I had never seen this movie before and so I tuned in late last night on Turner Classic Movies channel to watch it. TCM is doing this gay/lesbian influence in Hollywood film festival all this month on Mon and Wed Nights. I have always found Rex Harrison extremely sexy and handsome but this movie is not that Rex Harrison. Caked in makeup ,prancing and queening it up every chance he got just turned me off. Richard Burton wearing a head wrap like Gloria Swanson was just so laughably stupid. Harrison and Burton play lovers who have been together for 30 yrs but you'd never know it since all Harrison does is crucify Burton with mean,ugly insults and Queenie bitching. Burton simply wimps and whines like a little bitch too. With lines like "Oh your horrid you bitch" and "You prancy little pony" its no wonder this movie was panned by gays and lesbians alike. It was introduced on TCM by George Osbourne and a gay writer who abhorred it but called it a movie that should be seen if just for the cast against type of its stars.
Supposedly according to the gay author, Harrison and Burton did it only for the huge paychecks of 1 millions dollars a piece which by todays standards would be the 20 million monster paydays you see the big stars get.Also,Harrison supposedly was disgusted with some of his dialog and left for Italy -only to come back when he was threatened with a lawsuit from the movie studio and Burton also only stuck around since his lover Elizabeth Taylor was filming a movie close by at the time. This movie came out in 1969 which was around the time the Stonewall riots in NYC were going on so who knows what influences it had. The problem with this movie to me was the fact that Hollywood always has gay men portrayed as effeminate queens or young twink types who do drag, even the intro to the movie is a 5 minute vignette of 2 god awful ugly drag queens singing the really bad title song. There is one scene though that I did like where Harrison has gone out and picked up a hustler for the night(lord he must have been hard up ,the blond man he takes home is ugly and certainly not that young).Anyway after humiliating Burton in front of this man by drinking and laughing ,Harrison finally goes too far and Burton backhands him hard against a bookcase causing him to bleed. It was the only part of the movie where Burton sticks up for himself. In the end ,Harrison has to go to trial for a crime,he does not want Burton to come with him since he thinks his old gay paunchy lover with a head wrap will cause him to get the book thrown at him.So he leaves their flat and heads towards the couthouse, as he tries to cross the street he realizes that he cannot do this alone and screams for Burton who runs to his side and holds him as they cross the street . I really wanted them to show some affection and maybe hug but the only scene for affection is when Harrison admits hes scared and falls into Burtons arms on the bed and Burton lightly strokes his hair. This movie could have been better if they had handled it with more sensitivity and understanding instead what you get is nothing more than 2 old has been queens bitch-fighting.. 1 out or 10
Supposedly according to the gay author, Harrison and Burton did it only for the huge paychecks of 1 millions dollars a piece which by todays standards would be the 20 million monster paydays you see the big stars get.Also,Harrison supposedly was disgusted with some of his dialog and left for Italy -only to come back when he was threatened with a lawsuit from the movie studio and Burton also only stuck around since his lover Elizabeth Taylor was filming a movie close by at the time. This movie came out in 1969 which was around the time the Stonewall riots in NYC were going on so who knows what influences it had. The problem with this movie to me was the fact that Hollywood always has gay men portrayed as effeminate queens or young twink types who do drag, even the intro to the movie is a 5 minute vignette of 2 god awful ugly drag queens singing the really bad title song. There is one scene though that I did like where Harrison has gone out and picked up a hustler for the night(lord he must have been hard up ,the blond man he takes home is ugly and certainly not that young).Anyway after humiliating Burton in front of this man by drinking and laughing ,Harrison finally goes too far and Burton backhands him hard against a bookcase causing him to bleed. It was the only part of the movie where Burton sticks up for himself. In the end ,Harrison has to go to trial for a crime,he does not want Burton to come with him since he thinks his old gay paunchy lover with a head wrap will cause him to get the book thrown at him.So he leaves their flat and heads towards the couthouse, as he tries to cross the street he realizes that he cannot do this alone and screams for Burton who runs to his side and holds him as they cross the street . I really wanted them to show some affection and maybe hug but the only scene for affection is when Harrison admits hes scared and falls into Burtons arms on the bed and Burton lightly strokes his hair. This movie could have been better if they had handled it with more sensitivity and understanding instead what you get is nothing more than 2 old has been queens bitch-fighting.. 1 out or 10