Eugene Labiche and Marc Michel's effervescent French farce An Italian Straw Hat was gracefully adapted for the screen by director René Clair. Albert Prejean plays a well-meaning fellow who is on the way to his wedding. While en route, Prejean's horse has the bad manners to eat the expensive hat of a lovely young woman. The girl is beside herself, so Prejean gallantly offers to postpone his wedding until he can locate an identical chapeau, thereby setting in motion an endless series of comic misunderstandings. More than one historian has noted that Albert Prejean is made up to look like American two-reel comedian Charley Chase, most of whose "Imagine my embarrassment!" films were constructed pretty much along the same lines as An Italian Straw Hat.
Review by All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
liked it.
A wonderful little farce, Un Chapeau de Paille d'Italie is somewhat unknown to modern moviegoers, largely because silent films are so out of favor. This is a shame, as
Chapeau is a delightful and charming little affair; while those not used to silent films will have to concentrate a bit harder to pick up the details of its involved plot, it's well worth the effort. Director/adaptor
René Clair has done a marvelous job of capturing those details and of heaping one plot development on top of another in classic farce fashion, until the entire proceedings come tumbling down and all gets resolved. Yet Clair makes sure that the plot mechanics don't result in a mechanical film. He imbues scenes with lovely little moments, lingering a bit longer after the main actors have left a scene or capturing a delicate arch of an eyebrow that other directors might have missed. He also adds a welcome surreal touch during the sequence in which the hero is fearing that the worst has happened to his beautiful home, but is equally at home with the mundane. (As an example of the latter, the sequence in which a wife is trying to get her husband to pay attention to an undone collar is beautifully realized and quite funny.) Clair's cast is near-perfect, anchored by the sterling "little man" comic performance of
Albert Prejean. An Italian Straw Hat is both sweet and amusing, a lovely combination. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide