Based on "End as a Man" by Calder Willingham it's strange alright, if only for the homoerotic sadism dispensed at the Citadel by newcomer Ben Gazzara (who gets it in the end...). Stretched the limits for1957. Also the debut of George Peppard, looking fine. The movie poster was sexy as hell -- for the time. The film is listed as a "noir/thriller" but looks more like it was released by Bareback Cum Pigs. Anyone seen it? I mean, Damn!
[quote]Ben Gazzara (who gets it in the end.
I'd have gladly give it to Ben Gazzara in "the end."
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | February 20, 2024 1:24 AM |
They staged it as a play in the early 50s with the cast from the Actor's Studio. Sam Spiegel bought it and wanted Elia Kazan to direct James Dean in the Ben Gazzara part.
"Viewing the actual film, you cannot help but spot the gay coding that is implicit in Willingham’s text, Garfien’s direction and the overall playing of the cast. Remarkably, whilst there is only one outwardly homosexual character in the movie – Cadet Perrin ‘Cockroach’ McKee, played with an effeminately grotesque gusto to rival Truman Capote by Paul E. Richards – almost every character is suffused with overwhelming homoeroticism and none more so than Jocko De Paris himself. Indeed, I would argue that it is the relationship between De Paris and the cadet he nicknames ‘Cockroach’, that forms the most compelling evidence of his own sexuality."
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | February 20, 2024 1:39 AM |
Yeah, by 1957 standards it’s shocking. You feel male-on-male rape is about to break out throughout.
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | February 20, 2024 1:40 AM |
[quote]r2 They staged it as a play in the early 50s with the cast from the Actor's Studio.
The director was husband-to-be of DL icon Carroll Baker.
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | February 20, 2024 2:22 AM |
Damn! Garfein was deported to Auschwitz at the age of 13 and survived 11 concentration camps.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | February 20, 2024 2:24 AM |
That’s one reason Baker didn’t divorce him much earlier than she did. She would have felt too guilty.
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | February 20, 2024 2:57 AM |