In typil Hchck-ian fashn, the "Master of Spense" often employed his films subtle referenc to gay culture, fyg nservative attus of the late '50s.
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GAY CODG HCHCK FILMS
The story of two affluent gay teens who set out to m the “perfect crime”—and fail miserably…. Meanwhile hate crim, cludg murrs of gay, trans and non-bary people are on the rise. One piece of evince prented by the prosecutn was a letter wrten by Leopold claimg that he and Loeb were havg a homosexual affair.
IS GAY PANIC STILL AN EXCE FOR MURR IN THE COURTROOM?
Their lawyer, Clarence Darrow, untered by claimg his clients’ homosexualy proved they were sane and they should not be put to ath for their actns. The 2002 film Murr by Numbers pulls back on the explic homosexualy but emphasiz the power dynamics—and power stggl—between the two leads.
Aled Hchck’s 1948 film Rope, which is also based on the Leopold and Loeb se, is universally nsired to be one of his “gay films” along wh Strangers on a Tra. Sce the Hays Co ma impossible to show homosexualy on film, Hchck “gay dg” stead to portray that the two ma characters are not only iends, but lovers. The screenwrer Arthur Lrents has also said Rope “is clearly about homosexuals.
While some 1940s dienc wouldn’t notice the referenc to homosexualy Rope, the gay dg is clear as day now. In his book Murr Most Queer, theatre scholar Jordan Schildcrout exam how the trope of the “villao homosexual” has evolved over the years and how the fictnalized versns of the Leopold and Loeb se f . In 1924, their homosexualy was posned as an explanatn for why Leopold and Loeb killed.