Turner Classic Movies
Since it’s one of those weird gay movies from before Stonewall that I haven’t seen, I’m DVRing Reflections in a Golden Eye, a movie about repressed homosexual (and heterosexual) desire starring Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor and directed by the great John Huston.
Not considered Huston’s best movie by far (that would be The Treasure of Sierra Madre or The African Queen) but doing such a weird, queer movie with the world’s biggest stars – Brando and Taylor – was a huge risk that didn’t quite pay off.
As Vito Russo wrote in The Celluloid Closet, the film is not remotely progressive in its politics: Brando’s character can only see homosexuality as a manifestation of the effeminate. As a historical document, Reflections in a Golden Eye is vital. Just don’t take it seriously as a tutorial on how to be gay.
