I, personally, believe in common human decency, and in order to be a human of decency I believe that you shouldn't start a whole fuss when going to a film in the theater. However, right in front of me while I was watching this film, there was a woman in the theater wearing a ridiculously large hat! My complaint about this caused a whole string of events that kept me from properly viewing the film!What I DID see of the film, however, was quite interesting and experimental. Definitely impressive for such an old film! The film actually included some wildly creative special effects and can be used as an early example of more satirical cinema.8/10 for the film...1/10 for the time I had watching the film.

Early film short directed by D.W. Griffith; it might be more accurately called a "short short" at barely three minutes. It is entertaining, though. The director is saying, "Ladies, please remove your hats!" Why? Because you can't match a movie when some woman parks herself in front of your seat, and leaves her HUGE hat on.There are some early silent film stars in attendance - obviously Flora Finch, Linda Arvidson, and Florence Laurence. Mack Sennett is the man with the finny nose and the checkered suit. The men are not easy to identify, with their backs turned; but, that must be Robert Harron in the lower right of your screen, going crazy over "Those Awful Hats".The film really MOVES… all the time, there is movement ALL OVER the screen. Ms. Arvidson recalled, in her autobiography, "How many times that scene was rehearsed and taken! It grew so late and we were all so sleepy that we stopped counting. But pay for overtime evolved from this picture." ***** Those Awful Hats (1/25/09) D.W. Griffith ~ Flora Finch, Mack Sennett, Robert Harron, Linda Arvidson

The name of D.W Griffith holds a special significance in cinema. Some of the greatest motion picture legends have paid tribute to his pioneering film-making, including John Ford and Orson Welles. Notably, Charles Chaplin once described Griffith as "The Teacher Of Us All." The director's unending praise is certainly not undeserved, his most revered films including the controversial 'The Birth of a Nation (1915),' 'Intolerance (1916),' 'Broken Blossoms (1919),' 'Way Down East (1920)' and 'Orphans of the Storm (1921),' many of which I have yet to have the pleasure of seeing. Surprisingly, Griffith didn't start his movie career in directing at all. After he failed in his bid to become a playwright, the young man became an actor, finally discovering his niche in film directing.However, before he started producing his spectacular feature-length epics, Griffith was a very prolific director of short films. Between 1908 and 1913, Griffith worked for the Biograph Company, producing a mammoth 450 films in the space of only six years, sometimes averaging a rate of two or three in a week. These Biographs allowed the young director to polish his film-making skills, experimenting with revolutionary techniques – such as cross-cutting, camera movement and close-ups – that would later become commonplace in practically every movie that followed. As we move through Griffith's early works, we watch as his short films slowly become more and more elaborate and ambitious. 'Those Awful Hats (1909)' is one of early shorts, and was really meant as nothing more than an amusing three-minute comedic skit to precede a film screening and remind the women in the audience to remove their head-wear.The film is basically played out in a single take, with an audience of attentive cinema-goers seated comfortably in a movie theatre. Using a process known as the Dunning-Pomeroy Matte process, Griffith was able to split the frame into two sections, splicing the film-within-a-film onto the same screen. With the audience members seated peacefully, their film enjoyment is suddenly disrupted when a lady wearing an elaborate hat seats herself in the front row, blocking everybody else's view of the screen. There are gestures of protest, but the women is evidently completely oblivious, and the male audience members become further exasperated as several more women take their places at the front of the theatre, each wearing a more sophisticated piece of head-wear than the last. The scene turns into an enjoyable farce when a large steel contraption lowers from the ceiling to confiscate the troublesome hats, the machine inadvertently taking one of the women to the ceiling with it.Aside from the historical significance of its being an early Griffith Biograph, there is nothing particularly phenomenal about 'Those Awful Hats.' However, it does effectively display the director's unique creative vision, proving – if his later films left you in any doubt – that the genius' mind does house a healthy sense of humour.

A very amusing D. W. Griffith short featuring an appearance by future producer/director Mack Sennett. The entire 3-minute short, Those Awful Hats, takes place in a nickelodeon as we see an audience watching a movie up on the screen (one of the earliest depictions of a film-within-a-film scene). Most of the action concerns ladies who won't take off their hats. There is one particular lady who gets so obnoxious about it a steel bucket takes it from her! After the other ladies take theirs off, another lady keeps making a scene by keeping hers on, so that bucket then takes her up! The end. Well worth seeing for fans of Griffith, Sennett, and anyone interested in early movie history. I managed to see this one on YouTube.