The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1932)

You don't really expect to see poetic realism in a Hollywood film, yet here it is. Frank Capra's atypical 1932 piece is a about an interracial romance, with the lovers doomed to disappointment. It was the first film to play at Radio City
Music Hall when it opened in January, 1933. Barbara Stanwycke plays an innocent and vacuous young missionary, who falls into the hands of cynical General Yen. Inevitably, they fall in love, neither quite willing to admit it. The film does an outstanding job of portraying the racist and elitist character of the missionaries and western opportunists. Following the custom of the time, Yen is played by a white, Swedish actor, Nils Asther. Warner Oland, star of the Charlie Chan pictures was coincidentally also Swedish. One cannot help but be reminded of Shangahi Express, starring Marlene Dietrich and Warner Oland, another 1932 classic directed by Josef von Sternberg. What seems seldom considered is the way in which Asther is photographed and prepared. He clearly is presented in the manner of a woman, and while undoubtedly masculine, his delicate features and fine manners, his elegant carriage and his tall, thin body give him an almost feminine beauty which the camera captures and amplifies. It is Asther, not Stanwycke who is the visual delight. He fills the same rôle which Dietrich played in Shanghai Express. He is a beautiful man, and we know it. While it is said that The Bitter Tea of General Yen did poorly at the box office because of its interracial content, it may also be because Asther was placed on show in such an open and erotic manner. 1930's audiences may have been very uncomfortable with the presentation of the masculine gaze directed at another man. The cinematography and set design are outstanding, making it a very beautiful, dreamy film with acting, generally of superior quality, and a highly literate and socially conscious script. It is a sensuous delight, worth viewing in the context of the orientalist films of Warner Oland, Peter Lorre, Sidney Toler and Boris Karloff.

The Gay Brothers (1894)

Vito Russo, in his book The Celluloid Closet (1976), gave us the first study of gay film. Even today, almost 35 years later, it remains a valuable reference. In it, he claims that the Dickson Experimental Sound Film, which he calls The Gay Brothers, is the first gay film. Yet, when we look closely at the film, and the conditions under which it was produced, it seems less and less likely that it is truly a gay film, and that there are several other period films which have at least as strong a claim on the title.

Russo did not address all aspects of Hollywood film in his book, omitting especially the ancient epic genre, but including provocative stills from a number of them (Ben-Hur, Sign of the Cross, etc.). Looking at The Gay Brothers, I was somewhat uncomfortable with his claims. The more I looked into the film, and studied it, the weaker Russo's claim seemed to become. He examined the film from a modern, rather than contemporary point of view, and read as sexual, opportunistic homosocial actions designed simply to keep the action centred before the camera. This is why the men seem to embrace closely. Their legs are in proximity so that they can pivot easily and quickly if they start to stray from the camera's limited field of vision. I believe that two concerns were in force motivating Russo's claim: 1) that he sincerely wished to find an early gay film - the earlier, the better; and 2) that he allowed his intention to colour his reading of the film.

I also researched The Gay Brothers to see if there was any information which supported Russo's contention. The Ott Brothers, Fred and John, worked for Edison, but their names have never been associated with this film. At this point, there seems no support for the men being brothers, nor is there anything to suggest that they may have been gay. The Gay Brothers name was never used before Russo made his claims in The Celluloid Closet.

The film's history is itself somewhat involved. There is some evidence that it may have been considered for public showing, but none that this ever actually happened. It remains an experiment in image and sound synchronisation. Some critics claim that the experiment was a failure, but a number of Kinetophones were built and shipped before the Kinetoscope craze ended in 1905, and the Kinetophone was reintroduced in 1912. This suggests that the experiment was not a failure, but a success. For many years, only the film portion remained. In 1964, a broken cylinder recording was found marked "Dickson-Violin by W.K.L. Dixon with Kineto". When it was eventually repaired, in 2000, the sound was transferred to digital media, and the sound and image were reunited after an interval of 106 years. Dickson plays Song of the Cabin Boy, from Les Cloches de Corneville, an 1877 operetta by Robert Planquette. The lyrics, which are not used in the film, celebrate life at sea with no women.

Other early Edison films which might have gay content are Sandow, Princess Ali, Dewar's and Old Maid Having Her Picture Taken. Certainly the exposition and appreciation of the male body, which is the primary content of Sandow is of gay interest. This film of Eugen Sandow, perhaps the first professional body builder has as much right to the title of first gay film as the Dickson film. It was made in May, 1894. Filmed a year later than Sandow, Princess Ali seems especially interesting as it appears a young man dances in women's clothing. This is very transgressive, until one realises that Princess Ali worked for the Barnum and Bailey Circus as a bearded lady.

Dewar's, made in 1897 was the first commercial, celebrating Dewar's Scotch Whiskey. The skirt-clad men, however, are not transgressive, merely Scottish. The last film, Old Maid Having Her Picture Taken, starring female impersonator Gilbert Saroney was filmed in 1901(Russo says 1903). Saroney made a career of portraying ill-favoured women, and made seven films as the Old Maid, or about his work portraying her in vaudeville. In 1886, he was best man at the wedding of male impersonator Annie Hindle and Anna Ryan. There seems to be a lot of gay content here.

London to Brighton

London to Brighton (2006) is Paul Andrew Williams' brilliant noir thriller. It revels in the low, violent, gritty underside of London, and is unrelentingly dark, in the manner of the kitchen sink films of the sixties. It also evokes Philip Saville's The Fruit Machine (1988), but with considerably less gay content. The mood of the two films is very similar, and the plot device of pursuit by brutal thugs, the same.

The main characters in London to Brighton all appear to be straight, and peformatively, they are, but there are sufficient suggestions of Foucault's manifold resistances to wonder. Can we indeed, as William Butler Yeats asks in Among School Children, "O body swayed to music, O brightening glance, How can we know the dancer from the dance?"

Is Stuart a closetted gay man? In many ways, this is implied. His fastidiousness in dealing with Derek's street world is suggestive, as is his reminiscence of his father's brutality and abuse. When he lights up a cigarette with Joann, it seems almost a celebration, a coming out, an emergence of new opportunities for him. The final reversal, where he chooses to protect Kelly and Joann, and instead kills Derek and Chum, their pursuers and tormentors reveals a sense of justice that seems outside the bounds of heterosexual behaviours. It is an affirmation of his freedom from his father, and the opening of new and independent pathways.

What is exactly the relationship between Derek and Chum? Chum seems always to accede to Derek. Are they partners? Could this be why Stuart kills him first? Do Kelly and Tracey have some sort of inimate past?

Hetero-normative sexuality is never portrayed in complementary terms. Straight sex is commodified, perfunctory, unpleasant, dangerous, and even fatal.

Although it certainly does not appear so on its surface, and was very likely not intended as such, London to Brighton is a very queer film indeed. 'Ere's to the Queen, God Bless 'Im.