Stuff and Moonshine

The one that always fascinates me is Heaven Can Wait (1942). The first two-thirds take place in the 1880s and 1890s, and the costumes don’t look too bad, though I suspect it’s not so much that they’re accurate as that they’re wrong in ways I’m used to seeing— after all Hollywood did plenty of movies set in the late 19th century. Where it gets weird is the scene of the lead characters’ 25th anniversary party. I thought the dress Gene Tierney wears in this bit looked like it could *maybe* be 1942’s take on the fashions of the late teens, but then I did the math and worked out the scene is set in the early 1920s. My guess is that, since in the ‘40s the ‘20s were just far gone enough to be considered irredeemably tacky, the producers couldn’t stand the thought of putting Tierney in a 1920s gown, especially since this is supposed to be a beautiful tender moment. So in the universe of the film, fashion evidently just smoothly segued from the late teens to the thirties with no experiments in hemline or looseness of bodice. I’m not sure anything can excuse the character’s hairdo, though someone with similar views to my own suggested it was an attempt to mash-up a 20s marcel wave with ‘40s hair horns.