A FEATHER IN HER HAT (1935) is a weird little film, and the Baz’s presence in it is hard to explain in some ways, though interesting and engaging to watch. He plays Captain Courtney, a WWI vet, psychologically scarred and taken to booze to ease his pain, who is adopted by “cockney” widow, Pauline Lord, as a live-in life and speech coach for her only son, in the hope he can turn him into a Gentleman. The plan succeeds brilliantly as the son turns into Louis Hayward, with cut glass Bertie Wooster vowels and patent leather hair – but this is only the start of the angst, pain and misunderstandings… Basil is grayed up for much of the film and evidently intended to be playing someone considerably older than his real age (60+ presumably, though this doesn’t really fit with his having been active in WWI), and he is also required to be a colorless, retiring sort of chap, which doesn’t fit easily with his always vibrant (in those days) on-screen persona and general physical …