The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender

Filmmaker Mark Rappaport ( ROCK HUDSON'S HOME MOVIES) once again digs deep into the celluloid closet to uncover the secret -- and often not so secret -- history of gay male characters in Hollywood movies. In what amounts to a 101-minute "cinema essay," Rappaport looks at the ways in which Hollywood, while outwardly disgusted by the very idea of romantically linked men, obsessively returns to the idea, offering up the shocking scenario, then defusing it with laughter. Thus, Rappaport finds nervous fag-gags and wacky gender confusions running rampant in countless films, from the obvious "sissies" of 1930s comedies and musicals (like the transcendently prissy Franklin...