‎The Gay Deceivers (1969) directed by Bce Ksler • Reviews, film + st • Letterboxd

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• 50 YEARS LATER, THE FILM GAY DECEIVERS IS STILL VERY GAY, VERY BAD
• THE GAY DECEIVERS 1969
• THE GAY DECEIVERS'
• THE GAY DECEIVERS'
• THE GAY DECEIVERS'
• THE GAY DECEIVERS'
• THE GAY DECEIVERS
• THE GAY DECEIVERS
• THE GAY DECEIVERS (1969) TRAILER
• ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN BETA(FUNCTN(){FOR(VAR G="FUNCTN"==TYPEOF FEPROPERTI?FEPROPERTY:FUNCTN(B,C,A){IF(||)THROW NEW TYPEERROR("ES3 DO NOT SUPPORT GETTERS AND SETTERS.");B!=ARRAY.PROTOTYPE&&B!=OBJECT.PROTOTYPE&&(B[C])},H="UNFED"!=TYPEOF WDOW&&WDOW===THIS?THIS:"UNFED"!=TYPEOF GLOBAL&&NULL!=GLOBAL?GLOBAL:THIS,K=["STRG","PROTOTYPE","REPEAT"],L=0;LB||1342177279>>=1)C+=C;RETURN A};Q!=P&&NULL!=Q&&G(H,N,{NFIGURABLE:!0,WRABLE:!0,VALUE:Q});VAR T=THIS;FUNCTN U(B,C){VAR ("."),D=T;A[0] D||!D.EXECSCRIPT||D.EXECSCRIPT("VAR "+A[0]);FOR(VAR E;(());)||VOID 0===C?D[E]?D=D[E]:D=D[E]={}:D[E]=C};FUNCTN V(B){VAR ;IF(0=C.OFFSETWIDTH&&0>=C.OFFSETHEIGHT)A=!1;ELSE{D=C.GETBOUNDGCLIENTRECT();VAR ;("PAGEYOFFSET" WDOW?WDOW.PAGEYOFFSET:(DOCUMENT.DOCUMENTELEMENT||F.PARENTNO||F).SCROLLTOP);("PAGEXOFFSET" WDOW?WDOW.PAGEXOFFSET:(DOCUMENT.DOCUMENTELEMENT||F.PARENTNO||F).SCROLLLEFT);F=A.TOSTRG()+","+D;B.B.HASOWNPROPERTY(F)?A=!1:(B.B[F]=!0,A=(A+=E)}B.I&&(E="&RD="+ENURICOMPONENT(JSON.STRGIFY(B())),131072>(A+=E),C=!0);C=A;IF(C){D=B.H;B=B.J;VAR F;IF(WDOW.XMLHTTPREQUT)F=NEW XMLHTTPREQUT;ELSE IF(WDOW.ACTIVEXOBJECT)TRY{F=NEW ACTIVEXOBJECT("MSXML2.XMLHTTP")}TCH(R){TRY{F=NEW ACTIVEXOBJECT("MICROSOFT.XMLHTTP")}TCH(D){}}F&&(("POST",D+(-1==XOF("?")?"?":"&")+"URL="+ENURICOMPONENT(B)),F.SETREQUTHEAR("CONTENT-TYPE","APPLITN/X-WWW-FORM-URLEND"),(A))}}}FUNCTN B(){VAR B={},C;C=DOCUMENT.GETELEMENTSBYTAGNAME("IMG");IF(!)RETURN{};VAR A=C[0];IF(!("NATURALWIDTH" A&&"NATURALHEIGHT" A))RETURN{};FOR(VAR D=0;A=C[D];++D){VAR E=A.GETATTRIBUTE("DATA-PAGPEED-URL-HASH");E&&(!(E B)&&0=B[E].O&&>=B[E].M)&&(B[E]={,,OW:A.NATURALWIDTH,OH:A.NATURALHEIGHT})}RETURN B}VAR C="";U("PAGPEED.CRILIMAG.GETBEANDATA",FUNCTN(){RETURN C});U("",FUNCTN(B,C,A,D,E,F){VAR R=NEW Y(B,C,A,E,F);X=R;D&&W(FUNCTN(){WDOW.SETTIMEOUT(FUNCTN(){A(R)},0)})});})();('/NGX_PAGPEED_BEAN','(1969)/WORKS','EVFAZEUQGZ',TE,FALSE,'HGBKLRBFAAE');
• THE GAY DECEIVERS (1969) - KEV COUGHL

50 YEARS LATER, THE FILM GAY DECEIVERS IS STILL VERY GAY, VERY BAD

The last year of the 1960s also broke ground when me to film, wh a movie about a d gay iendship between a htler and a grifter (Midnight Cowboy) wng the Bt Picture Osr the followg year.

THE GAY DECEIVERS 1969

When me to paradigm-shiftg films of 1969, The Gay Deceivers do not qualify.

THE GAY DECEIVERS'

Centered on two bonehead straight guys (played by Kev Coughl and Larry Casey) who pretend to be gay to avoid the draft, The Gay Deceivers was a precursor to shows like Bosom Buddi and Three's Company and movi like Mrs.

THE GAY DECEIVERS'

Doubtfire and I Now Prounounce You Chuck and the jok are broad and stupid, the puns obv (a character brgs a u basket to the tular ceivers), the women eher cluels, lechero, or ceful (but always sexy and ually half-naked), and the antigay slurs ubiquo, the movie has several fun flash of gay culture that mastream Ameri was not at all ed the ceivers rent an L.

Apartment lord over by a swishy landlord named Mallm (Michael Greer), 's adorned wh homoerotic art that is still rigur Palm Sprgs and Provcetown.

Gay men the film ll each other "she" whout a bat of the eye, drag is held up as an art form, and two men even dance together. In one scene, a gay man miserat to Casey's character of Ellt how straight people believe gays are animals and how unfair is that they are routely fired om their jobs. Of urse, that potential is wasted when Ellt punch the man for g on to the gay men are universally portrayed as sex-obssed, most e off as likable (albe silly).

THE GAY DECEIVERS'

Greer, an openly gay ic at the time, reportedly worked wh director Bce Ksler to make the movie more sympathetic to the gay characters.

THE GAY DECEIVERS'

"While this movie tragilly reflects s era's mastream attus toward queer people, what mak The Gay Deceivers worth watchg for a ntemporary LGBTQ dience is the great Michael Greer as landlord Mallm DeJohn, " says Alonso Dural, a film cric for TheWrap and -host of the podst Lolm Knife. The rt of the movie is an object lson of tablishment homophobia actn, but Greer's performance allows a ltle rebelln and realy to elbow s way .

Whout spoilg too much, the screenwrers and Ksler imply that not all gay people are swishy, snarky, and fashnable; anyone your orb uld be queer.

THE GAY DECEIVERS

Though that msage don't make up for The Gay Deceivers' many, many fics, was one very seldom exprsed The Gay Deceivers below. The Gay Deceivers' ADVERTISEMENTJuly 31, New York Tim ArchivSee the article s origal ntext om July 31, 1969, Page 0Buy ReprtsTimMache is an exclive benef for home livery and digal the ArchiveThis is a digized versn of an article om The Tim’s prt archive, before the start of onle publitn 1996. "THE GAY DECEIVERS, " which stggl wh the paratively new movie twist of feigned homosexualy as a draft dodgg gimmick, is, unfortunately, neher gay nor ceptive.

THE GAY DECEIVERS

And, the producers rate a cred for cludg a gay party thrown by Michael Greer, an amg performer, as the owner of the ttage that should please that divisn of our voters. " Call a precise summatn by a pre-law stunt for the se of "The Gay Deceivers. "THE GAY DECEIVERS, screenplay by Jerome Wish, based on the story by Abe Polsky and Gil Lasky; directed by Bce Ksler; produced by Joe Solomon; released by Fanfare Film Productns, Inc.

Joe TornatoriA versn of this article appears prt on of the Natnal edn wh the headle: The Gay Deceivers'. Two men try to avoid ary service by pretendg to be gay, but they mt act the part when the recg officer don't buy . What if we pretend to be a gay uple to eva the draft...

And we nvced everyone our liv that we were gay... It don't have any overt pro-gay msag, necsarily, but as a movie also don't nounce homosexualy as evil eher. Sure, a bunch of the characters do but the movie do we have here is a edy about two (very handsome) guys who pretend to be boyiends to dodge the draft and end up havg to move together and actually live like gays so that Uncle Sam don't fd out their dirty ltle secret (the dirty ltle secret beg that they're borg straight people) the entire urse of the movie I was tryg really hard to figure out what the pot of the….

THE GAY DECEIVERS (1969) TRAILER

Succeeds not bee of s silly storyle or eher of s two leads, but bee of the openly gay Michael Greer's hand rhapg the script and givg a performance that's illy swishy, yet not gradg. Try to work posive and polil msag to what otherwise uld've been a gross, homophobic ms. I’ll still take his ultra-homoerotic Simon, Kg of the Wch over this, though.

ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN BETA(FUNCTN(){FOR(VAR G="FUNCTN"==TYPEOF FEPROPERTI?FEPROPERTY:FUNCTN(B,C,A){IF(||)THROW NEW TYPEERROR("ES3 DO NOT SUPPORT GETTERS AND SETTERS.");B!=ARRAY.PROTOTYPE&&B!=OBJECT.PROTOTYPE&&(B[C])},H="UNFED"!=TYPEOF WDOW&&WDOW===THIS?THIS:"UNFED"!=TYPEOF GLOBAL&&NULL!=GLOBAL?GLOBAL:THIS,K=["STRG","PROTOTYPE","REPEAT"],L=0;LB||1342177279>>=1)C+=C;RETURN A};Q!=P&&NULL!=Q&&G(H,N,{NFIGURABLE:!0,WRABLE:!0,VALUE:Q});VAR T=THIS;FUNCTN U(B,C){VAR ("."),D=T;A[0] D||!D.EXECSCRIPT||D.EXECSCRIPT("VAR "+A[0]);FOR(VAR E;(());)||VOID 0===C?D[E]?D=D[E]:D=D[E]={}:D[E]=C};FUNCTN V(B){VAR ;IF(0=C.OFFSETWIDTH&&0>=C.OFFSETHEIGHT)A=!1;ELSE{D=C.GETBOUNDGCLIENTRECT();VAR ;("PAGEYOFFSET" WDOW?WDOW.PAGEYOFFSET:(DOCUMENT.DOCUMENTELEMENT||F.PARENTNO||F).SCROLLTOP);("PAGEXOFFSET" WDOW?WDOW.PAGEXOFFSET:(DOCUMENT.DOCUMENTELEMENT||F.PARENTNO||F).SCROLLLEFT);F=A.TOSTRG()+","+D;B.B.HASOWNPROPERTY(F)?A=!1:(B.B[F]=!0,A=(A+=E)}B.I&&(E="&RD="+ENURICOMPONENT(JSON.STRGIFY(B())),131072>(A+=E),C=!0);C=A;IF(C){D=B.H;B=B.J;VAR F;IF(WDOW.XMLHTTPREQUT)F=NEW XMLHTTPREQUT;ELSE IF(WDOW.ACTIVEXOBJECT)TRY{F=NEW ACTIVEXOBJECT("MSXML2.XMLHTTP")}TCH(R){TRY{F=NEW ACTIVEXOBJECT("MICROSOFT.XMLHTTP")}TCH(D){}}F&&(("POST",D+(-1==XOF("?")?"?":"&")+"URL="+ENURICOMPONENT(B)),F.SETREQUTHEAR("CONTENT-TYPE","APPLITN/X-WWW-FORM-URLEND"),(A))}}}FUNCTN B(){VAR B={},C;C=DOCUMENT.GETELEMENTSBYTAGNAME("IMG");IF(!)RETURN{};VAR A=C[0];IF(!("NATURALWIDTH" A&&"NATURALHEIGHT" A))RETURN{};FOR(VAR D=0;A=C[D];++D){VAR E=A.GETATTRIBUTE("DATA-PAGPEED-URL-HASH");E&&(!(E B)&&0=B[E].O&&>=B[E].M)&&(B[E]={,,OW:A.NATURALWIDTH,OH:A.NATURALHEIGHT})}RETURN B}VAR C="";U("PAGPEED.CRILIMAG.GETBEANDATA",FUNCTN(){RETURN C});U("",FUNCTN(B,C,A,D,E,F){VAR R=NEW Y(B,C,A,E,F);X=R;D&&W(FUNCTN(){WDOW.SETTIMEOUT(FUNCTN(){A(R)},0)})});})();('/NGX_PAGPEED_BEAN','(1969)/WORKS','EVFAZEUQGZ',TE,FALSE,'HGBKLRBFAAE');

Ok but they were actually gay, right? Be gay, do crim, avoid the draft.

THE GAY DECEIVERS (1969) - KEV COUGHL

Dad I swear I'm not gay 's jt a prank to avoid the draft! Obvly the gays were waaay over the top (everyone say thank you michael greer) but was surprisg to see that they weren’t portrayed as evil or bad this one, but warm and iendly (md you ’s the 60’s and homosexualy was still seen as a mental illns).