Queer movie report: The Gay Deceivers

[sasha_feather]

The Gay Deceivers - 1969 - YouTube.

The premise of this is, 2 young men are trying to avoid being drafted and having to go to Vietnam. So they pretend to be a couple. They move in together into a one-bedroom apartment in a gay neighborhood; they are frequently visited by a particular neighbor who is trying to welcome them into the community. The film starts out as a funny farce, but gets too long, and too serious, by the end. The fanfic or romance way to end this would be to turn the fake relationship into a real one, but the film does not go there. Instead the two part ways after successfully avoiding the draft, but having experienced negative consequences from lying: one man gets fired, the other loses his (female) fiancee. I didn't love this, and I didn't hate it; it was kind of interesting, but felt like a missed opportunity. It's also extremely white, so despite showing a gay bar and a themed party, it felt unrealistic in that way. It has a somewhat "Exploitation" feel to it; lots of people wearing swim suits and skimpy clothes. Lots of references to sex with women (one of the men is a slutty himbo type).

Comments

[sovay]

The Gay Deceivers - 1969

I have not seen this film, but I read about it in Richard Barrios' Screened Out: Playing Gay in Hollywood from Edison to Stonewall (2003). He's equivocal about it in terms of representation, but focuses most of his criticism (in the sense of study, not disapproval) on the actor Michael Greer:

"You don't dig for diamonds in a salt mine, and you don't expect class or insight with something like The Gay Deceivers. Neither, curiously enough, do you get an exclusively disapproving or even patronizing attitude toward gays. Instead, this movie scans all over the map, mocking and ridiculing and stereotyping at the same time that it throws out crumbs of praise and asks for tolerance. (Lesbians are, naturally, a nonissue.) It laughs at and with homosexuality at the same time, sometimes in the same shot. Along with the straight-type yuks, there's a lot of gay humor, vintage '69, and Larry Casey displays a trim and naked rear end on several occasions. Taken all together, it raises the question: Who was the target audience for this movie? The gay-friendly humor makes it insufficient for straight audiences, and things like the fake lisps and the pink French Provincial décor in the boys' bedroom make it too skewed in the wrong way for most gays. There seems, in the filmmaking process, to have been some sort of derailment. The science of throwing together a cheap exploitation film is not exact, and evidently the original fast-buck hetero intentions became more and more diluted. It occurred here in part because of the ragged nature of the material and because of the bracing presence of Michael Greer in the film and on the set. Instead of being a silly caricature—even in the hip Roger DeBris style—Malcolm becomes the engaging center of the action. There is warmth in this flamer, humor and style and competence as well as the old swish mechanisms and hissy fits. There is also, by the way, a successful long-term relationship with a tolerant fellow named Craig (Sebastian Brook). The authenticity of Greer's presence makes a sham of the simpering farce and subverts much of the ridicule. With his rewrites and ad-libs, Greer tosses small and telling reminders of what it was like to be out and gay in the late sixties. "Don't forget your heart pill,' he advises one geriatric cruiser, at once bitchy and caring. Even when Malcolm is made ridiculous, Greer is the victor, just as Franklin Pangborn always seemed sturdier than the dyspeptic floorwalkers and hotel clerks that were his lot. It was clear that here, amid the draft board jokes and mistaken-identity farce, was a genuine gay man having fun onscreen, making this shabby movie better with his every appearance . . . In all its cartoon-queen caricature and dollhouse accoutrements, there was the indication that maybe there would be a place where two men could live together and share a real, not a mock, relationship. Quite a load of effect for producers who were just thinking they could take in some bucks by making fun of fruits."

[sasha_feather]

Oh that is just a lovely write-up! Thank you for sharing that. Greer was indeed wonderful in this film. There's a scene where he is making breakfast and dancing in an apron.

[sovay]

Oh that is just a lovely write-up! Thank you for sharing that.

You're welcome!

Greer was indeed wonderful in this film. There's a scene where he is making breakfast and dancing in an apron.

Maybe I will try to watch just his scenes on YouTube.