A Guide To Gay Interest Films

The Consequence (1977)

2009-07-04T05:58:00.000-07:00

AKA: Die Konsequenz
Stars: Jürgen Prochnow, Ernst Hannawald
Director: Wolfgang Peterson
Country Of Origin: West Germany
Year Of Release: 1977
Running time: 100 minutes
Star Rating: ****
Availability: Region 1 DVD

From it’s depressing opening to its distressing end, The Consequence is a gripping and moving film. It tells the story of Martin Kurath, an actor who is in prison for having underage sex with a fifteen year old boy. Whilst taking part in a play in the prison he falls for Thomas Manzoni, the son of one of the prison wardens. The two plan a life together once Martin has been released but they face objections from Thomas’s parents. When Thomas is sent to a reform school it seems unlikely that the lovers will ever be reunited.

Told in bleak black and white, the narrative of the film covers a period of six years and is therefore episodic in places. This would often be the downfall of a film, but here the structure works extremely well. Jürgen Prochnow gives a restrained and graceful performance as Martin Kurath, with Ernst Hannawald making his film debut in the showier role of Thomas, at which he excels and gives great depth. The film was directed by Wolfgang Peterson who moved to America in the 1990s to make Hollywood blockbusters such as Air Force One (1997), The Perfect Storm (2000) and Troy (2004). It is almost sad that Peterson did not continue directing brave, more personal films such as this.

Despite the fact that this book features reviews of a number of gay films made during the 1970s in Germany, this one stands out from the crowd in a number of ways. Unlike both Fox And His Friends and The Tenderness Of The Wolves, The Consequence features two gay characters, both of which are sympathetically portrayed. Even more surprising is that the two lovers in the film are of different generations, and yet Martin’s love of Thomas is not judged or over-dramatised in any way; it is simply shown to be very real and leaves the argument of whether it is right or wrong to the viewer (who, in turn, would have to be made of sterner stuff than I not to be moved by the story). Similarly, the physical abuse that the teenaged boys suffer at the reform school is not overplayed despite being disturbing to watch. The fact that much of this is off-screen shows just how much in control of his material Peterson was even at this early stage in his career.

The DVD of the film, issued by WaterBearer features a considerably better print than many of those made around the same time that have since been released on the label. However, someone decided that the existing subtitles were hard to read and therefore new ones have been pasted over the film (in bright orange with a white background!), often blocking out a third of the frame. Thankfully, these new subtitles are removable via the remote control (there is no menu option for this) and the original ones are more than acceptable and readable. The DVD release is a welcome one, for this is an unfairly neglected gay film and deserves to be much better known.

More recommended gay films from Germany
Regular Guys (1996)
Love In Thoughts (2004)

Fortune And Men's Eyes (1971)

2009-06-05T14:57:00.000-07:00

Stars: Wendell Burton, Michael Greer
Director: Harvey Hart
Country Of Origin: USA
Year Of Release: 1971
Running time: 102 minutes
Star Rating: ***
Availability: Unavailable on DVD. Used copies of the NTSC VHS edition can be found at the usual outlets

One of those love-or-hate movies, Fortune And Men’s Eyes is the film version of John Herbert’s stage play about a naïve young man, Smitty, learning how to cope in the dog-eats-dog world of prison. He shares his cell with three others. Queenie is a drag queen played by Michael Greer, Mona is a shy young gay man and Rocky is a vicious and feared sexual predator. This is a film about homosexual acts rather than homosexuality, much in the same way that Sex In Chains was some four decades earlier. This is a much more violent and in-your-face piece, however, aided and abetted by attempts at arty camera work that don’t always come off.

A few years earlier, Sal Mineo had directed, and starred as Rocky in, the play on stage. Mineo got permission to change some of the script and made the work more of an indictment on prison conditions. Sadly, it wasn’t this version that was filmed (despite the generally good reviews); it would have interesting to see Mineo’s take on the character of Rocky. Here he is played by the unlikely-named Zooey Hall. His performance is effective (despite a haircut that makes him resemble a character from Planet Of The Apes), but lacks the light and shade and character-development of the performances of Wendell Burton and Danny Freedman as Smitty and Mona respectively.

However, it is Michael Greer that one will remember long after the film has finished. His performance as the likeable, and yet bitchy and manipulative, Queenie is a stand-out, even if it is seen as non-PC today and will have some viewers running in horror from their TV sets. And yet, this is true in many ways for the film itself. It was made in a different era to the one in which we live now and, if this can be remembered and taken on board, there is much to entertain here.

It is a far from perfect film of a far from perfect play, but its faults make it all the more interesting to watch. There were clearly some bizarre artistic decisions made, not least with the score of the movie – the use of gentle country music to bookend a rape is particularly strange (and ineffective). However, this is certainly worth hunting the likes of Ebay for on used VHS (it has yet to make it on to DVD), if only as a fascinating example of how Hollywood was pushing the boundaries of acceptability back in the early 1970s.

Also starring Michael Greer:

The Gay Deceivers (1969)

The Slaughter Rule (2002)

2009-06-05T14:50:00.000-07:00

Stars: Ryan Gosling, David Morse
Director: Alex Smith, Andrew J Smith
Country of origin: USA
Year of production: 2002
Running time: 112 minutes
Star Rating: ***
Availability: Region 1 DVD

Although this film benefits from some fine performances, The Slaughter Rule is relatively unknown on this side of the Atlantic. This may well be because of the subject matter – although a sound knowledge of American Football is not required to make sense of the film, it certainly helps. Ryan Gosling stars as Roy Chutney, a good player who is dropped rather unceremoniously from his school team. He is approached by the somewhat mysterious Gid, an older man putting together a six-man side for a tournament. A friendship develops between Roy and Gid, but Roy is somewhat confused about what Gid wants from the friendship and even more concerned about the stories surrounding Gid and the death of a boy some years earlier.

Ryan Gosling shows in this film that even in the early stages of his career he was destined to be one of the finest actors of his generation. He and David Morse, as Gid, work well together and it is these performances that hold the film together. Sadly it is the homosexual element of the story that, in many ways, lets the film down for it is clumsily handled with the script apparently lacking the required guts and commitment to deal with the theme more fully.

More sports-themed gay films:
Balls (2004)

Eleven Men Out (2005)

Parisian Love (1925)

2009-06-05T14:43:00.000-07:00

Stars: Clara Bow, Donald Keith
Director: Louis J Gasnier
Country Of Origin: USA
Year Of Release: 1925
Running time: 65 minutes
Star Rating: ***
Availability: Region 1 DVD

Clara Bow was just a teenager when she entered a magazine photo competition where the prize was a walk-on part in a movie. She won the competition and, between 1922 and 1933 (when she retired from acting) made over fifty films, including the infamous It (Clarence G Badger, 1927) and the Best Picture winner at the first Oscar ceremony, Wings. It is hard to believe now, but Bow made no less than fifteen films in 1925 alone. It is therefore no wonder that some of them, including Parisian Love, feel churned out and generally uninspired. Despite the fact that it is one of Bow’s lesser films from the period, it is of interest now because of the relationship and interaction between two of the leading male characters.

The film tells the story of Marie (Clara Bow), who is in love with Armand (Donald Keith). They earn a living dancing together at a seedy Parisian café, and as thieves. A wealthy scientist, Marcel (Lou Tellegen), visits the club one night and Marie, Armand and one of their friends, Knifer, decide to break in to his house when they mistakenly think that he has gone away for a few days. Knifer is killed but Marie manages to escape. Armand is wounded but Marcel doesn’t give him up to the police and, instead, nurses him back to health, persuading him that there are better girls out there than Marie. Marie finds out about this and decides to get her revenge on Marcel.

It is all very silly of course (if rather entertaining), but the key thing here for the gay viewer is the relationship between Armand and Marcel. When nursing him back to health, Marcel acts as though he is nursing his wife rather than someone who broke into his house. He fawns over him at every opportunity and the audience is led to suspect that Marcel is attracted to the thief. The interaction between Armand and Marcel is fascinating and makes this slightly odd little melodrama well worth a watch.

Parisian Love was lost for many decades, but a print surfaced in the mid 1990s and has since been released on DVD in America by Kino. Whether what we have in the 65-minute print of Parisian Love is the complete film is difficult to say. It is possible that small sections have gone missing over the years, but the film certainly holds together and moves along at a good pace making it a relatively easy watch for silent film novices.

Other Clara Bow films:
Wings (1927)

Call Her Savage (1932)

Ode To Billy Joe (1976)

2009-06-05T14:38:00.001-07:00

Stars: Robby Benson, Glynnis O’Connor
Director: Max Baer
Country Of Origin: USA
Year Of Release: 1976
Running time: 105 minutes
Star Rating: ***
Availability: Unavailable on DVD. Used VHS copies can often be found on Ebay and other online outlets

Films based around pop songs are more often than not unsuccessful, and yet that is not the case with Ode To Billy Joe. The song of the same name left out enough details of the suicide at the heart of the story to allow scriptwriters a number of options in how to flesh out the narrative. In this film the theory put forward is that Billy Joe commits suicide because of a dalliance with homosexuality.

Robby Benson is a surprisingly quirky and upbeat Billy Joe in the first half of the film before the more serious second section. He excels in his role, instilling his character with a mix of eccentricity and teenage angst that it is difficult not to like him. Also interesting is the performance of Glynnis O’Connor as Bobby Lee Hartley. The character is headstrong enough to be relevant in the pro-feminism 1970s when the film was made, but no so much as to make it look out of place in the mid-1950s when the film is set. The chemistry between the two leads is electric, and the sultry atmosphere of Mississippi is beautifully evoked.

Also set in Mississippi:
Red Dirt (2000)

The Detective (1968)

2009-06-04T17:12:00.000-07:00

Stars: Frank Sinatra, Lee Remick
Director: Gordon M Douglas
Country of origin: USA
Year of release: 1968
Running time: 109 minutes
Star Rating: ***
Availability: Region 1 DVD, Region 2 DVD

The Detective has probably been on the receiving end of more criticisms of homophobia within film than any other, with the exception of Cruising (William Friedkin, 1980). In his otherwise excellent book, Richard Barrios in “Screened Out” launches into a tirade about the film, labelling it “one of the most homophobic movies ever made” (Barrios 2003, p331). The film follows the story of a hard-nosed, but liberal, New York cop, Joe Leland (played by Frank Sinatra) who gets involved in a case concerning the murder of a gay man. Barrios accuses Sinatra’s character of “making illegal arrests in gay bars and roughing up gay suspects” (ibid), but this is simply untrue. Nowhere in the film is Leland seen as anything less than understanding of the gay situation. On the contrary, it is his fellow policemen who are guilty of the actions mentioned by Barrios and it is Leland who takes one of his colleagues aside and punches him in the stomach as punishment for “roughing up” the gay suspects in a local cruising area. In many respects, then, Sinatra’s character is a step forward from what has gone before. His live-and-let-live attitude towards the gay lifestyle is in stark contrast to the corrupt actions of his colleagues but it is he who is the lead character of the film. Whether Barrios simply has a dislike for Sinatra, and therefore the film, is difficult to ascertain particularly when he makes reference to “Sinatra’s sneering condescension to the gay characters, which seemed part of both the character and the star”. True, Sinatra regularly told jokes on stage at the expense of homosexuals, but he also made many politically incorrect jokes at the expense of Sammy Davis Jr’s colour and conversion to Judaism and yet was a campaigner for black rights, particularly within the show business world.

This doesn’t mean to say that the film should be devoid of criticism. The gay characters themselves are mostly seen in cruising grounds or gay bars and as either mentally unstable or as some kind of predator. When the victim of the murder is seen in flashback near the end of the film, he is hardly portrayed as a victim at all. He is instead seen as both a predator for whom the majority of the cinema-going audience in 1968 would not have had any sympathy..

The film is one that can provoke mixed reactions amongst viewers today. Released on DVD for the first time in 2006, it is clearly a product of its time and many will say that its belated DVD release is no big loss. True, the film is flawed both in its representation of gay men and as a film itself. The two lengthy flashbacks concerning Leland’s marriage problems are particularly problematic in that they literally halt the main plot of the film and only seem to succeed in making it twenty minutes too long. However, it is a movie that will continue to divide audiences and the best that we can do is watch the film and make up our own minds.

More murder mysteries set in the gay community:
Cruising (1980)
Third Man Out (2005)

Sticks And Stones (1970)

2009-06-02T17:03:00.000-07:00

Stars: Craig Dudley, Jesse Deane
Director: Stan Lopresto
Country Of Origin: USA
Year Of Release: 1970
Running time: 85 minutes
Star Rating: *
Availability: Region 1 DVD, Region 2 DVD

This vaguely repulsive film is set on Fire Island and centres around the crumbling relationship of two gay men and a party they are throwing for their “friends”. The guests are a series of queens in different shapes and sizes, each and every one a cliché.

Quite why this film has made it to DVD in both Britain and America is anybody’s guess, especially when there are many far better films of the period still to see the light of day in the DVD era. Very much a product of its time, Sticks And Stones is a prime example of the more industrialised underground gay cinema of the late 1960s and early 1970s, as opposed to the more mainstream films such as Staircase (Stanley Donen, 1969) and The Boys In The Band. Here, not only is the viewer presented with the biggest array of stereotypes imaginable but the film has a miniscule budget, poor acting and nearly non-existent direction. What is worse is the knowledge that this semi-offensive dross was actually made by gay men themselves! One almost hopes that the film might finally veer off into pornography in the last reel if only to provide some relief from the constant bitching between the various characters, which is neither witty enough to provide a much needed comic element to the film or dark enough to add to characterisation. Indeed, the only enjoyment to be had from the film is to watch out for unintentional comic moments such as the Guru, played by Robert Case, who philosophises at various intervals throughout the film while a young Adonis watches him adoringly. These monologues last for as long as five minutes at a time and, at one point, presumably due to the only flash of inspiration from the director in the entire film, inter-cut with a decidedly non-erotic sex scene between the two.

Sticks And Stones is very much a time capsule of the period in which it was made. Sadly, however, it is difficult to sit through such a dull and poorly made film even for curiosity value.

The DVD release of Sticks And Stones in the UK is as part of a double bill of “Classic Gay Films Of The 70s”. The other half of the double bill, The Meatrack (Richard Stockton, 1970), is even more of a chore to sit through, with direction and acting even worse than Sticks And Stones. Avoidance is recommended. As if Odeon Entertainment hadn’t provided us with enough rubbish for our money with the two features, also included (as bonus features) are a series of “nudie” films from the same time period. These short films have no plot and were made, presumably, for the titillation of the customers of private cinemas of the time. However, they are very tame indeed and even the participants in the films don’t appear to have been particularly stimulated! Despite this, a couple of them are worth watching, if only for their bizarre nature, as naked, non-aroused men play pool and blind man’s buff!

Other films worth avoiding:
Cut Sleeve Boys (2006)
Playroom (2006)

The Big Combo (1955)

2009-06-02T16:53:00.000-07:00

Stars: Cornel Wilde, Richard Conte
Director: Joseph H Lewis
Country Of Origin: USA
Year Of Release: 1955
Running time: 89 minutes
Star Rating: ****
Availability: Region 1 DVD

Police Lt. Leonard Diamond (Cornel Wilde) has been investigating mob boss, Mr Brown (Richard Conte), for some time but is unable to get the evidence to tie him to the crimes he is suspected of. Finally, Diamond approaches Brown’s girlfriend, Susan Lowell (played by Wilde’s wife Jean Wallace), and slowly but surely the net begins to close in on Brown - and it is discovered that he killed his first wife.

The late film noir from 1955 is a particularly gritty, and even sadistic, effort. A number of scenes, including that of torture using a hearing aid, have become notorious. The film is featured here because of two of the film’s secondary characters, Fante and Mingo, played by Lee van Cleef and Earl Holliman. These are Brown’s henchman, but it becomes clear as the film reaches its final reel that they are a couple. The two men live together and sleep in the same room, although in separate beds. Towards the end of the film, when awaiting the return of Mr Brown, Fante and Mingo are seen touching each other on a number of occasions. Fante even goes as far as to call Mingo “honey” at one point. The fact that their relationship is more explicit than implicit (although one still has to read slightly between the lines) shows just how much was being allowed through the censors by this point and it is therefore no surprise that significant changes were made to the Production Code a few years later.

Although the inclusion of gay characters in a film made in 1955 is welcome, it shouldn’t be forgotten that the characters in question are despicable men who do some vile and violent crimes during the course of the film. Nothing much has changed since the likes of Rope and Strangers On A Train then, other than the fact that their homosexuality is more visible here than in the Hitchcock films.

This is a stylish, yet tough, film and always entertaining, moving along at a fast pace throughout its near ninety-minute running time. The performance of all involved are superb and Richard Conte gives a particularly good turn as Mr Brown. However it is The Big Combo’s cinematography and direction that really steal the show, with the stark black and white photography dripping with atmosphere and menace – even on the budget release of the film, which is the only one currently available on DVD.

More crime thrillers from the 1950s:
Strangers On A Train (1951)
Compulsion (1959)

Freshman Orientation (2004)

2009-05-31T18:58:00.000-07:00

AKA: Home Of Phobia
Stars: Sam Huntingdon, Maria Sokoloff
Director: Ryan Shiraki
Country Of Origin: USA
Year Of Release: 2004
Running time: 92 minutes
Star Rating: ****

Availability: Region 1 DVD

Sam Huntingdon stars in this fresh twist on the campus comedy. He plays a young man willing to do anything to get the girl of his dreams, played by Maria Sokoloff. Her sorority sisters force her to go out with a gay man and then dump him at a party a few weeks later. Mistaking Huntingdon as gay, she invites him to a gay and lesbian poetry reading and, happy for the attention, he plays along not telling her of her error. However things begin to get complicated when they start falling for each other and both realise that they have to confess to the other that they have been a little bit ungenerous with the truth.

This is a movie that could have gone hideously wrong and offended many but, thanks to the fresh and funny script, is instead hugely entertaining and really quite charming. Sam Huntingdon is a cute and disarming lead and his scenes with Sokoloff have genuine chemistry. John Goodman also puts in a good, believable, turn as the owner of a gay bar to which Huntingdon turns to for advice. Surprisingly for a Hollywood film, the characters that are actually gay are written sympathetically and largely avoid the common clichés. Sadly, however, the original title of the film, Home Of Phobia, appears to have been enough to turn off audiences on its initial release and the movie pretty much sank without trace until the region 1 DVD release in 2008 under the title Freshman Orientation. This is a shame, for there is much to enjoy in this movie that may have a gay sensibility but can be enjoyed by all.

Interesting to compare to:
Kids In America (2005)

Breaking The Cycle (2002)

2009-05-31T18:49:00.000-07:00

Stars: Carlos de Silva, Ryan White
Director: Dominick Brascia
Country Of Origin: USA
Year Of Release: 2002
Running time: 62 minutes
Star Rating: **
Availability: Region 1 DVD

Breaking The Cycle tells the story of Jason, who continually surfs the internet chat rooms, looking for hook-ups at every opportunity without the knowledge that his flat-mate, Chad, is in love with him. Eventually the two guys start, unknowingly, to chat to each other via the Internet

This low budget indie film suffers from not really being sure about what it is trying to say. It seems to be preaching about how casual sex is undesirable and yet punctuates the film with scenes of just how great such encounters can be (as well as showing alternate uses for chocolate sauce at the same time). The love story between Jason and Chad is predictable but serviceable, but the acting and script is what really lets the movie down. The continual voice-overs, and seeing the characters speaking out loud what they are typing at their computers, seems trite and makes the movie fatally clumsy. The acting is little better and barely above amateur dramatics level. Worth an hour of your time if you happen to come across the DVD in the bargain bin, but there are much better films out there.

Internet chat rooms also feature in:

Garçon Stupide (2004)

The Soilers (1923)

2009-05-31T18:34:00.000-07:00

Stars: Stan Laurel
Director: Ralph Ceder
Country Of Origin: USA
Year Of Release: 1923
Running time: 10 minutes
Star Rating: **
Availability: Region 1 DVD, Region 2 DVD

This short comedy starring Stan Laurel is a parody of a popular western of the time, The Spoilers (Lambert Hillyer, 1923). In the film, Laurel finds himself at the mercy of a corrupt rival at an Alaskan gold mine. The two men come to blows, and the bulk of the brief running time is taken up by the fist-fight between them. In The Spoilers, the entire town watches on during the fight, but here the entire town is oblivious as to what is going on – with the exception of one cowboy. It is for this cowboy that the film is now chiefly remembered, as he is an example of the stock character of the “sissy”. He all but flutters his eyelashes at Laurel and, when his advances are spurned, he drops a potted plant on his head. Bizarrely, the cowboy is seen mostly when he interrupts the fight by mincing into the room to collect his gun or an item of clothing. He seems to take no notice of the fight between the two men who are, literally, tearing each other’s clothes off. Even when the fight moves to the bedroom and they are fighting, on top of each other, on the bed the cowboy seems to be much more interested in filing his nails.

The Soilers was never intended to be a work of art and, more than seventy years after it was made, it now seems like a pointless little film. Its two points of interests are the sissy cowboy and that the film features a very young Stan Laurel.

More early films featuring sissies:
Algie The Miner (1912)
The Broadway Melody (1929)
Call Her Savage (1932)

Close-Up On: Sanitised Adaptations

2009-05-30T16:01:00.000-07:00

I wrote in a previous post about the sanitisation of the 1966 film Young Törless. It probably comes as no surprise that this film was not the first (and certainly not the last) book to have its homosexual elements excised in its transfer to the big screen. During the years of the Production Code, such a bowdlerisation of a source material was, in fact, a common occurrence.

Musicals seemed to suffer this fate more than most. For example, Night And Day (Michael Curtiz, 1946) purports to be a biopic of the songwriter Cole Porter, and yet there is no reference at all to his homosexuality, despite the fact that one of his lovers, Monty Woolley, plays himself in the movie! Serenade (Anthony Mann, 1956), operatic tenor Mario Lanza’s comeback film after his contract with MGM ended, has the patron he has an affair with changed from a man in the book to a woman on the screen.

However, musicals were not the only victims of sanitisation. The 1945 films version of The Picture Of Dorian Gray may well retain elements of a homosexual subtext, but this is much reduced when compared to Oscar Wilde’s infamous novel. Richard Barrios, in his book Screened Out, notes that both The Lost Weekend (Billy Wilder, 1945) and Crossfire (Edward Dmytryk, 1947) are 1940s film adaptations of novels that have had key homosexual elements removed and/or replaced. Even Hitchcock’s Rope somewhat subdues the gay elements of Patrick Hamilton’s play, although some are retained.

It is easy to point fingers at Hollywood regarding this type of disregard for source material, but one must remember that Dreyer’s 1924 film Michael contains far less of a gay subtext than either the 1916 film version, Vingarne, or Herman Bang’s original novel. Likewise, Plein Soleil, based on The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith plays down the homosexual elements that were treated more openly in the English language remake of 1999 directed by Anthony Minghella and starring Matt Damon and Jude Law.

Serious Charge (1959)

2009-05-30T15:57:00.000-07:00

Stars: Anthony Quayle, Andrew Ray
Director: Terence Young
Country Of Origin: UK
Year Of Release: 1959
Running time: 87 minutes
Star Rating: ***
Availability: Region 2 DVD

A young and rather sullen-looking Cliff Richard makes his film debut in Serious Charge, but it is Anthony Quayle who takes centre stage as a vicar who is accused of molesting a teenaged boy (Andrew Ray) in this gripping and rather daring (for its day) British thriller. Of course, the audience knows from the outset that the kindly vicar is just a victim of the boy’s revenge for being blamed for the death of a young girl, but that doesn’t stop tongues wagging over afternoon tea and cake throughout the town. Richard plays the younger brother of the boy at the centre of the scandal and gets to croon a sub-par version of “Living Doll”.

Like the following year’s The Trials Of Oscar Wilde, Serious Charge seems to be overlooked in chronicles of gay cinema because of the huge impact that the more explicitly gay Victim had in 1961. And yet this and the Wilde biopic almost seem to be testing the water in preparation for Victim and paved the way for that better-known film. Serious Charge is a fine film in its own right, however, and deserves to be better known. There are good performances all round and this, along with the unusual storyline and all-too-real characters, make it a film to seek out. The director, Terence Young, went on to direct three of the early James Bond films – a world away from this intimate drama.

See also:
The Trials Of Oscar Wilde (1960)

The Trials Of Oscar Wilde (1960)

2009-05-30T15:52:00.000-07:00

AKA: The Man With The Green Carnation
Stars: Peter Finch, John Fraser
Director: Ken Hughes
Country Of Origin: UK
Year Of Release: 1960
Running time: 123 minutes
Star Rating: ****
Availability: Unavailable on DVD. Second-hand VHS editions can be found at the usual online outlets.

I first saw this film when I was about fourteen years old. I cried. Lots. I saw it again for the writing of this review and I cried again. This is not because Oscar Wilde is portrayed as either a saint or a martyr, or even as someone fighting for a cause. This simply isn’t the case. However, Peter Finch plays him here as someone both arrogant and charming, and confident and vulnerable. What makes the story relevant today is that the British public and press still seem to enjoy putting someone on a pedestal and damning them when they suffer a fall from grace.

The Trials Of Oscar Wilde centres solely on this fall from grace. As the film begins, Wilde is celebrating one of his greatest triumphs. Soon, however, his scandalous relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas and his altercations with Douglas’s Father, The Marquis of Queensbury, results in a series of bitter and hard-fought courtroom battles when Wilde accuses Queensbury of libel.

Despite the fact that Peter Finch looks nothing like the real Oscar Wilde, the film is much more involving than the later Wilde (Brian Gilbert, 1997) which seems to try to make Wilde a martyr rather than giving a more rounded portrayal. Jude Law also seems to play Lord Alfred Douglas as more waspish and self-centred than even John Fraser does in the 1960 version of events. Indeed, it seems that Douglas’ character has been much maligned in all film versions of the story.

Victim is often hailed, quite correctly, as the first British mainstream gay film, but The Trials Of Oscar Wilde should also be praised for its sensitive and sympathetic depiction of the downfall of Wilde at a time when homosexuality was still illegal in Great Britain. Indeed, this film almost seems to be paving the way for the more obviously “gay film” of the following year. The script is sympathetic without being mawkish, and the film is directed unobtrusively by Ken Hughes, who went on to direct such films as Casino Royale (1967) and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968). However, for some reason, The Trials Of Oscar Wilde seems to be something of a neglected film in the various histories of gay cinema. For example, despite a (relatively) lengthy section on Victim, there is no mention of it in Vito Russo’s The Celluloid Closet and it receives only a passing comment in the collection of essays British Queer Cinema (Griffiths).

Other British films of the same period with gay characters:
Serious Charge (1959)
Victim (1961)

Young Törless (1966)

2009-05-29T17:38:00.000-07:00

AKA: Der Junge Törless
Stars: Mathieu Carrière, Marian Seidowsky
Director: Volker Schlöndorff
Country of origin: West Germany
Year of release: 1966
Running time: 90 minutes
Star Rating: ***

Availability: Region 1 DVD

Based on the 1906 novel by Robert Musil, Young Törless tells the story of how three boys bully and torture another at a boarding school at the turn of the century after they find out that he has been stealing. Two of the boys, Beineberg and Reiting, take an active part in the cruelty while Törless watches and analyses their behaviour, doing nothing to stop them despite pleas from the victim, Basini.

This is a cold, morbid piece of filmmaking and it is hard to see four decades after it was made why it was so celebrated on its original release and how it managed to win two awards at the Cannes Film Festival in 1966. The film follows the general events of the book on which it is based with great rigidity, but with one important omission. In the novel, the punishment involves what the 1961 Penguin edition describes as “homosexual sadism and brutality”. The brutality is still present in the film version but the homosexual element is only alluded to in one scene (which doesn’t include any bullying). It is with the loss of this element that the film loses much of its impact.

The inclusion in this blog of a film that specifically does not involve homosexuality may seem a little strange. However, the film is interesting from a gay point of view in that even as late as 1966 some filmmakers were still uncomfortable with the subject. One can only speculate why a classic German novel was bowdlerised for the screen. One reason may well be due to the age of the characters involved. Although the likes of Victim and The Leather Boys had featured gay characters earlier in the decade, the characters in question were adults whereas those portrayed here are around sixteen. Also interesting is the fact that, despite the homosexual events being excised from the film, the undercurrent of homosexuality still remains – perhaps because of the same sex boarding school setting.

More films portraying unhappy schooldays
The Devil’s Playground (1976)
To Play Or To Die (1990)

You’ll Get Over It (2003)

Sex In Chains (1928)

2009-05-29T15:43:00.000-07:00

AKA: Geschlecht In Fesseln
Stars: Wilhelm Dieterle, Mary Johnson
Director: Wilhelm Dieterle
Country Of Origin: Germany
Year Of Release: 1928
Running time: 107 minutes
Star Rating: **
Availability: Region 1 DVD

Sex In Chains tells the story of Franz and Helene Sommer. When working at a beer garden, Helene is continually approached and pestered by a man. Franz, her husband, comes to her rescue and a fight breaks out between Franz and the man bothering his wife. However, the man is accidentally killed in the fight and Franz finds himself centred to three years in prison. Whilst there, he begins a relationship with a fellow prisoner. Meanwhile, Helene has also started a relationship with a man, Steinau, with whom Franz shared a cell prior to his trial. When set free, Steinau promises to take care of Franz’ wife for him and offers her a position at his firm. However, the relationship develops beyond that of business and, as Franz’ release date approaches, both he and Helene wonder how they are going to tell the other of their indiscretions.

Heavily censored after release, the film was restored to its original running time in 1996, utilising two different prints, meaning the print quality varies from scene to scene. It would be nice to be able to say that all the hard work in the restoration was worth it but, sadly, this is the dullest of all the silent films included in this book. There is much repetition and, sometimes, the pace seems to drop to such a slow speed that it appears we are watching the prison sentence elapse in real time. Wilhelm Dieterle both directs and stars in the film, but makes for something of a lumbering hero and often just seems to meander from scene to scene without showing the emotion that is required. Dieterle later left Germany and became a first class Hollywood director, directing such classics as The Life Of Emile Zola (1937), The Hunchback Of Notre Dame (1939) and Love Letters (1945).

From a gay point of view, the film is also something of a disappointment. The message of the film is more of a demand for penal reform than for tolerance of homosexuality. Indeed, the film is almost a warning that men will have affairs with other men if locked away from women! Although it is remarkable that a film of such vintage contains scenes concerning homosexuality at all, it isn’t what the film is actually about – certainly not in the way that it is the subject of Different From The Others for example. Despite its welcome release, this is not a film with which to start a collection of silent movies, whether they be gay-themed or otherwise.

Other German gay silent films:
Different From The Others (1919)
Michael (1924)

Different From The Others (1919)

2009-05-29T15:34:00.000-07:00

AKA: Anders Als Die Andern
Stars: Conrad Veidt, Leo Connard
Director: Richard Oswald
Country Of Origin: Germany
Year Of Release: 1919
Running time: 50 minutes
Star Rating: ****
Availability: Region 1 DVD

Probably the first full-length feature film concerned primarily with explicitly gay characters, Different From The Others tells the story of a concert violinist, played by Conrad Veidt, who falls in love with one of his students but is later blackmailed about the relationship. Playing himself in the film is the well-known sexologist Dr Magnus Hirschfeld, and much of the second half of the film is given over to his semi-lecture pleading for tolerance. The movie was part of a cycle of films made in Germany just after the First World War, each of which dealt with a different aspect of sex or sexuality (such as abortion, sexual diseases and prostitution).

It seems almost surreal that a film in 1919 could have such a tolerant stance towards gay men and women. It wasn’t until 1961 that Britain made Victim (Basil Dearden, 1961), the first UK film with a similar attitude (and also concerned with blackmail). Mainstream Hollywood even now doesn’t seem to be able to handle the subject with the same amount of dignity as Different From The Others, which only makes this film even more moving.

The film is certainly no silent masterpiece and the acting and make-up is typically over-the-top in the main. It’s reputation lies purely on the sensitive way it handles its subject matter. Conrad Veidt plays Paul Korner, the violinist, with a large degree of effeminacy but at no point does this become a caricature. Even now, nearly ninety years after its release, Different From The Others can still be seen as a remarkable achievement. As Matthew Kennedy writes: “Different from the Others’ outrage at political and social injustice is as confrontational and compassionate as anything produced on film.”[1]

All prints of the original version of Different From The Others were assumed to have been destroyed by the Nazi regime in the 1930s, and the film was thought lost for many years. A fragmented print surfaced in the 1980s which Kino released on DVD in America in 2004, with the missing scenes replaced by title cards and stills from the lost footage. It is, of course, to be lamented that the film doesn’t exist in its complete form but, despite this, it holds up well and, for anyone who is new to silent film, this would be a good place to start as, because of its truncated form, the film moves at a much faster pace than say Michael (Carl Dreyer, 1924) or Sex In Chains (Wilhelm Dieterle, 1928).

A biopic of sexologist Dr Magnus Hirschfeld:
The Einstein Of Sex (1998)

[1] http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/48/queersilents.htm

The Angelic Conversation (1985)

2009-05-29T08:29:00.000-07:00

Stars: Paul Reynolds, Philip Williamson, Judi Dench
Director: Derek Jarman
Country Of Origin: UK
Year Of Release: 1985
Running time: 78 minutes
Star Rating: *
Availability: Region 2 DVD

Whilst Judi Dench reads fourteen of Shakespeare’s sonnets, two men fawn over each other against an industrial landscape in this dull, and often incomprehensible, film. A work of genius or simply pretentious rubbish? As with much of Derek Jarman’s work, it very much depends on your point of view but I would suggest that this experimental film is unlikely to convert anybody to the joys of watching avant-garde material with its mix of Shakespeare, jolting camera work and what seems like an interminable running time. Derek Jarman’s appeal as a film maker is a mystery to many – including myself - and the release on DVD of The Angelic Conversation does little to enhance his reputation.

There are probably enough interesting ideas here to make a decent and interesting experimental film of half an hour or so but Jarman stretches these ideas out so much that they simply become dull and repetitious. Most viewers watching this on DVD are likely to be reaching for the fast-forward or eject button long before the end of the film. However, there are, without doubt, some beautiful images here and the style of the film, perhaps, belies the director’s background in art as the viewer is constantly reminded via the stop-motion photography that film is simply a series of still pictures played one after the other. This idea would be interesting for five minutes or so but actually lasts for the entire length of the film – with the exception of a couple of sections that were filmed on videotape which are, in themselves, unintentionally funny due to their repetitive nature. The videotaped scenes sit uneasily with the majority of the film and there seems no logical reason why they were are included. It is almost as if Jarman decided to make the longest film possible out of the smallest amount of ideas. This lack of self-editing, combined with the lack of obvious narrative, is likely to put many people off other works by the same director. This is a shame as there are much better, and more accessible, films out there to demonstrate the director’s appeal.

The presentation of the film issued by the British Film Institute does little to help the viewer comprehend the piece. Although there are a number of interviews with both Jarman and his assistants, a commentary providing information on what certain images are intended to represent would have been much more useful in this instance and would make the film much more accessible. As it is, an unsuspecting buyer is likely to land up with what is basically some nice black and white photography of two good looking men, some Shakespeare sonnets read beautifully by Judi Dench and a clunking soundtrack by Coil. Worth picking up if you suffer from insomnia but, otherwise, if you want to sample this type of work try Jarman’s later film The Garden (1990) which is at least a little more engrossing.

More films by Derek Jarman:
The Garden (1990)
Edward II (1991)

The Strange One (1957)

2009-05-29T05:22:00.000-07:00

Stars: Ben Gazzara, George Peppard
Director: Jack Garfein
Country of origin: USA
Year of release: 1957
Running time: 100 minutes
Star Rating: ***
Availability: Unavailable on DVD. Second-hand VHS editions can be found at the usual online outlets.

By the time The Strange One was made, very few rules of the Production Code had not been relaxed to at least some extent. One of the remaining rules was that concerning homosexuality, a rule pushed to the limit here. The film takes place in and around a military academy where a Cadet Sergeant, Jocko DeParis (Ben Gazzara), takes pleasure in dominating and humiliating the cadets over which he in charge. On one occasion, he involves a number of cadets in the downfall of another without their knowledge. Reporting what has happened would result in the cadets being expelled as being a party to the events, while not reporting them means that DeParis can continue to torture both them and others. Meanwhile, another cadet, nicknamed Cockroach (Paul E Richards), has written a homoerotic book with DeParis as the hero. He is the only one who knows the truth, but is unwilling to report the object of his affection to the authorities.

It is surprising just how much was allowed through by the censors. Small cuts did have to be made, but it is difficult to see what the edits were intended to achieve, as the homosexuality of Cockroach is still obvious (not least by the fact that he is referred to as a “three dollar bill”). Cockroach is far from a sympathetic character and in many ways lives up to his nickname. However, with such an oddball group of characters cluttering the film it is difficult to ascertain whether he is in fact the “strange one” of the title. This could also refer to Simmons (Arthur Storch), one of the freshmen involved in the incident at the heart of the film, who hasn’t showered for six weeks, plans to become a chaplain and is scared of women. The portrayal of Simmons may have worked in the stage play from which the film is adapted, but here it is too over-the-top to be realistic and taken seriously. George Peppard does better in his film debut as Simmons’ roommate.

It can’t be said that The Strange One isn’t compelling viewing, but it does leave a somewhat bitter taste in the mouth. Ben Gazzara plays DeParis (who may also be “The Strange One”) as a sadistic creep. His repressed homosexuality appears to have been itself repressed by the censors, although we are given unsubtle hints as he lovingly cleans his sword while Cockroach reads aloud from his unfinished erotic novel. Perhaps if this facet of the character could have been explored more fully then there might have been some focus to this disturbing little film. As it is, it is a curiosity: well made and well acted but with nothing to say and best remembered now for pushing the Production Code to its limits.

More gay interest films from the 1950s:
Compulsion (1959)
Serious Charge (1959)

Close-Up On: Horror

2009-05-28T20:40:00.000-07:00

Considering that sex and sexuality is so often linked to the horror genre, it is surprising that there are not more “gay” films in the genre than there is. It is not difficult to find lesbian images in horror movies – one only has to watch the Hammer horror films of the 1960s to find any number of examples of female vampires who can’t wait to sink their teeth into the neck of a good looking woman. Male homosexual elements are considerably harder to find, although a gay subtext seems to lurk beneath the surface of many films from Nosferatu (F W Murnau, 1922) to the present day. Films such as the 2nd entries in both the Nightmare On Elm Street and Jeepers Creepers series bring this to the fore, and one could be forgiven for thinking that these are horror movies made specifically for gay men. The endless views of Mark Patton’s sweaty, near-naked body throughout Freddy’s Revenge and the shirtless frat boys during the first half an hour of Jeepers Creepers 2 seem totally at odds with the naked female flesh normally on show in the genre.

The gym teacher in Freddy’s Revenge is a closet homosexual who has a fetish for S & M he, predictably, comes to a rather sticky end – in the showers of boy’s changing rooms at the school, no less. However, none of the main characters in the two films I have just mentioned are shown to be gay. For a main gay character in a horror movie we can look at Wes Craven’s Cursed from 2005, in which a straight character is bullied for being gay by a closeted gay character. The film may not be Craven’s best effort (to put it mildly), but at least we can be thankful that the gay character doesn’t die in the end.

In the late 1990s, director David DeCoteau began a series of low-budget straight-to-video horror movies clearly made specifically for a gay audience. It is almost as if he has taken the naked torso scene from Freddy’s Revenge and made a whole film out of them. Perhaps the most famous of this seemingly never-ending cycle of movies is Voodoo Academy (2000), but it is The Brotherhood series (2001-09) that seems to be set to have more sequels than Friday The 13th (Sean S Cunningham, 1980). The problem will DeCoteau’s movies is that, although they can be very nice to look at, they are simply not scary.

In recent years there have been a couple of attempts to make out-and-out gay horror movies. Hellbent (Paul Etheredge, 2004) is the best of the bunch, being a slasher movie centred around a group of gay young men. In The Blood (Lou Peterson, 2006) is an interesting attempt at combining a horror movie with a coming out story. If it fails it is because of the all too obvious conclusion rather than mixing of genres. Whether these two movies are a sign of things to come in the world of gay independent cinema is something we shall, no doubt, find out in due course. With the glut of romantic comedies and coming out stories over the past decade or so, a cycle of gay horror movies would, at least, give the independent directors something to get their teeth into!

Nightmare On Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)

2009-05-28T20:14:00.000-07:00

Stars: Mark Patton, Robert Englund
Director: Jack Sholder
Country Of Origin: USA
Year Of Release: 1985
Running time: 87 minutes
Star Rating: **
Availability: Region 1 DVD, Region 2 DVD

When teenager Jesse Walsh moves into the house on Elm Street previously owned by Nancy Thompson, he starts having weird nightmares and finds himself being slowly taken over by dead child murderer, Freddy Krueger. What is more, Jesse is also having problems at school - especially with the sports coach who frequents gay S & M bars at night.

One of the few horror films featured in this book, this second entry in the Nightmare On Elm Street series is generally regarded as one of the worst, but is still a reasonable watch and is certainly not as poor as many make out. The gay element of the film is twofold. Firstly there is the sports coach who takes pleasure in punishing the boys in his class by day, and haunts gay bars that look as if they have come straight out of Cruising by night. Secondly, Mark Patton, who plays Jesse, spends a remarkable amount of time wearing nothing but a pair of briefs, tossing and turning in bed whilst covered in sweat in scenes that look as if they belong in a David DeCoteau film. Not an essential film by any means, but interesting for its use of a gay character and homoerotic imagery.

Other gay-interest horror films:
Voodoo Academy (2000)
Hellbent (2004)

Funeral Parade Of Roses (1969)

2009-05-28T20:01:00.000-07:00

AKA: Bara No Soretsu
Stars: Osamu Ogasawara, Peter
Director: Toshio Matsumoto
Country Of Origin: Japan
Year Of Release: 1969
Running time: 107 minutes
Star Rating: ***
Availability: Region 2 DVD

This acclaimed and controversial film from Japan describes itself as a “parody of Oedipus Rex” and follows the lives of a number of gay men and transvestites in Tokyo in the late 1960s.

This is, without doubt, a wonderful piece of cinema and the visuals are both stunning and shocking – indeed, there are some moments of truly disturbing violence on display here. However, these elements do not necessarily mean that the film is particularly entertaining. On the contrary, anyone who is not a fan of art house or experimental cinema is unlikely to make the halfway point of Funeral Parade Of Roses. Although the insight into the gay underworld of Tokyo in the late 1960s is fascinating, the storyline is hard to follow and the movie more than outstays its welcome at nearly two hours. That isn’t to say that the DVD issue by Eureka is not to be welcomed for it is wonderful to see unusual films such as this being released but, despite its high artistic merit, this is simply not something that is likely to appeal to the average viewer unless they have a particular interest in Japanese culture. Anyone willing to persevere with the film might do best to watch with the illuminating directors commentary.

Also from Japan:
Gohatto (1999)

Juste Une Question D'Amour (2000)

2009-05-28T19:45:00.000-07:00

AKA: Just A Question Of Love
Stars: Cyrille Thouvenin, Stéphan Guérin-Tillié
Director: Christian Faure
Country of origin: France/Belgium
Year of production: 2000
Running time: 88 minutes
Star Rating: *****
Availability: Region 1 DVD, Region 2 DVD

This made-for-television film was first shown in France in a prime-time slot in 2000. Not only did this gay love story receive high ratings, but only three letters of complaint were received following the broadcast. Highly acclaimed by audiences and critics alike, Juste Une Question D’Amour has quickly achieved the status of a gay classic.

Basically a coming out story, the film follows a young man, Laurent, who is having problems dealing with his homosexuality due to the recent death of his cousin who was ostracised by his family for being gay. His grades are falling at agricultural college, and he is encouraged to take a placement under the supervision of a young researcher, Cédric. At first the two don’t get on, but soon it appears that there is an attraction between them, but they live very different lives – whilst Laurent is closeted about his homosexuality, Cédric is completely open about his and lives with his liberal-minded and accepting Mother. As the pair become closer, the only thing that stands in their way is Laurent’s fear of being rejected by his family when he finally tells them that he is gay.

It is difficult to fault a film such as this. For once, the love between the two men is shown to be as fun as it is passionate, which is something unusual for a gay film where love too often seems to cause unhappiness rather than joy. The sheer abandon of the water-fight sequence is worth the price of the DVD alone. Surprisingly for a TV movie, the film doesn’t shy away from the sexual side of the relationship. Although the love scenes are handled more subtly than in, say, an American independent gay film, the sexual element is dealt with in a frank and committed way (unlike the later French TV film You’ll Get Over It, where virtually no physical love is shown between the two boys at the centre of the story). In other words, Juste Une Question D’Amour deals with its subject in a way that is realistic enough to satisfy a gay audience, but not so explicit to alienate a heterosexual one. This balance is difficult to attain, and many so-called crossover films fail in this respect.

The love story at the heart of the film is so touching and believable mostly due to the fine, intelligent script and the chemistry between the two leads, Cyrille Thouvenin and Stéphan Guérin-Tillié. Remarkably, there is never one moment within the ninety minute running time where we question that what we are seeing is real. Their performances add emotional depth to their roles, and they are aided and abetted by some equally fine supporting performances, most notable Danièle Denie as Laurent’s Mother, Jeanne, who is torn between her son and loyalty to her husband.

This is a fine feel-good gay classic that should not be missed. Thankfully, the film is available on DVD in both region one and region two editions and it comes highly recommended.

Also by the same director:
A Love To Hide (2005)

Introduction

2009-05-28T18:53:00.000-07:00

Twelve years ago, if you had gone to your local video rental shop in search of a gay-themed film you might have been lucky enough to find Beautiful Thing (Hettie Macdonald, 1996) or My Beautiful Laundrette (Stephen Frears, 1985). Not only were there not many films with gay characters available on VHS, those that were available were almost impossible to find outside of the big cities. With the simultaneous rise of DVD and the internet, all this has changed.

As the production of gay and lesbian films have increased in the last fifteen years, so companies such as TLA Releasing, Peccadillo and Millivres, which specialise in distribution of gay and lesbian films, have extended their catalogues which feature large and low budget films not only from the UK and America but from all over the world. Not only this, but the advent of DVD has produced a growth in the amount of films in general that are bought for home viewing, allowing films to become available for the first time on the home video market, whether they be lost classics, B-movies or avant-garde experiments.

As DVDs are so lightweight and easy to post, various online rental sites are now available and widely used for a very reasonable price. These not only stock the most popular films, but most actually stock virtually every DVD currently available within a specific country, allowing those with an interest in minority cinemas the chance to view films they would never normally have had access to. What’s more, if a film isn’t currently available in your own country, it is relatively easy to visit an online store and import it yourself. Although this is more difficult in the USA as multi-region DVD players are harder to find, in the UK and Europe in particular this dramatically increases the amount of titles available.

With such a wealth of material now available to anyone interested in gay cinema, this blog will attempt to provide a guide to the highs and lows of gay film. Covering films that feature gay characters and/or a gay narrative, each entry includes a brief resume of the plot, a review of the film and details of the stars, director and so on.

In the main, the films chosen have an explicitly gay element. However, in order to give a more rounded history of gay representation in cinema, the years of the Production Code (when images of homosexuality were banned from the screen in America) are mostly represented by films with a subtler gay element. Directors and writers did their best to get certain elements past the censors of the time, and the way in which this is done is often fascinating. Arguments continue to take place as to whether certain films do indeed have gay content and that is something for the viewer to decide. I will not include a large selection of films that are thought to have a gay subtext and, instead, to include a small cross-section of what is available. This is, after all, a buyer’s guide to explicitly gay films in the main and many viewers may not see any gay content at all in a film such as The Ghost Ship (Mark Robson, 1943). I do believe, however, that the films that will be featured from this era are representative and a good starting point for anyone wanting to explore the wealth of films available on DVD that might be of interest. There is much discussion of this era of film-making and the impact it had on gay and lesbian representation in cinema in the fine book Screened Out by Richard Barrios and anyone particular interested in this subject should pick up a copy of the book at the earliest opportunity.

This guide is intended for the general viewer, and therefore each film is selected first and foremost on the grounds that it is available to see - whether it be on DVD, VHS or (*cough*) via a download of some kind! Not only this, but the films featured stretch right back from early silent cinema to the present day, therefore giving the widest possible overview of films featuring gay male characters.

The intention of this blog is to provide the reader with a starting point with which to explore the multitude of gay cinema that is currently available – from the good to the awful, from the mainstream to the downright weird. There are sure to be some films within these covers that are old acquaintances, but hopefully this will also guide you towards films you would not normally decide to watch and therefore help you find a few hidden gems.

Happy viewing.

Shane Brown