The Gay Deceivers

I'm nuts about films from the 60s and this was a pretty adequate comedy about being gay to get out of going to Vietnam. It is interesting to see how gays were being represented in the popular cinema during a time when homosexuality was still pretty underground. But for me it was interesting knowing that the producer-director team of this film also made ANGELS FROM HELL, one of my favorite biker films. Weird, huh?

I saw this via YouTube May 12, 2018. Not great, but also not as bad as some people say. It's a mildly diverting farce offering comedic bits of average cleverness that must have seemed more clever in 1969. "Stereotype" cannot begin to capture the degree of subtlety on offer here. Michael Greer's portrayal of the guys' landlord, Malcolm, just seems crazy today, but everyone else in the movie, whether straight or gay, male or female, old or young, civilian or military, is similarly broadbrushed. A farce will do that. The story ingredients combine the response of Vietnam era young men facing the military draft with the status of gay people as not "normal". This farcical recipe had the misfortune of being overtaken by events only a few years later. Centuries old customs and understandings, thought permanent without even having to think about them, changed very fast. The movie was released in the year of Stonewall. The draft ended January 1, 1973, the United States' involvement in the Vietnam war a few weeks after that. Later that year the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its catalogue of mental disorders. Gone in less than four years was the movie's gay vs. "normal" dialectic . Gone as well was the story's premise of a military draft. The focus of conflict between gays and the military shifted to that of barring gays wanting to serve in the armed forces. There is a limit to how much blame attaches to making what was at the time, strangely enough, a mainstream, financially successful R-rated movie. It's hard enough to make any movie, let alone one that can anticipate sudden changes in what plausibly appeared at the time of filming to be the established patterns of life, law, and thinking, however much things needed to change. And did.

When "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" came out in the summer of 2007, it jogged my memory about a movie called "The Gay Deceivers" that was out when I was in junior high and which I was too young to see. Netflix didn't own a copy, but evidently they keep track of who inquires on movies they don't have and send it out when they get it. So boom, "The Gay Deceivers" arrives by surprise in my mailbox six months later. Regarding the review headlined, "Offensive and Unfunny", I'm going to say just one thing, in my campiest voice, "Oh Mary, lighten up". (How dare they make a movie in 1969 that offends my 21st century sensitivities!) Yes, some of it is hard to watch, maybe for me especially. It was made about the time of my sexual awakening, and some of the stereotypes depicted underscored for me why I had grown up with so much internalized homophobia. But they were making a farce and all they had to work with was how gays were perceived at the time. It's a little too much to expect them to have transcended the thinking of the time in which it was filmed. But on the other hand, some of it is still laugh out loud funny. Especially the scene where Michael Greer makes breakfast. I laughed, then I turned to my partner of fifteen years and said, "I suppose as a gay man I ought to be offended, but it's just so silly!"

If you view this movie based on modern terms you will find it incredibly homophobic.

If you look at it framed in 1960s American upper middle class society, it gives you an idea of how people looked at gays.

This movie was made during a time where homosexuality was still illegal in many states.

If you ignore the dated ideas and over the top camp, it's an interesting look at the time.

I find the clothes and styles to be really cool.

This little movie, from the end of the 1960s, is perhaps one of the finest "gay" films ever made. It certainly ranks among my Top Five favorites of the genre. Two straight guys wanting to avoid the draft for Vietnam, decide to play gay. Seems like a silly idea for a movie, and it is, but despite the premise and the usual stereotypes (typical of the period) it really is harmless and lots of fun.

The two lead male actors are fine, and their female counterparts do quite well too. The star of this show, however, is Michael Greer, who is superb as the "gay landlord". His character is pretty much an extreme stereotype, but so what? He plays it to perfection, and is probably the most interesting character in the whole film. The scene where he accuses an older woman of trampling his flower bed is the singular most funny scene in the whole movie, and it's all because of his delivery. Other nifty aspects about this film: the the 60s views of a gay bar (with the Tom of Finland-esque drawings along the walls), the views of L.A. from the time, and the really dated fashions/styles.

A fun movie, definitely worth a look if you like "gay" films as a genre, or just amusing "cult" type films.