Oh we love our readers, yes we do. And you have so many suggestions for what to review on this here blog! You fill our email box, comments, Facebook, and Twitterstream with ideas all the live-long day and night. And we’re not ignoring you, honest, but here are a few reasons why we may not be getting to your exact recommendation at this precise moment.
When you suggest a movie or TV show to us, we’d love it if you ask these questions before you send the title in…
1. Does it qualify as a Frock Flick?
We do have a pretty specific focus on historical costume movies and TV shows. That doesn’t just mean “old” movies, but things consciously set in a historical period that’s previous to the production time. As we explain here:
A 1930s movie isn’t a “historical costume movie” unless it’s telling, for example, a 19th-century drama. Gone With the Wind premiered in 1939, and the action within the film takes place from the 1860s through the 1870s, covering the American Civil War and Reconstruction. That’s a historical costume film. Top Hat came out in 1935 and has gorgeous costumes, but it’s set in the then-contemporary period of the 1930s. Therefore, it isn’t a historical costume movie.
In that same FAQ page, we also note that our historical era has a rough ending period of the 1960s. And really, we are more interested in pre-World War II eras because the costumes give us more to talk about (both good or bad).
Don’t forget that, as much as we love it, we don’t generally review science fiction and fantasy. The only exceptions are when, again, we find that the film or TV show is specifically set in a historical period (such as Wonder Woman set in World War I).
2. Search our site to make sure we haven’t already reviewed it
Let’s call this Miss Fisher Syndrome. For ages, readers would mention this great series about a 1920s female detective — have you heard about it? It’s Miss Fisher! You really should review it! Yet we HAD reviewed it in April 2015. Sarah even wrote a Snark Week post about people asking for us to review Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, our review being one of our top searched posts, and how to use the multiple search boxes on our site.
Your first stop should be the right sidebar of FrockFlicks.com to search by the title of the movie or TV show you’re interested in. You can also use Google or maybe Alexa or Siri or whatever robot overlord helps you find information in this high-tech age.
3. Is the film easily available in the U.S.?
Do us a solid and think twice about recommending that obscure German-language TV show from the 1960s. We’re not saying the show has terrible historical costumes, but we are saying it’s probably not available on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, basic cable in the U.S., or even DVD or VHS, and hey, there’s even a chance the show was lost to posterity if it’s that old.
Even more recent frock flicks can be difficult for us to find, no matter how much we want to watch and review them. We have access to most of the major streaming services, but only the American ones, plus a certain amount of American network and cable TV. Just keep that in mind when you’re asking us to comment on costumes in stuff that hasn’t been shown stateside.
A great thing to do is check a site like JustWatch.com (or use Google!) to see if the film or TV show is currently available, then if it is, it’s a valid recommendation for us. (Hint: that’s a good place to look if you’re wondering where you can watch a show we’ve already reviewed, plus here’s more tips on where to watch frock flicks.)
Oh, and note all this talk about streaming — that’s because these flicks are easier for us to squeeze into our schedules (not to mention, it means we can make screencaps!). Movies currently showing in U.S. theaters are harder to get around to.
4. We’ll probably pay attention more if you’ve donated to us
Frock Flicks is not a pay-for-review service, but we are far more likely to take recommendations seriously if they’re from our Patreon subscribers and those who’ve donated something nice via PayPal and used the feedback form there. We even have a Patreon subscription level that does guarantee a review of your choice, if you really want to get our attention.
5. Contact us in the best way possible for us
If you donate, use the feedback form that PayPal donations link to or post on our Patreon page. Or email us. But please don’t comment on a random blog post or Facebook post, as we’re likely to miss it. We’d also prefer if you didn’t request reviews through Facebook or Instagram because it’s hard to organize them through social media.
Finally, please realize we can’t get to everything. We have busy schedules, a long backlog, and our own preferences too! We write for ourselves as much as we write for you, and we might really want to watch and review something first because it looks awesome to us.
Thanks for your suggestions!
Hi girls,
I’m one of those people, who asked you to review a frock flick, namely “Angelique” from 2013 by Ariel Zeitoun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ang%C3%A9lique_(film).
I donated you via Paypal, because I thought you were a pay-for-review service, but in the end I have withdrawn my request, because I was afraid of your snark (“Angelique” is my favourite movie).
Now, I think that the objective truth about the costumes must be faced ;-). If I understand correctly that’s the mission of your site :-).
Thank you for clarifying the criteria that decide, if you review a period film or not (if you nevertheless had a chance to take a look at “Angelique”, it would be nice).
Not directly on topic, but do you think you guys could have a weekly “off topic” or chat thread? Blogs like Ask A Manager, Corporette, Jezebel etc. have them and it’s nice to build community. I also feel like there are things I might want to discuss with other readers of frock flicks, but there it doesn’t make sense to bring them up on a thread dedicated to a specific movie.
Hey, that’s a cool idea! I’ll bring it up w/the gals & see about scheduling it in the new year :)
Awesome, thanks!
I rather like the sound of that suggestion.
Have you ever considered doing the 1975-1977 adaptation of “POLDARK”? Or the 1982 miniseries, “THE BARCHESTER CHRONICLES”?
So I guess “Madame Satan” is right out. LOL.
I want you to FUCKING CRUCIFY The Howard’s End Remake and eventually the fucking Little Women mini-series they both look kinda bad!
I didn’t realize the trailer for LW was out yet; found it, watched it… meh. I suspect the Ryder version of LW will remain my favorite. ;)
It seems appropriate to request two of my favourite actors for Women Candy Day. The first, Susan Hampshire, you have referenced in you New Version of Vanity Fair announcement. But she’s done alot of FrockFlicks. She was the original Fleur in the B&W Forsyte Saga, Lady Sarah Marlborough in the First Churchills, Lady Glencora Palliser, was in Barchester Chronicles, the Grand and others.
The second is Francesca Annis.
Susan Hampshire definitely needs a WCW. And I’m still waiting for Elsa Lanchester.
I was wondering if you guys have access to kanopy?
Oh, the timing. I named a request in the comments section of the previous post and am now enjoying the coincidence of this topic popping up so soon.
The Borgias please! Dress and hairstyles.. ♥ I find the dress very unique and hairstyles gorgerous, sadly, no one recreates any of those.. or I just can’t find it
FF has already reviewed The Borgias and i believed i already seen some recreational videos on YouTube with their hairstyles. I’m sure you can easily look it up.
https://frockflicks.com/?s=borgias
Far and Away it’s dubbed here in Italy, so we don’t have a problem with Cruise’s accent or acting, and it’s an actually brilliant, entartaining, romantic, well done movie. I suspect the adaptation altered some of the dialogues as well, because the story is one of the movie’s stong points, in the Italian version.
I think, generally speaking, that we (Italians) are lucky with US movies sometimes, because the dubbing and adaptation saves many of them – Collateral beauty is just the last that comes to my mind, since it’s horrible in English but rather nice in Italian.
Still, Ever After is my most beloved cheesy costume movie, along with the Heath Ledger version of Casanova, for it’s Venetian settings.
Speaking of requests, do you guys do Q&A? I know you tend to post personal favorites and opinions on this site, but i think most of us have questions pilling up in our notes tempting to ask you some stuff, ranging from historical costumes to films, history, books, to anything basically (at least ones that weren’t answered).
I promise, I promise that I did a search before I posted this, but it occurred to me last night that “A League of Our Own” has plenty of day to day, 1940’s fashions and styles that are just perfect for a review. Not the milkmaid farmgirl overalls, obviously, but all the pintucked blouses and middle-market hats and coats, plus a few dashing pieces mostly so we can all marvel at how stylish and lovely Geena Davis is (and she’s a jock! – as the movie would have us gasp).
Plus! I decided on a lark to actually look up the All American Girls League teams and saw that the “scandalous” skirted uniforms in story were actually based upon female tennis and skating athletic costumes of the time,,,, so there is that angle, to
Aurgh… so many typos. I wish there was a way we could edit…..
Have you ever done a review of the 1988 Dangerous Liasons with Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer, Keanau Reeves? I searched but didn’t find it. What a cast, and right up your alley costume-wise! Thanks…
I Would recommend:
The Forsyte Saga (1967)
The First Churchills (1969)
War and Peace (1972)
The Pallisers (1974) Emmy for awesome achievement in costumes
Jennie, Lady Randolph Churchill (1974) Emmy
The Barchester Chronicles (1982)
A Woman of Independent Means (1995) emmy