Stanley Baker's Irvin

[asiamiles]

I was watching HELL DRIVERS again a couple of nights ago and noticed that the Irvin worn by Stanley Baker had a snap on each cuff [top photo]. Is this some remnant of an electrically heated garment? While his Irvin was clearly a size too big it looked rather long, indeed significantly longer than the dark fur Coastal Command Irvin worn by another character in the film [bottom photo], and I started to wonder if Baker's jacket was actually an Irvin (the belt looked a little different too) but then there was a shot in which the underarm grommets were clearly visible, so my fears were assuaged. Any ideas VLJ Irvin experts?

 

[rich]

Hi Miles, I've seen this film many times and it never occurred to me that it wasn't an authentic jacket. Made in 1957, perhaps it
wasn't too difficult to pick up Irvins as cheap surplus? In your top photo, is that the leather conduit for the wiring,
which served to heat the gloves - looks a little bulky for seam tape? Perhaps Andrew Leadsky or Andrew S can say - I think he owns an electrically heated Irvin. I guess the length of the jacket is due to it being oversized, but I have no idea of the actor's physical stature. A great film though, I always enjoy seeing it.

 

[Chandler]

I love the details in the first pic -- was fooseball a popular pub game in England in the '40s? I didn't even know it was around in the '50s!

Chandler

 

[Andrew]

Yep, from those shots I would say electrically heated irvin. Standard irvins don't have seams in the top outer edge of the sleeve, that looks like the covering tapes for the wiring and it looks like the wiring may have been removed and the tape is flattened out at the end. The stud is to attach the gloves which carried the heating elements.
The collar is very definitely an irvin.

 

[asiamiles]

Hi Miles, I've seen this film many times and it never occurred to me that it wasn't an authentic jacket. Made in 1957, perhaps it
wasn't too difficult to pick up Irvins as cheap surplus? In your top photo, is that the leather conduit for the wiring,
which served to heat the gloves - looks a little bulky for seam tape? Perhaps Andrew Leadsky or Andrew S can say - I think he owns an electrically heated Irvin. I guess the length of the jacket is due to it being oversized, but I have no idea of the actor's physical stature. A great film though, I always enjoy seeing it.

I've seen it many times too, but this was the first time on a 52" screen with such a sharp image (thanks to the DVD) so I probably noticed more details this time. I don't know anything about electrically heated Irvins so I'm only guessing that's what Baker's jacket is.

Yes, I think such surplus would have been fairly cheap back then; it still was in the 70's. The Coastal Command Irvin you see and the leather jerkin worn by Lom are both patched up, and McGoohan's sheepkin waistcoat is pretty rough too, so I guess all the clothing might well have been picked up from surplus stores after being identified as the kind of things these drivers might have worn...of course, Baker is given the coolest jacket!

 

[havocpaul]

A great period film with some great war-surplus jackets and battledress. That's certainly an electrical-wired Irvin he's wearing. I still recall in the early/mid 1960's (yes, I am that old!) as a kid seeing our local dustbin men and coalmen wearing the leather jerkins and the odd tatty Irvin too. Even when I first started collecting flight jackets in the late 1970's Irvins and especially the FAA/Coastal Command hooded ones were dirt cheap. back to the film topic, it always surprised me that in so many of those British post-war war films such as Reach for the Sky and Angels-One-Five the actors wore B-3's or civilian sheepskin flying jackets when there must have been plenty of Irvins in stock at the costumiers.

 

[asiamiles]

Interesting that it took an American director to create what is a very British film, yet one that is totally unlike any other British film. And one of its unique features is the way the entire cast is dressed; I don't think it's an accident, I think plenty of attention was given to the costuming, to give the film such a realistic feel, and thus making what is in many ways a rather fantastical story very believable. Now if someone would just release SANDS OF THE KALAHARI.

 

[Roughwear]

From the pic it is as others say an authentic electrically wired Irvin, probably early War and a size or two too big. I have owned several of these particular jackets and usually the hanging wires and plugs are removed so that they can be worn like a conventional Irvin.

 

[John Lever]

The film is from 1957 so there would have been jackets around for 10 bob or $1. Heer's a useful; link to a film data base. My daughters a film student -
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051713/

 

[asiamiles]

My daughters a film student

Where's she studying, John? I have a degree in Film myself.

 

[deeb7]

Here's a close-up .....

 

[John Lever]

A level Film studies Miles. She starts her Photography degree this autumn at Portsmouth.

 

[rich]

Interesting that it took an American director to create what is a very British film, yet one that is totally unlike any other British film. And one of its unique features is the way the entire cast is dressed; I don't think it's an accident, I think plenty of attention was given to the costuming, to give the film such a realistic feel, and thus making what is in many ways a rather fantastical story very believable. Now if someone would just release SANDS OF THE KALAHARI.

Yes, another Stanley classic I really like is 'Robbery', but I've never been able to find that either.

 

[asiamiles]

Yes, another Stanley classic I really like is 'Robbery', but I've never been able to find that either.

Due out on DVD next month. Doesn't Baker wear a Denison Smock?