Groovy Movies #14: Happy Homosexuals

"There's one thing to be said about masturbation: you certainly don't have to look your best" - Michael

"Your lips are turning blue. You look like you've been rimming a snowman" - Harold

"Show me a happy homosexual and I'll show you a gay corpse" - Michael

With gay men and women all across the country protesting this weekend for the legal right to marry, it seems only fitting that the 1970 film version of Mart Crowley's groundbreaking play, The Boys in the Band, was released on DVD earlier this week. Love it or hate it, the movie is still a very powerful piece of cinema after all these years--and I can only imagine what audiences thought of it when it "came out" on March 17, 1970. Yes, many of the Boys are stereotypical drama queens with a fabulous quip for everything, but a few of them could easily pass for "straight"--just like you could probably find in most gay bars today. The boys really haven't changed all that much--at least in my opinion. We still like to drink and dance and bitch and moan and fight and fuck and have a gay ol' time with our friends. We're here and we're queer--get used to it. And I believe that's what the film of The Boys in the Band was telling everyone almost 39 years ago. Although I find it to be a sad, bitter pill of a movie, there's still a lot to love about the Boys.

The play, The Boys in the Band, opened off-Broadway on April 14, 1968--before Stonewall, which I think is very important to note (the film also takes place in the late 1960s). It ran for an impressive 1,002 performances, and the cast included:

Kenneth Nelson as Michael, the alcoholic host of a birthday party for his friend Harold (the film takes place in his Manhattan apartment).

Peter White as Alan, Michael's allegedly straight college friend who is an unexpected party guest.

Leonard Frey as Harold, the guest of honor who describes himself as "a 32-year-old, ugly, pockmarked Jew fairy."

Cliff Gorman as Emory, the most flamboyant and stereotypical boy who is, of course, an interior decorator--but he's also quite funny in the film.

Frederick Combs as Donald, Michael's friend.

Laurence Luckinbill as Hank, a previously married schoolteacher.

Keith Prentice as Larry, a fashion photographer and Hank's lover.

Robert La Tourneaux as Cowboy, a hunky male prostitute and Emory's birthday present to Harold.

Robert Greene as Bernard, an African-American bookstore clerk.

I think it's great that all of the actors--at Crowley's insistence--got to recreate their roles for the film version, directed by William Friedkin (whose later movies included The French Connection and The Exorcist), and they are all excellent.

An interesting bit of trivia: actress Natalie Wood financially supported Mart Crowley while he wrote The Boys in the Band (he first met her while working as a production assistant on her film, Splendor in the Grass).

The Boys in the Band also has a nice soundtrack, featuring "Anything Goes" by both Cole Porter and Harpers Bizarre, "(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave" by Martha and the Vandellas, and "The Look of Love" by the great Burt Bacharach.

In 2002, Mart Crowley wrote The Men from the Boys, a sequel set 30 years later in the same apartment on the occasion of Larry's death from pancreatic cancer. I've not read this play, but I would be curious to see a production of it.

And last but certainly least, The Boys in the Band has finally been released on DVD with a feature-length audio commentary by Friedkin, interviews with the director, Crowley, White and Luckinbill, and a retrospective documentary on the play and film. Sadly only three of the original Boys are still with us today (White, Luckinbill and Greene), but at least all of their brilliant performances have been captured on film for posterity. Say what you want about The Boys in the Band, but those brave actors--and their characters--gave us a much-needed public voice back when almost everyone was still way back in the closet. And for that, I thank them from the bottom of my heart.