Kubrick loved how McDowell looked in the crisp white uniform and suggested that he wear the outfit's groin protector on the outside, like a giant codpiece.

CANNES: One of cinema's most stylish psychopaths got his look because Malcolm McDowell happened to have his cricket uniform with him while talking over his “A Clockwork Orange” character with Stanley Kubrick.

They had been pondering just how McDowell's gleefully brutal thug Alex should dress for the 1971 film, which screened Thursday at the Cannes Film Festival ahead of a 40th anniversary Blu-ray release coming May 31.

Typical for Kubrick, who had great love for the blackly comic, they settled on a mash-up that brought an air of perverse gentility to the menacing young hooligan played by McDowell.

“I said, 'Well, I've got my cricket gear in the car. We could try that,” McDowell recalled in an interview at Cannes.

Kubrick loved how McDowell looked in the crisp white uniform and suggested that he wear the outfit's groin protector on the outside, like a giant codpiece.

That left the head gear. McDowell was given a big box of hats to choose from.

“I chose the bowler, because it symbolized the city and respectability, and I just wanted to give a real (screw) you to the establishment,” McDowell said.