This lauded film, at times hard to watch, is a lesbian cult classic. The Haunting was remade in 1999, starring Liam Neeson, Lili Taylor, and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Theo. Theo's depiction is surprisingly delicate, as opposed to typically sensational. Claire Bloom plays Theodora, a gay psychic who takes a very distinct liking to Eleanor. It follows a group of people asked to spend a few nights in a haunted house, and stars Julie Harris as Eleanor, the character most sensitive to the paranormal activity going on around her.
This classy psychological horror movie was one of the first films to feature a lesbian story line, though it was subtle and implied. Bonus: Betty White has a cameo as a Kansas senator. By all accounts a happy family man, the senator apparently had a gay ol' time in Hawaii that's now come back to bite him in the butt. Amid the political wrangling is a blackmail plot involving a Utah senator played by Don Murray. A must-see.Ī thrilling political film directed by Otto Preminger and starring Henry Fonda, Advise & Consent explores the ugly nomination process for a new secretary of state. The insidiousness of government-sponsored homophobia is at the forefront of the movie, which is revolutionary for its depiction of a bisexual protagonist not to be messed with he's the furthest thing from a victim. A blackmailer is targeting London's gays, demanding money in exchange for keeping secret their same-sex affairs many financially strapped victims commit suicide rather than face prison or humiliation. A mystery and thriller at heart, Victim follows a successful, married lawyer avenging the death of his young male lover. This British film, cowritten by a woman (Janet Green with John McCormick), was a repudiation of that nation's harsh antigay laws. Though a box office flop, the movie opened to critical acclaim, and received five Academy Award nominations and three Golden Globe nods, including one for MacLaine for Best Actress. Spoiler alert: One of the women is indeed gay and in love with her coworker, and things don't end well for her.
Chaos ensues after a disgruntled student accuses the pair of being lesbian lovers. Starring screen legends Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine, and James Garner, The Children's Hour follows Martha (MacLaine) and Karen (Hepburn), college friends who operate a private school for girls.
Spoiler alert: Sebastian used Catherine to lure attractive young men for him to have sex with, and a group of them killed Sebastian in an especially barbaric gay-bashing.Īt the time, the release of a film depended on whether it met the standards of the Production Code (this was before the Motion Picture Association of America's rating system) and the film was approved to depict Sebastian as gay only “since the film illustrates the horrors of such a lifestyle, it can be considered moral in theme even though it deals with sexual perversion.” But as the doctor probes deeper into her psyche, he discovers things aren’t what they seem. Hepburn is Violet, Sebastian’s wealthy mother and Catherine's aunt, who is determined to hide the truth behind her beloved son’s demise - even if that means giving Catherine a lobotomy courtesy of Dr. Taylor plays Catherine, a young woman recently institutionalized after her cousin Sebastian died while the pair traveled abroad in Spain. Here are some of the pre-AIDS era movies you probably haven't heard of, but are more than worthy of your Netflix queue - even if just to see how far we've come.īased on a play by Tennessee Williams, the acclaimed Suddenly, Last Summer starred Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, and Montgomery Clift. A few filmmakers were brave enough to feature gay characters that weren't cautionary tales. But if you think it's dismal now, imagine growing up in the middle of the 20th century, when queer characters were either invisible or typically depicted as suicidal or psychotic. Even though a movie about a gay man is up for multiple Academy Awards on Sunday, depictions of LGBT life remain rare in mainstream film.