20th century Hollywood costume designer Orry-Kelly should need no introduction – the acclaimed New South Welshman won three Academy Awards in his lifetime, which was the most held by any Australian until last year (when Catherine Martin scored her fourth). However, the Kiama-raised designer is today largely unknown in his home country. Women He’s Undressed is the new documentary by director Gillian Armstrong, revealing Orry-Kelly’s place in film history.
According to Armstrong, a documentary on Orry-Kelly was appealing “for the very reason that nobody knows who he is”. It was her co-producer Damien Parer who approached her with Orry’s story. “I couldn’t believe it – I knew all the names of the films,” says Armstrong. “I thought, ‘Oh my God!’ Casablanca, Now, Voyager, Some Like It Hot and Auntie Mame were designed by an Australian from Kiama, New South Wales, and none of us had ever heard of him.”
Women He’s Undressed traces Orry-Kelly’s life as he travelled from Australia to New York in 1921 to be an actor, before relocating to Los Angeles a decade later. As a designer, he worked with many famous figures including Humphrey Bogart, Tony Curtis, Cary Grant, Marilyn Monroe, Ginger Rogers, Barbara Stanwyck and Jack Warner (the studio chief of Warner Bros. who first hired and eventually fired Orry-Kelly as his head costume designer). Orry-Kelly formed an especially close relationship with the actor Bette Davis.
“What Bette discovered, and why they became such a team, [was] that she had someone – he knew how to subtly enhance her figure, but for the two of them it was going to be about character,” explains Armstrong. “His design was suited to character and he was sympathetic to whoever or whatever shapes the bodies were.”
In the film, actor Darren Gilshenan (AKA Uncle Terry from The Moodys) plays Orry-Kelly. Armstrong says he’s a great fit. “I started reading comments in some articles about costume and so on where [Orry-Kelly] was described as brash and rude and everything. I thought, ‘Oh, he’s an Australian – you didn’t get the joke!’”
Narrating in the first person, Gilshenan portrays Orry-Kelly as a bold, funny and passionate larrikin. His commentaries are interspersed throughout the film, alongside historical footage, clips from films showing off Orry-Kelly’s costumes and interviews with historians, designers, actors and other people who knew him.
When it came to research, Armstrong worked closely with the writer Katherine Thomson. With no biography on Orry-Kelly to focus on, they had to read books about others, trawl through newspaper articles and hunt for archival materials. Along the way, they discovered a few surprises.
“On Wikipedia it says that Orry was named after a carnation, but actually, we then found out that Orry’s father’s hobby was breeding carnations, and actually the carnation was named after Orry,” Armstrong reveals.
There was also a stint in rehab. “He was back in Australia in the early ’50s and he made a joke he was only drinking milk because he had an ulcer.”
As a director, Armstrong naturally has a keen insight into the role of the costume designer in the production of films. “I actually went to film school to study to be a costume and set designer in the beginning,” she says. “So I have absolute respect for costume design. I have worked with some of the world’s most brilliant [designers] … I have a complete understanding and awe of great costume and that was one of the other reasons I took the film on, because people have no idea [about] the detail that goes on behind it.”
Women He’s Undressed (dir. Gillian Armstrong) showing at State Theatre onThursday June 11 and Hayden Orpheum Cremorne Saturday June 13 as part of Sydney Film Festival 2015. Also showing aboard the Sun Princess in Sydney Harbour on Wednesday June 10.
