Wonderland Burlesque's Let's Go To The Movies: All That Is Gay Edition- Part 2 of 6

Wonderland Burlesque's

Let's Go To The Movies:

All That Is Gay Edition- Part 2 of 6

As explained previously, month was Gay Pride Month - and I had planned to do these posts to honor that celebration - but due to timing, and the previous series of posts running long, I ran a bit behind. Oh, well... it's not like gay pride is only for one month. No, it's a lifelong thing. So, let's keep celebrating!

This week Hollywood goes all gay in a very man-about-town kind of way. Yes, most of these films are gay in name only, but... isn't it it the thought that counts?

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The Gay Deceiver

(1926)

"The true story of a husband with young ideas!"

 (Paris' premiere matinée idol finds himself embroiled in absolute scandal; an illicit love affair which leads to blackmail! The deceiver is revealed to all and the public outcry is swift and loud... that is until   until he promises to mend his way for the sake of his daughter.)

(This American silent romantic drama was directed by John M. Stahl and stars Lew Cody and Carmel Myers.)

(With no prints located in any film archive, this is now considered a lost film.)

(Carmel Myers was a popular actress during the silent era. She rose to fame and was best known for her roles playing a Vamp. During her career she worked opposite the likes of Rudolph Valentino, Ramón Novarro, Norma Shearer, Lon Chaney, Sr., and Joan Crawford. She and her second husband purchased Gloria Swanson's Sunset Boulevard house and when she married for a third time it was to Paramount Pictures executive Alfred W. Schwalberg.)

Carmel Meyers

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The Gay Divorcee

(1934)

"The king and queen of Carioca."

"Introducing the new dance sensation, 'The Continental'.

(The wife of an ever-absent geologist decides to seek a divorce. Her much-married aunt suggests she consult one of her former  fiancées, an inept lawyer, who arranges for the neglected wife to spend a night at a seaside hotel. There, she is to meet a man hired to play her 'lover' and be 'caught' having an adulterous affair. The woman agrees and leaves for the seaside hotel, however... the bungling lawyer neglects to hire a man to play her 'lover'. When the woman arrives, she bumps into a professional dancer who she met once, but has since forgotten. The same cannot be said of the dancer, who is besotted with her. Given the man's rhapsodic attention, she mistakes him for the would-be 'lover'. Comedy, complications and dancing ensue.)  

(Based on the Broadway musical, Gay Divorce and an unproduced play by J. Hartley Manners, this musical comedy was directed by Mark Sandrich and stars Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Alice Brady, Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore, and Erik Rhodes.)

 (Astaire and Rogers' first feature, Flying Down to Rio, had  proven to be a huge success, leading RKO's head of production, Pandro S. Berman to purchase the screen rights to Dwight Taylor's Broadway hit Gay Divorce.) 

(The Broadway version includes a number of songs by Cole Porter which are not in the film. The exception, the ever-popular Night and Day. However, they did use the same plot, along with three members from the original production: Astaire, Rhodes, and Eric Blore. The film's The Continental would go on to win an Academy Award for Best Song.)

(The Hays Office insisted that RKO change the name from Gay Divorce to The Gay Divorcee, for while a divorcée could be gay or lighthearted, the censors would not allow the film to make light of divorce.  According to Astaire, the change was made proactively; the director, Mark Sandrich, told him that The Gay Divorcee was selected as the new name because the studio "thought it was a more attractive-sounding title, centered around a girl." However, in the UK? No such problem - the film was released as The Gay Divorce.)

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The Gay Deception

(1935)

(An office secretary wins the lottery and decides to live the highlife at The Waldorf-Plaza, a luxurious New York hotel. She quickly bumps heads with the bellboy - who is more than he appears to be. It turns out the bellboy is really a prince, who is now smitten with the recently wealthy woman. Will love bloom and will our secretary end up being Queen for more than one day?)

(This romantic comedy is an early work of famed director William Wyler and stars Francis Lederer and Frances Dee.)

(Screenwriters Stephen Morehouse Avery and Don Hartman were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story.)

Frances Dee

(Frances Dee began working as a movie extra as a lark. Her big break came when she, still working as an extra, she was offered the lead opposite Maurice Chevalier in Playboy of Paris. Her chemistry with her co-stars on screen landed her two more romantic comedies before being cast in the controversial film An American Tragedy. Other notable features include: Little Women, Of Human Bondage, and Becky Sharp. In 1933, she married actor Joel McCrea.)

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The Gay Falcon

(1941)

(A high society grand-dame, who hosts charity parties in her home, finds herself mixed up with a group of jewel thieves who defraud insurance companies. When another socialite is murdered, The Falcon and his assistant are brought in on the case. The pair are aided by a beautiful debutante, who has eyes for the detective, despite the presence of his fiancée.)

(This B-film, a detective yarn, is the first in a series of 16 films about super suave detective, The Falcon. It was directed by Irving Reis and stars George Sanders and Wendy Barrie.)

(Pre-Falcon, Sanders had starred as The Saint in a series of detective films. For this film, he was reteamed with Barrie, who had worked opposite him in three of The Saint films.)

(In March of 1941, the studio bought the rights to Michael Arlen's story The Gay Falcon. Filming started May of 1941. In June, that same year, RKO announced The Falcon would be a series. In September of 1941 RKO officially dropped The Saint series.)

 

(RKO purposely bought the rights to The Falcon, with plans to have it replace The Saint, because working with Leslie Charteris, writer and creator of The Saint, had become too difficult. Charteris sued RKO contending that The Falcon was simply a rip-off of The Saint. To this day, the outcome of the suit has never been disclosed.) 

(Though the series of films proved very popular, Sanders tired of the role quickly, handing it over to his real life brother, actor Tom Conway after the two played brothers in the fourth film of the series, 1942's The Falcon's Brother. And though the entire series was based on Michael Arlen's character The Falcon, this film, The Gay Falcon, was the only one actually based on an Arlen story.)

(Film historians and viewers agree that actor Hans Conried, a familiar face and voice in numerous television programs and films - typically playing a highly-cultured, well-bred, well-educated sort - had the funniest scene in the film playing a crime sketch artist - yet he never received screen credit. The same would be true when he appeared - uncredited - in two additional films in the series - 1941's A Date With The Falcon and 1942's The Falcon Takes Over.)

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The Gay Deceivers

(1969)

"In absolutely divine color."

"Is he? Or isn't he?

"Only the draft board and his girlfriend know for sure."

(Danny and Elliot avoid military service by pretending to be gay, but they have to act the part when the recruiting officer doesn't buy it and threatens to visit them in their home. The two move into a gay neighborhood and mix with the locals - all the while trying to hide their scheme from friends and family.)

(This comedy was written by Jerome Wish and directed by Bruce Kessler. It stars Kevin Coughlin, Larry Casey, Brooke Bundy, Jo Ann Harris and Michael Greer.)

(Kent McCord was originally approached to play role that went to Larry Casey.)

(The title used in Spanish-speaking territories roughly translates to English as The Third Sex Having Fun.)

"When you have girls like these.. what do you do about the draft board?"

"Hilarious... Coughlin and Casey are the oddest couple since Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau and their 'marriage' is just as funny. - Kevin Thomas, L.A. Times."

(Originally rated X, they trimmed it down to resemble an episode of Love American Style.)

.

"They had to keep their hands off girls in order to keep the Army's hands off them."

"What kind of movie is this??"

(The film is often condemned for all its offensive stereotypes. Actor Michael Greer, who is gay, did his best to work with the scriptwriter to tone down some of the more offensive moments.) 

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And that's all for now.

Tune in next week...

Same time, same channel.

The Continental

from the motion picture musical The Gay Divorcee