Women He’s Undressed

Armstrong- inset
Inset pic- The poster to Gillian Armstrong’s new doco Featured pic- Orry-Kelly played by Darren Gilshenan with cocktail party guests. Pic Anne Howard

Director Gillian Armstrong claims that she had never heard of Orry-Kelly when Damien Parer pitched a documentary proposal at her.

It is hard to believe that any Australian cinefile would not have knowledge, at least of the existence of the man who designed the costumes for Casablanca, Some Like It Hot and hundreds of other Hollywood movies, but taken as truth, at least the completed film, WOMEN HE’S UNDRESSED will introduce this brilliant Australian export to a wider audience.

With writer Katherine Thompson, Armstrong has fashioned a biopic facsimile, a hybrid pastiche of factual footage and stylised recreation.

The recreations are the least successful components of the production, and this is said with no disrespect to Darren Gilshenan and Deborah Kennedy who represent Orry-Kelly and his mum, respectively. It’s just that these “in their own words” inserts seem clunky and contrived.

The more conventional talking head recollections of those still surviving who worked with him, like Jane Fonda and Anne Roth, are infinitely more fascinating, as are the numerous clips from the films that were adorned with Orry -Kelly creations.

The clips illustrate an illustrious career in a stupendous ‘show me don’t tell me’ kaleidoscopic cavalcade. Credited with over 300 titles, many of the movies he dressed are now iconic – The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, Oklahoma, Jezebel,

Orry-Kelly won three Academy Awards for his costuming brilliance- An American In Paris, Les Girls and Some Like it Hot, and was nominated for another, Gypsy, – a pioneer ahead of other Australian Academy Award winning costume designers such as John Truscott, Lizzy Gardiner, and Catherine Martin.

The film makes quite a to do about his relationship with Cary Grant which borders on the titillating and salacious and this did not feel in keeping with the stylish sophistication of the man or his work.

The film’s title is a play on Orry-Kelly’s long lost memoir, Women I’ve Undressed, and it’s the women who are at the fore in this story, through anecdotes, recollection and attributions.

Orry-Kelly not only made stunning couture but cultivated confidence in the likes of Bette Davis, Ingrid Bergman, Betty Grable, Rosalind Russell, Natalie Wood and Marilyn Monroe.

He also dressed fellow Aussies Errol Flynn and Merle Oberon, as well as Bogart, Cary Grant, and of course Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon.

Catherine Martin is on record as saying how much Orry-Kelly has inspired her own craft. It would be interesting to see a full blown biopic made by Martin and her constant partner and collaborator, Baz Luhrman. ‘Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished for.

Gillian Armstrong’s WOMEN HE’S UNDRESSED opens in cinemas this Thursday, 16th July. It will screen at the Palace Verona and Norton street cinemas.