CELLULOID CLOSET, THE {TAPE 1 OF 2} (TV)
Summary
Tape one of two. Narrated by Lily Tomlin, this documentary chronicles the overt and hidden history of gay and lesbian characters in the cinema. The program begins with a montage of clips, as Tomlin describes portrayals of gays as buffoons, victims, and villains. Writers Susie Bright and Armistead Maupin, screenwriter Jan Oxenberg, actress Whoopi Goldberg, and writer/actor Harvey Fierstein then comment on the absence of gay characters in films. Highlights include the following comments and film clips: a 1895 Edison film of two men dancing cheek-to-cheek; writer Quentin Crisp commenting on how America embodies the movies; gay roles in the silent films "A Florida Enchantment" (1914), "Algie the Miner" (1912), and "The Soilers" (1923); film historian Richard Dyer on how movies influence public ideas about gays; "sissy" stereotypes in "Wanderer of the West" (1927), "Behind the Screen" (1916), "Our Betters" (1936), and "The Gay Divorcee" (1934); screenwriter Jay Presson Allen and Goldberg on how gays were never overtly discussed; clips from "The Broadway Melody" (1929) and "Myrt and Marge" (1934); screenwriter Arthur Laurent's dislike and Fierstein's support for the "sissy"; Hollywood's first gay bar in "Call Her Savage" (1932); Quentin Crisp on the "sin" of a man dressed as a woman; Bright on her love for a gender-bending Marlene Dietrich in "Morocco" (1930) and Garbo in "Queen Christina" (1932); an archival clip of Mrs. Gustav Ketterer announcing theater closings; censored footage from "Tarzan and His Mate" (1934); Allen and screenwriter Gore Vidal wryly describing the Hays code's inception; clips of Postmaster General Will Hays and code director Joe Breen on self-censorship; a list of forbidden behaviors; Bright on sensuous lesbian subtexts in "Dracula's Daughter" (1936) and "Rebecca" (1940); Dyer on Peter Lorre being coded as gay in "The Maltese Falcon" (1941); actor Farley Granger on the tacit understanding that the leads in "Rope" (1948) were gay; Bright and Allen on mores for women in "Caged" and "Young Man With a Horn" (1950); Dyer on masculinity in "Tea and Sympathy" (1956); screenwriter Stewart Stern on tenderness among men in his film "Rebel Without a Cause" (1955); Vidal on the subtext he created for "Ben Hur" (1959), unbeknownst to Charlton Heston; clips of "Calamity Jane" (1953) and "Johnny Guitar" (1954); Bright and Laurent on gays' hunger for role models; homoerotic gunplay in "Red River" (1948); Dyer on gays' indirect self-expression on-screen and in real life; Paul Rudnick on homoerotic bodybuilders in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (1953); Maupin on the irony of Rock Hudson playing a straight man pretending to be gay in "Pillow Talk" (1959); Tony Curtis on his role in "Some Like It Hot" (1959); censored footage from "Spartacus" (1960); Vidal on the censorship of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1958) and "Suddenly Last Summer" (1959); the fact Dirk Bogarde, a major British star, played a gay leading role in "Victim" (1960); Shirley MacLaine on mistakes in making "The Children's Hour" (1962); Bright on gays' low self-esteem; Maupin on his first glimpse of a gay bar in "Advise and Consent" (1962); Oxenberg, Laurent, and screenwriter Barry Sandler on suicidal gays in films; sordid depictions of gays in "The Detective" and "The Fox" (1968); and a montage of clips showing the deaths of gays by an array of means. Continues with T:50999.
Details
- NETWORK: HBO
- DATE: January 30, 1996 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:03:07
- COLOR/B&W: Color/B&W
- CATALOG ID: T:50857
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Films - Censorship; Films - Production and direction; Films, silent; Gays; She Made It Collection (Sheila Nevins); She Made It Collection (Lily Tomlin); LGBT Collection
- SERIES RUN: HBO - TV, 1996
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Bernie Brillstein … Executive Producer
- Brad Grey … Executive Producer
- Howard Rosenman … Executive Producer
- Sheila Nevins … Executive Producer
- Caroline Spry … Executive Producer
- Anne Even … Executive Producer
- Lily Tomlin … Co-Executive Producer
- Rob Epstein … Producer, Director
- Jeffrey Friedman … Producer, Director
- Michael Lumpkin … Co-Producer
- Wendy Braitman … Associate Producer
- Michael Ehrenzweig … Associate Producer
- Caryn Mendez … Associate Producer
- Vito Russo … Based on the book by
- Rob Epstein … Writer
- Jeffrey Friedman … Writer
- Sharon Wood … Writer
- Carter Burwell … Music by
- Lily Tomlin … Narrator
- Jay Presson Allen
- Dick Bogarde
- Joe Breen
- Susie Bright
- Quentin Crisp
- Tony Curtis
- Doris Day
- Marlene Dietrich
- Richard Dyer
- Harvey Fierstein
- Whoopi Goldberg
- Farley Granger
- Will Hays
- Charlton Heston
- Rock Hudson
- Arthur Laurent
- Peter Lorre
- Shirley MacLaine
- Armistead Maupin
- Jan Oxenberg
- Paul Rudnick
- Barry Sandler
- Stewart Stern
- Gore Vidal