Bonus video! Daring gay British films of the 1960s, and also Ghostbusters
Hello there!
For this week's bonus video, I thought you might like a closer look at some of the movies that followed through the door that Victim opened: Brave films that included even more queer content like Taste of Honey, The Leather Boys, If..., and Sunday Bloody Sunday. (One little correction: The Leather Boys was based on a novel, not a play.)
If you're planning to check these films out, and I recommend that you do, you should be prepared that these films are pretty pessimistic! But not in a "the life of the homosexual is especially miserable" sort of way, as it would have been in years past, but in a more general "everyone's life is dark and dour" sort of way. So I guess in that respect they're basically normal British cinema.
Also, to my great surprise, these films had me thinking a bit about the new Ghostbusters movie! If you don't want spoilers (or do not give a shit about Ghostbusters), I put a timestamp in the video to help you skip over that part.
Plus! I've got a little scandal to discuss about Shirley Bassey, singer of the Goldfinger theme. Always timely, my gossip.
Backup link for the video: https://youtu.be/2QTJQCeUhgY
Comments (14)
I agree with your take on Ghostbusters. The romance part was very disappointing. What was the point of putting it in, only to strip it back to nearly nothing? Who were they trying to please? Everyone? Try no one.
I would say that our over all culture in the UK is more realistic/pessimistic than that of the US.The 1st & 2nd WWs and the populous having been bombed for 56 days and nights pretty much straight in the 'Blitz' (yes,it wasn't just London) may have contributed to this.I think the kitchen sink films are wonderful.A real time capsule of working class living in a UK still trying to come to terms with the devestation caused by WW2.I find them funny, irreverent,profound,and yes, pessimistic.Having a peculiarly American up-beat ending would have lessened their gravity and import.Nearly every other culture can cope with sad endings,but the US can't,I'm afraid we're all going to die at some point,none of us will get a happy finale,that is reality,that is natural.I don't understand the US needing to have a happy-ever-after ending,that just feels unnatural,forced and artificial.These 'positive' stories never ever reach the heights and depths of what is considered great art as they come across as shallow and trite.
I think it can be challenging to recognize the humor in those kitchen sink films, but yes it's definitely there!
Beautiful Thing is one of my favourite films, it's such a good ending given the time it was set and released. I also saw the play version a few months ago and really enjoyed that too
As a TV watching kid born in 1970, there was quite a lot of "open yet unremarked" gayness on display. You've touched on a lot of it like Charles Nelson Reilly and Liberace and Paul Lynde. Wayland Flowers and Madame were everywhere even though Wayland's was an enigma. Culminating in Can't Stop The Music, a feature film about the Village People with Bruce Jenner evolving into tiny crop tops but NO HOMOSEXUALS. Everyone enjoyed homosexuality while pretending not to see it.
love you & your videos. Feels like a great brunch where I don't have to talk
Loving your bonus content as always Matt! When the topic of mid century queer representation was being discussed I remembered out of the blue a 1950's Hollywood film I'd seen once on TCM that featured a surprisingly progressive gay character. I'd seen this film decades ago, but remembered enough to find the movie on IMDB, and it's called "Born to be bad." The plot is essentially an "All about Eve" knockoff, but it features a prominent side character who was funny, well adjusted, clearly queer coded, and isn't punished by the narrative and killed off by the end of the film. Considering when this film came out I'd say that the existence of such a character was miraculous! I know that Matt was requesting queer representation from TV in the 1960's, but I've just never seen this particular bit of gay Hollywood history mentioned or talked about before so I figured I'd share it here all the same! Maybe it will encourage people to check out the film, although I can't remember it's overall quality beyond the one noteworthy character.
Basil Dearden, who directed "Victim", also directed "The League of Gentlemen" in 1960, an excellent bank heist caper film that had a scene with a group of queer-coded actors that included an uncredited cameo by Oliver Reed as an effeminate chorus boy. In 1959 Dearden directed "Sapphire", another excellent film about a racially motivated killing. The success of this film, in spite of its controversial theme, would encourage writer Janet Green to write "VIctim", and Dearden to direct it.
Mr Humphries are you being served.
It doesn't make the cut because it was 1971 but the British film "The Music Lovers", about Pyotr Tchaikovsky, is completely bonkers. Richard Chamberlain (?!!!) as Tchaikovsky and Glenda Jackson as his eventual wife. It's definitely not a feel good movie but it's worth seeing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHySEhmbGFc
You talk soooo fast it's like you're terrified someone is going to bust in the door shouting "WHAT"S ALL THIS THEN?" lol Take a BREATH lolol We'll stay for video's twice as long, promise!
The speed at which he speaks is the reason I paid to listen to more! the cadence tone and speed are awesome, feels like conversation speed 💙💜 I don't have to speed up or slow down the recoding! Also side note about ghost busters for @matt I thought it was a relatable awkward *new* connection between two *underage* kids who care more about connecting with each other then defining what it is. But that might be my ace point of view creating a bias. I'm often frustrated people can't seem to have friends in media without it being the option you settle for
Great vid. Those new wave / kitchen sink films are often a bit of a downer but they also contain some amazing performances and still have quite a lot to say today A Taste Of Honey is one of my favourite films. Even though it’s dated in some of the way it depicts these questions, I think it’s also a bit of a hand grenade of a movie aimed squarely at blowing up conventions about class, gender, race and sexuality. Rather than doing that in a didactic way it’s often very funny and also moving. I still don’t think on screen we see many working class characters like Jo or Geoffrey, articulate, creative, political and a bit eccentric. I checked out the family way recently from 1966 and that while fitting in the kitchen sink school is a bit funnier and more light hearted. While the a plot is about newly weds Hayley Mills and and Hywel Bennett struggling to consummate their marriage, the b plot that really steals the show is about the grooms parents John Mills and Majorie Rhodes. At the beginning of the film you think are a bit almost one dimensional older working class couple that you might see in Coronation Street but confronted with issues in their sons marriage they both end up reminiscing about the rather complex early start to their own marriage.
Saw the new Ghostbusters movie tonight, and similar to you, I was having Harry Potter and the Cursed Child flashbacks (i.e. a central relationship between young characters that is so OBVIOUSLY queer in everything but the actual confirmation of the queerness). After leaving the movie, I was thinking it was pretty obvious queerbaiting, but then, I thought maybe they were trying to make the point that the human character was just discovering her sexuality, and that this may have been the first attraction she'd ever experience and she didn't know how to express it (particularly to a ghost). Then, I sobered up, realized I was giving WAY too much credit to the "writers" (who were able to give Bill Murray a grand total of one half-way funny line, and Paul Rudd a grand total of zero ones), and landed "no, this was just a cynical attempt to relate to "the youth" while also being able to plausibly kowtow to the worldwide grosses in countries where a blatantly queer relationship would be looked on not too kindly.