Tuesday, August 31, 2021

Recycled Costume Roundup - August

Movie costumes that have been used twice are quite often used yet a third time. After I posted last months inaugural roundup, I came across two of these "three-peats." They are both costumes that I recognized from another blogger's "discovery." 

The first is from a recycle first brought to my attention by a favorite fellow blogger Caftan Woman. She shared this on her Twitter account a couple years ago and, being fascinated with recycles, I bookmarked it. Here is her tweet:

I spotted this unique costume on Fay Helm in The Falcon in San Francisco (1945). It looks like the neckline was slightly altered for the Dick Tracy film. 


~♥~♥~♥~

The next recycle was noticed by Kimberly Truhler from GlamAmor (you may know her from her TCMFF "Fashion in Film" talks and Film Noir Fashion book published last year) during a live tweet last May of They Won't Believe Me (1947). She noted it had first been worn by Claire Trevor in Murder, My Sweet (1944). I then spotted the dress in The Falcon's Adventure (1946). It looks like it may have lost a strip of sequins on the sleeve along the way. And, as you can see, the neckline was altered both times.


Here's the full costume on Trevor.
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This suit worn by Madge Meredith in The Falcon's Adventure (left) also shows up in another of her films, Child of Divorce (right) from the same year.


UPDATE: I also spotted the suit in The Bells of St. Mary's (1945).


Another Child of Divorce recycle is this beaded dress originally worn by Olivia de Havilland in Government Girl (1943). I had saved the photo (right) of Meredith on Pinterest and then someone shared a video of de Havilland in the dress on Instagram and I recognized it as one I had seen very recently. 


UPDATE 10/31/21: I spotted the gown again in Mystery in Mexico (1948), this time with a dark skirt and added embellishments on the back.


~♥~♥~♥~

And while we're still on the subject of The Falcon movies, here's Falcon regular Jean Brooks in a publicity photo wearing a sparkly gown spotted on an extra in The Falcon's Brother (1942) in a fashion show sequence (I had taken the screenshot for the "Victory" dress). 


It just hit me that the costumes in this entire post are circa WWII era films and the recycles were probably also because of the clothing rationing!

~♥~♥~♥~

I started off August with a bang, spotting two big recycles in Casablanca (1942), which I hadn't seen since I was a teen (12+ years ago). Right in the first scene inside Rick's Café I spotted this champagne colored gown worn by Olivia de Havilland in It's Love I'm After (1937) - in which Bette Davis co-stars. It's one of my favorite film costumes. It doesn't fit the extra very well though.

UPDATE: I also spotted de Havilland's gown carried by Ann Sheridan in The Doughgirls (1944), seen below. You can't miss those distinctive sleeves!

A few seconds later I spotted Bette Davis' beaded/sequined top from Dark Victory (1939)! Both costumes are still in existence. You can see Olivia reunited with her costume at the bottom of this article as well as a fantastic photo of it on this great WB Classic Studio Tour by Hometowns to Hollywood. A quick google search will bring you multiple images of Bette's. 


Casablanca has another Davis connections as well. The beaded crop-top worn by Madeleine Lebeau was actually originally a jacket worn by Davis in Marked Woman (1937)! I kept thinking of the dress and that the beadwork looked identical but didn't remember there was a matching jacket until someone posted a photo of it on Twitter. It was also worn by Dolores Moran in a publicity photo (not sure if it's from a movie as I haven't seen much of her work). And yes, I counted the rows of beads on the sleeves.


"Hey, Kid. that jacket looks kind of familiar.."

Here is the costume today:

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I also spotted my first hat recycle! We all know Bette Davis' iconic hat when she steps off the boat after her makeover in Now, Voyager (1942). Well, I was looking for a certain costume in To Have and Have Not (1945) and spotted it on an extra behind Lauren Bacall! It may not be the actual hat worn by Davis - her stand-in had one too. Between this and Casablanca, that's a lot of Davis-Bogart-Henreid connections!


~♥~♥~♥~

The last recycle is this heavily braided gown worn by Ruth Hussey in Married Bachelor that she also wore in publicity photos for H.M. Pulham, Esq., both 1941.


I wonder what color the side panels were?

This dress by Kalloch is a cross between Katharine Hepburn's famous  The Philadelphia Story dress (Adrian - waist) and one worn by Myrna Loy in I Love You Again (Dolly Tree - shoulders)! I'd wear all of them (insert ♥ eyes)!


~♥~♥~♥~

And lastly, for fun, here is a recycled mirror! I noticed it in Lady Be Good (1941) and shared it online because of a certain artist - Curious Pip, check out her work on Instagram - who loves mermaids and classic movies. Then I spotted it again at the beginning of Come Live With Me (1941)!


Be sure to check out last month's post again. I found a third recycle of the striped flower gown and added it to the post as well as a photo that shows Joan Fontaine's Suspicion robe better :)

Post 450!

2 comments:

  1. Wow! This is such fun. I have a particular fondness for the RKO closet. It makes sense for the studios to reuse their costumes but they had no idea the movies would be scrutinized as they can be today.

    Next stop: the furniture department!

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    1. I always chuckle at the newspapers where they repeat paragraphs to fill the page.

      Lol that mirror is the first piece of furniture I’ve ever spotted a recycle of. I’ve noticed house exteriors before and a knitting prop (I happened to watch movies back to back it appeared in).

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