Women He's Undressed

In WOMEN HE'S UNDRESSED, director Gillian Armstrong attempts to uncover the man behind some of cinema's most iconic looks, costume designer Orry-Kelly. Theatrical reenactments & monologues from Orry-Kelly & his mother (played by Darren Gilshenan & Deborah Kennedy), guide us through his life--from his childhood in the small Australian seaside town of Kiama, around the world to New York City (where his roommate is fellow immigrant, Archibald Leach, later known as Cary Grant), to his career in Hollywood, in which he garnered 3 Academy Awards. Interspersed with these staged scenes are interviews with those who knew & worked with Orry-Kelly (Ann Roth, Angela Lansbury, Jane Fonda, to name a few), as well as costume designers, film critics & biographers who have been influenced by his work. Unlike many Hollywood homosexuals of the day, Orry-Kelly refused to hide behind a lavender marriage or staged identity, as his old flame Cary Grant would hardly acknowledge their past together. Being his authentic self may have fueled a drinking problem, but it also allowed stars like Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman & Marilyn Monroe to fully trust his talent for making them shine in his designs. Even Tony Curtis & Jack Lemmon petitioned Billy Wilder to let Orry design their costumes in Some Like It Hot. While Orry-Kelly is not a household name in today's world, the looks he created for movies like Jezebel, Casablaca, Irma la Douce & Auntie Mame are unforgettable.

I went along to this film with a female friend as a favour, otherwise I would never have watched it. I was however, pleasantly surprised. There is joy in learning something new. This film gives you an insight into something that ordinarily you wouldn't think twice about - costume design in films. The narrative is presented in an interesting way - in the first person and from those who actually knew Orry-Kellly which gives it a lovely authenticity and contemporary feel rather than just being a piece of dry history. Being based on the life of a Hollywood employee in the days when the big studios ruled - Paramount, MGM and Warner's, there is some nice scandal too. The film helps you to relive, or maybe see for the first time the style and glamour of early Hollywood - even during times of international economic hardship. All in all, worth a watch.

For any fan of old movies, especially those of Warner Brothers, the name of "Orry-Kelly" is as familiar to us as Bette Davis, Max Steiner, Michael Curtiz. Yet, in watching this documentary about one of the most legendary of the grand studio wardrobe designers, we never once see an image of this iconic wardrobe pioneers until the very end, where he bounds up to the stage on Academy Awards night to accept an Oscar for "Some Like It Hot." Throughout the movie, we're told how impish, out-spoken, talented he is, that he developed a serious drinking problem which eventually got him fired from Warner Brothers but we never actually see Orry-Kelly during his heyday. Surely there are hundreds of photos, if not film footage, of this fascinating and very out gay pioneer. What irritated me to no end were the endless shots of this designer in a row-boat, beating his oars against the waves. Over and over again. What did this mean? More film time is wasted with insertion shots of someone playing Orry-Kelly's mother who reads letters and pontificates about her son and which serves no purpose to advancing the story of the subject. It is certainly no news that he and Cary Grant were rommmates for several years and they probably had a romantic relationship. Grant, although outwardly affectionate to his boyfriend, Randolph Scott, during his early years in Hollywood became ultra-closeted when a studio head warned him about the gossip of the two being more than buddies and so Grant, according to this documentary, became rabidly closeted and refused to have anything to do with Orry-Kelly until the very end of their lives when they reconciled. I wanted to see more of the actual working conditions and the actual dresses created by Orry-Kelly. The actor who portrayed the designer was highly irritating and there were more wasted minutes on him reflecting on his life throughout. Much more could have been done to illuminate one of old Hollywood's true pioneers who stood with the great clothes designer of that era--like Adrian, Edith Head, Walter Plunkett.

If Orry-Kelly was such a great designer (and he was), why did the director of this silly movie not show him some respect? Instead she uses his life as a washing line on which to hang a row of coy, childish conceits. We are told that Orry-Kelly was someone who would take a secret to the grave. Not a statement that needs explanation, is it? But it is illustrated by putting him in a coffin, with lipstick-red tape over his mouth, that is carried by several stone-faced models in evening dress. It's as if a child were given the task of making a picture out of a sentence.

Other nonsense includes a very unprepossessing young man playing the part of the designer, and spending a lot of his time rowing a boat--not, I think, the way Orry-Kelly left his native Australia. The director also seems more excited by the fact that Orry-Kelly was gay than by his superb designing skills, spending a lot of time with such unsavoury people as Scott Bowers, the author of a disgusting book about famous people he supposedly performed with (not in the films).

The whole thing is an exercise in self-indulgence, with feeble wackiness masquerading as creativity.

I liked it. I REALLY liked it. The clips and artsy crafty re-enactments and all.

Some of the other reviewers down graded the film because of the theatrical bits but they made it less cut and DRY documentary. MORE clips would have been nice but the job as it was , was well done !

A must see for any lover of films of the Classic Era.