Posted on 05/30/2007 2:19:50 PM PDT by holidayidol
Screened Out: Gay Images in Films - Mondays & Wednesdays in June
A 44-Movie Festival that examines gay sexuality in the cinema from the silent era up to the films that challenged Hollywood's rigid Code
At a time when the rights of gays and lesbians are being hotly debated, TCM offers a look at the treatment of homosexuals in American movies as inspired by the Richard Barrios book Screened Out: Playing Gay in Hollywood from Edison to Stonewall. Our festival covers roughly the same territory as the book, with the range marked by two TCM premieres: the silent comedy Algie, the Miner (1912), starring Billy Quirk as a “pansy” who wants to become a cowboy; and The Boys in the Band (1970), released at the dawn of the Gay Liberation movement and showing new freedom in portraying homosexual characters, even as some of them descend into self-loathing stereotypes.
Our festival is divided by subheadings. Another significant film from The Early Years is Exit Smiling (1926), the first feature-film appearance of Franklin Pangborn, a leading player of covert gay roles in the 1930s and ‘40s. Gays Before the Code include Tyrell Davis’ mincing dance instructor in Our Betters (1933), described by Barrios as possibly “the most extreme portrayal of this sort” ever committed to film. Among those Behind Bars is Eleanor Parker in Caged (1950) as a naïve young inmate preyed upon by sadistic lesbo matron Hope Emerson. Film Noir and Crime is well represented by The Big Combo (TCM premiere, 1955), with Earl Holliman and Lee Van Cleef as henchmen sharing an apparent love affair that ends in tragedy.
Horror permeates The Haunting (1963), in which Claire Bloom falls in love with fellow psychic Julie Harris as they visit an eerie mansion. Comedy arises from a mistaken assumption in That Touch of Mink (1962) that Gig Young is having an affair with Cary Grant. Code-Busters include Advise and Consent (TCM premiere, 1962), in which director Otto Preminger pushes the censorship envelope with a gay subplot. Out and Open describes Beryl Reid’s character in The Killing of Sister George (TCM premiere, 1968) – a soap opera star fighting to hold on to her career and younger lover (Susannah York). Like other gay-themed films of its era, Sister George has its share of clichés yet shows a boldness that remains rare today in mainstream movies.
TCM is the best station on TV, followed by AMC...
Yes indeed, it is certainly the most wholesome and classy channel (usually). That’s what I find so frustrating about this. I don’t want to make some unfruitful and meaningless personal boycott against the channel...I want to somehow fight to save this channel’s suffering dignity.
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