Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
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Darren Gilshenan | ... |
Orry-Kelly
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Deborah Kennedy | ... |
Florence Kelly
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Louis Alexander | ... |
Young Orry
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Nathaniel Middleton | ... |
The Lover
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Lara Cox | ... |
Ginger Rogers
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Kelly Ann Doll | ... |
Showgirl
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Laurie Foell | ... |
Nurse
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Ted Maynard | ... |
Jack Warner
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Jeanette Cronin | ... |
Bette Davis
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Tyler Coppin | ... |
Walter Plunkett /
Jimmy Fidler /
Sergeant
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Sandy Gore | ... |
Hedda Hopper /
Louella Parsons
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Paige Walker | ... |
Kay Francis
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Louella Pleffer | ... |
Glamorous Girl
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Gracie Otto | ... |
Glamorous Girl
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Gillian Cooper | ... |
Glamorous Girl
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Women He's Undressed is a cinema length documentary that explores the life of Australia's most prolific costume designer. Until now Orry-Kelly has been unacknowledged in his country of birth and pretty well forgotten in the adopted country of his greatest success. During the boom years of Hollywood he was the costume designer on an astonishing 282 motion pictures. He designed for the stars like Marilyn Munroe, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Rosalind Russell, Errol Flynn and many more of the immortals. His films included Some Like It Hot, Casablanca, An American in Paris and Now, Voyager. Orry-Kelly (Jack to his friends) won three Academy Awards and was nominated for a fourth. Orry-Kelly was Head of Warner Brothers Costume Department during the richest period of American film, the establishment of the dream factory and its effect on mass culture. He was outrageous, witty, outspoken, a drinker and uncompromising but he survived partially protected by his friendship with Jack and Ann ... Written by Damien Parer
This unwatchable show is chock full of bizarre directorial conceits, which start immediately with the odd notion that Orry-Kelly is 'unknown' despite having no fewer than 302 movie credits as one of the best-known costume designers in Hollywood from 1930-63. Curiously enough this claim is specifically contradicted by one of the first interviewees.
The tale is largely told using shots of the protagonist rowing a boat, for no apparent reason whatsoever; his mother is cruelly reduced to a Dame Edna Everage caricature putting out the washing next to a lighthouse, for some other unexplained reason; there is not nearly enough of the actual dresses, which is the actual point after all; and even the title is wrong. Orry-Kelly dressed women, not undressed them. The remainder is basically unsubstantiated scuttlebutt about Cary Grant, Randoplh Scott, etc.
Among other inaccuracies, David Selznick did not produce Casablanca.