Those Awful Hats

Those Awful Hats
Play full film; running time 00:02:40
Directed by	D. W. Griffith
Written by	D.W. Griffith
Starring	Mack Sennett
Cinematography	G. W. Bitzer
Release date	January 25, 1909 (1909-01-25)
Running time	Original length 185 feet (under 3 minutes)[1]
Country	United States
Languages	Silent (English intertitles)

End screen.

Those Awful Hats is a 1909 American short comedy film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Mack Sennett and Flora Finch. It was released on January 25, 1909 by Biograph Studios.

The film takes place in a small, crowded movie theatre while a film is in progress. The patrons are perpetually distracted by people -- primarily women -- wearing large, ostentatious hats that obstruct everyone else's views of the screen. Slapstick disorder ensues. The film ends with a title card reading, "Ladies Will Please Remove Their Hats."

Archivist David Shepard of Blackhawk Films explained how G. W. Bitzer photographed the film: "The image in the theater and the image on the theater screen were photographed separately, and the final effect was achieved by double printing and use of a traveling matte."^[2]

Release

Those Awful Hats was intended not so much as an entertainment subject but as a service to nickelodeon theaters, much as humorous but cautionary trailers are used today before the feature film begins. Biograph recommended Those Awful Hats as "a splendid subject to start a show with instead of the customary slide." The film was restored from a nitrate negative in 1975 by Blackhawk Films, and was offered for sale only briefly, as a limited-edition release. A print of the film is in the film archive of the Library of Congress.^[3]

Cast

• Mack Sennett as Man in checkered jacket
• Flora Finch as Woman with largest hat

Theater audience:

• Linda Arvidson
• John R. Cumpson
• George Gebhardt
• Robert Harron
• Anita Hendrie
• Charles Inslee
• Arthur V. Johnson
• Florence Lawrence
• Gertrude Robinson
• Dorothy West

See also

• 1909 in film
• D. W. Griffith filmography

References

1. "Those Awful Hats", film promotion, The Moving Picture World (New York, N.Y.), 23 January 1909, p. 83. Internet Archive, San Francisco, California. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
2. David Shepard, introduction to home-movie release of Those Awful Hats, 1975.
3. "Progressive Silent Film List: Those Awful Hats". Silent Era. Retrieved November 24, 2008.

External links

• Those Awful Hats at IMDb
• Those Awful Hats on YouTube
• Those Awful Hats available for free download at Internet Archive