Five Gay Films From An Era When Queer Themes Were Invisible In Hollywood

Before the 1970’s, queer characters and themes were all but invisible in Hollywood films. Sometimes coded references clued people in; sometimes gay viewers would interpret a film differently than was intended to find points of identification (“reading across the grain,” as theorists would say). Facets Cinémathèque‘s screening of Basil Dearden’s 1961 British film Victim (with an accompanying lecture by Northwestern film professor Nick Davis) provides an opportunity to highlight five pre-Stonewall Hollywood films (one per decade, 1920s-’60s) that have become iconic (if not always queer-positive) works in gay cinema history.

Tea and Sympathy Dated and bowdlerized but nonetheless sincere, Vincente Minnelli’s 1956 ‘Scope version of a Robert Anderson play—adapted by the author, with Hays Office censorship—is about a persecuted, effeminate schoolboy taken under the wing of an older woman, with John Kerr and Deborah Kerr (no relation) re-creating their stage roles. The result may be less memorable or celebrated than Minnelli’s other ‘Scope melodramas (e.g., The Cobweb, Home From the Hill, Some Came Running), but it’s still probably better than most contemporary movies. With Leif Erickson, Edward Andrews, and Darryl Hickman. 122 min. —Jonathan Rosenbaum