Coinciding with gay pride month in the US, Turner Classic Movies is showing a number of films on Mondays and Wednesdays under the heading of Screened Out. Purporting to trace something of the history of the presentation of homosexuality in Hollywood. The scheduled films include depictions of the classical “sissy,” films in which openly gay actors play it straight, camp depictions of butches behind bars and some films which actually have the occasional gay character. The films, broken down into some rough themes by TCM, are:
The Early Years (6/4) Algie, the Miner
The Monster
Exit Smiling
The Broadway Melody
Way Out West (1930)
The Office Wife
Stage Mother
Gays Before the Code (6/6) The Sign of the Cross
Our Betters
Double Harness
Queen Christina
Wonder Bar
The Sport Parade
Men and Women Behind Bars (6/11) Hell’s Highway
Ladies They Talk About
Caged
So Young, So Bad
The Strange One
Women’s Prison
The Dark Side: Film Noir & Crime (6/13) The Big Combo
Suddenly, Last Summer
Reflections in a Golden Eye
Gilda
The Maltese Falcon
Horror Films (6/18) The Uninvited
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Voodoo Island
The Haunting (1963)
The Seventh Victim
Comedies (6/20) Manhattan Parade
Sylvia Scarlett
Turnabout
That Touch of Mink
The Producers
Designing Woman
Code Busters (6/22) Tea and Sympathy
Advise and Consent
The Children’s Hour
Walk on the Wild Side
Victim
Out and Open (6/24) Staircase
The Fox
The Boys in the Band
The Killing of Sister George
Definitely some…interesting…selections. I think they’re playing some of these picks a little safe. As long as they’re straying from the “gays in Hollywood” concept with British imports like “Victim” and “The Killing of Sister George” I wish they’d have found a spot for Joe Orton’s “Entertaining Mr Sloane.” But I’ll be looking forward to some of these and strongly recommend of those I’ve seen all of the noir films from the 13th, “The Picture of Dorian Grey,” “Victim” and “The Boys in the Band.”
I’m surprised they’re not showing Michael. It’s a very good film and they must have the rights to it–it’s frequently on in their regular Sunday night silent block. The Monster is just awful.
Exit Smiling is a fun film (especially live with a audience) with an uncharacteristically sad ending for a silent romantic comedy. It centers around a theatrical troupe traveling from city to city with their new production, “Flaming Women”. I assume Franklin Pangborn’s character is the reason it’s being shown. His isn’t a very big part, but definitely a gay one. He plays a cowboy-type-person in “Flaming Women” that’s clearly a parody of J. Warren Kerrigan (who was a huge star in early westerns and absolutely, unequivocally, flamingly gay both on and off screen).
I’ll be glad to get a new recording of Algie the Miner. My current one’s on VHS taped off AMC back when they used to show such things. It’s one of Alice Guy’s innumerable short films (Guy is considered to be the first female director). Algie takes the sissy stock character so popular in the '20s and '30s to its logical extreme, but pay attention to Big Jim–he’s a much more down-to-earth portrayal of a gay man. Hopefully they’ll use Phil Carli’s score and not inflict it with one of their “Young Film Composer” contest winners.
Mrs. Evil Captor and I just watched the women’s prison marathon of TCM’s “Screened Out” and it left us both asking, “Where’s the beef?”
We didn’t see any hot lesbian action, but we knew better than to expect that. We didn’t see any lukewarm lesbian action, ditto. We didn’t see any lesbian anything.
Methinks the guy who wrote the book “Screened Out” needs to tweak the settings on his gaydar unit – he’s got it tuned to such a fever pitch that it’s giving readings on stuff that just isn’t there.
What I loved about the irony of these films last night (6/11), was that everytime I changed the channel to TCM to get away from Paris Hilton coverage, there were women in prison.
The guy introducing Hell’s Highway stated there was “no way” anyone could miss the love affair between one of the gay inmates (the cook?) and one of the prison officials. Well, I missed it. The pansy gay character was obvious, but I saw no hint of even an implied relationship with anyone. I think Osborne was duped on this one.
I’m pretty sure someone calls Jayne Fonda a “hip-slinging daughter of Satan” in this flick. It’s awesome! God, I bet I haven’t seen this moving in 20 years. I’ll try to remember to tune in.
I didn’t watch any of the WIP films but I’ve seen “Caged” before. IIRC the prison matron comes off as a big bulldagger, and I think there’s some implications amongst the other characters. Plus, Agnes Moorehead, so you know. Allegedly.
The cook and the bossman (the same one Johnny was working for) were supposed to be an item. Yeah, I didn’t really pick up on the relationship either, other than that the cook apparently had some level of trust that the other prisoners didn’t enjoy and they spent time together “after hours” (the cook did the guy’s laundry, fer instance). I taped “The Strange One” and am looking forward to it. I can’t imagine why for behind bars night we didn’t get “Fortune and Men’s Eyes.”
Weird. When I copied/pasted it was listed for the 22nd. But since I now notice that the 22nd is a Friday, that doesn’t make sense. The movies listed in this thread for 6/22 are actually going to air 6/27.
Please stop posting about TCM line-ups like this. My cable company, Comcast of NW Bugtussle, NJ, refuses to carry TCM. But - some of the films are available on “On Demand” - I watched “Tea and Sympathy” over the weekend.
I could use both over the fact I’ll miss this film fest :mad:
VCNJ~
The only reason I checked was because I’m going to have my dad DVD that particular flick for me, and his cable guide is notorious for fucking up the scheduling (and thus fucking up his recording obsession). Glad I thought to check!
Crap! I missed this thread earlier and managed to miss Wonder Bar. Did anyone watch it? Was there an interesting intro given? I assume they ran it uncut – that one’s a doozy. There’s some gay content; male and female prostitutes; a lusty, S&M-tinged relationship between stereotypically “hot-blooded” Latin characters; a murder covered up with a further suicide; and all that leads up to the astonishing blackface number, “Going to Heaven on a Mule.” It’s one heck of a musical comedy, that’s for sure.
I haven’t watched it yet but there was no intro. They only intro the first few films each evening, which I don’t quite get. They probably tape them for the whole month in one sitting. How long could it take to record a few more?
My cable’s off right now. Too bad; many of those are on my lifelist of rare movies to try to see. I’ve been showing The Celluloid Closet in the store, inspiring some interesting rentals.