All About Eve (1950) Film Review A+
Bette Davis in her greatest role with some of the best lines ever written. Both Addison and Eve are gay and he blackmails her.
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Category: 50s
Caged (1950) Film Review C-
“Hype the New Fish”. Innocent Eleanor Parker spends time in a women’s prison. With Hope Emerson and Agnes Moorehead.
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Young Man with a Horn (1950) Film Review B
Lauren Bacall is Kirk Douglas’ young man with a horn’s society wife who is also a closeted lesbian. Bacall is very good in a risque role.
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A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) Film Review A+
The best play to film adaptation of all-time, with two of the greatest performances: Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois and Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski.
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Strangers on a Train (1951) Film Review A-
Hitchcock reverses himself here, having gay actor Farley Granger play the straight character and straight actor Robert Walker play the gay character.
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Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) Film Review B+
It’s Howard Hawks again, this time adapting the Jule Stein/Leo Robin Broadway smash “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”. With Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe.
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Niagara (1953) Film Review A-
The buildup to Monroe’s superstardom started here. The magnificent widescreen technicolor cinematography is by Joseph MacDonald.
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Calamity Jane (1953) Film Review B
The Best Queer Song in the History of Cinema: Day’s spectacular delivery of the Sammy Fain-Paul Francis Webster masterpiece “Secret Love.”
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Rear Window (1954) Film Review A+
Stewart, Kelly, and Ritter are all magnificent. Kelly, looking radiant, gets to deliver one of the Big Screen’s all-time sexy lines.
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Johnny Guitar (1954) Film Review B
A Western with two female leads is that rarest of cinematic jewels and, under Nicholas Ray’s direction, both Crawford and McCambridge play to the gallery.
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Rebel Without a Cause (1955) Film Review A+
Wood, Dean and Mineo form a nuclear family under the shadow of Griffith Park Observatory in Nicholas Ray’s masterpiece “Rebel Without a Cause.
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The Big Combo (1955) Film Review B-
“The Big Combo” features a gay couple (played by Earl Holliman and Lee Van Cleef) whose chosen profession also adds to their fascination and their sexiness.
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Written on the Wind (1956) Film Review B+
.”Written on the Wind”: The film’s central tenet is that Kyle (Robert Stack) and his ruthless sister Marylee (Dorothy Malone) lust after the same man.
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The Bad Seed (1956) Film Review B+
Nancy Kelly is ON 100% of the time straddling the twin minefields of camp and drama yet managing to accomplish both simultaneously.
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Tea and Sympathy (1956) Film Review. A-
“Tea and Sympathy” has aged well. What could not be said under the Hayes code lends it beauty and delicacy, especially in Deborah’s sublime performance.
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Bonjour Tristesse (1957) The French Critics Adored Jean Seberg B+
Unlike their American counterparts, French critics, including Godard and Truffaut, adored Jean Seberg in “Bonjour Tristesse.”
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Funny Face (1957) Film Review A+
“Funny Face“, the 1957 musical romantic comedy directed by Stanley Donen, boasts Audrey Hepburn’s most charming screen performance.
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Vertigo (1958) Film Review A+
“Vertigo” is anchored by the unforgettable performances of Stewart and Novak, Hitchcock’s masterful direction and Bernard Herrmann’s haunting score.
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Touch of Evil (1958) Film Review A
Yes, that is Mercedes McCambridge as an unnamed lesbian gang leader getting her kicks while watching Janet Leigh getting roughed up in “A Touch of Evil.”
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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) Film Review B+
Richard Brooks’ respectable adaptation of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” opens with Paul Newman mourning the suicide of his best friend (read Lover), Skipper.
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Auntie Mame (1958) Film Review C+
Director Morton DaCosta directs “Auntie Mame” as if he were still in the theatre. He did better on his penultimate visit to Hollywood (“The Music Man”).
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Suddenly Last Summer (1959) Film Review C-
The movie is risible, its few pleasures come from Hepburn’s regal (but very nasty) mother who will do anything to protect her son’s memory.
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Some Like it Hot (1959) Film Review A+
“Some Like It Hot” was only the second mainstream Hollywood movie not to be submitted to the Hays Office. Worth seeing just for Lemmon’s performance alone.
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North by Northwest (1959) Film Review A+
Eva Marie Saint gives Grace Kelly in “Rear Window” a run for her money as Hitchcock’s most elegant leading lady and the chemistry between the two leads is more palpable than in any Hollywood picture before or since.
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Pillow Talk (1959) Film Review B
Hudson’s characters has a gay alter ego named “Rex” and supporting actors Tony Randall and Nick Allen are constantly brushing off the gay ceiling.
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Ben Hur (1959) Film Review B
If you believe Gore Vidal it was all because of a lover’s spat. Wyler and Boyd were in on the ruse, and Boyd played his scenes that way, but Heston was not.
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