Bent Picture Awards
My picks for best film with gay themes for each year.
For early films, if the film features any gay characters at all they qualify.
I've tried to limit the list to films that I've seen personally but some of these are just films that I've heard about but not yet tracked down and/or viewed.
Unless they are clearly inferior, movies are ranked over series.
For early films, if the film features any gay characters at all they qualify.
I've tried to limit the list to films that I've seen personally but some of these are just films that I've heard about but not yet tracked down and/or viewed.
Unless they are clearly inferior, movies are ranked over series.
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- DirectorWilliam K.L. DicksonStarsWilliam K.L. DicksonThe earliest extant sound film. William K.L. Dickson stands in the background next to a huge sound pickup horn connected to a Thomas Edison phonograph recorder. As he plays a violin, two men dance in the foreground. This film was made to demonstrate a new Thomas Edison machine, the Kinetophone. These machines were Kinetoscope peepshow viewers mated with Thomas Edison wax cylinder phonographs. But the Kinetophone never caught on and this film was never released. The film still exists, but the phonograph soundtrack has been lost.
- DirectorAlice GuyHarry SchenckEdward WarrenStarsBilly QuirkMary FoyAlgie Allmore has one year to prove he's a man in order to wed Harry Lyons' daughter.
- DirectorSidney DrewStarsSidney DrewEdith StoreyCharles KentA young woman discovers a seed that can make women act like men and men act like women. She decides to take one, then slips one to her maid and another to her fiancé. The fun begins.
- DirectorRichard OswaldStarsConrad VeidtLeo ConnardIlse von Tasso-LindTwo male musicians fall in love, but blackmail and scandal makes the affair take a tragic turn.
- DirectorCarl Theodor DreyerStarsWalter SlezakBenjamin ChristensenNora GregorTriangle story: painter, his young male model, unscrupulous princess.
- DirectorLouis J. GasnierStarsClara BowDonald KeithLillian LeightonStreet people Armand and Marie are madly in love, and she persuades Armand and other gang members to rob the home of Pierre Marcel, a wealthy scientist. The police break up the robbery but Pierre hides Armand from them because he kept a gang member from stabbing him, but Armand is wounded in doing so. When Armand regains his health, Pierre takes him around town and introduces him to many women, and Armand has no objections. Marie - jealous of the women - swears revenge on Marcel. They meet and he falls in love with her, and they are married while Armand is away in London. On their wedding night, Marie tells Marcel she is an Apache and her revenge is complete, and she rushes into Armand's arms. But another Apache, in love with Marie, wounds her with a gun shot.
- DirectorJack ConwayStarsWilliam HainesJack PickfordMary BrianTom Brown shows up at Harvard, confident and a bit arrogant. He becomes a rival of Bob McAndrew, not only in football and rowing crew, but also for the affections of Mary Abbott, a professor's daughter.
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanHarry d'Abbadie d'ArrastStarsClara BowCharles 'Buddy' RogersRichard ArlenTwo young men, one rich, one middle class, who are in love with the same woman, become fighter pilots in World War I.
- DirectorWilliam DieterleStarsWilliam DieterleGunnar TolnæsMary JohnsonA young man is convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to a term in prison. There he forms a close relationship with his cellmate and upon his release his wife is concerned as to how prison has changed the man she married.
- DirectorCharles BrabinCharles VidorStarsBoris KarloffLewis StoneKaren MorleyEnglishmen race to find the tomb of Genghis Khan before the sinister Fu Manchu does.
- DirectorJames Sibley WatsonMelville WebberStarsFriedrich HaakHildegarde WatsonDorthea HouseLot in Sodom is a sensual depiction of the Sodom and Gomorrah story filled with sinewy and semi-clad bodies, delirious bacchanales devoted to physical pleasure, and a searing, cataclysmic finale depicting the fall of a city devoted to sins of the flesh. Digitally mastered from excellent 35mm elements. Lot In Sodom has its original experimental soundtrack by Alec Wilder.
- DirectorJean GrémillonStarsJean GabinMireille BalinPierre EtchepareSoldier Lucien meets elegant Madeleine one night in Cannes. Lovestruck, he follows her to Paris after he is discharged. Their love affair begins anew, but eventually runs cold and he returns to Orange in the south of France. She follows.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsJames StewartJohn DallFarley GrangerTwo men try to convince themselves they've committed the perfect murder by hosting a dinner party after strangling a former classmate to death.
- DirectorKenneth AngerStarsKenneth AngerGordon GrayBill SeltzerA dissatisfied dreamer awakes, goes out in the night seeking a 'light' and is drawn through the needle's eye. A dream of a dream, he returns to bed less empty than before.
- DirectorJean GenetStarsBravoJean GenetJavaTwo prisoners in complete isolation, separated by the thick brick walls, and desperately in need of human contact, devise a most unusual kind of communication.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsFarley GrangerRobert WalkerRuth RomanA psychopathic man tries to forcibly persuade a tennis star to agree to his theory that two strangers can get away with murder by submitting to his plan to kill the other's most-hated person.
- DirectorPhilip LeacockStarsDirk BogardeJon WhiteleyMichael HordernRather undiplomatic British diplomat Harrington Brande (Sir Michael Hordern) takes up his new post in Spain accompanied by his son Nicholas (Jon Whiteley). The posting is something of a disappointment to Harrington, who was hoping for a promotion. That his wife had left him seems to have affected his career. Nicholas sees it all as something of an adventure, and soon becomes fast friends with the new gardener, José (Sir Dirk Bogarde). The apparently "delicate" Nicholas becomes attached to José, and Harrington's jealousy leads him to bar Nicholas from even speaking to José. As tensions mount, another servant frames José for theft, forcing everyone to review the situation.
- DirectorVeit HarlanStarsPaula WesselyPaul DahlkeHans NielsenKlaus is a young man in post-war Berlin. He is drawn to his friend Manfred and, under the encouragement of their acquaintance, Dr. Winkler, explore the underground world of gay clubs and electronic music. His family begins to learn of his other life and do everything they can to set him straight.
- DirectorRichard BrooksStarsElizabeth TaylorPaul NewmanBurl IvesBrick is an alcoholic ex-football player who drinks his days away and resists the affections of his wife. A reunion with his terminal father jogs a host of memories and revelations for both father and son.
- DirectorJoseph L. MankiewiczStarsElizabeth TaylorKatharine HepburnMontgomery CliftA surgeon is assigned the case of a young woman whose aunt wants her lobotomized to cover up a family secret.
- DirectorBasil DeardenStarsDirk BogardeSylvia SymsDennis PriceA closeted lawyer risks his career to bring a blackmailer to justice.
- DirectorOtto PremingerStarsFranchot ToneLew AyresHenry FondaThe polarizing search for a new Secretary of State has far-reaching consequences.
- DirectorDavid SecterStarsJohn LabowHenry TarvainenJoy FieldingIts the 1960s at the University of Toronto. Doug is a well-liked senior with an equally popular girlfriend. Peter is a shy freshman, and new to the big city. Peter and Doug become best friends and soon start going to concerts, drinking, and playing in the snow together. When Doug brings Peter to a steam bath and washes his back, the friendship seems headed to a whole new level, at least in Doug's mind. But when Peter emerges from a party after having sex with a co-ed, things get even more complicated...
- DirectorBruce KesslerStarsKevin CoughlinBrooke BundyLawrence P. CaseyDanny and Elliot avoid military service by pretending to be gay, but they have to act the part when the recruiting officer doesn't buy it.
- DirectorDouglas HickoxStarsBeryl ReidHarry AndrewsPeter McEnerySloane, a manipulative lodger, joins Kath's household. Kemp recognizes Sloane as a murderer. Sloane kills Kemp. The story takes an unexpected turn regarding Sloane's fate, deviating from conventional justice.