FWIW: Give 'em the high hat

This piece by cinema enthusiast Benjamin Wright (thank you Bill for referring me to his blog!) inspired a train of thought related to the use of hats in the movies. Coincidentally I've been feeling nostalgic for the days when it wasn't acceptable for an adult male to go out in public wearing an untucked shirt and baseball cap turned backwards -- and I plead guilty to having done both. I think it has something to do with the growing infantilization of popular culture. Nobody wants to dress like a grown-up anymore. But I digress.

Hats have always been a staple of classic Hollywood and Hollywood-inspired cinema. One can hardly imagine Humphrey Bogart without his fedora or John Wayne without his Stetson. The directors of the French New Wave made a habit of riffing on the iconography of "men wearing hats." A prime example would be Jean-Paul Belmondo, mimicking the look and mannerisms of his hero Bogart, in Breathless -- even checking his reflection in the glass that covers a marquee displaying Bogey's visage. Belmondo's character is mostly style over substance, as is the use of headwear in most cases. I could come up with a long list of movies where hats are an indispensable accessory. That would be too easy. What's more interesting is the handful of films I can think of where hats become something more -- a visual metaphor, a dramatic prop, even a running joke. Here are five I came up with.