Italian Straw Hat
On his way to be married, the groom's horse eats a married lady's hat. As she is having a clandestine stroll with her lover, they strongly suggest that the would-be groom produce an identical hat in order to keep the lady's husband from becoming suspicious. Thus begins one of the most delightful comedies of the silent period. Pauline Kael has written: “Rene Clair took the basic situations of the play as the starting point for his own inventiveness and made what has become a model of visual wit. The Italian Straw Hat is very simply one of the funniest films ever made and one of the most elegant as well. A silent satire on the pretentions of the middle classes, it is so expertly timed and choreographed that farce becomes ballet.”