immediately after the fall of the Third Reich. The story concerns Joschie, a former member of the Hitler Youth, who has fallen in love with America and American flying. He wears an American flight jacket over this short pants and as well as boots with white knee socks rolled down to his ankles. Joschie intends to find Nazi buried treasure in a cemetery near Leipzig, left by the retreating Nazi soldiers. He has heard that such a place exists but he doesn't know the exact location. He meets Isa, a refugee girl,
in a house near the cemetery, and together they hunt for the treasure and find it--a cache of medals and jewelry, which of course they hide to keep it secret. It is just the moment when Germany is being divided up into
occupation zones. They are in the part to be taken over by the Russians, and when the Russian soliders arrive, Joschie almost causes a mass execution because he had fired a shot to warn Isa to keep the treasure hidden. The
soliders spare the victims, however, because they think the shot was fired because the boy and girl are in love. Together Isa and Joschie decide to take the treasure and escape to the American zone where they expect that they will
be welcomed warmly. They walk for hours. But when they finally cross into the American area, a jeep pulls up alongside the pair; the soldiers search Joschie's pockets, discover the valuables, and confiscate them together with
his flight jacket. They ride off with Isa in their jeep leaving Joschie disillusioned and alone on the country road. A very sad and ironic ending. Anette Junger played the part of Isa; Joschie was acted by Kai Taschner.
Comedy with 20 boys about 10-12 years old at a summer camp. An incompetent head counselor and his equally inept staff unsuccessfully try to manage a camp for wealthy children. Rather amateurishly made film. Many of the boys wear short pants. I don't think I have ever seen a movie with so many boys in shorts. In one scene the counselors pretend that they are operating on a boy's knee.
A young boy witnesses his headmaster kill a man. The headmaster decides to kill him after he is identified. The movie is in English, but I think at least the boy's parts were dubbed. It is set in a school in France, but all the boys wear longs.
A young man in the 1960s struggles to escape from Chicago's South Side.
This is another of the Universal Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes series. There are no children in this Sherlock Holmes film. We list it hear because a reader describes how he used it as ateaching aid. A British reader writes, "Must be a true fan because last week I spent £50 on buying the full DVD set of all the Universal Holmes films. Now I can have every Wednesday night at 9:30 Sherlock Holmes night. "The Study in Terror" was a film I used to tell my students studying English (I was teaching overseas) about a railway journey between London and Edinburgh. The class were the Baker Street Iregulars helping Holmes solve the mystery of who had stolen a very valuable diamond. We had a White board in which we put the characters and said what was known about them. After thinking about the suspects the girls found the master criminal but the boys acted more like Inspector Lestrade and went after the wrong man. I have an audio tape of the film's sound track as well as the DVD. Next time we'll have this to listen to the important lines that lead the viewer to the criminal. They don't make films like these anymore. By the time I was 12 colour TV was just dawning and BBC 2 had started up. There were three channels to watch. In those days that was all you did. Sat in front of the TV and watched the programmes."
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