When Hollywood made this film about homosexuality we were still in the dark ages. Homosexuals were either mincing queens, outright villains or deeply troubled sociopaths like the one Rod Steiger plays here. He's the kind of a man who won't admit to his feelings and who hides his passion for an extremely beautiful young soldier. played by John Phillip Law, under the guise of friendship. What distinguishes the film is Steiger's performance. It's a tour-de-force and among the best of his career. Steiger was to degenerate into the most appalling ham but here he was at the top of his game. He makes you forget the character is a cliché; he fleshes him out and turns him into a tragically flawed human being. It's just a pity the writer, Dennis Murphy who adapted the film from his own novel, saw fit to equate his psychosis with his homosexuality.
Law is pretty as well as being pretty vacant. On a physical level what gay man wouldn't be attracted to him but as one of the characters in "The Boys in the Band" says, you're hardly likely to have a conversation with him in the morning. Needless to say his career never went anywhere except to Europe. The movie itself adds up to a half-decent character study, (it's chiefly a two-hander and director John Flynn keeps it tight and focused, it draws you in), but it still probably put the cause of gay politics on screen back by about a decade.
Law is pretty as well as being pretty vacant. On a physical level what gay man wouldn't be attracted to him but as one of the characters in "The Boys in the Band" says, you're hardly likely to have a conversation with him in the morning. Needless to say his career never went anywhere except to Europe. The movie itself adds up to a half-decent character study, (it's chiefly a two-hander and director John Flynn keeps it tight and focused, it draws you in), but it still probably put the cause of gay politics on screen back by about a decade.