Wonderland Burlesque's Let's All Go To The Movies: Say Gay Edition, Part VI - Boys Will Be Girls Pt. 1

Wonderland Burlesque's

Let's All Go To The Movies:

Say Gay Edition, Part VI

Boys Will Be Girls Pt. 1

When it came to this subject, I found so much to share, I had to split it  into two parts. 

Lots of cross-dressers, today. But some not-so-fun. And some not-so-pretty. 

Some of these men become women in order to avoid detection. though a number of them have deeper psychological issues at play. 

And some?

Some are real killers.

Let's take a stab at it, shall we?

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Murder!

(1939)

"Who killed Edna Druce?"

(Hitchcock wrote this with his wife and another gentleman, based on a novel, Enter Sir John. It involves a cross-dressing actor who has a secret he wishes to keep to the point of murder. He does so disguised as a woman, accidentally framing an actress in his troupe who is convicted and sentenced to hang for it.)

(This was Hitchcock's third talkie. A German version, using German-speaking actors was filmed at the same time, using the same sets.) 

(Hitchcock based the character of Sir John on his friend, actor Gerald du Maurier, father of Daphne du Maurier, whose works (Jamaica Inn, Rebecca, The Birds) Hitchcock would later adapt for the screen.)

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Charley's Aunt

(1925)

"From the play that made millions laugh."

"The funniest farce in forty years."

(For the sake of simplicity, I've grouped all these versions together. Based on Brandon Thomas' 1892 classic farce, Charley's Aunt is the comedy that keeps on giving. Not only are there nine film versions in various languages with that title, there are also numerous variations on the theme. Why, Mrs. Doubtfire couldn't exist without it.)

(This one stars Charlie Chaplin's older brother. A silent film, it is, however, not the first big screen version. That was filmed in 1915!)

Charley's Aunt

(1930)

"Enough to make a cat laugh out loud."

(Personally, I believe cats are laughing at us all the time.)

Charley's Aunt

(1941)

"What a break for Benny... when he becomes one of the girls!"

"He's 1941's glamour girl!"

"Gala $2.20 Hollywood premiere at Grauman's Chinese, July 31!"

Charley's Tante

(1956)

(His... what??)

(Oh.)

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I Was A Male War Bride

(1949)

(Grant plays a French officer who must disguise himself as a woman in order to sneak into the US as part of his beloveds division of the US Women's Army Corps.)

(Due to various illnesses, it took eight months to complete the film. Anne Sheridan contracted pleurisy which developed into pneumonia, Hawks developed a severe, unexplained case of hives all over his body, while Grant came down with hepatitis complicated by jaundice. Even with the delays pushing the budget over the $2 million mark, the film turned out to be 20th Century's biggest earner that year.)

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Where's Charley?

"Bowls 'em over in..."

"She's a he and he's a howl!"

"All the delight of that ever so bright marvel of merriment and melody ...from Warner Bros.)

(1945)

(Here's an early variation of Charley's Aunt. A British Warner Bros. production based on the stage musical of the same name and starring Ray 'Scarecrow' Bolger.) 

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The Black Sheep Of Whitehall

(1942)

(A British war comedy full of  Nazis, mistaken identities, and efforts to undo a plot designed to derail a peace treaty. Considered actress Thora Hird's screen debut.) 

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Glen or Glenda

(1953)

"Strange loves... of those who live and love but can never marry!"

"What am I... male or female!"

"The strange case of a 'man' who changed his sex!"

(A docudrama directed by and starring Ed Wood, the film also features his girlfriend Dolores Fuller and friend, screen legend Bela Lugosi. Originally conceived by producer George Weiss as a biography of Christine Jorgenson, when Jorgenson turned down an offer to appear in the film, Wood turned it into a movie about transvestism and a need for tolerance.) 

"I changed my sex!"

(The film came in a bit on the short side, so the producer padded it with various erotic scenes, including a BDSM/whipping scene, strip teases, and a rape - all culled from various grindhouse films.)

I Led 2 Lives

"Based on the lives of Christine Jorgensen."

(Despite Jorgenson's refusal to have anything to do with the film - and the film not having anything to do with her - the producer went ahead and used her name to promote it. There is a second part to the film, titled Alan or Anne. It was included in order to meet the distributor's demand for a sex change film. Using stock footage, it tells the story of Alan, a pseudo-hermaphrodite who fights in World War II wearing women's underwear. After returning home from the war, he undergoes surgery to become 'Anne.')

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Some Like It Hot

(1959)

"Marilyn Monroe and her bosom companions..."

(The screenplay, by director Billy Wilder and I.A. Diamond, is based on the 1935 French farce, Fanfare Of Love.) 

Fanfare Of Love

(1935)

(From Wikipedia: The film was produced without approval from the Motion Picture Production Code/Hays Code, because it features LGBT-related themes, including cross-dressing. The code had been gradually weakening in its scope since the early 1950's, due to greater social tolerance for taboo topics in film, but it was enforced until the mid-1960's. The overwhelming success of Some Like It Hot is considered one of the reasons behind the replacement of the Hays Code.)

(A female impersonator, Barbette, was hired by the studio to school Lemmon and Curtis on the art of gender illusion for the film. The role Jack Lemmon played was originally offered to Frank Sinatra, but he refused to come to the audition. Danny Kaye and Jerry Lewis were also considered. Wilder initially wanted Mitzi Gaynor for the part of 'Sugar,' however, once he got wind that Marilyn Monroe wanted the part? Well, good-bye Mitzi!)

(Monroe's pill addiction was so severe, she had trouble memorizing the simplest of lines, resulting in each line requiring 40-45 takes. The film had to be done in black and white due to the ghoulish appearance color filmstock gave to Lemmon's and Curtis' drag make-up.)

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Psycho

(1960)

"A new - and altogether different - screen excitement!!!"

(This Hitchcock classic is adapted from a book by Robert Bloch, which was inspired by the case of Ed Gein, a convicted murderer/grave robber who lived a solitary life in rural Wisconsin. He dressed in women's clothing and had a domineering mother in whose honor he sealed off a room of his house as a shrine.)

(Paramount was not excited about the project and did all they could to kill it. Finally, Hitchcock produced the film himself. He took a 60% stake in the film negative and forfeited his quarter of a million dollar directing fee, in order to get Paramount to distribute the film.) 

(Psycho was filmed in black and white in order to keep costs down, but also to prevent the infamous shower scene from appearing too gory. Norman Bates' house was modeled on an Edward Hopper painting; House by the Railroad.)

(According to Hitchcock, Bernard Herrmann's score accounts for "33% of the effect of Psycho..." Initially, Hitchcock insisted on a jazz score, but Herrmann refysed, using a string orchestra in order to maximize the type of sounds that could be achieved. Surprisingly, Hitchcock also ordered that there be no music created for the iconic shower scene - another order Herrmann ignored, supplying one of the most recognizable ostinato-laden musical sequences in the history of film.) 

 

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Gunn

(1967)

"Gunn explodes in his first big screen color caper!"

Directed by Blake Edwards, this was intended to be the first in a projected series of Peter Gunn films, but that never happened. In this neo noir mystery, the killer is revealed to be a cross-dresser.

(The score? By Henry Mancini, of course.)

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Goodbye Gemini

AKA: Twinsanity

(1968)

"You'll feel four hands reaching for you... when the Gemini twins arrive!"

(This one has it all... fraternal twins, incestuous fascination, cross-dressing, anal rape, blackmail, sexual slavery, drugs, strip clubs, a brothel, and a teddy bear which serves as a surrogate parent - all with Swinging London as the backdrop.)

"Enter the weird terrifying world of the Gemini twins!"

"I am you when I love you, love."

"You are me when I kill you all!"

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Sometimes Aunt Martha Does Dreadful Things

"A twisted mind snaps... and a wave of terror begins."

(Paul and Stanley, two criminals involved in an implied homosexual relationship, move to the suburbs to lay low. In order to avoid suspicion, one of the pair dons a wig, house dress and sensible shoes, becoming 'Aunt Martha.' Aunt Martha does not approve of Stanley bringing girls into the house or his lifestyle, and Stanley freaks out whenever one of the girls makes a move to unbuckle his belt. Drugs are involved, of course, and... well, Aunt Martha does indeed live up to the promise implied in the film's title.)

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That's all for now.

Tune in next week...

Same time, same channel.

I Wanna Be Loved By You - Marilyn Monroe

from Some Like It Hot