Today, the LGBTQIA community (previously just LGBT) is more widely accepted in cinema than ever. That hasn’t always been the case. Before the 1980’s basing a movie on such a topic was a very bold, brave move. Keeping in mind where society stood on the subject in the early days of these types of films, you’ll find these characters aren’t always moral or mentally stable and have a more life-or-death connotation in them because that’s how they were perceived in the repressed and conformed society they were created in. Even so, there is a special place in cinema history for these groundbreaking pre-AIDS era films if only to see just how far we’ve come.
**These are pre-AIDS era LGBTQIA films that are available with an HPL library card in good standing. These films do not reflect the views of this library or any one person that works within. Please note that some of these films have mature content and are intended for a mature audience only.
Rope (1948) Rating: (PG) An Alfred Hitchcock film James Stewart, Farley Granger and John Dall star in this macabre spellbinder, which was inspired by a real-life case of murder. Two thrill-seeking friends (Granger and Dall) strangle a classmate and then hold a party for their victim’s family and friends, serving refreshments on a buffet table fashioned from a trunk containing the lifeless body. When dinner conversation revolves around talk of the ‘perfect murder’, their former teacher (Stewart) becomes increasingly suspicious that his students have turned his intellectual theories into brutal reality.
Coming Out (1989) Rating: (NR) Hailed as the first–and only–feature film about gay life ever produced in communist East Germany, Coming Out is story of a young high school teacher named Philipp. As a boy, Philipp was strongly attracted to his best (male) friend, but as an adult, he puts that behind him in order to live within the “norm.” Philipp meets a shy girl who falls hard for him, and soon the couple is sharing an apartment and starting a family. But when Philipp meets a young man in a concert ticket line, he really falls in love and cannot deny his true, passionate desires any longer.
the Leather Boys (1964) Rating: (NR) Schoolgirl Dot and mechanic Reggie marry too early and quickly discover that adulthood is not nearly as much fun as expected. She’s a social gadfly and he’s a stick-in-the-mud homebody, and they bring out the worst in each other. Mere months after exchanging vows he moves out to care for his grandma, inviting his new mate Pete to bunk with him; but Pete’s interest in Reggie, as we learn, is more than just friendly.
Red River (1948) Rating: (NR) A very entertaining John Wayne picture that introduced the posthumously gay icon, Montgomery Clift. This is not a gay film but many film buffs are aware of the hilarious “gun scene” between John Ireland and Montgomery Clift. If you are not aware, please Google it now.
Purple Noon (1960) Rating: (NR) This ripe, colorful adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s vicious novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, directed by the versatile René Clément (Forbidden Games), stars Delon as Tom Ripley, a duplicitous American charmer in Rome on a mission to bring his privileged, devil-may-care acquaintance Philippe Greenleaf (Elevator to the Gallows’ Maurice Ronet) back to the United States; what initially seems a carefree tale of friendship soon morphs into a thrilling saga of seduction, identity theft, and murder.
Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) Rating: (NR) Based on a play by Tennessee Williams, the acclaimed Suddenly, Last Summer starred Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, and Montgomery Clift. Taylor plays Catherine, a young woman recently institutionalized after her cousin Sebastian died while the pair traveled abroad in Spain. Hepburn is Violet, Sebastian’s wealthy mother and Catherine’s aunt, who is determined to hide the truth behind her beloved son’s demise — even if that means giving Catherine a lobotomy courtesy of Dr. John Cukrowicz (Clift). But as the doctor probes deeper into her psyche, he discovers things aren’t what they seem.
