Screened Out

by Richard Barrios

Rapacious dykes, self-loathing closet cases, hustlers, ambiguous sophisticates, and sadomasochistic rich most of what America thought it knew about gay people it learned at the movies. A fresh and revelatory look at sexuality in the Great Age of movie making, Screened Out shows how much gay and lesbian lives have shaped the Big Screen. Spanning popular American cinema from the 1900s until today, distinguished film historian Richard Barrios presents a rich, compulsively readable analysis of how Hollywood has used and depicted gays and the mixed signals it has given Marlene in a top hat, Cary Grant in a negligee, a pansy cowboy in The Dude Wrangler . Such iconoclastic images, Barrios argues, send powerful messages about tragedy and obsession, but also about freedom and compassion, even empowerment.

Mining studio records, scripts, drafts (including cut scenes), censor notes, reviews, and recollections of viewers, Barrios paints our fullest picture yet of how gays and lesbians were portrayed by the dream factory, warning that we shouldn't congratulate ourselves quite so much on the progress movies - and the real world -- have made since Stonewall.

Captivating, myth-breaking, and funny, Screened Out is for all film aficionados and for anyone who has sat in a dark movie theater and drawn strength and a sense of identity from what they saw on screen, no matter how fleeting or coded.

Genres: Nonfiction, Film, History, LGBT, Pop Culture, American History, Queer

418 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Samantha Glasser]

Richard Barrios is a regular attendee of Cinevent (now the Columbus Moving Picture Show) and I've had the privilege of chatting with him many times. He is an intelligent, thoughtful and kind person with a distinctive way of speaking, and I can hear his voice when I read this book.

It is clear he had some fun writing this, finding nuggets like the joke about a scandalous lesbian novel in an early Zasu Pitts film. And it is no wonder he had difficulty either. This is a broad and nuanced subject.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Screened Out was a historic timepiece.

From the beginnings of Cinema up to Stonewall, Richard Barrios shares the history of Gays and Lesbians (mostly that's it) on screen.
Broken down between the eras, 20's, 30's...up to the 70's, we see the stars, directors, stereotypes, homophobia, subtle (or not so subtle) nods, and how the world's history, (that darn code) and film studios shaped how the public and homosexual community were viewed.

There are hundreds of films, characters, and moments mentioned by Barrios throughout and thrown back as homages to the previous or bygone eras of characters or storylines. The late 60's kind of hurt more than any other, mainly due to Hollywood and the Code (on its way out, thank god) being way more "Homosexuality is bad and the Queer characters get what they deserve".

While I knew of a lot of the stories about some of the bigger name actors, actresses and playwrights whose works were being adapted, this was still very eye-opening. I was taking notes.
There are at least 56 films and/or people mentioned that I will be further diving down.
I don't usually stay immersed in non-fiction, particularly when a lot of the stories or moments weren't exactly positive (either in influence, audience or Code team backlash, or impact).

Hollywood was (and is definitely more so now than ever) QUEER AF! This book will shine a well deserved spotlight onto the legacy that has shaped generations.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

There wasn't anything in the broad sense new to me in this book. It was more inclusive of Hollywood history than _The Celluloid Closet_ but much less entertaining. Maybe its tone was too scholarly. For a book about movies there were too few stills. Granted, many of the movies mentioned exist only as a script in whole or in part or as butchered and cut to shred old prints that never get played. Still, it would've been nice to see more pictures of the men and women who portrayed us over the decades. Over and over there was the conflict with the MPAA and the Roman Catholic Legion of Decency over how horrible it would be to show that homosexual men and women exist, and then, no matter how evil and sick they were shown to be, oh, for God's sake, don't show any sign of affection or even just plain old lust. The book drags and is rather repetitive, but what can you do when homophobia ruled the roost for decades.

[Mick Meyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting observations on the hidden gay universe within cinema,some more hidden than others.its surprising to me that they started off so blatant with their observations in the beginning of film,then went through a puritanical stage only to become more to the front in more contemporary cinema.i do find the hidden text within film for example Ben hur very interesting.the added bonus of bugs bunny with a page to himself,don't ask just read and enjoy.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comprehensive history

This book covers the history of gays in cinema from the silent era up to Boys in the Band. It's extremely interesting and entertaining. My only carp is that it desperately needs editing. The amount of typos really detracts from what is essentially a very good book.

[Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and fun read into some little known Hollywood movies.