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OPEN CLASSIC CINEMA · 1182

Those Awful Hats

19093 minUnited States
Comedy

Synopsis

An audience struggles to watch a film as extravagant hats block the screen. Complaints and attempts to improve the view turn the auditorium into its own comic spectacle. The short ends by making its practical request to spectators explicit.

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Video edition
Wikimedia Commons
Original language
No spoken dialogue. Intertitles: not identified.
This copy runs
2:41
Subtitles
No subtitle track in this language

No spoken dialogue. Intertitles: not identified. No subtitle track in this language.

Languages and subtitles

No subtitle track in this language

Wikimedia Commons · D.W.Griffith · Public domain

This copy runs shorter than the reference runtime. Editing and playback speed can differ between editions.

Cast

DirectorsD. W. Griffith

Historical context

Biograph offered the film to exhibitors as an entertaining replacement for a slide asking women to remove their hats. It is both a comedy about moviegoing and an early piece of cinema housekeeping.

Sources and availability

General references identify the work and its copy. A reference beside an editorial section is linked to the claims checked in that section.

Wikipedia — film referenceWikidata — film identity and credits

Work catalogued as public domain in the United States.

The public-domain references concern the original films in the United States. Rights can differ for other countries, editions, restorations, music or translations. Sources are listed on each film page.

Availability checked on September 15, 2026.

Photograph credit

Photographs cropped, resized and optimized as WebP, displayed in monochrome.

  • Mack Sennett — Author/source credit not supplied in Commons metadata; file page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MackSennett1910.jpg · Public domain

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