SCREENED OUT – Code-Busters/Out & Open (Part 2)

FLICK Robert Osborne and Richard Barrio have passed on a lot of insightful information when discussing the history and context of gays and lesbians in the movies during introductions and summaries on Monday and Wednesday nights this month. The struggles for gay rights issues continue but the films in this series have opened dialogue and pioneered all that we see today. TCM has done a great job with their programming and has shown that they can step up to the plate and tackle as many subjects as Hollywood has to offer. They have certainly lived up to the classic portion of their name.
On the final evening of Screened Out, the films presented are those taking advantage of the weakening Production Code and are moving toward a more open portrayal of “the love that dare not speak its name”.
Otto Preminger filmed Advise & Consent in 1962 and was instrumental in challenging the Production Code. He didn’t shy away from presenting a gay-themed storyline and the first gay bar scene. There is still some shame, blackmailing and dirty politics going around, but with powerful performances by Henry Fonda, Franchot Tone, Don Murray, Gene Tierney, and in his last performance Charles Laughton.
In the same year, challenging the Production Code continued in Walk on the Wild Side, with Barbara Stanwyck running a New Orleans bordello and having an affair with one of her "girls" (Capucine). Costarring Jane Fonda and Laurence Harvey.
Sandy Dennis and Anne Heywood are the lovers in The Fox (1968), one of the first films to be given an R rating. The third part of the love triangle in this adaptation of a D.H. Lawrence story is played by Keir Dullea as the fox who comes between them. And we’ll skip the significance of a tree and exactly where it lands.
The final film in the series is Robert Aldrich’s adaptation of Frank Marcus’ provocative and comedic play The Killing of Sister George (1968). George realizes the nurse she plays in a BBC soap opera is going to be killed off and that the female program director plans to lure away her live-in lover. This tale of London lesbians makes use of old stereotypes while also exploring new possibilities.

8pm Advise and Consent, 10:30pm Walk on the Wild Side, 12:30am The Fox, 2:30am The Killing of Sister George