The Gay Deceivers was homophobic, juvenile, and, somehow, ahead of s time.
Contents:
- 50 YEARS LATER, THE FILM GAY DECEIVERS IS STILL VERY GAY, VERY BAD
- THE GAY DECEIVERS
- 16 MT-SEE CLASSIC GAY MOVI FROM BEFORE YOU WERE BORN
- GAY SEX THE '70S
50 YEARS LATER, THE FILM GAY DECEIVERS IS STILL VERY GAY, VERY BAD
* gay movie 1969 *
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. When me to paradigm-shiftg films of 1969, The Gay Deceivers do not qualify. 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.
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
Two men mt pose as gay lovers to avoid gettg drafted. * gay movie 1969 *
Greer, an openly gay ic at the time, reportedly worked wh director Bce Ksler to make the movie more sympathetic to the gay characters.
"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. Though that msage don't make up for The Gay Deceivers' many, many fics, was one very seldom exprsed The Gay Deceivers below.
16 MT-SEE CLASSIC GAY MOVI FROM BEFORE YOU WERE BORN
Dear lennials, the generatn born durg the '80s, the are the gay-themed movi — some wonrful, some wonrfully terrible — worth your time. * gay movie 1969 *
Two men mt pose as gay lovers to avoid gettg drafted. Danny Devl and his woman-chasg iend Ellt Crane ci to pose as homosexuals to avoid ductn to the Army. Sce Danny is nvced that he and Ellt mt appear to live together as homosexuals to nfirm the Army's judgment, they rent a one-bedroom apartment an area popular wh the gay set.
Eventually, Ellt's married and unmarried girl iends, Danny's father, and even Karen herself bee nvced that the men are actually homosexual.
Even though a movie about a gay man is up for multiple Amy Awards on Sunday, pictns of LGBT life rema rare mastream film. A few filmmakers were brave enough to feature gay characters that weren't utnary tal.
GAY SEX THE '70S
The Gay Deceivers (1969) st and crew creds, cludg actors, actrs, directors, wrers and more. * gay movie 1969 *
Spoiler alert: Sebastian ed Cathere to lure attractive young men for him to have sex wh, and a group of them killed Sebastian an pecially barbaric the time, the release of a film pend on whether met the standards of the Productn Co (this was before the Motn Picture Associatn of Ameri's ratg system) and the film was approved to pict Sebastian as gay only "sce the film illtrat the horrors of such a liftyle, n be nsired moral theme even though als wh sexual perversn. Spoiler alert: One of the women is ed gay and love wh her worker, and thgs don't end well for a box office flop, the movie opened to cril acclaim, and received five Amy Award nomatns and three Goln Globe nods, cludg one for MacLae for Bt (1962)This Brish film, wrten by a woman (Ja Green wh John McCormick), was a repudiatn of that natn's harsh antigay laws.
A blackmailer is targetg London's gays, mandg money exchange for keepg secret their same-sex affairs; many fancially strapped victims m suici rather than face prison or huiatn. The sidns of ernment-sponsored homophobia is at the foreont of the movie, which is revolutnary for s pictn of a bisexual protagonist not to be msed wh; he's the furtht thg om a victim. By all acunts a happy fay man, the senator apparently had a gay ol' time Hawaii that's now e back to be him the butt.
This documentary explor the birth of the gay pri movement New York after the Stonewall rts of 1969 and the sexual eedom that rulted. It touch on many aspects of gay culture the 1970s, cludg mic, dgs and art, followed by the vastatg impact that the onset of AIDS had on the homosexual muny. Told through several terviews and archival material, pats a picture of solidary and posivy while explorg the sexualy of a relatively new movement. * gay movie 1969 *
Claire Bloom plays Theodora, a gay psychic who tak a very distct likg to Eleanor. Midnight Cowboy (1969)This prsg drama om gay director John Schlger stars Jon Voight and Dt Hoffman as htlers who enter to a "plited" bs relatnship while workg the streets of New York. The film received an X ratg om the MPAA due to s "homosexual ame of reference and possible fluence upon youngsters, " and end up beg the only X-rated film to w the Bt Picture Amy Award.
The homosexualy was more implied than featured -- the relatnship between Voight and Hoffman is not what you'd ll passnate -- but there is a memorable scene wh Voight beg serviced by a young man at a movie theater.
{C}The Boys the Band (1970)It may surprise some lennials that the director of The Exorcist, William Friedk, also ma an famo movie about gay men. The jury's still of My Bt Friends Are (1971)Mostly fotten, this groundbreakg movie centered around a rcuo night a Greenwich Village gay bar.
Celebrate the bt gay movi wh our list of the 50 most sential LGBTQ+ films ever ma * gay movie 1969 *
You n cred gay director John Schlger for that; y, the same John Schlger who directed the ld Midnight Cowboy and the absolutely rid Madonna vehicle The Next Bt Daniel Day-Lewis, then a teenager, has a small, uncreded role. The actor would go on to star one of the most beloved gay films of the early AIDS era, My Betiful Lndrette.