It is interesting to take a look at the ways in which the LGBTQIA+ lifestyles have been depicted on celluloid. Until the later years of the twentieth century, homosexual and lesbian characters often were portrayed as odd and exaggerated. The restrictions of the Hollywood Production Code made any serious study of what was referred to as “sexual perversion” prohibited in mainstream Hollywood productions.
Gay men were stereotyped as prissy, sissified. Take for example the appearances of Franklin Pangborn in a host of 1930s films. Lesbians were stereotyped as toughs or, as in the 1961 film The Children’s Hour, put-upon and driven to suicide.
In the silent era, particularly in European movies, there are interesting stories involving gays. As I mentioned last month, Pandora’s Box from 1929 offers the first serious portrayal of a lesbian. You might read that the American-made feature Manslaughter from C.B. DeMille in 1922 has the first lesbian kiss. I recently took another look at this film and was not really convinced of the importance of that moment. It occurs in an orgy sequence in ancient Rome. It’s hardly noticeable. Women are lying about together, and two kiss. It feels like one of those moments when females are shown sexually connecting to arouse the males who are watching. Ironically, two more dramatic moments show women kissing, but those are caring-friend kisses, not sexual.
Two German features from the Weimar Republic era stand out as important early films about same-sex love. Michael from 1924, directed by Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer, stars another Danish director, Benjamin Christensen, and Walter Slezak. The story revolves around an elderly male painter, his longtime male partner, and his much younger male partner. This character sometimes is seen like a son but the paintings of this young man posing almost nude belie the truth. The story deals with sexual relationships, including bisexuality, and deceit.
In 1919, Conrad Veidt, who starred in the Expressionist classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari the same year, played the title role in Different from the Others. This film shows a very perceptive view of homosexuality. A well-known musician is seen walking arm-in-arm with a young man. The ogler threatens to “out” him unless he pays him blackmail money. The situation eventually lands them in court and the musician is punished with a prison sentence for his sexual inclination. He is shamed. His life is ruined. Appearing in Different from the Others is a real-life sexologist, a psychologist named Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld. He explains that homosexuality is not something to be punishable by law. Instead, it is a third sex.
Plot similarities occur in the 1961 British film, Victim, with Dirk Bogarde as a successful barrister and closeted gay man who is being blackmailed. It was the first British film to discuss this topic and show gay lifestyle.
Until the 1960s, many gay-themed movies were met with controversy by critics who found them distasteful and outside the experience of the mainstream audience.
Many gay characters seen over more recent decades in movies and TV show how sexual and gender inclinations, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, cross dresser, whatever… are not to be judged. Ed Wood’s Glen or Glenda from 1953, about a cross dresser, used to be laughed at, but no more. Victor Victoria, Blake Edwards’ comedy with music from 1982, may have helped to loosen viewpoints. The setting is Paris 1934. Julie Andrews plays a woman posing as a man who impersonates a woman. Robert Preston is Toddy, her clever and wonderful gay friend. Victor Victoria is based on a successful 1933 German musical comedy film Viktor und Viktoria.
All these films are available on disc and most can be streamed.
Audrey Kupferberg is a film and video archivist and retired appraiser. She is lecturer emeritus and the former director of Film Studies at the University at Albany and co-authored several entertainment biographies with her late husband and creative partner, Rob Edelman.
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.
