John Payne, Reluctant He-Man

Probably best known as the nice-guy-next-door in "Miracle on 34th Street," John Payne's most interesting work came a bit later in his career, as he took on tougher roles in noir and westerns.

Even in "Miracle on 34th Street" he caught my eye when I was a kid - his big brown eyes and sensuously hairy forearms. But who knew that under the conservative lawyer's suit lurked a hirsute mass of muscle? Perhaps that very contrast is what is most arousing - John Payne is the reluctant he-man. Can he help it if he has those thighs and that chest?

John Payne in "Miracle on 34th Street"...

...and in "Kid Nightingale"

As he aged and his pretty-boyish looks grew more rugged, his on-screen persona also gained depth - hinting at buried hurts, disappointments, and pain that could lead him to tremendous empathy, as well as unexpected violent outbursts.

Perhaps his most compelling role is Ernie Driscoll in "99 River Street," a crackling film noir in which he plays a washed up boxer trying for one last chance to redeem himself. In the opening fight sequence, fancy-dancing in his trunks, his hairy chest glistening and his face twisted into an angry sneer, he is the personification of raw male sex and violence.

"Be a good boy and open your mouth"

So says macho Gilbert Roland, straddling the chest of blond punk Peter Graves, just before force-feeding a cigar all the way down the young man's throat. The film is "Beneath the 12-Mile Reef" (1953) and the scene is jaw-dropping in its overtones of male-on-male sexual domination. So much so that the cigar-shoving segment was cut when the film was restored for widescreen DVD release. To see it, you have to find an unrestored full-frame public domain version such as the one embedded below or available here.







Mexican-born Gilbert Roland is one of my favorite classic movie hunks. Originally a silent-film matinee idol, he just got more rugged and sexier as he matured into middle age, still steamy hot into his 50's. Not just a handsome face with a killer hairy body, he was also a very good actor, imbuing his characters with warmth and emotional depth. [Best role I've seen him in: as a Cuban revolutionary in John Huston's "We Were Strangers" (1949).]



The star of "Beneath the 12-Mile Reef" is a very young Robert Wagner, who spends much of the movie wriggling underwater in his swimming trunks. An early CinemaScope film, the widescreen process was supposed to mesmerize moviegoers with the beauty of the ocean deep.... but it's Robert Wagner's beauty that steals every shot.







Gilbert and Robert play father and son sponge fishermen in Florida, and the story is a reworking of Romeo and Juliet, as Robert falls for the daughter of a rival fishing family. It's not bad as melodrama, but the real draw for me is the chance to watch Gilbert and Robert, making the film a total homoerotic treat.

You should try to see both versions: The restored widescreen version, because the picture quality is excellent, and the unrestored full-frame version, so you can watch Gilbert shoving his big thing into Peter Graves's mouth. The unrestored version is embedded here (cigar segment begins at about minute 36:00).

Gazing through my gay lens

Thirty years ago, when I was a senior in high school, the library in my hometown ran a summer film festival in the basement. The early evening sun would still be harsh and blazing as each Thursday I ducked down the stairs into the cool darkness, where a 16mm projector would click away into the evening. There, flickering and silvery, Cary Grant, Gregory Peck, Humphrey Bogart, Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power, Alan Ladd, and Marlon Brando seduced me from the pull-down screen...seduced me into the world of beautiful male film idols, and into the dream world of classic film itself.

This blog will take a loving (and lustful) look at male beauty, sexuality, and homoeroticism in classic film and TV. Sometimes I will focus on a specific film or scene, sometimes a particular actor, sometimes a textual theme or film genre. I plan to survey not only the most famous films and biggest stars, but also (and especially) lesser-known pictures and B-movie actors, whose magnetism is none the less potent for having been overlooked by fandom. (Sometimes, less constrained by the studio system, these forgotten films and second-string movie men are all the more compelling and surprisingly frank.) Always my gaze will be that of a man appreciating the beauty of other men, and exploring the charged (frequently sexually charged) relationships between and among them.

Although classic film almost never dealt explicitly with male-male sexual relationships, often the bonds depicted verge on the intensity and complexity of the sexual, in ways that are fascinating (not to mention arousing) to explore.

So grab some popcorn, your boyfriend's hand (or whatever else of his you'd like to grab) and prepare to be spellbound in darkness with me.