dvd of the week
Orry-Kelly won three Oscars for costume design, including for Some Like It Hot and An American In Paris. He designed the costumes for Auntie Mame, Casablanca, 42 Street and several of Bette Davis’ most iconic roles: Jezibel, Dark Victor, and The Letter. This career makes him important, but he was also an out gay man in Hollywood in its most repressive homophobic time. And until recently, few knew that he had been Cary Grant’s live-in boyfriend at the beginning of their careers. So, wow. Gillian Armstrong’s documentary on Orry-Kelly does a great job of teaching this art and film history, using extensive and well-edited archival footage and a wildly impressive set of interviews with people like famed costume designers Ann Roth, Coleen Atwood, Catherine Martin and Michael Wilkensen and two of the surviving actresses he dressed, Jane Fonda and Angela Lansbury.
