<< Film
26 • Bay Area Reporter • June 8-14, 2017
Before & after Pride at the Castro Theatre
Left: Bette Midler in the 1986 comedy “Ruthless People.” Right: Marilyn Monroe plays paddleball in “The Misfits.”
by David Lamble
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hile the Frameline LGBTQ Film Festival takes 11 days of the Castro Theatre’s June schedule, there’s a lot to be said for the other week of films sandwiched before and after Pride. “La La Land Sing Along” (2016) Despite losing the Best Picture Oscar, this vivid reinvention of the Hollywood musical is second to none in pure old-fashioned entertainment. For once no one will tell you to hush up if you want to try your vocal pipes up against the film’s earnest leads. Total running time: 150 mins. ($13 adults, $10 youth) (6/9) “Moana Sing Along” (2016) This Disney animation is a pure joy to watch, and even better when you can sing along to the lyrics and music of Ron Clements and John
Musker. (6/9-11) “Spaceballs” (1987) Leave it to comic genius Mel Brooks to find a way to spoof the “Star Wars” craze. Mel is joined by Bill Pullman, Rick Moranis (“Little Shop of Horrors”), Daphne Zuniga, and the scene-stealing John Candy (“Planes, Trains and Automobiles”). “Ruthless People” (1986) This lowbrow zinger has Danny DeVito plotting to off his nagging frau (Bette Midler). The directing team of Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker corrals a zany supporting cast: Judge Reinhold, Helen Slater and the debut of Bill Pullman. (both 6/10) “The Misfits” (1961) This classic was almost overshadowed in its own day by the off-screen fate of its stars: it was the final film for both Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. Penned by Monroe’s playwright hubby Arthur Miller, “The Misfits” unfolds in
what was then the Nevada divorce capitol, Reno, and the surrounding desert, home to a vanishing herd of wild horses. Gable is the wild horse-breaker, Monroe a divorcee going through the mandatory six-week residency required to get a divorce decree in the days before no-fault. The two have amazing chemistry. Also featuring the supporting talents of Montgomery Clift and Thelma Ritter. “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (1966) This three-hour special edition represents the beginning of that odd subgenre, the Spaghetti Western. Former TV Western star Clint Eastwood steps into his iconic role as the mysterious stranger dispensing a crude form of justice, while Eli Wallach and Lee Van Cleef stand in his way. (both 6/11) “Kong: Skull Island” (2017) The director of the 2013 off-beat teen comedy “The Kings of Summer” Jordan Vogt-Roberts returns with an equally oddball Vietnam-era drama. A group of explorers ventures into a previously uncharted Pacific isle that happens to be the ancestral home of a very large ape. With a veteran supporting cast: Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman and John C. Reilly. “The Lost City of Z” (2016) A very butch Charlie Hunnam (the original British “Queer as Folk” kid) heads off into the Amazon jungle in search of a buried civilization. James Gray’s production also features Robert Pattinson and Sienna Miller. (both 6/13)
“Contempt” (1963) French New Waver Jean-Luc Godard had a great run before he lost the touch. This film about filmmaking finds the master in his element. A screenwriter (Michel Piccoli) has to juggle his loyalties between the pride and artistic demands of a European refugee director (Fritz Lang) and a big-shot American producer (Jack Palance). There’s fun to be had in this 60s classic’s in-joke humor. “The Big Knife” (1955) Robert Aldrich (“What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?”) gives us what we want to believe about the ruthless “Tinseltown jungle” at the end of the studio system. Based on a Clifford Odets play, the story focuses on the unraveling career of a fading star (Jack Palance) under the not-sotender mercies of studio chief Rod Steiger. (both 6/14) (Frameline 41, 6/15-25. See coverage beginning next issue.) “Logan Noir” (2017) Aussie star Hugh Jackman wraps his ongoing Wolverine character in this special B&W edition based on still another Marvel Comics franchise. Directed by James Margold and co-starring Sir Patrick Stewart, the film shows that the Western isn’t quite dead yet. “Mad Max: Fury Road – Black & Chrome Edition” (2015) The third installment in George Miller’s Down Under series has Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron duking it out across a very inhospitable landscape. (both 6/27) “East of Eden” (1955) This adaptation of John Steinbeck has James Dean fighting both his brother and dad over issues that still plague troubled families everywhere. This one sizzles due to director Elia Kazan’s ability to capture Steinbeck
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country around Salinas, and flesh the tale out with a first-class ensemble: Raymond Nassey, Julie Harris and Burl Ives. “The Outsiders” (1983) Francis Coppola found new reasons post-”Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now” for practicing his craft in this sublime treatment of S.E. Hinton’s seminal teen novel, 50 years old this year. Coppola discovered some amazing new faces: C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze, Diane Lane, Rob Lowe and Emilio Estevez. (both 6/28) “Strangers on a Train” (1951) Alfred Hitchcock pulled off two gems with homo underpinnings. This casual encounter on an East Coast passenger train finds a tennis star (gay actor Farley Granger) encountering a really annoying fan (Robert Walker). The pair bond over their respective desires to rid themselves of burdensome mates. Walker, who had a fine career before “Strangers,” is mostly remembered today for his crafty, needy psycho, who is so twisted that he very nearly drags another man down with him. Hitch makes great use of daughter Pat in a scene where Walker’s killer mimes strangling an older woman while staring directly at Pat Hitchcock’s character, who resembles the nowdead wife. “Rope” (1948) Hitch also uses Granger to good advantage in this chilling drama about college roommates who commit a murder for thrills, then hide the body in plain sight at a well-populated house party. James Stewart is the professor who realizes to his dismay that his theorizing has produced a body count. (both 6/29)t
Classic movie channel honors gays by David-Elijah Nahmod
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urner Classic Movies (TCM) celebrates Pride through June by recalling the lives and works of actors and filmmakers who dared to be openly gay during Hollywood’s Golden Age. Each Thursday in June, TCM presents “Gay Hollywood.” Host Dave Karger interviews gay film historian William Mann about the lives of LGBT people who managed to live authentic lives while making their mark in the cinema capital. The series will show films these trailblazers left behind. “Gay Hollywood” began on June 1 as Mann recalled the life of William Haines, 1930’s top boxoffice star. Also honored that night was openly gay filmmaker James
Whale, today best remembered for his horror films, including “Bride of Frankenstein” (1935) and “The Old Dark House” (1932), both filled with hard-to-miss gay subtext. Mann told the B.A.R. that TCM approached him about being part of the network’s Pride celebration. “I was thrilled to do so,” Mann said. “I’ve long been a huge fan of TCM, and the late [TCM host] Robert Osborne was very kind to me early in my career. So I was honored to be asked to join the TCM family. This is a great group of people who are committed to celebrating LGBT contributions to classic film.” Mann spoke about why so many LGBT people identify with the images they see in classic films. During the 1960s and 70s, it was not
unusual to hear gay men say, “[Bette, Joan, Judy or Marilyn] is the woman I want to be.” “I think gay men, lesbians and trans people, too, are drawn to the defiance of gender we see in many classic films,” Mann explained. “So much of classic Hollywood was done in code, since the Hays Code [the era’s censorship board] was in force from 1934 to the early 60s. Gay people are good at reading through the code, so we can see all the sexual innuendo, and the flouting of convention, even if, superficially, everyone’s playing by the rules.” Courtesy the subject There was an additional appeal to the era’s legendary ladies Left: Gay film historian William Mann. of the screen. Mann referred Right: 1930’s top box-office star William Haines was gay. to the “soul connection to gay men and these actresses. Davis, directing them, writing them, deand the two remained together until Crawford, Hepburn, Dietrich, signing them, costuming them, Haines’ 1973 death from cancer. The Garland, West hold all the power, producing them, publicizing them.” couple ran a successful interior deeven when the story purports that Mann urges viewers to keep their sign business and were also antique they don’t. Women holding power DVRs running after he and Karger dealers. William Haines Designs inspires anyone who is disempowgo off the air. “Karger and I talk remains in business today. ered, because it shows it can be done. about the first three films each night, Mann feels it’s important to reThese films are filled with magic, but the films continue until daymember Hollywood’s gay history, too, a sense of a world that’s shinier, break,” he said. “There are so many especially in the current political glossier, more color-coordinated, films we don’t get to talk about, from climate of the anti-gay Trump admore fair, more exciting than our [1930s lesbian director] Dorothy Arministration. own. That appeals to everyone, but zner, [gay director] Mitchell Leisen, “When we talk about gay Holin particular to gay people, whose [gay actor] George Nader, and many lywood, it’s important to show that worlds often weren’t those things.” others. But we do get to talk about LGBT contributions to American The first film shown as part Billy Haines and George Cukor, film go right back to the very beginof “Gay Hollywood” was “Just a James Whale, Montgomery Clift, ning,” he said. “To the silent days, Gigolo,” a 1931 romantic comedy Linda Hunt and others. It’s quite the to the first one-reelers shown in starring William Haines. As Karger eclectic group of movies, but that’s nickelodeons. People didn’t identify posed questions about Haines’ life what makes a series like this so fun. as LGBT then, there was no such and career, Mann spoke of the acIt also shows how wide-ranging the thing as being out or in the closet. tor’s refusal to live in the closet. This LGBT experience in classic film was, But gay, lesbian, bi and trans people was tolerated during the pre-Code from dramas to comedies, action were there, living their lives, formera, but once the censorship board ing relationships, sometimes being pictures to romances, mysteries to took control of the film industry, punished for those relationships, musicals.”t Haines was forced to choose besometimes not. Along the way they tween his career and his lover Jimwere making films: acting in them, mie Shields. Haines chose Shields, TCM’s June schedule is at tcm.com.