FEATURES THE FIRST AFFECTIONATE ONSCREEN KISS BETWEEN TWO MEN IN A TALKING MOTION PICTURE
DIRECTOR: John Schlesinger
In “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” Murray Head plays a free-spirited bisexual who is having simultaneous relationships with a divorced recruitment consultant (Glenda Jackson) and a gay Jewish doctor (Peter Finch). Although you always feel that Glenda’s character will “win out,” Peter Finch gives a beautiful, thoroughly convincing performance. He is also one of the first gay characters on film to be comfortable in his skin. Compared to Joe Buck and Ratso Rizzo in Schlesinger’s previous film “Midnight Cowboy,” Finch’s doctor is positively walking on sunshine. He also gets an excellent monologue at the film’s end – “I am happy, apart from missing him” – which is spoken directly to the camera. It’s an acting tour de force that has never been bettered. Look out for Daniel Day-Lewis in a small role.
Original, Oscar-nominated screenplay by Penelope Gilliatt.
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https://thebrownees.net/sixty-five-queer-films-made-under-the-hays-code-1934-1967
https://thebrownees.net/sixty-five-queer-films-made-under-the-hays-code-1934-1967-table-summary
https://thebrownees.net/fifty-two-post-hays-code-queer-films-released-in-the-decade-1967-1976
