'The Celluloid Closet' moves chronologically, beginning with silent films that featured simpering gay characters ('Clarence, the clerk - one of nature's mistakes in a country where men are men'). The film's historical context is so well established that it helps accentuate the mischief in lines like this, said by John Ireland to Montgomery Clift in 'Red River': 'There are only two things more beautiful than a good gun - a Swiss watch or a woman from anywhere. 'The Celluloid Closet' ranges from obscure film clips - two men dancing together a hundred years ago in an experimental film of Thomas Edison's - to scenes that are eminently familiar.īut even if you've seen Marlene Dietrich cross-dressing in 'Morocco,' Judith Anderson stroking her late mistress's clothing in 'Rebecca' or Peter Lorre toying with a walking stick in 'The Maltese Falcon,' count on watching those images differently this time. Celebrity interviewees and glossy graphics further turn this into a colorful overview with the popular appeal of a 'That's Entertainment!' and with an even more interestingly gay agenda than the history of Hollywood musical comedy. What a shame that Russo, who died of AIDS in 1990, never saw his research transformed so skillfully by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, whose other credits include the Oscar-winning 'Times of Harvey Milk' and 'Common Threads: Stories From the Quilt,' into such a funny and informative documentary using the film clips he could only describe on the page. The basis for 'The Celluloid Closet' is Vito Russo's invaluable 1981 book examining the patterns in Hollywood's treatment of gay characters on screen.

The Celluloid Closet by Vito Russo