gay and lesbian films: a checklist
The following is a listing of titles on film and/or videocassette in the collection of special interest for their gay/lesbian content.
Note: The collection consists of 16mm film, VHS and Laserdisc titles. Please check the catalogue for the format of specific titles. In some cases, VHS titles may only be available as part of a study package. 
Films of particular gay or lesbian interest directed by gays working in the 'mainstream' industry.
Jean Cocteau
George Cukor
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
- Fox and His Friends
- In a Year of 13 Moons
- Querelle
Mitchell Leisen
- Easy Living (Franklin Pangborn)
Sergei Paradjanov
- The Legend of Suram Fortress
Pier Paolo Pasolini
- Rogopag = La Ricotta
- Teorema
Luchino Visconti
- The Damned
Films of special interest for the treatment of sexuality by gay/lesbian directors working outside the 'mainstream' industry.
Chantal Akerman
- Je, tu, il, elle
- Les rendez-vous d'Anna
Kenneth Anger
Stephen Cummins
James Broughton
Terence Davies
- Terence Davies Trilogy
- Long Day Closes
Germaine Dulac
- The Seashell and the Clergyman
Su Friedrich
- Damned If You Don't
- Rules of the Road
Jean Genet
Barbara Hammer
- Dyketactics
- Nitrate Kisses
Todd Haynes
Derek Jarman
- Blue
- Caravaggio
- The Garden
- The Last of England
- Sebastiane
- Wittgenstein
George Kuchar
- Pagan Rhapsody
Gregory Markopolous
- Eros O Basileus
- Himself as Herself
- Illiac Passion (magnetic sound)
- Twice a Man
Paul Morissey
Jan Oxenburg
- A Comedy in Six Unnatural Acts
Ron Peck
- Strip Jack Naked-Nighthawks II
Mark Rappaport
Jack Smith
- Blonde Cobra
- Flaming Creatures
Monika Treut
- Seduction: The Cruel Woman
Rosa von Praunheim
Andy Warhol
- Beauty #2
- Blow Job
- Chelsea Girls
- Lonesome Cowboys
- My Hustler
- Vinyl
Peter Wells
- Death in the Family
- Foolish Things
- Jewel's Darl
- My First Suit
- Adam
- The Best of Out & Out On Tuesday
- Billy Budd
- The Boys in the Band Brad*
- The Clinic
- If...
- King and Country
- The Leather Boys
- The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg*
- The Life and Times of Harvey Milk*
- Marquis
- Mayhem
- Michaël (1924)
- A Midsummer Night's Dream (Lindsay Kemp Co.)
- Morris Loves Jack
- Night Out
- Performance
- The Servant
- Strip Jack Naked
- Squeeze
- Zéro de Conduite
- Before Stonewall*
- The Conformist
- Liquid Sky
- Pink Triangles*
- Witches, Faggots, Dykes and Poofters*
Includes Pandora's Box, probably the first film to present a well-developed lesbian character-Countess Geschwitz played by Alice Roberts.
- Aileen Wournos
- At Land
- Les biches
- Born in Flames
- Cass
- Celine and Julie Go Boating
- Daughters of Darkness
- Les diaboliques
- Holding
- Jenny
- Lilith
- Mädchen in Uniform (cut version)
- On Guard
- Only the Brave
- Pandora's Box
- Persona
- Privilege
- Rome, Open City
- Secret Ceremony
- Showtime
- Seven Women
- The Silence
- Skindeep
- Spot the Lesbian
Mainstream features with gay/lesbian characters in memorable supporting roles or that have notably repressed or implied homosexual relationships at their centre. Although not listed, the independent experimental feature Borderline (1930) is worthy of mention for its treatment of racial prejudice and sexual ambiguity that was remarkable for its time.
- All About Eve - hints remain that Eve was originally written as a lesbian.
- The Big Combo - Richard Conte's henchmen are a covertly gay couple.
- The Big Sky - Kirk Douglas and Dewey Martin make eyes at each other.
- Blood Money (1933) - notably ambiguous sexual tension with the existence of homosexuality openly acknowledged in the fringe subculture of the underworld.
- The Bride of Frankenstein - the sissified Dr. Praetorius (Ernest Theisinger) is a 'twilight gay' inhabiting thirties horror in this film directed by the openly gay James Whale.
- The Children's Hour+ - Despite suppression by the director of all overt acknowledgement, MacLaine consciously played the part as if Martha was discovering her own lesbianism.
- Deliverance - the malevolence of buggery-minded hillbillies provides cause for revenge.
- Diary of a Lost Girl - Louise Brooks as a wronged innocent spends time in a sexually charged "school for wayward girls" with lesbian dancer and actress Veleska Gert as the sadistic headmistress.
- The Getting of Wisdom - hints of lesbianism in a young ladies' academy in turn of the century Melbourne.
- A Girl in Every Port - a love affair between two men while Louise Brooks looks on.
- In a Lonely Place - Gloria Grahame has a lesbian masseuse who distrusts Humphrey Bogart.
- Johnny Guitar - Mercedes McCambridge zealously represses her yen for Joan Crawford.
- The Left-Handed Gun - based on gay playwright Gore Vidal's teleplay-opens the possibility that Billy the Kid was a repressed homosexual, 'the first sort of strange western ever made' (Vidal).
- The Maltese Falcon - Greenstreet, Lorre and Cook form a gay trio.
- Man of Flowers - bisexual Lisa leaves her boyfriend for a lesbian friend-a notably matter-of-fact presentation of their relationship.
- Only Angels Have Wings - Grant and Barthelmess find satisfaction only in each other.
- Only Yesterday - Franklin Pangborn plays the most explicit homosexual character of his career (see also Easy Living).
- Queen Christina - a crypto-lesbian love story.
- Reaching For the Moon - Douglas Fairbanks takes lessons in love from his valet (Edward Everett Horton).
- Red River - sexual repression in the Wayne-Clift and Clift-Ireland relationships.
- Strangers on a Train - Robert Walker plays a subtly psychopathic gay.
- Starstruck - includes what is probably the first 'coming out' musical production number.
- Their First Mistake (short) - Hardy's wife sues Laurel for alienation of her husband's affections and the most innocent of odd couples acquire a baby after Mrs. Hardy's departure.
- Wings - a heterosexual love story barely masks the homosexual inferences between 'Buddy' Rogers and Richard Arlen.
*entries appear only in the Film and Video Lending Catalogue on microfiche
+ entries will appear in the next issue of Film & Video Acquistions.
- Dyer, Richard. Now You See It: Studies on Lesbian and Gay Film. London: Routledge, 1990.
- Murray, Raymond. Images in the Dark: An Encyclopedia of Gay and Lesbian Film and Video. Philadelphia, Pa.: TLA Publications, 1994.
- Russo, Vito. The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies. Rev. ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1987.
Last updated 12 August 1996 - Bruce Hodsdon, Curator, Film & Video Lending Collection.
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