SPECIAL EDITION -- ANNUAL LGBT ROUND-UP

This year is the 50th anniversary of Stonewall, what is considered the start of the modern-day Gay Rights/LGBT pride movement. I couldn't let it pass without compiling reviews of some interesting LGBT motion pictures. Not all of these are "gay" movies, as such, but they all deal with LGBT elements in one way or another. Sadly, not all of these are especially memorable, but they do have a place in cinematic and LGBT history in spite of that.  

GAY PRIDE SPECIAL: GAY-THEMED MOTION PICTURES

Dirk Bogarde in Victim

SEVERAL GAY-THEMED MOVIES FOR GAY PRIDE WEEK.

New York City celebrates Gay/LGBT pride this coming weekend, and in honor of that, Great Old Movies looks at several gay-themed movies and documentaries from different time periods and countries. First we have Victim, the classic 1961 drama about a British lawyer victimized by a blackmail ring (back when it was a crime just to be gay); the more recent film, Jonathan, a German drama in which a young man deals with the fact that his dying father once had a loving relationship with another man; the Israeli short Summer Vacation, in which a closeted man with a wife and children is confronted with his gay past at the beach; the 1974 Butley, with Alan Bates as a teacher who learns that both his estranged wife and boyfriend are moving on to other men; and the documentaries A Bit of Scarlet (gay depictions in British film), Uncle Bob (about the gay activist who streaked the Oscars), and Do I Sound Gay?, which kind of deals with gay stereotyping.

For more gay-themed films just type "gay" or "LGBT" into the search bar on the upper left hand corner of the blog. Thanks for reading!

ANNUAL LGBT ROUND UP

Something rotten's in this "Lake"

ANNUAL LGBT ROUND-UP.

Well, in honor of Gay Pride, here is Great Old Movies' annual round-up of LGBT films. There's not as many this year, because I spent too much time on my B Movie Series and Round Up of Movie Bad Guys  -- even I  have only so much time to watch movies -- but I may have a fresh crop of gay flicks later in the year.

Anyway, we've got The Christine Jorgensen Story from 1970, and more recent flicks such as Robin Williams in Boulevard; the kind of sleazy crime drama King Cobra; the disappointing and rather regressive Stranger By the Lake from France; and the excellent Jeffrey Schwarz-directed documentary, Vito, about gay writer and activist Vito Russo.

ANNUAL GAY/LGBT FILM ROUND UP

Gerald Grant and Calvin Culver in Score

As this is Gay Pride Month in New York and elsewhere, it's time for my annual round-up of gay-themed films. Gay-oriented movies have proliferated incredibly in recent years, although many of them seem to be sit-com style independent comedies. However, there are literally dozens if not hundreds of films to choose from,  everything from camp-fests with cavorting drag queens to serious romantic stories to sobering or uplifting documentaries. This week I look at the groundbreaking seventies film A Very Natural Thing, the spicy, ambisexual romp Score, documentaries on gay life both before and after Stonewall, a recent theatrical film about that very event -- which was both controversial and little-seen -- and others.

A word about Score. It is not my policy to review "adult" films here, not because of any squeamishness or priggishness on my part, but because of a general lack of interest. However, Score, in spite of its hardcore sequences, is an example of the kind of erotic movie that began to proliferate in this period, ones in which there were more complex plots, longer running times, more interesting characters, and naked people who could actually act even when their clothing was on. Eventually these movies became out-dated as the increasingly graphic sexual nature of both films and TV shows pretty much made a lot of porn obsolete. I imagine that "adult" films today are back to focusing on the sex act and little else.

GREAT OLD MOVIES EXTRA -- MORE GAY-THEMED MOVIES

Chad Allen and Robert Gant of Save Me

In honor of New York's Gay Pride March this Sunday June 29th, 2014, we present our second annual round-up of gay-themed movies (or at least films with gay characters). This year we focus on a drama about the ex-gay industry, Save Me; a political thriller with a gay lead character, The Walker; a Lifetime telefilm about a young woman's coming out, The Truth about Jane; the cable biopic about the flamboyantly stereotypical Liberace, Behind the Candelabra; the first major Hollywood movie on gay relationships, Making Love; the first telefilm to deal with homosexuality, That Certain Summer; and the controversial The Dying Gaul, which has been called a "gay revenge fantasy" -- among other things.

More reviews on their way! [including The Jones Family Go to Provincetown].