Those Awful Hats

Movie
Original title	Those Awful Hats
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	1909
length	3 minutes
Rod
Director	DW Griffith
script	DW Griffith
production	American Mutoscope and Biograph Company
occupation
Mack Sennett : Man in Checkered Jacket Flora Finch : woman with the biggest hat Linda Arvidson : Theatergoer John R. Cumpson : Theater Goer George Gebhardt : Theatergoers Robert Harron : Theater Goer Anita Hendrie : theatergoer Charles Inslee : Theatergoers Arthur V. Johnson : Theatergoers Florence Lawrence : Theatergoer Gertrude Robinson : Theatergoer Dorothy West : Theatergoer

Those Awful Hats is an American humorous silent film from 1909 that tries to get women to take off their hats in the cinema. This short film (about 2:45 minutes long) was directed by DW Griffith , who also wrote the script. The film was released on January 25, 1909.

action

Text at the end of the film

Play media file

Those Awful Hats , 2:42 min

During a cinema screening, a woman with a hat enters the cinema and searches in vain for a suitable place. A little later, a man in a checked jacket and top hat approaches her and helps her to find a seat where she can leave her hat on.

When he is looking for a seat, he is reprimanded by some spectators and a little later some more women with hats on their heads enter the cinema. They sit in front of the audience's noses and keep their hats on. The audience, denied their view, is extremely angry. Finally a crane appears and pulls one of the hats up and then one of the women herself.

At the end of the film a text board appears that reads: "Ladies will please remove their hats".

background

The film promotes mutual respect in the cinema and is one of the first films that were produced to inform the audience about what should be in the cinema. This type of film is still used to this day to promote considerate behavior in the cinema.

The scenes shown on the big screen come from the film At the Crossroads of Life from 1908 by director Wallace McCutcheon Jr. The script for this film was also written by DW Griffith .

Web links

Commons : Those Awful Hats  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Those Awful Hats for free download from the Internet Archive
• Those Awful Hats in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Those Awful Hats in the online movie database