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When Hollywood ‘Went Gay All of a Sudden': TCM Highlights Films That Track Queer Evolution
In classic film circles, 'Bringing Up Baby' is just one of those movies that everybody knows about. It's Cary Grant. It's Katharine Hepburn. It's Howard Hawks. All 'Old Hollywood For Dummies' buzz words. But the movie — a notorious flop upon release — is a historical curiosity not because it is a cute, zany screwball comedy of a bygone era — though it is. 'Bringing Up Baby' just happens to have what is likely first usage in film of the word 'gay' to mean something other than happy. At least we think it does. 'My understanding is that by the time 'Bringing Up Baby' came out, the word 'gay' was known in some circles to mean homosexual,' TCM host Dave Karger said during a recent interview with IndieWire. 'And the story goes that Cary Grant ad libbed that line. So, I would like to think that he that Cary Grant knew what he was saying when he allegedly came up with that line.' More from IndieWire Apple TV+ Signs First-Look Film Deal with North Road's Chernin Entertainment 'You Kind of Have to Fight for More Room': Melissa Barrera Says Diverse Casting Has Net Effect on Productions Author Alonso Duralde, author of the book 'Hollywood Pride: A Celebration of LGBTQ+ Representation and Perseverance in Film' agrees. 'I know that when I wrote about 'Bringing Up Baby,' I quoted William Mann in his film 'Behind the Screen,' who said back in 2001 that the word 'gay' to mean 'homosexual' had been floating around for at least the better part of a century at that point,' Duralde said. 'And he, in turn, quotes Gary Schmidgall, who was a biographer of Walt Whitman, who said that there were cases of people using it that way in the first years of the 20th century.' Duralde explained that its use would have been 'very intramural' in the '30s. That perhaps Cary Grant knew about it, 'but it was not something that the wide world knew about just yet,' adding, 'You have to wonder… was that a wink?' Truly, it is difficult to interpret the word as meaning anything another than a wink in this instance, although it clearly flew over the heads of the censors — and likely anywhere except specific circles in the coastal cities — way back in 1938. Grant is wearing Hepburn's frilly robe. He's frustrated at his own flamboyant appearance, badgered by May Robson, and then exclaims, 'I just went gay all of a sudden!' Take a quick watch (the exchange begins at 1:43). This is about as openly 'gay' as the movies would get for the next 30 years. Not that there weren't plenty of films that walked a tight rope around the suggestion of homosexuality. Alfred Hitchcock's 'Rebecca' has the sinister Mrs. Danvers, whose obsession with the title character appears to be romantic in nature. There's a seemingly blatant hitman gay couple in 'The Big Combo.' A rather disturbing Wendell Corey acts possessively of his mobster roommate in 'Desert Fury.' Sal Mineo — a real-life bisexual — appears to be in love with James Dean in 'Rebel Without a Cause.' One commonality between all of these characters is that they (spoiler) die — perhaps the only reason why the strict production code of the time allowed them to make it to the screen. A note on the production code — known commonly as the Hays Code after its longtime leader Will H. Hays — for those new to Old Hollywood. In 1934, as fears of government censorship were looming, American film studios began enforcing a strict production code (drafted in 1930) that essentially outlawed the depiction of a host of perceived moral wrongs and ambiguities — any crime had to have a consequence, overt sex was out of the question, dialogue had to be squeaky clean, and, of course, queers weren't supposed to exist. Regardless, some coded characters (as listed above) and certain gay stereotypes made it into the movies, even under censorship. Of course, the characters were not out, open, or doing anything about it, but it was clear to knowing eyes what exactly was going on. One specific stereotype was the 'pansy' — also known as the 'sissy' — which Turner Classic Movies will be highlighting in on Monday, June 23, with a series of films that showcase variations on this kind of character. 'The pansy craze really exploded in the 1930s,' Karger explained. 'It started in live entertainment, where there were bars in Hollywood that stars and studio executives would frequent, and there were well known drag performers who were very popular amongst the Hollywood set. What you also saw in varying degrees before and after the production code was enforced, were queer coded, open, outwardly gay characters in some films.' Actors like Edward Everett Horton (see: 'The Gay Divorcee') and Franklin Pangborn (see: 'Professional Sweetheart') made careers off of playing the pansy. 'What I love about these movies is that it gives wonderful platforms for some of these fascinating and hilarious character actors of the era,' Karger said. 'The thing about the sissy is that you're not saying this guy wants to have sex with dudes,' Durlade said. 'You're just saying, 'Oh, look at this frilly little whatever.' That character goes all the way back to the earliest cinema. That character goes back probably to vaudeville. The sissy was a way to get around the censor, precisely because they were asexual, and so they didn't have to wade into the murky things of perversion, because there was nothing sexual about the character. He was just there to be the butt of the joke.' TCM will also showcase interesting rarities like the pre-code 'Call Her Savage' with Clara Bow, which present the pansy in a far more overt fashion. This one wouldn't have had to slip in under the censors' noses, since it was released in 1932 before the code was in rigid enforcement. '['Call Her Savage'] features one scene in what is clearly a gay bar, and there's these two boys wearing French maids outfits, flitting around, and singing about how they wish they were on a navy ship surrounded by hunky sailors, essentially,' Karger said. 'And it's just so fascinating to see these two kids, almost 100 years ago, able to be their true selves and talk about their true wants and desires.' The lineup also includes Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche-led 'Midnight,' a delightful '30s 'Cinderella' tale that finds John Barrymore playing the fairy godmother. None of those leads are the 'gay' character. That instead belongs to veteran character actor Rex O'Malley — who in real life, uh… never married — who plays a gossipy friend, aka the pansy. 'There's just all these great scenes of him, sitting around a breakfast table, pumping all the other characters for the latest gossip. And it's just so fun,' Karger said. 'He steals every scene he's in. And yeah, of course, nothing overtly gay is mentioned. We're not told he's gay. They can't use that word in that context, of course, at that point. So he's essentially — like a lot of these men are — an asexual guy who's much more interested in the lives and going ons of everyone else than he is about pursuing a romantic life of his own.' Next week, on June 30, TCM will once again visit queer cinema, contrasting with a series of later films — ones that examine depictions of homosexuality, drag culture, and trans people in more recent decades. 'I love the fact that we have these two nights of pride programming, one of which is from the 1930s and then the other of which is from the last 40 years. So we get to see how LGBTQ+ cinema has has evolved,' Karger shared. Among the movies included on the second night are 2008's Oscar-winning 'Milk' (a TCM premiere), the 1994 lesbian-themed dramedy 'Go Fish,' and 1990's 'Without You I'm Nothing,' written by and starring Sandra Bernhard. 'I'm all for the bread and butter films that we show on TCM. I love that. That's what we mainly do. But I think whenever we can step out of the usual 'classic era' and include movies like the ones that we're doing on that second Pride night, particularly for for Pride Month, I think it's really exciting,' Karger said. As for the word 'gay,' the 'Bringing Up Baby' use of the word did not revolutionize its use in modern culture. In 1961, 23 years later, Natalie Wood was still singing (well, Marni Nixon was) about feeling 'pretty, witty, and gay' in 'West Side Story.' But like so many cultural touchstones in American history, the 1960s changed things. Civil Rights, hippies, the second wave of feminism, and then, of course, 1969 Stonewall Riots setting off the gay liberation movement, shifted culture. By 1970, 'The Boys in the Band' was throwing 'gay' around in clear reference to homosexuality. Ironically, Wood herself helped launch the play that became that film adaptation. But, I digress. What's most interesting looking at TCM's June 23 and 30 lineups is that, while coded, the stereotypes remained the same for many decades, even after the production code had fallen — and in the more modern films, the through-line is evident. The movies did not go 'gay all of a sudden' when Cary Grant made his exclamation in 'Bringing Up Baby,' but perhaps instead this little moment set a standard of gayness that would largely hold for the rest of the century and beyond. 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Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Entertainment
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‘Kinda Pregnant' Review: Amy Schumer's Fake Pregnancy Rom-Com Is Kinda Bad
For thousands of years, it's been believed that laughter is the best medicine. Unfortunately, it appears that the laughs in the new Netflix comedy 'Kinda Pregnant' have been recalled. What's worse, the side effects include irritation, drowsiness and a very dull headache. 'Kinda Pregnant' stars Amy Schumer, who co-wrote the screenplay, as Lainy Newton. She's a middle-aged schoolteacher who always dreamed of settling down and being a mother. She also sleeps on a futon with some kind of magical spring system that sends her flying across her apartment, which happens often enough (allegedly — we only see it the once) that she has to keep a pile of pillows in the landing zone. Believe it or not, this futon will be important later, although not for the right reasons. Lainy thinks her boyfriend Dave (Damon Wayans Jr.) is about to propose, but it's the beginning of a romantic comedy, so it's all a misunderstanding and now she's incredibly alone and wallowing in despair. We can tell she's been disillusioned because she used to tell her students that 'Romeo & Juliet' was a beautiful love story, and now she tells them it's a tragedy about horny young lovers making bad mistakes (she doesn't seem to be a very good English teacher). Lainy is miserable, but her best friend Kate (Jillian Bell) is married and pregnant. Lainy should be happy for her but she can't muster those emotions. Instead, Lainy obsesses and festers, until finally she tries on a fake pregnancy belly and realizes that everyone treats her better. So she keeps wearing it, which makes a new friendship with the actually-pregnant Megan (Brianne Howey) — and Lainy's blossoming romance with Megan's affable-yet-romantically-wounded brother, Josh (Will Forte) — very complicated because, you know, it's all built on lies. 'Kinda Pregnant' is not the first comedy, romantic or otherwise, to rely on contrived deceptions for humor or tension. Sadly, it's also not one of the better ones. While watching this weirdly lifeless and depressing trifle, which barely ekes out a chuckle every 20 minutes or so, one can't help but wonder why 'Kinda Pregnant' isn't working. It's certainly not the cast. They've been funny before and they'll probably be funny again. Heck, Schumer and Forte have real, heartwarming chemistry together. A movie about their two characters falling in love, without any high-or-low concept at all, could have been disarming and satisfying on its own. No, the problem with 'Kinda Pregnant' is that Lainy's deception requires a motivation, even in a contrived storyline, and motivation can make or break a comedy. The silliest screwball films can get away with a weird plot point because their characters exist in a world where weird things often happen. Katharine Hepburn's character in 'Bringing Up Baby' adopts a leopard because she's the kind of person who'd adopt a leopard. Screwball comedies can also justify a deception through unlikely circumstances. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis dress as women in 'Some Like It Hot' because they witnessed a murder and had to come up with disguises (Lemmon's character also seems to realize — at least, as much as any character in a production code comedy could — that they're trans, which makes the story extra sweet and inspiring). Lainy's deception isn't motivated by whimsy or plot, it's motivated by misery. 'Kinda Pregnant' deserves credit for trying to find some humanity inside a formulaic rom-com, but it goes so far into Lainy's tragic headspace that her deception and subsequent shenanigans aren't enjoyable, or funny. They're cries for help. She's not Katharine Hepburn in 'Bringing Up Baby' or Jack Lemmon (or Tony Curtis) in 'Some Like It Hot.' She's Edward Norton in 'Fight Club' — and that's just not the same vibe. Of course, if a film doesn't work as a wacky comedy, we must also consider whether maybe it's supposed to be a wacky comedy at all. Maybe we're supposed to view this story through a very different lens. Clea DuVall's 'Happiest Season' was only superficially a rom-com, for example: Its old-fashioned and contrived romantic comedy tropes thinly masked an uncomfortably sad tale about how living a lie — in that case, pretending your girlfriend is just a friend because you're uncomfortable coming out to your family — isn't funny. 'Happiest Season' is not a failed rom-com, it's a subversive and incisive dark comedy that pulls apart the innards of a rom-com and reveals its uncomfortable findings. Hey, remember the futon I mentioned earlier? I told you it'd be important later, but I meant it was important to this review, not to 'Kinda Pregnant's' plot. Director Tyler Spindel ('The Out-Laws') dumps that moment, the dopiest kind of slapstick into the film's first few minutes, which sets the stage for yuck-yucks. We are reminded, every few scenes, that we're supposed to be enjoying superficial comedic hijinks like pratfalls and embarrassing sex, which undermines the serious dramatic undertones of Julie Paiva and Schumer's screenplay — which in turn makes those hijinks a lot less funny. There are multiple scenes of Amy Schumer in slapstick situations that would seriously endanger the life of her (alleged) baby. That can work if the tone is absurd, but 'Kinda Pregnant' is just serious enough that the horrified reactions of Schumer's onlookers register and Schumer's personal embarrassment doesn't. Then there's another scene where a small child intentionally stabs a (supposedly) pregnant woman in the stomach with a knife, and the audience is somehow supposed to think it's hilarious instead of profoundly terrifying on multiple levels. That kid isn't a laugh riot. That kid is a potential serial killer. There's a decent rom-com hidden beneath 'Kinda Pregnant's' tonal calamities, and a decent tragedy hidden behind all the desperate buffoonery. But the film's best qualities are hidden far, far too well. Except, that is, for Will Forte's lovely sad sack boyfriend, who — as a character and as an actor — kinda deserves a better romance than this. 'Kinda Pregnant' is now streaming on Netflix. The post 'Kinda Pregnant' Review: Amy Schumer's Fake Pregnancy Rom-Com Is Kinda Bad appeared first on TheWrap.
