Pete ‘n’ Tillie (1972) Queer Film B-
And then there Tillie’s other best friend Jimmy, the film’s token gay guy, played by René Auberjonois, who had one of the most memorable names in cinema.
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Category: Film Reviews
Play It As It Lays (1972) Queer Film C+
Unfortunately, despite a good performance by Weld, the film only comes alive when she is driving endlessly around LA’s spectacular freeways.
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That Certain Summer (1972) Queer Movie A-
That Certain Summer was the first network TV movie to depict a gay man as a loving parent rather than a deviant or tragic figure. Its restraint is its power, thanks to the expert direction of Lamont Johnson, who had a way with queer topics, and the acting of the three leads. With Hope Land as Nick’s mom.
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Sleeper (1973) Queer Film A-
Turns out Reagan is voiced by Douglas Rain (also uncredited), the Canadian voice artist who did the sibilant lisping for another cantankerous AI phenomenon: the HAL 9000 computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey. It’s pre-Annie Hall Woody Allen at his best.
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Scarecrow (1973) Queer Film (F)
The sexual assault is shocking. No movie has done more to conflate gay identity with pathology and violence than “Scarecrow”.
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Save the Tiger (1973) Queer Film C-
The writer Steve Shagen, an educated Jew, is in the Stone Age when it comes to a human being who has a different sexual preference than himself.
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A Touch of Class (1973) Queer Film C-
Jackson’s character works in the garment industry, so we are on fairy alert. And, wouldn’t you know it, one of them does descend on her office just as Segal is visiting.
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Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams (1973) Queer Film B-
The character Rita Walden, beautifully portrayed by Joanne Woodward, in what might be her finest performance, faces a midlife crisis.
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The Day of the Jackal (1973) Queer Film (A)
Another example of a gay character whose sole purpose in the movie is to be killed. Still, Zinnemmann and Rodgers treat his character with a modicum of respect.
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The Last of Sheila (1973) Queer Film (B)
The actors are in good form, with Raquel Welsh being particularly impressive in her one genuinely good film. Dyan Cannon is a thinly disguised Sue Mengers.
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Freebie and the Bean (1974) Queer Film (F)
Our heroes, James Caan and Alan Arkin, first encounter Morley in a bathtub. He’s preening and lisping, and you can see that he disgusts them.
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Female Trouble (1974) Queer Film C+ Solo The Sky’s the Limit at a Midnight Screening!
Waters’ favorite of all of his movies, with the incomparable Divine embracing ugliness, violence and spectacle in a bravura performance.
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A Very Natural Thing (1974) Queer Film D
There is massive footage of NYC pride parades that lend nothing to the proceedings. Today, it comes across as a failed curiosity that gets a D for effort.
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Butley (1974) Queer Film B-
Adapted by Simon Gray from his stage play and directed by Harold Pinter, the movie is a testament to Alan Bates, who, having originated the role on stage, delivers a tour-de-force performance, simultaneously witty, pathetic, and tragic.
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The Great Gatsby (1974) Queer Film B+
Directed by Jack Clayton, from an adaptation by Francis Ford Coppola, this was the third film version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age masterpiece.
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Going Places (Les Valseuses) (1974) Queer Film (A)
The second scene is where the boys are horsing around and, wouldn’t you know it, they almost start pounding one another. Very sexy.
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Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) Queer Film B+
Michael Cimino’s directorial debut – he also wrote the screenplay – was an enormous critical and commercial success and paved the way for his Oscar-winning triumph The Deer Hunter four years later. Blending humor, melancholy, and violence with a nod to the American road movie, the film boasts great buddy-film chemistry between Eastwood and Bridges.
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The Eiger Sanction (1975) Cinema’s First Queer Canine (F)
When we first meet FAGGOT, he is pleasuring himself on Eastwood’s shoe. Who was the dog who played him? Was it nature or nurture?
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Chinatown (1974) Polanski’s Noir Masterpiece A+
Polanski captured the FEEL of LA better than anyone before or sense. Jack Nicholson gives his greatest performance as private dick J. J. ” Jake” Gittes.
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Once is Not Enough (1975) Queer Film D+
An impressive performance by Brenda Vaccaro as a high-powered magazine editor – she received an Oscar nomination. Ironically, because the movie has a tiny modicum of taste, it has never developed the Midnight cult following that made the infinitely more dreadful Valley of the Dolls immortal.
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The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) Queer Film (B) High Camp at a Midnight Screening.
It is, of course, a GROUP EXPERIENCE with those inspired zingers going back to the screen, composed by a generation of audience members over the years.
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Barry Lyndon (1975) Queer Film (A)
In “Barry Lyndon” there is a moment where Ryan O’Neal finds two soldiers naked and holding hands in a pond as they confess their love for one another.
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In Celebration (1975) Queer Film C+
“In Celebration” is another filmed stage play that makes no attempts to hide its origin. However, the performers are so engaging that you stay with them. All of the actors have their moments, with Alan Bates making the most significant impression.
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Farewell My Lovely (1975) Queer Film A-
One of those rare instances where the remake is marginally better than the original, Farewell My Lovely not only keeps the original title of Raymond Chandler’s novel but is also more faithful to the book’s spirit.
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Dog Day Afternoon (1975) Queer Film. Lumet’s Masterpiece. A+
Pacino is magnificent. With Michael Corleone in The Godfather movies, “Dog Day Afternoon” is his defining role.
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Fox and His Friends (1975) Queer Film B+
A fascinating look at gay life in the seventies, it’s one of a dozen great movies Fassbinder wrote and directed in the decade before his untimely death.
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Grey Gardens (1975) Queer TV. Documentary Feature A+
After its release, the film’s high campness – a tragic story set in the faded milieu of New York high society – developed a significant gay following.
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The Naked Civil Servant (1975) Queer Film (A)
His life becomes a kind of performance art and Hurt is phenomenal. One of the great queer performances as one of the great Queers.
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Jeanne Dielman (1975) Queer Film A+
In “Jeanne Dielman”, a feminist masterpiece, the everyday details of a caring mother contrast with her life as a prostitute.
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Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) Queer Film A+
Weir, who showed, like Hitchcock, that horror can be visited upon us on the brightest and most beautiful of summer days.
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