The Italian Straw Hat
René Clair
France,
1928
En route to his wedding, Fadinard (Albert Préjean) parks alongside a country lane, where his horse chews on the hat of a married woman (Olga Chekhova) engaging in a tryst with a solemn, decorated lieutenant (Geymond Vital). Pressed into replacing the damaged article so that the wife can conceal her affair, Fadinard must scramble around town while still somehow participating in his own nuptials: Can he save one marriage before he jeopardizes his own? Based on Eugène Labiche’s nineteenth-century stage play, The Italian Straw Hat mounts into an uproarious tornado of mix-ups, reversals, and ironies, even as legendary director René Clair—at the peak of his silent-era powers—displays a sharp eye for the humorous details surrounding marital rituals and proprieties.
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