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.
Contents:
WHEN HCHCK WENT GAY: ‘STRANGERS ON A TRA’ AND ‘ROPE’
Aled Hchck: Reprsed Homosexual?
Aled Hchck Bgrapher Donald Spoto has (along wh others) put forward a theory that Ken Mogg lls the "Hchck-as-reprsed-homosexual le. " The ia is that, g a handful of anecdot om Hch’s 80-year life, one uld nclu that he was a reprsed homosexual. Here's a portn of Ken's first-rate overview of Hch’s life a Sens of Cema article:"To gay actor/screenwrer Rodney Ackland (Number Seventeen) [Hch] nfid: "You know, if I hadn't met Alma at the right time, I uld have bee a poof.
GAY CODG HCHCK FILMS
)"Osr Wil was, of urse, gay. And Hch’s ep tert Wil’s novel would suggt, at the very least, a fascatn wh homosexualy – om the perspective of a bicur fact, to me, that one paragraph of Ken’s ncisely scrib a lot of Hchck's psychology – his exprsed bisexualy, his acknowledgment of the universaly of perversn (acrdg to the then-standard view that homosexualy is a perversn) and his view on `killg the thg you love' that I feel is more accurately lled `ializatn as a form of hatred.
Based on some of his jok (and other behavrs) that went too far, some have nclud that Hch was a cel and sadistic person who acted out this way bee of his supposedly reprsed homosexualy. Yet, the hard evince that supports allegatns of "reprsed homosexualy" or of real-life sadistic behavr is meagre. Homosexualy.
While Ripley‘s homosexual unrton are certaly more blatant, there’s somethg fely there Bno’s tert Guy — part of may be social climbg, but part of may very well be sexual. The subtext isn’t an accint; the film’s screenwrer Authur Lrents was gay, as were both Granger and Dall. What’s so fascatg about the queer subtext Hchck’s films is that he knew, as a director and a provotr, that makg the simple suggtn of homosexualy was enough to create unease, to raise the stak for both his characters and his dience.