Gazzara is electrifying in the lead, exuding a raw, unsettling sensuality. It remains one of the great curiosities of his career that only in his very next film, Anatomy of a Murder (1959), did he manage to recapture this level of charisma.
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“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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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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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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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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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 was only the third major studio film (after Otto Preminger’s The Moon Is Blue in 1953 and The Man with the Golden Arm in 1955) to be released without the Hays Office seal. Wilder assumed it didn’t stand a chance, and he was correct. The PCA rejected it. Instead, released by United Artists, outside of the studio system, it became an instant smash—and helped usher in the end of the Production Code.
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Imitation of Life is a queer film not because of representation but because of sensibility, structure, and performance style — the same way All About Eve, Mildred Pierce, Sunset Boulevard and The Red Shoes are queer. Douglas Sirk’s final Hollywood film is a melodrama about race, performance, motherhood, and the American dream, told through two intertwined lives: Lora Meredith (Lana Turner), a white actress chasing Broadway fame, and Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore), a Black domestic worker who becomes Lora’s housekeeper and emotional anchor.
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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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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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“Compulsion.” Leopold and Loeb were lovers, and both Richard Murphy’s screenplay and Richard Fleischer’s direction lend the movie a queer subtext, evident in both dialogue and body language.
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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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John Neville is far too old to play Lord Douglas. However, Robert Morley is excellent as Wilde. Delivering a stream of bon mots with ease, he also captures the tragedy of the man, particularly during the trial.
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Because the story is airbrushed to the point of uncertainty, The Trials of Oscar Wilde pales by comparison with Oscar Wilde, the other Wilde movie to be released in 1960. Clearly, the more expensive movie, filmed in Technicolor – the cinematographer is Ted Moore – and with a large cast, The Trials of Oscar Wild boasts a better Bosie (John Fraser) and a better Queensbury (Lionel Jeffries) but a lesser Wilde (Peter Finch) and a lesser sense of the foreboding that precedes a tragedy.
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A beautiful adaptation of the William Inge play directed by Delbert Mann from a great script by Harriet Frank Jr. and Irving Ravetch..
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The Kirk Douglas/Stanley Kubrick epic has not aged well but the supporting cast, particularly Laurence Olivier and Peter Ustinov, make it worth watching.
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Anthony Perkins’ Norman Bates made him immortal while, at the same, time, ending his career in Hollywood. A masterpiece.
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Although it lacks the emotional depth and the great supporting cast of Minghella’s film, this version has a unique style thanks to director Rene Clement.
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They say that this film did more to sway public and political opinion on homosexuality in England than any parliamentary discussion.
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Although he was playing a teenager, gay actor Murray Melvin was almost thirty when he made “A Taste of Honey” with Rita Tushingham.
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Not having the courage of his convictions, what started out as bravery ended in cowardice and it’s a shame.
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Lawrence’s intense relationships with men, particularly Sherif Ali (Omar Sheriff), are emotionally charged. The characters’ gazes linger on each other in numerous scenes, creating a sense of tension and intimacy.
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Preminger always liked to be cutting edge and he was with “Advise and Consent” a beautifully written, acted and directed movie.
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Both of Hollywood’s grande dames Bette Davis and Joan Crawford are in top form with Davis getting the showier role as faded child star Baby Jane Hudson.
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In between the Rock Hudson movies “Lover Come Back” (1961) and “Send Me no Flowers” (1964), Doris Day paired up with Cary Grant.
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Many, including gay composer Benjamin Britton and his famous opera, maintain that there is an undercurrent of homoeroticism between the three leads.
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In fact, many of Theodore Isaac Rubin’s beliefs have now fallen out of favor. Despite the film’s sensitive moments, it often seems dangerously simplistic and naive.
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Stanwyck and Capucine have a few good scenes together. However, Harvey is wan, and Fonda does not have enough to do. The movie is no fun.
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Leslie Caron’s greatest performance. The Lavender Switch: In the book Johnny is queer and Mavis is straight. In the movie it’s vice versa.
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As a chic Greenwich village lesbian named Theo, whose couture is designed by Mary Quant, Claire Bloom is a knockout in Robert Wise’s 1963 movie “The Haunting”.
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