The Honorable Brigham Anderson

Turner Classic Movies recently wrapped up its terrific SCREENED OUT festival of gay-themed (or gay-related) films, offering quite the banquet of the good, the bad and the forgotten. A prime example of the latter would be Staircase, Stanley Donen’s little stinker from 1969 with Richard Burton and Rex Harrison mincing their way through a kitchen-sink soap opera that, by comparison, makes The Boys in the Band upbeat and life-affirming. It’s a forgettable flick, but still worth watching just to see movieland’s Caesar and Antony flitting about as two desperate old poofs.

Happily, the Screened Out series, inspired by Richard Barrios’ 2005 study, Screened Out: Playing Gay in Hollywood from Edison to Stonewall , offered lots of treats, including such seldom seen novelties as Hal Roach's hilariously bizarre screwball comedy Turnabout as well as George Cukor's brittle drawing-room comedy Our Betters made the same years as his Dinner at Eight and Little Women (1933)and featuring a rather grand leading-lady turn by Constance Bennett.

At the other end of the spectrum was Otto Preminger’s great, sprawling Advise and Consent which remains one of the most entertaining movies ever made about our nation’s capitol. It’s a marvelous political potboiler that actually makes a confirmation hearing a juicy springboard for all sorts of intrigue. It’s not a gay movie, per se, but since secrets and blackmail are essential to the plot, you can easily guess the subject of the cover-up. Based on Allen Drury’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, the movie is dark and jaded, showcasing some real Hollywood bluebloods in outstanding performances (Henry Fonda, Lew Ayers, Walter Pidgeon, a gorgeous Gene Tierney, and world-weary Franchot Tone), the best being a scenery-gobbling Charles Laughton, in his last performance, as Senator Seabright Cooley of South Carolina.

It’s said that all the major characters are based on actual politicos, thus Peter Lawford’s suave and charming take on JFK, his brother-in-law, is certainly irresistible. Among the youngsters in the cast, handsome and stalwart Don Murray is also quite good as the Mormon senator from Utah, Brigham "Brig" Anderson, the one with that desperate secret. And Inga Swenson is also on hand, as his long-suffering and noble wife. Weep for her.