Janet Gaynor's "hair" in Sunrise

[Richard Ward]

I LOVE THIS FILM!!! But does anybody know why, oh, why Janet Gaynor
was made to wear that awful wig! It is really distracting; a real sore
thumb in one of the most beautiful films ever made. It seems almost to
have been intentionally phony -- with a pointed reference in the scene
in the hair salon when she refuses to have her own hair touched while
George O'Brien is getting shaved.

Just wondering.

Richard Ward

[Fair Pickings]

Post by Richard Ward
I LOVE THIS FILM!!! But does anybody know why, oh, why Janet Gaynor
was made to wear that awful wig! It is really distracting; a real sore
thumb in one of the most beautiful films ever made. It seems almost to
have been intentionally phony -- with a pointed reference in the scene
in the hair salon when she refuses to have her own hair touched while
George O'Brien is getting shaved.
Just wondering.
Richard Ward

On the sheet music cover to "Sunrise and You" she's NOT wearing The Wig, and
she looks considerably better.

Art Pierce

[Eric Stott]

Fair Pickings wrote:
On the sheet music cover to "Sunrise and You" she's NOT wearing The Wig, and

Post by Fair Pickings
she looks considerably better.
Art Pierce

So "Sunrise and You" was a movie tie-in? It's quite a beautiful song. I've
never seen a recording, but my piano roll is splendid.

Stott

[Fair Pickings]

Post by Fair Pickings
On the sheet music cover to "Sunrise and You" she's NOT wearing The Wig, and

Post by Fair Pickings
she looks considerably better.
Art Pierce

So "Sunrise and You" was a movie tie-in? It's quite a beautiful song. I've
never seen a recording, but my piano roll is splendid.
Stott

It's a pre-existing song, but was re-issued in conjunction with the movie.
It IS a very nice song that was recorded and, obviously, issued on a piano
roll. (I think the sheet music even makes reference to that fact.) Mr.
Riesenfeld doesn't use it in the score that was syncronized with the movie,
but that's such a terrific score that I sure can't fault him.

Art Pierce

[Jeff C.]

Post by Richard Ward
But does anybody know why, oh, why Janet Gaynor
was made to wear that awful wig!

You're >so< right... it's so patently false and absurd that it becomes almost
riveting!

To a lesser degree, but also inexplicable, is Zasu Pitts' wig in GREED.

Gaynor's hair looks a mess in SUNNY SIDE UP (1929) too, but at least it's her
own.

J e f f





------
"Oh, did someone in your family play the piano?"
"Yeah... anybody with a nickel."
Barbara Stanwyck in BABY FACE (1932)

[JMozart17561791]

Was Zasu actually wearing a wig in Greed?Stroheim was such a meticulous
director and such a stickler for even the most minor of details,I'd be very
shocked if he would have allowed anything that wasn't 100% authentic.

James

Post by Jeff C.
To a lesser degree, but also inexplicable, is Zasu Pitts' wig in GREED.

[Your Pal Brian]

Post by Richard Ward
Just wondering.

I heard it's because she was working on Seventh Heaven at the same time,
right?

Personally I love the hair; she looks like a pumpkin.

Brian

[Fair Pickings]

Post by Your Pal Brian
Personally I love the hair; she looks like a pumpkin.
Brian

Can anyone think of a Murnau film after 1923 where the heroine DOESN'T
wear a wig, that is, beside Tabu?
Hmmmm, mabey that would be The Devils... now where did I put my copy
of that...

Didn't you loan it to Mary Duncan to show at a party?

Art Pierce

[El Dorado]

Post by Your Pal Brian
Personally I love the hair; she looks like a pumpkin.
Brian

Can anyone think of a Murnau film after 1923 where the heroine DOESN'T
wear a wig, that is, beside Tabu?
Hmmmm, mabey that would be The Devils... now where did I put my copy
of that...

Guess you mean "Four Devils" (1929) -- or rather, as Frank Thompson likes to
insist, "4 Devils." And if you can find your copy of it, the world will
beat a path to your door.

Cheers,
Dan N.

[Dr. Giraud]

<< Guess you mean "Four Devils" (1929) -- or rather, as Frank Thompson likes to
insist, "4 Devils." >>

Some of the surviving Fox press materials refer to it as "4 Devils."

Shawn Stone

[Lokke Heiss]

That's what I understand, and that's why Frank wrote it up that way in his
book. But the AFI catalogue calls it "Four Devils."

However many damn devils there were, does anyone remember seeing any
stills to check if Murnau had shaken off his 'lets put a stupid wig on
the leading lady motif'?

I have my theories why F.W. liked wigs, but since short of a seance
they can never be proven, I will keep silent about them.

[Frederica]

Post by Lokke Heiss
I have my theories why F.W. liked wigs, but since short of a seance
they can never be proven, I will keep silent about them.

Oh no you don't. Whip 'em out.

Frederica

[Lokke Heiss]

Post by Frederica

Post by Lokke Heiss
I have my theories why F.W. liked wigs, but since short of a seance
they can never be proven, I will keep silent about them.

Oh no you don't. Whip 'em out.
Frederica

I tried to send you a personal e-mail using your address listed, but
it bounced back. If you write via my e-mail address above I'll tell
you what I think.
P.S. Stage Struck...tonight at UCLA

[JMozart17561791]

No,there's nothing terribly unusual about a wig being used in a film,and
perhaps Zasu did wear one,but given Stroheim's track record of extravagance and
borderline insane attention to the slightest of details I wouldn't put it past
him to have just told Zasu to grow her own hair out to that ludicrously long
length until it met with his ideals.

This *is* a man who allegedly ordered the use of real caviar in Foolish Wives
for a shot which probably lasted all of 10 seconds.

James

There's nothing terribly unusual about the wearing of a wig during the time
in
which the film is set, as it was likely as common as it is today... although
hardly as convincing.
It would have been very much in keeping with Stroheim had the wig been
explained away with casual mention of childhood diptheria or the like, or the
wig being removed on the honeymoon night (imagine the possibilities of >that<
visual!), but of course, none of that is documented anywhere.
The horrid wig actually >works< in the latter scenes depicting the later
spartan life of the McTeagues, but remains unsettling in the earliest
courting
sequences.
All in all, I think Stroheim got the effect he wanted.
Jeff
------
"Oh, did someone in your family play the piano?"
"Yeah... anybody with a nickel."
Barbara Stanwyck in BABY FACE (1932)

[Frederica]

Post by JMozart17561791
No,there's nothing terribly unusual about a wig being used in a film,and
perhaps Zasu did wear one,but given Stroheim's track record of

extravagance and

Post by JMozart17561791
borderline insane attention to the slightest of details I wouldn't put it past
him to have just told Zasu to grow her own hair out to that ludicrously long
length until it met with his ideals.
This *is* a man who allegedly ordered the use of real caviar in Foolish Wives
for a shot which probably lasted all of 10 seconds.
James

Good lord, James, I hope that's a wig and not Zasu's real hair. It looked
like a bird's nest made out of cheap yarn. I honestly thought it was a
bizarre hat until close to the end of the film.

Victorian and Edwardian women wore hairpieces quite regularly. The
hairstyles were convoluted and many women just didn't have the amount of
hair required. It's not easy being a skinny hair in the land of the fat
hairs.

Also, I think the audience's eye for fake hair is much more sophisticated
today than it was then. Actors still wear a lot of wigs and hairpieces, but
they seem to be more realistic.

Frederica

[Greta de Groat]

Post by JMozart17561791

Post by JMozart17561791
No,there's nothing terribly unusual about a wig being used in a film,and
perhaps Zasu did wear one,but given Stroheim's track record of

extravagance and

Post by JMozart17561791
borderline insane attention to the slightest of details I wouldn't put it

past

Post by JMozart17561791
him to have just told Zasu to grow her own hair out to that ludicrously

long

Post by JMozart17561791
length until it met with his ideals.
This *is* a man who allegedly ordered the use of real caviar in Foolish

Wives

Post by JMozart17561791
for a shot which probably lasted all of 10 seconds.
James

Good lord, James, I hope that's a wig and not Zasu's real hair. It looked
like a bird's nest made out of cheap yarn. I honestly thought it was a
bizarre hat until close to the end of the film.
Victorian and Edwardian women wore hairpieces quite regularly. The
hairstyles were convoluted and many women just didn't have the amount of
hair required. It's not easy being a skinny hair in the land of the fat
hairs.
Also, I think the audience's eye for fake hair is much more sophisticated
today than it was then. Actors still wear a lot of wigs and hairpieces, but
they seem to be more realistic.
Frederica

In addition to his foot fetish, does Stroheim also have a thing for hair? I
seem to remember other big wigs, or extremely thick braids. Queen Kelly for
sure, and didn't Zasu wear something similar in The Wedding March?

Just looked up McTeague on Project Gutenberg and got the following quote:
Trina was very small and
prettily made. Her face was round and rather pale; her eyes
long and narrow and blue, like the half-open eyes of a
little baby; her lips and the lobes of her tiny ears
were pale, a little suggestive of anaemia; while across the
bridge of her nose ran an adorable little line of freckles.
But it was to her hair that one's attention was most
attracted. Heaps and heaps of blue-black coils and braids,
a royal crown of swarthy bands, a veritable sable tiara,
heavy, abundant, odorous. All the vitality that should have
given color to her face seemed to have been absorbed by this
marvellous hair. It was the coiffure of a queen that
shadowed the pale temples of this little bourgeoise. So
heavy was it that it tipped her head backward, and the
position thrust her chin out a little. It was a charming
poise, innocent, confiding, almost infantile.

The hair is mentioned frequently thereafter.

So it has literary warrant. Does look weird on screen, though.

greta

[Frederica]

And with the lights shining on you...ick. I should think the makeup worn
then was uncomfortable, too.

Frederica

One thing I keep thinking everytime I see Greed is that hair has to be

awfully

heavy.I don't want to imagine what it would be like wet.
James

Post by Frederica
Good lord, James, I hope that's a wig and not Zasu's real hair. It looked
like a bird's nest made out of cheap yarn. I honestly thought it was a
bizarre hat until close to the end of the film.
Victorian and Edwardian women wore hairpieces quite regularly. The
hairstyles were convoluted and many women just didn't have the amount of
hair required. It's not easy being a skinny hair in the land of the fat
hairs.
Also, I think the audience's eye for fake hair is much more sophisticated
today than it was then. Actors still wear a lot of wigs and hairpieces, but
they seem to be more realistic.
Frederica

[Rick Levinson]

Post by Richard Ward
I LOVE THIS FILM!!! But does anybody know why, oh, why Janet Gaynor
was made to wear that awful wig! It is really distracting; a real sore
thumb in one of the most beautiful films ever made. It seems almost to
have been intentionally phony -- with a pointed reference in the scene
in the hair salon when she refuses to have her own hair touched while
George O'Brien is getting shaved.
Just wondering.
Richard Ward

***************

Don't know about Janet Gaynor's wig, but her beard was Charlie Farrell.

Rick

[l***@comcast.net]

The tightness and neatness of the wig contrast the early scene where the city woman is fluffing up her hair before she goes to meet the man.