The Peachbasket Hat (1909) User Reviews

The Peachbasket Hat review

[JoeytheBrit · 6/10 · 12 May 2020]

D. W. Griffith utilises the 1909 fad for outlandish female headgear known as peachbasket hats to craft a tale of missing babies and suspicious gypsies in this early comedy-drama from the Biograph studios. The film sees Griffith using cross-cutting to show events occurring simultaneously, although there is only mild suspense as the element of danger that he would later exploit so expertly is missing here. The Moving Picture World describes the lead male character as Mr. Jones; whether this is the same Mr. Jones who loses pants and dignity at parties in Griffith's unsuccessful attempts at comedy is uncertain, although he is played by the same actor (the portly John R. Cumpson).

Those Awful Hats

[boblipton · 6/10 · 30 September 2018]

After reading a newspaper article about gypsies kidnapping babies, John Cumpson goes to work. Florence Lawrence goes shopping, leaving baby with nurse Anita Hendrie. Miss Hendrie spots gypsies and invites them in to read her fortune. Florence returns with a huge hat, the size of a peach basket. The gypsies are hustled out behind her back, the box the hat came in falls over the baby (not harming him, of course). Mr. Cumpson returns home. Where's the baby?

Here's the slapstick chase given solid plot justification in a split reel, complete with Mack Sennett as the cop who joins the frenzy. Cumpson was Biograph's resident comic, leading with Miss Lawrence as the Joneses in shorts like HER FIRST BISCUIT and MR. JONES' BURGLAR. Then he left Biograph for the greener fields (i..e. more money) at Edison.

Griffith also makes the point that gypsies are not necessarily rootless, evil people. Why, people say the same things about actors on tour!

A Cinematic Hogarth

[Single-Black-Male · 3 March 2004]

The main reason why the 34 year old D.W. Griffith made short films like this one was because he wanted to make as many films as possible so that his name would be in the public domain and that audiences would demand his work. He pairs off mainstream culture with diversity in this film by emphasizing a pseudo purity within the dominant society, and then demonising the marginalised. He compares and contrasts just like Hogarth would, painting a picture of self-definition through the process of othering. His characters do not integrate with the rest of the world and are therefore an expression of Griffith's own sensibilities.