• Shot in black”and”white by Gordon Willis, the cinematography elevates New York into a romantic, timeless backdrop.
• The soundtrack features George Gershwin’’s ‘Å“Rhapsody in Blue’, reinforcing the film’’s nostalgic tone.
• The opening montage of Manhattan set to Gershwin is considered one of cinema’’s most iconic sequences.

</p>

ESSAY TWO: INTRODUCTION

This essay, ‘“75 Queer Films from the New Hollywood (1968-1980),’ the second in a two-part series, covers Queer Cinema from the arrival of the MPAA rating system in 1968 to the end of the New Hollywood, also known as the Hollywood Renaissance or the American New Wave, in 1980. The first essay, entitled “75 Queer Films Made Under the Hays Code,” examines queer film under the watchful eye of Joseph Breen, spanning the years from 1934 to 1967. A supplementary Table accompanies both.

Spanning approximately thirteen years, from 1968 to 1980 and encompassing the entire seventies decade, this was a moment in American cinema where a new generation of filmmakers came to prominence, in which the film director, rather than the studio, assumed a key authorial role. The watershed year of 1967 gave us ‘“The Graduate’ and ‘“Bonnie and Clyde,’ while 1969 gave us ‘“Easy Rider.’ The seventies gave us such masterpieces as ‘“Chinatown,’ ‘“The Godfather Parts I and II,’ ‘“Dog Day Afternoon,’ and ‘“Apocalypse Now.’

Unfortunately, just like the death of the old studio system was marked by just catastrophes, such as ‘“Star,’ ‘“Doctor Dolittle,’ and ‘“Tora, Tora, Tora,’ as the New Hollywood entered its second decade, the arrogance of this new batch of directors started to manifest itself in gigantic financial failures that dwarfed their predecessors. Amongst these were Martin Scorsese’’s ‘“New York, New York’ at the end of 1977 and Francis Ford Coppola’’s ‘“One From the Heart’ which was finally allowed a limited release in early 1982 after a series of delays. However, it was the disastrous release of Michael Cimino’’s ‘“Heaven’’s Gate,’ the follow-up to his Oscar-winning ‘“The Deer Hunter,’ at the end of 1980, that marked the end of this era for most people. The power and money transferred back to the studios, and for the past four decades, the producer, not the director, has been the guiding force in Hollywood. I have decided to end this essay in 1980 with the release of the writer/director Frank Ripploh’’s landmark queer movie ‘“Taxi zum Klo.’

ESSAY TWO – TABLE I Fourteen Queer”Themed Films at the Hays â” ‘ MPAA Transition

The Leatherboys British Lion-Columbia Produced by Raymond Stross 1964 Hays Code Era Submitted and approved without cuts Released with a Code seal. Only one of two overtly queer-themed films to be screened in the US before the Code’’s collapse in 1968.  An early queer cinema landmark and a sign of the Production Code’’s waning power in the mid-1960s

My Hustler Andy Warhol’’s The Factory 1965 Hays Code Era Not submitted, bypassed Code Released independently with no seal of approval  Screened at the Filmmaker’’s Cinematheque and The Hudson Theatre in New York City and in various arthouse cinemas across the country.

The Fox Claridge Pictures, in conjunction with Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Produced by Raymond Stross 1967 Hays Code Era Not submitted, bypassed Code Released independently with no seal of approval  Explicit lesbian relationship; Independent release under the Code. Marketed ‘“Adults Only.’   Later retro-rated R under the MPAA

Reflections in a Golden Eye   Warner Bros-Seven Arts 1967 Hays Code Era Submitted and approved without cuts Released with a Code seal. Only one of two overtly queer-themed films to be screened in the US before the Code’’s collapse in 1968. An early queer cinema landmark and a sign of the Production Code’’s collapse towards the end of 1967.

Portrait of Jason Film-Markers’ Distribution   1967 Hays Code Era Not submitted, bypassed Code Released independently with no seal of approval   Shirley Clarke’’s avant-garde documentary of Jason Holliday. Independent release, no Code seal

The Detective   TCF 1968 MPAA Era M (Mature audiences) Frank Sinatra’s crime drama openly depicts homosexuality, which was impossible under the Code.

The Sergeant Warner Bros. – Seven Arts 1968 MPAA Era M (Mature audiences) Rod Steiger as a closeted officer, one of the first studio films to address homosexuality

The Killing of Sister George Cinerama Releasing Corporation 1968 MPAA Era X (17 or under, not admitted) Explicit lesbian relationship; one of the first films to receive an X rating

No Way to Treat a Lady Paramount   1968 MPAA Era M (Mature audiences) The equivalent of today’s PG or PG-13 Dark comedy/thriller; released with an MPAA rating.

The Boston Strangler TCF 1968 MPAA Era R (Restricted) Under-17s are only admitted with a parent or guardian in attendance.  Violence and overt references to homosexuality in the Boston demimonde. It would have been impossible under the Hays Code.

Rachel Rachel Warner Bros-Seven Arts 1968 MPAA Era M (Mature audiences) Themes of repression and sexuality – including homosexuality, carried an MPAA rating

2001: A Space Odyssey MGM 1968 MPAA Era G (later PG) Major studio release; carried an MPAA rating

Midnight Cowboy United Artists 1969 MPAA Era X (later R) Male Hustler’s relationship. Won Best Picture; a landmark in the MPAA era

The Damned Warner-Seven Arts 1969 MPAA Era X (later R) Themes of violence, incest, overt homosexuality, and Helmut Berger in drag managed to get Visconti’s film, like “Midnight Cowboy,” “Last Summer,” and “The Killing of Sister George,” an X-rating from the MPAA. Later, it was released as an R, after 12 minutes of offending footage were removed. This left the eviscerated version that most of us saw for decades. Visconti’s complete 154-minute vision is now the standard for screenings, DVD/Blu-ray editions and streaming presentations.

A 2025 Translation M no longer exists.  Today’’s equivalent is PG or PG-13. R remains the same; Under 17 accompanied by a parent or guardian. X (17 or under, not admitted) has now been replaced by the more respectable-sounding NC-17. Today’s X signifies ADULT CONTENT or what might have been called pornography back in 1967-68-69 during the Hays â” ‘ MPAA Transition.

ESSAY TWO – THE ESSENTIALS

• In 1970, the first movie in which (almost) all the characters are gay men was released, echoing ‘“The Women’ – in more ways than one – over thirty years earlier.

• In 1969, a gay man directed the only Oscar winner for Best Picture to get an X-rating from the MPAA. The movie is about a gay hustler and his tubercular best friend.

• In 1962, we had seen the inside of a gay bar in ‘“Advice and Consent.’ In 1968, we saw the inside of a lesbian bar in ‘“The Killing of Sister George.’ Cheers!

• Between 1968 and 1971, Italian Cinema gave the world four gay classics: Bertolucci’’s “The Conformist,’ Visconti’’s ‘“ The Damned,” & ‘“Death in Venice,’ and De Sica’’s “The Garden of the Finzi-Continis.’ Film would never look the same under the influence of cinematographer Vittorio Storaro and art director Nando Scarfiotti.

• Beginning in 1968, Queer Cinema and the New German Cinema merged seamlessly in one masterpiece after another, thanks to the genius and astonishing productivity of actor/writer/composer/art-director/director/producer/ Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

• In 1972, the irrepressible John Waters and his gorgeous star Divine took the New York art scene by storm with ‘“Pink Flamingoes.’

• Also in 1972, one of the seminal American movies of the seventies about the rise of fascism in Nazi Germany had a gay character in the leading role and was based on the works of two gay writers. Thanks to two gay songwriters, it had some of the most significant musical numbers to ever grace the silver screen.

• In 1975, director Sidney Lumet gave us his gay masterpiece, “Dog Day Afternoon,” with Al Pacino in one of the all-time great screen performances.

• In 1975, famed documentary filmmakers David and Albert Maysles focused their cameras on Big and Little Edie Bouvier. Forgotten by Long Island society and living in squalor, Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis’’s first cousins captured the hearts of gay men everywhere, who, from the outset, began to champion the documentary “Grey Gardens” as the masterpiece it is recognized as today. Over the years, it has become a gay cult classic, giving birth to countless gay franchises. Money does make the world go ’round

• In 1975, producer/director Clint Eastwood gave us the first Queer Canine in the execrable “The Eiger Sanction.’

• In 1975, Belgian director Chantal Akerman explored queer and feminist sensibilities in the iterative life of a single mother turned prostitute in “Jeanne Dielman”, which the readers of Sight and Sound have recently voted the best movie of all time.

• In 1976, the notoriously Queer British director Derek Jarman made his directorial debut with ‘“Sebastiane.’

• In the mid-1970s, Australian director Peter Weir, American director Brian De Palma and Italian director Dario Argento, all straight as an arrow, gave us three classic horror movies filtered through a queer lens: “Picnic at Hanging Rock,” “Carrie,” and “Suspiria.” I’m salivating!

• In 1978 in London and 1980 in Berlin, directors Ron Peck and Frank Ripploh, respectively, used raw documentary-like realism to explore the lives of two men who are schoolteachers by day and openly gay at night, navigating the tension between professional respectability and an uninhibited personal life.

THE DIRTY DOZEN

1968-1980

Unfortunately, liberation and new social norms allowed overt homophobia to show its ugly face in a vast number of movies from this period. These films are not worth discussing, but they do warrant a mention – all are rated F. Here then, before we get to the “75” proper, are a dozen queer films that should never have been made. Let’s call them the dirty dozen. I am happy to say, I think most of this unfortunate batch would never be made today!

ESSAY TWO – TABLE II: THE DIRTY DOZEN

The Choirboys   (1977) Robert Aldrich F     Gays are cruising MacArthur Park in LA.  The cops are there as well.   Blaney ‘” the young gay man who is cruising MacArthur Park. Michael MacKeczie Willis     When Blaney opens the police van’’s door, he mistakenly thinks that Officer Lyles (Don Stroud) is waiting for him. Lyles, a Vietnam veteran, is in the middle of a PTSD flashback and shoots him in the face. Death of the ‘“fag’ gets a big cheer and a big laugh from the audience.

Cruising (1980) William Friedkin F   Steve (Al Pacino) is a rookie cop who goes underground to investigate a serial killer of gay men in NYC.   Ted, Steve’’s next-door neighbor (Don Scardino) Gregory, Ted’’s jealous boyfriend (James Remar)   Ted is murdered.  Surprise!  Did ‘“the killer’ do it?  Did Gregory do it?  Is Gregory ‘“the killer?’ Or did Steve do it?  Is Steve ‘“the killer ?’ We will never know.   If you are a gay character in this movie, you are either the murder victim or the killer!

The Betsy (1978) Daniel Petrie F Harold Robbins, best Seller Loren Hardeman, the heir to Bethlehem Motors, is queer Paul Ryan Rudd Loren kills himself – it is Harold Robbins! The death of the ‘“fag’ gets a big cheer and a big laugh from the audience.

The Eiger Sanction (1975) Clint Eastwood F  Miles Mellough is a flamboyant queer villain with a dog named Faggot. The Cinema’s first Queer Canine is a tiny little rascal – you know, the breed of dog only an effete homosexual would own – who vigorously humps the legs of any male who comes in contact with his master. Jack Cassidy portrays Mellough in the manner of his Columbo villains, but with a queer twist.   Eastwood’’s character leaves Mellough and Faggot in the hot Arizona desert to fry. Everybody cheers!   Due to some bad continuity, we are not sure if Faggot escapes by jumping into Eastwood’’s car as he departs ‘” we think he does, but later, we hear that Mellough eats Faggot before he dies!

Vanishing Point (1971) Richard C. Sarafian F Barry Newman’s Kowalski, a car delivery driver, is driving from Denver to San Francisco. Two men are hitchhiking while standing next to a broken-down car with a “Just Married” sign on the back. Kowalski picks them up, and they attempt to rob him at gunpoint. The two exceptionally sleazily queers are played by gay British actor Arthur Malet (‘“Mary Poppins’) and the ultra-creepy Anthony ‘“the skull’ James (“In the Heat of the Night”). Kowalski manages to overpower them and throw them out of the car. Everybody cheers!

The Anderson Tapes (1971) Sidney Lumet F Anderson (Sean Connery), after spending ten years in prison, decides to rob a wealthy apartment complex. He hires a gay antique dealer to point out, with a very limp, the most expensive pieces to rob. On paper, the guy’s name is Haskins, but you would never know from the movie where he is simply known as “The Fag.” Hamming it up and mincing all over the place, heterosexual actor Martin Balsam uses every Nellie mannerism in the book to give a cringeworthy performance. “The Fag” is apprehended by the police, and everybody cheers!

Freebie and the Bean (1974) Richard Rush F Our heroes, police officers Freebie (James Caan) and “the Bean” (Alan Arkin), are on the lookout for a transvestite robber. Their first encounter with him/her is in a bathtub, where he/she is lisping and preening, and you can see that he/she disgusts them. The transvestite, unnamed, is played by noted female impersonator Christopher Morley. After he shoots Bean, seriously injuring him, he is chased by Freebie, who corners him in a public bathroom. They fight it out with Morley, having briefly incapacitated Caan, taking time to look in the mirror and freshen up! Freebie, however, recovers and manages to grab a gun, which he then empties into ‘“The Transvestite’ where just one bullet would have done. And the audience cheers! Not because of the villain’’s demise but because “the fag” is dead.

Looking for Mr. Goodbar   (1977) Richard Brooks F Theresa (Diane Keaton) meets Gary (Tom Berenger) in a bar and brings him back to her apartment. When Gary is unable to perform sexually, Theresa responds with patience but ultimately asks him to leave. Instead of departing, he erupts in rage and fatally stabs her'”a shocking climax that reframes the film’’s supposed moral message. Among the films in this dirty dozen, Looking for Mr. Goodbar may be the most insidious. It cloaks itself in the prestige of serious art, presenting itself as a profound meditation on the sexual freedoms of the Disco era. Yet beneath that veneer lies a reactionary narrative that weaponizes moral panic. Earlier, we glimpse Gary in a gay club, dancing and kissing his older male partner. This brief but telling moment establishes his conflicted sexuality and deep self-loathing. The film revisits this thread only to position Gary’’s repression and violence as the ultimate danger. After two hours of heterosexual escapades'”casual hookups, fleeting romances, and Theresa’’s own search for identity'”the story reserves its harshest judgment not for the straight milieu it has been dissecting, but for queer desire. The result is a troubling bait-and-switch: the film pretends to critique the excesses of heterosexual liberation, but its final condemnation lands squarely on a marginalized community that has played little role in the preceding narrative. In doing so, Goodbar reinforces destructive stereotypes, conflating queer identity with pathology and violence, while masquerading as a cautionary tale about modern morality.

Drum (1976) Steve Carver F Antebellum New Orleans. Mid-19th century. DeMarigny is a wealthy Frenchman who forces enslaved men to fight for entertainment. He desires Drum (Ken Norton) sexually, but Drum rejects him, leading DeMarigny to harbor resentment. John Colicos’ DeMarigny is a loathsome excuse for a human being who harbors queer desires. In the slave revolt, Drum castrates DeMarigny, and the audience erupts in cheers! .

Can’t Stop the Music (1980) Nancy Walker F Directed by Nancy Walker and produced by flamboyant impresario Allan Carr, Can’’t Stop the Music was conceived as a glittering disco extravaganza and a fictionalized origin story of the Village People. Instead, it arrived already dated, collapsing at the box office in spectacular fashion. The irony is that the Village People themselves barely register. The film sidelines them in favor of three leads'”Steve Guttenberg, Valerie Perrine, and Bruce Jenner'”who embody camp-adjacent ‘“gay tropes’ without the film ever daring to utter the word gay. This coy avoidance underscores the hypocrisy at the heart of the project: a movie built on queer-coded fantasy that refuses to acknowledge queerness outright. But the film’’s gravest offense isn’’t its dishonesty'”it’’s its tedium. What should have been camp is instead a slog. The glitter never sparkles, the jokes never land, and the musical numbers drag on with numbing predictability. For a film that promised excess, it delivers only monotony. In the end, Can’’t Stop the Music isn’’t outrageous or scandalous'”it’’s simply dull. Utterly, irredeemably boring. And that, for a supposed disco spectacle, is the ultimate betrayal.

Scarecrow (1973) Jerry Schatzberg F Max Millan (Gene Hackman), a hot-tempered ex-convict, and Francis Lionel ‘“Lion’ Delbuchi (Al Pacino), a childlike former sailor, meet hitchhiking in California. Despite clashing personalities, they decide to travel together, pooling their savings to open a car wash in Pittsburgh. They visit Max’’s sister, but their antics land them in a prison farm for a month. Max blames Lion, and their friendship strains. Lion is brutally sexually assaulted by another inmate named Riley, leaving him physically injured and emotionally scarred. Actor Richard Lynch plays Riley. Max later beats Riley to a pulp before he and Lion head off to Pittsburgh. The character of Riley is never seen again. The sexual assault is shocking. No movie has done more to conflate gay identity with pathology and violence than “Scarecrow”. After Max beats up Riley, there’s always a massive cheer from the audience!

Big Wednesday (1979) John Milius F In the draft board sequence, our surfer dude trio (Matt, Jack, Leroy) and their friends try to dodge service with comic excuses. Waxer (Darrell Fetty) pretends to be gay, nervously claiming ‘“homosexual tendencies’ to avoid the Marines. But in the same sequence, there is also a real gay recruit‘”a minor, unnamed and uncredited character‘”who is openly effeminate and is ridiculed by the sergeant and other men. The film plays this moment for laughs, reflecting the casual homophobia of the era: the ‘“true’ gay man is mocked, while Waxer’’s fake claim is dismissed and he’’s drafted anyway.

SOURCE MATERIAL

All seventy-five movies listed are narrative features. Of these, 25 (37%) are original screenplays, while 43 films (63%) were adapted from another medium.

Source material in the latter category includes novels by Christopher Isherwood, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Frederick Forsyth, William Goldman, James Leo Herlihy, Stephen King, Thomas Mann, Philip Roth, William Makepeace Thackeray, and two novels by D. H. Lawrence. There is a song by Bobbie Gentry, as well as plays by Mart Crowley, Charles Dyer, John Van Druten, Joe Orton, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

QUEER CINEMA: HIGHLY RATED

Queer”coded films often distinguish themselves through sophistication and intellectual depth. Because audiences approach them with heightened attentiveness'”always searching for subtext or coded meaning'”these works place significant demands on the viewer but also deliver exceptional rewards. This dynamic helps explain the consistently strong ratings across the 75 films examined: Essay One (Hays Code era, with an average rating of B+) and Essay Two (New Hollywood era, with an average rating of B to B-, the latter rating includes the ‘“Dirty Dozen’).

75 QUEER FILMS

ONE OF THE MOVIES LISTED WON BEST PICTURE

– NINE MORE WERE NOMINATED IN THIS CATEGORY

1. No Way to Treat a Lady

(1968)

B-

Jack Smight

LGBTQ+ CHARACTER

*Christopher Gill aka “Dorian” (Rod Steiger)

Christopher Gill (Rod Steiger) is a serial killer fixated on his late mother, a noted stage actress. Gill preys on older women who remind him of Mama. A Broadway theatre owner and director, he adopts various disguises, such as a priest, policeman, plumber, hairdresser, etc., to put his victims at ease (and avoid being identified) before strangling them!

‘“Dorian,’ Gill’’s hairdresser persona, is gay with a classic sibilant-rich delivery. In the movie’’s best scene, just as he is caressing the neck of his next intended victim, Miss Belle Poppie (a wonderful Barbara Baxley who has a house full of cats) during a wig fitting – ‘“Isn’’t that fantastic and breathtaking’ – he is interrupted by the arrival of her sister Sylvia (Doris Roberts, always so good at putting someone in their place) who knows that something is not quite right. Dorian reacts with ‘“Well, honestly, the suspicion of some people,‘ and after Sylvia’’s ‘“you homo’ delivers the movie’’s classic line, ‘“Well, that doesn’’t mean you’’re a terrible person.’ As a gay man, I should be disturbed by Steiger’’s Queer turn. However, this scene always ends with me rolling on the floor with laughter.

‘“No Way to Treat a Lady’ was adapted by John Gay from William Goldman’’s novel of the same name and directed by Jack Smight. It also stars George Segal, Eileen Heckart, and the underused but still captivating Lee Remick.

NOW STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME, APPLE TV+, YOUTUBE

2. The Detective

(1968)

D+

Gordon Douglas

LGBTQ+ CHARACTER

*Colin MacIver (William Windom)

LGBTQ+

COSTUME DESIGNER: Donald Brooks

Frank Sinatra plays detective Joe Leland, who is investigating the murder of a gay man found mutilated in his apartment. The crime is shocking and grotesque, with police colleagues displaying prejudice about the victim’’s sexuality. The dead man’s roommate is eventually convicted. However, Leland begins to doubt whether justice was truly served.

Sinatra does the best he can under the circumstances. However, the condescending screenplay by Abby Mann, doing for homosexuals what he did for Jews in ‘“Judgement at Nuremberg’ in 1961 (he accepted his 1962 Oscar in the name of intellectuals everywhere), and the mediocre direction by Gordon Douglas put the kibosh on everything. William Windom plays the type of gay character that makes every adolescent gay boy want to jump off a bridge. Although it rates a D+, it is (almost) worth seeing as a pre-Stonewall period piece.

Rumor has it that the underperformance of ‘“The Detective’ relative to ‘“Rosemary’’s Baby’ played a significant part in the Farrow-Sinatra breakup. With Lee Remick and Jacqueline Bisset.

Adapted from the novel by Roderick Thorp

NOW STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME, APPLE TV+, YOUTUBE

3. The Boston Strangler

(1968)

C-

Richard Fleischer

LGBTQ+ CHARACTERS

*Terence Huntley (Hurd Hatfield)

*Eve Collyer (Ellen Ridgeway)

*Alice Oakville (Gwyda Donhowe)

LGBTQ+

ACTOR: Hurd Hatfield

Released the same year as ‘“The Detective,’ ‘“The Boston Strangler’ is another serial killer movie that, although not part of Queer Cinema per se, is filled with ‘“queers’ and ‘“faggots” as the police comb the Boston demimonde in search of the strangler (Tony Curtis, whose brave performance is the film’’s central redeeming feature). A long way from his Dorian Gray days, Hurd Hatfield has a good scene in a gay bar where Henry Fonda’’s detective is questioning him. He has been fingered by two nasty dykes, played by Eve Collyer and Gwyda Donhowe in a gay-turning-on-gay scene that has to be seen to be believed. Let’’s hope both actresses live to regret ever making this movie. The screenplay by Oscar-winner Edward Anhalt (‘“Becket’) is so nonchalantly homophobic that it makes you glad you live in a more enlightened era. Richard Fleischer directs with so many split screens that it’’s distracting. It’’s a nasty piece of filmmaking, voyeuristic, but not in the cinematic sense. It makes you feel like a Peeping Tom! It makes you feel dirty. And, it turns out, very little of what is documented here actually happened.

Adapted from the novel by Gerold Frank.

NOW STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME, APPLE TV+, YOUTUBE

4. The Killing of Sister George

(1968)

(B)

Robert Aldrich

LGBTQ+ CHARACTERS

*June ‘“George’ Buckridge (Beryl Reid)

*Alice ‘“Childie’ McNaught (Susannah York)

*Mercy Croft (Coral Browne)

LGBTQ+ ACTOR

Carol Browne

Beryl Reid is marvelous as ‘“George.’ That’’s not her name. It’’s the name of the character she plays in a beloved long-running BBC series. She is in a lesbian relationship with the much younger Childie (Susannah York) and thinks she is about to get canned from the show. Enter Carol Browne as a BBC executive with the hots for Childie, and George cannot get a break.

Robert Aldrich does an excellent job here, just like he did with Bette and Joan in ‘“Baby Jane.’ The relationship between George and Childie seems precisely right, and Browne is also very believable as the predatory suit who holds all the cards – the film’’s only significant error is a gratuitous and embarrassing seduction scene that should have been left on the cutting-room floor.

‘“The Killing of Sister George’ follows in the footsteps of ‘“Advice and Consent’ six years before, only this time, it’’s a lesbian bar. Cheers!

Lukas Heller, who also adapted ‘“Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?’, did a respectable adaptation of Frank Marcus’’s 1964 British novel.

THE FIRST LOOK INSIDE A LESBIAN BAR

NOW STREAMING ON YOUTUBE.

5. Rachel, Rachel

(1968)

B-

Paul Newman

LGBTQ+ CHARACTER

*Calla Mackie (Estelle Parsons)

Paul Newman produced and directed (his debut) ‘“Rachel, Rachel,’ a slight tale about a schoolteacher’’s (Newman’’s wife Joanne Woodward) sexual awakening in her mid-30s in a small Connecticut town.

Rachel is a 35-year-old unmarried schoolteacher living with her demanding widowed mother in a small Connecticut town. She resides above the funeral home once run by her late father, a setting that underscores her sense of entrapment. Rachel is shy, lonely, and emotionally stifled. She represses her desires and often uses her mother as an excuse to avoid change. Her colleague Calla (Estelle Parsons) harbors romantic feelings for her. Rachel reconnects with Nick (James Olson), a man from her past. Their brief affair awakens her sexuality and forces her to confront her own needs and independence. Through these relationships and her own introspection, Rachel begins to break free from her monotonous existence, contemplating a move away from her mother and the town. The film closes ambiguously, with Rachel poised between resignation and liberation, symbolizing the struggle of women seeking autonomy in a restrictive society.

Highly regarded at the time of its release (with NYFCC awards going to Newman as Best Director and Woodward as Best Actress), the movie seems somewhat underwhelming today. However, with Estelle Parsons’ Oscar-nominated performance as Calla, it does offer one of the first sympathetic portraits of a lesbian character in an American Film.

The screenplay is by Stewart Stern. Adapted from Margaret Laurence’’s novel ‘“A Jest of God.”

NOW STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME, APPLE TV+, YOUTUBE

6. 2001: A Space Odyssey

(1968)

A

Stanley Kubrick

LGBTQ+ CHARACTER

*HAL 9000 Computer voiced by actor Douglas Rain.

In Stanley Kubrick’’s ‘“2001: A Space Odyssey,” HAL 9000 is the psychotic gay computer (brilliantly voiced by Canadian actor Douglas Rain with just the right amount of Queerness!) aboard Discovery One. The starship is bound for Jupiter with mission pilots and scientists Dr. David ‘“Dave’ Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Dr. Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood). HAL is in love with Dave and quickly dispatches Frank and the other three astronauts, who are journeying in suspended animation.

From the stunning opening sequence in which our ape-like ancestors discover a black obelisk on the prehistoric African veldt to Dave’’s journey through a series of rooms where he encounters the same object, Kubrick’’s direction never falters. In fact, it’s quite the trip. For this reason, any ancillary substances we consume to enhance our appreciation of Mr. Kubrick’’s genius are okay by me. In fact, they may be essential to achieve the complete “2001′ EXPERIENCE!

Kubrick scrapped the original score by Alex North in favor of various classical pieces, most notably Richard Strauss’’s ‘“Thus Spake Zarathustra’ and Johann Strauss II’’s ‘“The Blue Danube.’ Arguably, it is the most inspired use of classical music in Cinema.

Its plot was inspired by several short stories by Arthur C. Clarke, most notably ‘“The Sentinel’ (1951). For this reason, although the book and the screenplay for ‘“2001’ were written simultaneously, the latter is considered an adaptation rather than an original screenplay.

Cinematography by Geoffrey Unsworth.

THE BEST USE OF CLASSICAL MUSIC IN A MOVIE.

NOW STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME, APPLE TV+, MAX(YOUTUBE)

7. The Sergeant

(1968)

C+

John Flynn

LGBTQ+ CHARACTER

*MSgt Callan (Rod Steiger)

Master Sergeant Callan was Rod Steiger’’s second gay role of 1968, but unlike ‘“Dorian,’ his mincing hairstylist persona in ‘“No Way to Treat a Lady,’ hardly anybody saw it.

The subject matter, its release during the Christmas season of 1968, and a couple of scathing (and homophobic) reviews by some of the foremost critics of the time (Kael, Crist, and Canby were among them) that resembled a shark-feeding frenzy, quickly sealed its fate. The film is not terrible. Directed by John Flynn, making his directorial debut, and produced by his former boss, director/producer Robert Wise, it is eerily similar, in so many ways, to John Huston’’s ‘“Reflections in a Golden Eye,’ which was released the previous year with Marlon Brando.

Both movies feature a martinet who revels in the life of men among men. Callan rules over his military camp (in this case, rural France in 1952) with an iron fist, all the while lusting after a beautiful young man. A black-and-white pre-credit sequence sets the scene during the closing days of World War II. In ‘“Reflections,’ that obscure object of desire was Robert Forster, mostly bare-assed and riding Elizabeth Taylor’’s favorite horse. Here it is, John Phillip Law, looking beautiful between his star-making role in ‘“The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming’ and the blind angel in Roger Vadim’’s ‘“Barbarella.’

But while ‘“Reflections’ had the genius of Carson McCullers and Huston (not to mention Brando, Taylor, Julie Harris, and Brian Keith), ‘“The Sergeant’ can only rise above its pedestrian screenplay on occasion. The sanctimonious parallel heterosexual romance between Law and a young French woman (Ludmila Mikael) does not help matters. The best moments are thanks to the above-average performances of both leading men. Steiger – arguably the most flamboyant of all the great American actors – has a few memorable scenes, all of which border on camp.

There is a kiss, but it’’s more of the Judas than the Cupid variety.

Adapted from the novel by Dennis Murphy.

NOW STREAMING ON APPLE TV+, YOUTUBE

8. if….

(1968)

A-

Lindsay Anderson

LGBTQ+ CHARACTERS

*Wally Wallace, one of the Crusaders (Richard Warwick)

*Bobby Philips, One of the Crusaders (Rupert Webster)

LGBTQ+

DIRECTOR: Lindsay Anderson

ACTOR: Richard Warwick

Openly gay director Lindsay Anderson, who had launched Richard Harris’’s career with This Sporting Life (1963), turned away from the gritty realism of Kitchen Sink Cinema to deliver the elite British public school exposé If…. (1968). The film won the Palme d’’Or at Cannes and remains a landmark of satirical drama, charting rebellion within a boys’’ boarding school where non-conformist students, led by Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell, in his debut), rise against oppressive traditions and authority, culminating in a surreal and violent insurrection.

The boys are persecuted by the ‘“Whips’ (senior prefects), who exploit and abuse younger students through the rigid traditions of the school and the wider British establishment. These include fagging‘”a system in which junior boys serve as personal attendants to seniors, performing tasks such as cleaning shoes, making tea, running errands, preparing meals, tidying rooms, and even warming toilet seats'”as well as canings and other forms of humiliation. Authority figures, from the headmaster to the housemasters, are portrayed as detached, complicit, or absurdly incompetent. After enduring a particularly brutal punishment, Mick and his fellow ‘“Crusaders’ resolve to fight back. Their revolt erupts during a ceremonial gathering of parents and staff, where the boys unleash a violent armed insurrection. The surreal finale deliberately blurs the lines between fantasy and reality, leaving viewers uncertain whether the rebellion is literal or symbolic.

Alternating between color and black and white, the film achieves a dreamlike quality that contrasts with the horrors unfolding on screen. Yet Anderson also threads in humor and tenderness, most notably in the sweet, understated love story between Wallace and Bobby, who share kisses and occasionally a bed. If…. not only marked the debut of Malcolm McDowell but also cemented Anderson’’s reputation as a daring chronicler of British institutions and their discontents.

NOW STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO, BFI and YOUTUBE.

9. The Lion in Winter

(1968)

B+

Anthony Harvey

LGBTQ+ CHARACTERS

*King Philip II of France (Timothy Dalton)

*Richard the Lionheart (Anthony Hopkins)

LGBTQ+

Katherine Hepburn

SETTING – PLAYERS

Christmas 1183, Chinon Castle, France

King Henry II of England (Peter O’Toole), Eleanor of Aquitaine (Katherine Hepburn)

Richard the Lionheart (Anthony Hopkins), Prince John (Nigel Terry)

Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany (John Castle) King Philip II of France (Timothy Dalton)

King Henry II wants his youngest son, John, to inherit the throne. Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, temporarily released from imprisonment, favors their eldest surviving son, Richard, a proven warrior. Middle son Geoffrey schemes for power, manipulating both sides. King Philip II of France arrives to demand fulfillment of a treaty: his half-sister Alais, Henry’’s mistress, was promised in marriage to Henry’’s heir. The dowry, the strategically vital Vexin territory, hangs in the balance.

Richard and Philip are both gay and were lovers.

The film is a battle of wit, manipulation, and shifting alliances as the family remains locked in rivalry with no clear successor being chosen. Henry and Eleanor spar with equal parts venom and affection, their love/hate dynamic driving the drama. As a result, the dialogue and the performers carry the movie, which is essentially a filmed play with little directorial input.

The film marked the debuts of Timothy Dalton and Anthony Hopkins in their first major film roles.

Oscars for Hepburn, Goldman and John Barry’s score.

NOW STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO, APPLE TV+, AND YOUTUBE.

10. The Damned

(1969)

B-

Luchino Visconti

LGBTQ+ CHARACTER

*Martin von Essenbeck (Helmut Berger)

LGBTQ+ 

DIRECTOR: Luchino Visconti

SCREENWRITER: Luchino Visconti

ACTOR:  Dirk Bogarde

ACTOR: Helmut Berger

Many of the old German families sided with Hitler in the closing days of the Weimar Republic. Luchino Visconti’’s ‘“The Damned’ centers on the Essenbecks (loosely based on the Krupp family) beginning on the night of the Reichstag fire in early 1933, when the family patriarch Baron Joachim von Essenbeck is murdered during a family gathering and ending with the Night of the Long Knives and the purge of the SA in 1934.

The patriarch’s death sparks a vicious struggle for control of the family business.

• Friedrich Bruckmann (Dirk Bogarde), a manager allied with Nazi forces, maneuvers to seize power.
• Sophie von Essenbeck (Ingrid Thulin), the Baron’’s daughter-in-law, schemes alongside him.
• Martin von Essenbeck (Helmut Berger), the decadent heir, becomes increasingly unstable and is manipulated by others.
• The family fortunes are tied to Nazi brutality. Betrayals, incestuous relationships, and moral corruption consume the family. By the end, the Essenbecks are destroyed from within, symbolizing the broader collapse of Germany’’s aristocracy under fascism.

After a grand opening, the film misfires. Part of the reason is that Visconti edited the film around his then-lover, Helmut Berger, whose famous impersonation of Marlene Dietrich was a minor sensation. However, a major blow came in the US, where 12 minutes of footage had to be cut to go from an X to an R rating by the MPAA.

German title: “Gotterdammerung.”

Original, Oscar-nominated screenplay by Nicola Badalucco, Enrico Medioli and Visconti.

With Charlotte Rampling and Helmut Griem.

NOW STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO

11. Staircase (1969)

C-

Stanley Donen

LGBTQ+ CHARACTERS

*Charles Dyer (Rex Harrison)

*Harry C. Leeds (Richard Burton)

LGBTQ+

SOURCE MATERIAL: Charles Dyer (based on his play “The Staircase’)

Richard Burton and Rex Harrison are Harry C. Leeds and Charles Dyer (the names are anagrams of one another), an aging gay couple who own a barber shop in the East End of London. The shop is always empty, but that’’s the least of their problems. Charles is about to go on trial for dressing as a woman in public! The movie is essentially a two-hander, adapted by director Stanley Donen from Charles Dyer’’s play “The Staircase.” Although it has been ‘“opened up’ to include the character’’s mothers (Kathleen Nesbit as Harry’’s bedridden mum and, in a horrific piece of overacting, Beatrix Lehmann, as Charles’’ mother from hell) and various passers-by, the film consists mainly of the two leads discussing their loving but often volatile past together and pondering their possible futures without each other.

They have their tender moments, but they mostly bicker, and while the same could be said of the gay couple played by Hume Cronyn and John Randolph in ‘“There Was a Crooked Man’ (see below), the two relationships are light-years apart. You immediately fall in love with the two old queens in an Arizona prison circa 1883 and believe in their love for one another. Not so with this relationship. Harrison’’s performance is all affectation and condescension. Burton does better, though. His character has alopecia, and he spends the entire movie wearing a towel as a turban, which is funny. He even has the occasional moment of emotional clarity. Unfortunately, the film is never really taken seriously by its director, a man who had consistently shown a light and gay-friendly touch throughout his career, from ‘“Singing in the Rain’ to ‘“Funny Face’ to ‘“Charade.’ That touch is missing here, and the soufflé falls flat. What a pity!

NOW STREAMING ON YOUTUBE

12. Z

(1969)

C-

Costa-Gavras

LGBTQ+ CHARACTER

*Vago (Marcel Bozzuffi)

Director Costa-Gavras’’s ‘“Z,’ a thriller about the fall of an elected democratic government in an unnamed country – which is obviously Greece – and the establishment of a military junta, was feted by one award ceremony after another and one film critics association after another in the Winter of 1969/1970.

However, few seemed to have noticed, or if they did, they didn’’t seem to care, that this is a homophobic film in which the main villain, Vago (Marcel Bozzuffi) – the man who strikes down Deputy Gregoris Lambrakis (played by Yves Montand) with a club from a speeding van – is a homosexual and convicted pedophile who trades sexual favors with other gay deviants such as the newspaper editor. These scum of the Earth perverts are contrasted with our handsome, intellectual and heterosexual heroes, Montand and the examining magistrate Jean-Louis Trintignant.

Some may give it an A+, but from a gay perspective, the most I can summon is a C-.

Cinematography by Raoul Coutard.

Music by Mikis Theodorakis.

Editing by Francoise Bonnot.

Adapted Screenplay by Jorge Semprún and Costa-Gavras from the novel by Vassilis Vassilikos

“Z,’ which means ‘“he lives’ (referring to Lambrakis) in Greek, was the first film to be nominated for both Best Film and Best Foreign Language Film.

It won in the latter category. A French Algerian coproduction.

NOW STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO AND MAX (YOUTUBE)

13. Midnight Cowboy

(1969)

(A)

John Schlesinger

LGBTQ+ CHARACTERS

*Joe Buck (Jon Voight)

*Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman)

*Towny (Bernard Hughes)

*Young Student (Bob Balaban)

LGBTQ+

DIRECTOR: John Schlesinger

SOURCE MATERIAL: James Leo Herlihy (adapted from his 1965 novel ‘“Midnight Cowboy’)

I’m Walkin’ Here

Ratso Rizzo to an unfortunate driver on the streets on Manhattan

Joe Buck (John Voight), a young dishwasher from Texas, quits his job and heads to New York dressed in cowboy attire, imagining he’’ll succeed as a male prostitute catering to wealthy women. His attempts fail; instead of making money, he ends up broke and exploited. Joe encounters Enrico ‘“Ratso’ Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), a streetwise but physically frail con man suffering from tuberculosis. Although Ratso initially cheats him, the two eventually form a bond. They move into a dilapidated apartment, struggling to make ends meet. Ratso dreams of escaping to Florida, where the climate might improve his health. As Ratso’’s illness worsens, Joe turns to desperate measures, including robbery, to fund their escape.

On a bus trip to Florida, Ratso dies in Joe’’s arms.

OSCARS (1969)

BEST FILM (Jerome Hellman, Producer)

BEST DIRECTOR (John Schlesinger)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY (Waldo Salt)

John Schlesinger’’s American debut is the only X-rated movie to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Dated now, it still boasts two great performances courtesy of Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman. The gay thing is a bit primitive, with tortured souls getting killed by their tricks and numerous queer types from The Village in small parts so that the audience can contrast the real fags from the subtler queer dynamics of the Joe Buck/Ratso Rizzo relationship. And like ‘“Darling,’ ‘“Midnight Cowboy’ falters during that long Warhol-inspired psychedelic party scene with Brenda Vaccaro.

You’re the only one Joe, You’re the only one

Crazy Annie to Joe Buck

The film also features Bob Balaban, Bernard Hughes, and Sylvia Myles, who received an Oscar nomination for her brief appearance. In a series of flashbacks, Jennifer Salt portrays Crazy Annie, Joe Buck’s girl from Texas. The movie is based on the novel by gay writer James Leo Herlihy, who took his own life with an overdose of sleeping tablets in Los Angeles in 1993. He was sixty-six. Waldo Salt (Jennifer’s father) wrote the Oscar-winning adapted screenplay.

John Barry’’s haunting harmonica score gets no screen credit. It’’s a rearrangement of the orchestral score he wrote two years earlier for the James Bond movie “You Only Live Twice” and was therefore not eligible for Oscar recognition. The same applies to Harry Neilson’’s famous recording of Fred Neil’’s “Everybody’’s Talkin’’,” which was not written directly for the screen and, therefore, also ineligible for Academy consideration.

Cinematography: Adam Holender

Editing: Hugh A. Robertson (the first person of color to be nominated in this category)

Costumes: Ann Roth

NOW STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME, APPLE TV+ AND YOUTUBE

14. Goodbye Columbus

(1969)

B-

Larry Peerce

LGBTQ+ CHARACTER

*Ron Patimkin (Michael Meyers)

Ali McGraw’’s movie debut was a box office success and paved the way for her sensational turn in ‘“Love Story’ the following year. Directed by Larry Peerce and based on the 1959 novella of the same name by Phillip Roth, with an adapted, Oscar-nominated screenplay by Arnold Schulman, the movie centers on Neil Klugman (Richard Benjamin), a nice middle-class Jewish boy from the Bronx who falls under the spell of Brenda Patimkin, a wealthy Radcliffe student whose parents are nouveau riche Jews who have grown rich in the plumbing business. There are similarities between this movie and Neil Simon/Elaine May’’s ‘“The Heartbreak Kid’ from 1972, except in that movie, the golden girl, played by Cybill Shepard, is a Shiksa. In contrast, Ali McCraw’’s character is a Jewish American Princess.

The Queer element in the film comes from Brenda’’s older brother, Ron (played by the late Michael Meyers, a name that would later become synonymous with a horror franchise). Ron is a star athlete ‘” the film’’s title alludes to a song he plays when he gets nostalgic for his glory days at Ohio State in Columbus ‘” and he has his mind set on being a college coach. However, he has the hots for Neil, whom he keeps inviting back to his room and slapping on the butt. And then there is the scene outside the bathroom where Ron, having just washed his jockstrap in the sink, regards Neil- or is it the game on the TV behind him – with such a goofy grin that he appears to be enraptured with him/it/them. To seal the deal, he is an avid collector of what he calls ‘“semi-classical’ music, and he prides himself on his extensive collection of Andre Kostelanetz and Montovani!

Unfortunately, Schulman and Peerce aren’’t interested in Ron’’s character. He marries a nice, rich Jewish girl whom Brenda supposes he has never slept with. And that’’s that! The straight audiences who saw this in 1969 probably had no clue that Ron was a closeted homosexual. They were left feeling sorry for him because he was forced to work for his father-in-law’’s business and, as a result, had to give up on his athletic dreams. It is unlikely that they would be grieving for his life in the closet and his loveless marriage.

NOW STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME, APPLE TV+, YOUTUBE

15. The Sterile Cuckoo

(1969)

B-

Alan J. Pakula

LGBTQ+ CHARACTER

*Charlie Schumacher, Jerry’’s roommate (Tim McIntire)

In so many ways, Liza Minnelli’’s Oscar-nominated turn as quirky, oddball, and very needy ‘“Pookie’ Adams in producer Alan J. Pakula’’s directorial debut “The Sterile Cuckoo,” is a preview of her Oscar-winning performance three years later in Bob Fosse’’s ‘“Cabaret.’ But while Sally Bowles was a creation for the ages, Pookie is a half-formed character that comes at you in spurts. Her justly famous telephone monologue comes to mind. However, sometimes, she seems lost in the moment and can be irritating and cruel. What she does have on Sally, though, is her gaydar. Sally was clueless about whether her lover and her (male) best friend were lovers. Pookie thinks that her shy boyfriend (Wendell Burton in his film debut) ‘’s roommate, Charles (played by Tim McIntire), is gay. I think she was correct on this point. McIntire, the son of actors John McIntire and Jeanette Nolan, had made three movies before this one, and he appears to be more comfortable on screen than his costars. It’’s a lovely, understated performance; you can feel his love for Jerry. The fact that she outs him in a most uncaring fashion makes us care about him all the more. Quite a coup in the year of Stonewall!

Adapted from the novel by John Nichols.

NOW STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME, APPLE TV+ AND YOUTUBE

16. Satyricon

(1970)

B-

Federico Fellini

LGBTQ+ CHARACTER

*Encolpius (Martin Potter)

*Ascyltus (Hiram Keller)

*Gitone (Max Born)

LGBTQ+

ACTOR: Hiram Keller

ACTOR: Capucine

Federico Fellini’’s Satyricon (1969) is a surreal, episodic journey through Imperial Rome, loosely adapted from Petronius’’s fragmented novel. It follows Encolpius (Martin Potter) and Ascyltus (Hiram Keller) as they quarrel over the boy Gitón (Max Born) and wander through grotesque, dreamlike episodes of decadence, violence, and myth, ending abruptly mid”sentence to mirror the unfinished source text.

Seeming longer than its 129-minute running time, and with no discernible plot, the movie becomes a bit of a chore. However, the images stay with you.

Danilo Donati was responsible for the fantastic production design.

Cinematography by Giuseppe Rotunno

Music: Nino Rota.

NOW STREAMING ON YOUTUBE.

17. Something for Everyone

(1970)

C-

Harold Prince

LGBTQ+ CHARACTERS

*Konrad Ludwig (Michael York)

*Helmuth von Ornstein (Anthony Higgins)

LGBTQ+

ACTOR: Anthony Higgins

SCREENWRITER: Hugh Wheeler

Was legendary Broadway director and impresario Harold Prince gay? He had a long and supposedly happy heterosexual marriage, which resulted in two children. Of course, the marriage could have been of the lavender variety. Does it matter? As he was more commonly known, Hal Prince collaborated with and mentored the crème de la crème of America’’s artistic gay community for approximately seven decades. The man who directed the original Broadway productions of Stephen Sondheim’’s ‘“Company’ and ‘“Follies,’ directed the original stage version of Kander and Ebb’’s masterpiece ‘“Cabaret,’ and co-produced the original staging of ‘“West Side Story,” will always have a very special place in the hearts of the Queer community. Why he never set his sights on Hollywood is a mystery. Maybe he knew that the world of Cinema was not for him.

He only made two films. One was a weak translation of Sondheim’’s ‘“A Little Night Music,’ from 1977, which he had directed on Broadway. The other, ‘“Something for Everyone,” his cinematic debut, was made seven years earlier. Unfortunately, what should have been a gay romp and a fabulous showcase for its star, gay icon Angela Lansbury, fizzles out after a promising opening chapter.

Adapted by gay writer Hugh Wheeler (billed as a ‘“research consultant’ on Bob Fosse’’s ‘ËœCabaret,’ Wheeler wrote the books for ‘“A Little Night Music’ and ‘“Sweeny Todd’ and wrote the screenplays for George Cukor’’s “Travels with My Aunt’ and Herbert Ross’ “Nijinsky”) from the novel ‘“The Cooke’ by Harry Kressing, the film opens with a strapping pre-‘“Cabaret’ Michael York in short pants bicycling across the Bavarian countryside. York plays the aptly named Konrad Ludwig, a Tom Ripley in Lederhosen who, like his namesake, wants to live in a castle and will go to any lengths to do so. It just so happens that the widowed Countess Herthe von Ornstein (Lansbury) has an opening in her kitchen and a brooding gay son, Helmuth (gay actor Anthony Higgins, billed as Anthony Corlan, a long way from “The Draughtman’’s Contract‘), who is just waiting to be seduced by Konrad.

It’’s a promising beginning. Sadly, after about thirty minutes, you begin to feel the bloom fade from the rose, and with ninety minutes to go, it never returns. Neither Lansbury nor York nor an exceedingly boring and miscast Higgins can save it. Only Jane Carr, as Lotte, Helmuth’’s annoying little sister who also has the hots for Konrad, manages to keep her character interesting until the end. Although the gay community turned out in droves to see their idol, who had just caused a sensation on Broadway in ‘“Mame,’ the disappointment must have been palpable.

NOW STREAMING ON YOUTUBE

18. Entertaining Mr. Sloane

(1970)

B-

Douglas Hickox

LGBTQ+ CHARACTERS

*Ed (Harry Andrews)

*Mr. Sloane (Peter McEnery)

LGBTQ+

SOURCE MATERIAL: Joe Orton (adapted from his 1964 play of the same name)

The talented gay British playwright Joe Orton burst onto the scene in the swinging sixties with his brilliantly dark, satirical, and comedic masterpieces ‘“Loot” and ‘“Entertaining Mr. Sloane.’ Tragically, his career was cut short when he was murdered by his lover, Kenneth Halliwell, in 1967. Halliwell then tragically took his own life. Gary Oldman and Albert Molina portrayed these events in the captivating 1987 film ‘“Prick Up Your Ears’ directed by Stephen Frears.

This 1970 cinema adaptation of ‘“Entertaining Mr. Sloan,’ which was written by the esteemed British TV writer Clive Exton and directed by Douglas Hickox, loses some of its impact in translation mainly because it tones down the sense of danger that should have emanated from Peter McEnery’’s title character, a morally ambiguous wanderer with a striking allure. Sloane is willing to go to any lengths, including sleeping simultaneously with his siblings, Kath and Ed, portrayed by Beryl Reid and Harry Andrews, if he can continue to live the spoiled life to which he has become accustomed. However, in this adaptation, he is portrayed as a bland, unassuming figure, rather than the powerful force he was intended to be. (I have not seen the 1968 ITV adaptation starring Sheila Hancock, Edward Woodward, and Clive Francis.)

Still, Reed and Andrews are marvelous, both giving deliciously devious performances (with Reed gamely suffering through some very unflattering costume changes) right up to the delightful ending where Ed presides over the marriage of Kath to the protesting Mr. Sloane, and she repays the favor by marrying the lovely gay couple! This scene is initially framed as being outrageous. However, there is also an air of WHY NOT about it! It’’s a beautiful forecast of Queer triumphs to come

The fourth cog in Orton’’s wheel is Alan Webb doing his best Barry Fitzgerald impersonation as ‘“the dado’, Kath and Ed’’s grouchy father who, having witnessed some of Mr. Sloan’’s shenanigans, is quickly disposed of in the first act. However, his corpse, complete with rigor mortis, ‘“lives on’ to become an essential part of the happy nuptials at the film’’s finale.

McEnery had previously played the gay character ‘“Boy Barrett’ in the groundbreaking Queer film ‘“Victim’ opposite Dirk Bogarde in 1961 (please see the previous essay ‘“75 Queer Films made under the Hays Code 1934-1967).

NOW STREAMING ON BFI CLASSICS

19. Performance

(1970)

B-

Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg

LGBTQ+ CHARACTERS

*Chas (James Fox)

*Turner (Mick Jagger)

*Pherber (Anita Pallenberg)

This psychedelic ménage à trois involving a gangster (James Fox), a reclusive rock star (Mick Jagger), and the lady he lives with (Anita Pallenberg) was made in 1968. Still, Warner Bros. held it back from release because of its sexual content and graphic violence. Although the reviews were unfavorable upon release, the film has gained in stature over the years, and rightly so.

With obvious references to the Harold Pinter/ Joseph Losey masterpiece ‘“The Servant,’ the casting of the boyish Fox (who also starred in ‘“The Servant’) opposite the androgynous Jagger (slipping into Dirk Bogarde’’s shoes) works, the latter playing the role of a jaded rock star to perfection.

There will always be an argument about who the genuine auteur behind the camera was. Nicolas Roeg, one of the few great cinematographers (‘“The Masque of the Red Death,’ ‘“Petulia’), to transition to the great director (‘“Walkabout,’ ‘“Don’’t Look Now’) is the obvious choice. Unfortunately, Donald Cammell’’s post- ‘“Performance’ career was a series of failed projects (many involving Marlon Brando), with only the less than stellar ‘“Demon Seed’ (1997), White of the Eye’ (1987), and ‘“Wild Side’ (1995, with the director’’s cut in 1999) seeing completion before he died in 1996. As an iconoclast and a Hollywood outsider, however, he has his champions.

The Movie is based on an original screenplay by Cammell with obvious influences from Pinter and Losey.

NOW STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME, APPLE TV+, YOUTUBE

20. Women in Love

(1970)

B-

Ken Russell

LGBTQ+ CHARACTERS

*Rupert Birkin (Alan Bates)

*Loerke (Vladek Sheybal)

LGBTQ+ 

ACTOR: Alan Bates

ACTOR: Vladek Sheybal

SCREENWRITER: Larry Kramer

Future gay activist Larry Kramer’’s (founder of both GMHC and ACT UP) adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’’s 1920 novel was an enormous critical and commercial success, earning four Oscar Nominations:

• Best Actress: Glenda Jackson (won).
• Best Director: Ken Russell (nominated).
• Best Adapted Screenplay: Larry Kramer (nominated)
• Best Cinematography: Billy Williams (nominated).

The film takes place in 1920 in the Midlands mining town of Beldover. Two sisters, Ursula (Jennie Lindon) and Gudrun (Glenda Jackson), discuss marriage on their way to the wedding of Laura Crich, daughter of the town’’s wealthy mine owner. At the village church, a particular wedding party member fascinates each sister ‘” Gudrun by Laura’’s brother, Gerald (Oliver Reed), and Ursula by Gerald’’s best friend, Rupert Birkin (Alan Bates). Ursula is a schoolteacher, and Rupert is a school inspector; she remembers his visit to her classroom, when he interrupted her botany lesson to discuss the sexual nature of the catkin. A mutual friend later brings the four together, and as Jennie and Rupert start dating, so do Gudrun and Gerald.

What makes this a queer film is the famous nude wrestling scene by firelight between Redd (Gerald) and Bates (Rupert). Rupert enjoys their closeness and says they should swear to love each other. Still, Gerald cannot understand Rupert’’s idea of wanting to have an emotional union with a man and an emotional and physical union with a woman. The other reason is Gudrun’s intense relationship with a gay German sculptor, Loerke, played by gay Polish character actor and James Bond villain Vladek Sheybal. Her fascination with his ideas about art drives a wedge between them, which ultimately leads to tragedy.

Oliver Reed would refer to the wrestling scene – his apotheosis on film – in every one of his drunken talk show appearances on both sides of the Atlantic for the next thirty years.

With Eleanor Bron.

The first movie to be released through director Walter Hill’s Brandywine Productions.

NOT AVAILABLE FOR STREAMING. THE DVD IS CURRENTLY NOT AVAILABLE FROM AMAZON.

21. There Was a Crooked Man

(1970)

B+

Joseph L. Mankiewicz

LGBTQ+ CHARACTERS

*Dudley Whiner (Hume Cronyn)

*Cyrus McNutt (John Randolph)

Well-Adjusted Gay Couple, Arizona Territory 1883.

The ‘“marriage’ of Hume Cronyn’’s Mr. Whiner and John Randolph’’s Mr. McNutt in JLM’’s ‘“There Was a Crooked Man’ is Hollywood’Ëœs first presentation of a happy and “well-adjusted’ gay couple. Yes, they fight and bicker. However, it is plain to see that they are madly in love. No, Cronyn and Randolph are not in We-Ho or the Hamptons. They are in a feeble excuse for a jail or, as Scarlet O’’Hara would put it, a horse jail! We are in the Arizona territory circa 1883. The main plot involves a $500,000 loot hidden by Kirk Douglas, who also ends up in jail and is being hunted by Henry Fonda’Ëœs Sheriff Woodward W. Lopeman.

This was director Joe Mankiewicz’’s only Western, and it is a marvelous ride with a witty, intelligent script by David Newman and Robert Benton. The boys were fresh from their triumph with ‘“Bonnie and Clyde,” and every word is savored.

However, in many ways, it’’s like Mankiewicz had been transported back to an alternate ‘“All About Eve,’ with Cronyn and Randolph taking over from Bette Davis and Thelma Ritter, respectively. Two of the greatest character actors in Hollywood history, they play their roles with great knowingness and respect while being brilliantly funny. Cheers!

NOW STREAMING ON Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YOUTUBE

22. Little Big Man

(1970)

(A)

Arthur Penn

LGBTQ+ Character

Little Horse is a queer Native American (Robert Little Star)

Based on Thomas Berger’’s 1964 novel, “Little Big Man”, directed by Arthur Penn and starring Dustin Hoffman, is a landmark revisionist Western. Told through the eyes of 121”year”old Jack Crabb, the film recounts his extraordinary life as both a white settler and a Cheyenne ‘“Human Being.’

Framing Device: In 1970, the aged Jack Crabb (Hoffman) narrates his story to a historian, weaving together episodes that span the violent and contradictory history of the American frontier.

As a boy, Jack and his sister survive a Pawnee attack before being raised by the Cheyenne under the guidance of Old Lodge Skins (Chief Dan George), who calls his people ‘“the Human Beings.’ Jack drifts between identities: Cheyenne tribesman, gunslinger, con”man in medicine shows, hermit, and scout for the U.S. Cavalry. He marries twice, loses loved ones to violence, and repeatedly confronts the brutality of white expansion. His encounters with General George Armstrong Custer (Richard Mulligan) culminate in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, where Custer’’s hubris proves fatal. Old Lodge Skins prepares to die in harmony with nature, while Jack endures'”neither fully Indian nor entirely white, embodying the contradictions of frontier history.

Among the Cheyenne, Little Horse (Robert Little Star) stands out as a queer Native American who holds a sacred position in the tribe, a rare depiction of queer identity in the Western genre.

Penn uses humor and irony to critique prejudice, injustice, and the destruction of Native American communities. Together with “Bonnie and Clyde,” “Little Big Man” represents Penn’’s finest achievement, helping to redefine the Western and paving the way for more nuanced portrayals of Native Americans on screen.

Chief Dan George’’s performance earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor'”the first Native American to receive such recognition. The screenplay, adapted by Calder Willingham, reflects his sharp sensibility; only three years earlier, he and Buck Henry had brought Charles Webb’’s “The Graduate” to the screen, another seminal American novel.

With Faye Dunaway in the small but memorable part of a frustrated housewife who tries to take advantage of young Jack while he is taking a bath.

NOW STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO, APPLE TV+, AND YOUTUBE

23. The Boys in the Band

(1970)

(A)

William Friedkin

DIRECTOR: William Friedkin

As we saw in the 2020 remake, Mart Crowley’’s play ‘“The Boys in the Band’ has stood the test of time beautifully. The original adaptation, directed by William Friedkin before he made ‘“The French Connection,’ ‘“The Exorcist,’ and, unfortunately, ‘“Cruising,’ is essential viewing for every gay man. The story unfolds at a birthday party for Harold, attended by his gay friends.

Michael, the host, provokes the group with a cruel party game that forces each man to call someone they’’ve loved. The arrival of Alan, Michael’’s ostensibly straight college roommate, heightens tensions and exposes the fragility of the group’’s self-images. The standouts are Kenneth Nelson, Leonard Frey, and Cliff Gorman. Gorman gets extra kudos for playing the flamboyant Emory ‘” he is stunningly good, and he was straight! The tragic epilogue is that the five real-life gay actors – and, to some extent, the straight actors, Cliff Gorman, Peter White and Laurence Luckinbill – were all unemployable in major roles after the film’’s release, and all died of AIDS-related illnesses within seven years of one another in the late eighties and early nineties.

GAY CHARACTERS

*Michael (Kenneth Nelson) *Harold (Leonard Frey) *Emory (Cliff Gorman) *Donald (Frederick Colms)

*Hank (Laurence Luckinbill) *Larry (Keith Prentice) *Cowboy Tex (Robert La Tourneaux)

*Bernard (Reuben Greene)

AND

Michael’’s ostensibly straight roommate Alan (Peter White)

GAY ACTORS

The tragic epilogue is that the five real-life gay actors were all unemployable in major roles after the film’’s release ‘” this included Leonard Frey, who was Oscar-nominated for his supporting role in ‘“Fiddler on the Roof’ ‘” and all died of AIDS-related illnesses within seven years of one another in the late eighties and early nineties.

ACTOR: Kenneth Nelson (RIP 1993 AIDS-related illness)

ACTOR: Leonard Frey (RIP 1988 AIDS-related illness)

ACTOR: Frederick Combs (RIP 1992 AIDS-related illness)

ACTOR: Robert La Tourneaux (RIP 1986 AIDS-related illness)

ACTOR: Keith Prentice (R.I.P. 1992 AIDS-related illness)

The gay writer of the play, Mart Crowley, died of a heart attack at the age of 84 in 2020.

Straight actor Peter White, who played Alan, Michael’’s ostensibly straight roommate, died from melanoma in 2023 at the age of 86.

Straight actor Cliff Gorman, who played the flamboyant Emory, died from leukemia in 2002, aged 65.

Straight actor Laurence Luckinbill has been alive and well, happily married to Lucie Arnaz, since 1980.

Actor Reuben Greene, who played Bernard, always insisted that he was straight. He gradually drifted under the radar and was last heard from around 2000.

NOW STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME AND APPLE TV+

24. Diary of a Mad Housewife

(1970)

A+

Frank Perry

LGBTQ+ CHARACTER

*George Prager (Frank Langella)

The last movie that director Frank Perry and his screenwriter wife Eleanor made together was their best. An excellent adaptation of the bestselling novel ‘“Diary of a Mad Housewife’ by Sue Kaufman, it stars Carrie Snodgress as Tina, an upper-middle-class housewife who gets no respect from either her whining and demanding husband (Richard Benjamin, highly sought after at this point in his career before he turned director) or her arrogant and demanding lover (Frank Langella making his film debut). The movie’’s only sour note, a product of its time, is that Langella’’s character turns out to be gay, thus explaining all the nasty things he did to Tina throughout their relationship.

Snodgress is breathtakingly good and should have won the Best Actress in a Leading Role Oscar. Instead, she lost to Glenda Jackson in ‘“Women in Love.’

Alice Cooper and his band make a cameo appearance during a party scene. The song is “Ride with Me Baby.”

CURRENTLY NOT AVAILABLE FOR STREAMING. AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE FROM AMAZON ON DVD AND Blu-ray FORMATS.

25. The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

(1970)

A-

Billy Wilder

LGBTQ+ CHARACTER

*Sherlock Holmes (Robert Stephens)

Director Billy Wilder has said he originally intended to portray Holmes explicitly as a repressed homosexual, stating:

I should have been more daring. I have this theory. I wanted to have Holmes homosexual and not admitting it to anyone, including maybe even himself. The burden of keeping it secret was the reason he took dope.

Billy Wilder: GemÃ

Related