Masumura, Yasuzo

1964

Last year, jaws were dropping in Minneapolis, New York, and Los Angeles during rare screenings of this Cinemascope camp masterpiece from Japan. Based on a late-1920s novel by Jun’ichiro Tanizaki, it's jam-packed with blackmail, lesbianism, blood oaths, faked miscarriages, impotence, wanton desire, and suicide pacts. MANJI is as shocking today as when it was first shown in Japan in the mid-1960s. The film opens as Sonoko (Kyoko Kishida, WOMAN IN THE DUNES) confesses the details of the four-sided love affair, which has caused scandal throughout Japan. Having grown bored with her pampered life as the wife of an impotent lawyer, Sonoko enrolls in art school to pass the time. There she scandalizes the school with her lusty paintings of fellow art student Mitsuko. An affair erupts between Sonoko and Mitsuko, fueling jealousy among their male lovers. While Mitsuko has impeccable taste in women, her choice in men leaves much to be desired. Mitsuko's fiancée Watanuki responds to the affair in a psychotic manner, while Sonoko's husband grows attracted to Mitsuko as well. All of this attention brings out the worst in Mitsuko who tests the dedication of all her admirers. A surprisingly explicit erotic potboiler!

Furie, J

1964

An implied homoerotic tension between Pete (Dudley Sutton) and Reggie (Colin Campbell) is the primary theme of this British drama. Gradually this tension becomes identified as the probable reason for Reggie's lack of sexual interest in his new wife, Dot (Rita Tushingham). Director Furie presents a very subdued treatment of the issue until the last half hour of the film when Dot accuses Pete and Reggie of being “queer.” Denying her charge, they agree that they are just good friends. After a few melodramatic twists, Pete and Reggie decide to sail off to America together and are about to get on a ship when, stopping in a waterfront bar, Reggie realizes that Pete really is gay. Reggie abandons Pete and walks off alone. In contrast to the drugs, girls, and rock ‘n’ roll ambience that American biker pics are associated with, The Leather Boys is rather staid in its drama. The 'sensational' biker backdrop is distinctly British, and really the film is a serious drama focusing on the lives of its young working-class protagonists (who happen to be very interested in motorcycles).

Harrison, Ray

1963

A real blast of the Italian gigolo syndrome, a young hustler and the aging heiress, there’s more to this than three coins in the fountain! The second production from the Los Angeles–based Gay Girls Riding Club. Like their other films, The Roman Springs on Mrs. Stone was shot on Sundays, and was shown at the Los Angeles gay bar, The Brownstone.

Strick, Joseph

1963

In a nameless revolution-torn country, war goes on, but for brothel boss Shelley Winters it's business as usual. Variety dubbed Winter’s character "a lesbian letch" for her on-screen dry kissing with bookkeeper Lee Grant; Peter Falk and Leonard Nimoy bring a surprising degree of muscularity to their roles as the bordello's fantasy-fueled customers. Hardly Genet's ferocious, cynical sexual-political stageplay, but Hollywood at its weirdest and most intriguing.

Lumet, Sidney

1962

Dearden, Basil

1961

When Victim was made in 1961, 90 percent of all blackmail cases in the English courts were homosexual in origin. In this film Dirk Bogarde plays an upper-middle-class barrister who instead of giving in to the blackmailer’s demands, cooperates with the police to track them down, risking his marriage and his career. Victim marked a major turning point for the subject of homosexuality on the screen and changed the career of Dirk Bogarde forever. Bogarde had, until that time, played a matinee idol type in dozens of lightweight films. With Victim he took a chance that audiences would accept him in the role of a courageous homosexual and won out over conventional wisdom. Victim provided a major challenge to the censorship code in the United States, which stated that the word “homosexual” could not be uttered onscreen. In defiance of the code, Victim became the first film to do so in the context of pleading tolerance for the victims of blackmail by a gang of vicious homophobes. In the guise of a conventional thriller, Victim scored points for the legalization of homosexuality in England and preceded the repeal of that country’s sodomy statutes by only six months. Although tame by today’s standards, it was considered truly shocking in 1961. According to Dirk Bogarde, “While we were filming, we were treated as though we were attacking the Bible and the film’s lawyers said they wanted to wash their hands after reading the script . . . yet it was the first film in which a man said “I love you” to another man. I wrote that scene in. I said to them, `either we make a film about queers or we don’t.’”

Richardson, Tony

1961

Rita Tushingham won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival for her sensitive portrayal of Jo, a young girl forced to make a life of her own. Deserted by an irresponsible mother and pregnant by a black sailor, Jo sets up housekeeping with a young homosexual (Murray Melvin) she picks up at a carnival. In its intial American release, the film was supplemented by a study guide, reprinted in Life magazine, on the “causes and cures” of homosexuality.

Goldstone, Duke

1955

Goldstone, Duke

1955

Butler, David

1953

Doris Day stars as every tomboy's hero! She's the fast-shootin', tough-talkin', cross-dressin' (real-life lesbian cowboy) Calamity Jane! Saddle up and come on down for lots of rootin'-tootin' fun for the whole lesbian and gay American family.  Of course, we know enough about the real Calamity to ignore the film's heterosexualized narrative and read it the other way around—which is easy enough when Calamity brings sexy Katie Brown to Deadwood and they move in together and paint "Calam & Katie" in a big heart on their front door! Calamity Jane also happens to be a great old-fashioned musical with a bunch of spunky song and dance numbers—including “Whip Crack Away,” “My Secret Love” and Dick Wesson's fantastic drag performance of "I've Got a Hive Full of Honey"—all in a brilliant, newly refurbished 35mm Technicolor print. Unfortunately, the film is less than enlightened on the subject of Native Americans, reflecting Hollywood's stereotypes of the time. Doris Day unwittingly notes the injustice of the conquest of the Native American land as she admires the landscape, saying "No wonder the injuns fight so fierce to hang onto this country."