Women He's Undressed

A terrific biography of Australian-born Hollywood costume designer (and 3 time Oscar winner) Orry-Kelly. Gillian Armstrong's fun and emotional look at Kelly's often challenging life includes wonderful taking heads; actresses like Jane Fonda and Angela Landsbury, great designers of the more modern era like Ann Roth and Catherine Martin, film and Hollywood historians like Leonard Maltin and others. They tell absorbing stories about the wildly talented, sometimes wildly difficult perfectionist, as well as heartbreaking ones about his personal life as a gay man in Hollywood at a time when being 'out' was still cause for possible unemployment and human banishment. These attitudes and threats led to – among other things - a terribly painful and ultimately cruel break-up of many years from his early lover and one time best friend Archie Leach, later known as Cary Grant.

But what makes the documentary much more interesting than most Hollywood hagiographies are the more theatrical elements Armstrong and screenwriter Katherine Thompson bring to the party. Along with the great stories, clips and still photos there are also actors playing Kerry (an excellent Darren Gilshenan), his mother and others from his life. Kerry enthusiastically narrates his own story in the midst of wonderfully surreal, theatrical and playfully symbolic settings (rowing alone in a tiny boat is a constant metaphor). These sequences paradoxically bring both lightness and depth to the film, giving us a far more personal connection to the man than most screen biographies have. In the end it's both a lot of fun and tremendously sad and informative about the sexual and human politics of Hollywood, and their costs on real human beings (not only gay men, but women both straight and gay as well).

One of those films I almost didn't see since it's not a subject that called out for me, only to be very happily surprised at how much I got out of it.

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.

At the height of his career - Australian-born fashion designer, Orry-Kelly was one of the most successful creators in his field during Hollywood's golden years.

If you are interested in seeing what all of the fuss was about when Orry-Kelly dressed Tinseltown celebrities in "top-of-the-line" style - Then - You need look no further than this totally entertaining, fashion-conscious documentary.

I think that it's incredible to note that in his 30 years of costume design - Orry-Kelly was credited for his contributions to nearly 300 films.

I will not attempt to precis the content of this film. Gillian Armstrong and her production team have created a swiftly moving film about Orry-Kelly that needed to be told before all living connections to his work die.

For anyone interested in what goes into making a film this is a must see documentary that follows a real story arc. He has his high and lows but most of all Orry-Kelly had respect from the Hollywood industry from studio heads down.

Some of the well documented activities of some of Hillywood's biggest stars may come as a surprise to some.