The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies

Russo, Vito. "The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies", Harper and Row, 1987. The Granddaddy of Them All Amos Lassen Vito Russo's "The Celluloid Closet" is one of the first gay non-fiction books that I read. In fact, I reread it every once in a while. The first edition came out in 1981 and it broke ground and it still does so now 28 years later. It is informative and provocative as it looks at the images of homosexuality and gender variance on the silver screen from the 1920s to modern times. With the history of cinema is also the history of gay life in America. The book is full of useful information about the gay and lesbian presence in film and it is a wonderful reference guide. Considering that the book was first published before queer independent cinema and before mainstream cinema allowed for a gay presence on the screen, this is quite an accomplishment. Russo uncovered hundreds of long forgotten films and gives us a survey of our presence on film. Before he died, Russo updated the book to include some of the new independently released movies such as "The Times of Harvey Milk" and "Buddies". The book explains how gay images were created by Hollywood and how they shaped America's ideas about homosexuality as well as altering the gay community's self image. Keeping in mind that Russo was an amateur writer, this is still an excellent study. His own personality is felt beneath the prose and this is what, I believe, drives the book. There are errors in the text but it is necessary to overlook them and be thankful that we have this book.

Valley Gay Press Book Reviewer: Liz Bradbury (Author of Angel Food and Devil Dogs - A Maggie Gale Mystery) This was a ground breaking book in 1985, and it still is a fascinating, information filled read that is essential to any student of GLBT history. Film historian Vito Russo offers dozens of stories and photos that show how our community has been portrayed on film since the silent era. A significant amount of Russo's research focuses on gay and lesbian portrayals as both sex objects and seductive villains, before the advent of the Hayes office in 1934. The Hayes office effectively "outlawed" the presence of any gay character on film unless they were shown as despicable villains who were ultimately punished, usually dying by the end of the movie. By the time Russo's book was published in the mid 80s, Hayes office restrictions against sex, crime, and violence had generally faded away, however, Russo shows how film depictions of GLBT people were still showing the intolerant views of pre-war conservative attitudes. In 1995, Lily Tomlin helped to finance a documentary film version of Russo's research. It not only features dozens of classic movie clips, but contains a series of interviews by Hollywood stars, writers and historians, including openly GLBT people like Farley Granger and Gore Vidal, and supportive allies like Tom Hanks and Susan Sarandon. (It's worth seeing just for Sarandon's take on sex scenes with Catherine Deneve). The documentary presents a great deal of information that is not in the book. But readers should note that the book contains a vast amount of material not in the movie. Don't miss either. They are both funny, sexy and thought provoking.

This is one of the very few books that has useful information on gays in cinema from the beginning of the film industry to (somewhat) present day. I used it as research for a writing project on homosexuals in film and it was probably the most useful source as a stepping stone of information. By current standards, some academics may say that this book is outdated and "overdone" however I consider it to be the best single source of information on gays in film to date. I question why there are so few other "popular" publications that branch out from the wonderful points and concepts that Vito Russo makes.

The movie "The Celluloid Closet" is great, but you occasionally get the feeling that the directors are straining to make a point about homosexuality in old movies. But you never feel this way reading Russo's book. Russo is not a gifted prose stylist, the writing of the book is wel, it's prosaic, but he's a good writer with a keen eye and an excellent memory. If you've seen the movie and enjoyed it get this book to complete the experience.

Russo, now deceased, published the first edition of this book in 1981, in the dark ages before queer independent cinema, and before mainstream cinema began the tradition of giving every female lead a gay man for a best buddy -- back when gay men appeared only as swishy queens or psychotic killers, and lesbians appeared only as psychotic killers, period. He exhumed hundreds of long-forgotten films, from moody German expressionism through the fluffy bedroom farces of the 1950's, and created an invaluable survey of the way movies look at gay people, comparable in scope to Donald Bogle's survey of African-Americans in film, "Toms, Coons, Mulattos, Mammies, and Bucks." We desperately need an update, but for everything from Laurel and Hardy shorts to "Personal Best," this is the place to go.