The Boys in the Band (1970)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

William Friedkin

Writers:

Mart Crowley (play)
Mart Crowley (screenplay)

Release Date:

17 March 1970 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

"The Boys in the Band" ...is not a musical.

Plot:

Tempers fray and true selves are revealed when a heterosexual is accidentally invited to a homosexual party.

Plot Keywords:

Party | Birthday | Apartment | Jewish | Gay

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Kenneth Nelson	...	Michael
Frederick Combs	...	Donald
Cliff Gorman	...	Emory
Laurence Luckinbill	...	Hank
Keith Prentice	...	Larry
Peter White	...	Alan McCarthy
Reuben Greene	...	Bernard
Robert La Tourneaux	...	Cowboy Tex
Leonard Frey	...	Harold
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Maud Adams	...	Photo Model (uncredited)
Elaine Kaufman	...	Extra / pedestrian (uncredited)

Directed by
William Friedkin

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Mart Crowley		play
Mart Crowley		screenplay

Produced by
Mart Crowley	....	producer
Dominick Dunne	....	executive producer
Robert Jiras	....	executive producer
Kenneth Utt	....	associate producer

Cinematography by
Arthur J. Ornitz

Film Editing by
Gerald B. Greenberg
Carl Lerner

Production Design by
John Robert Lloyd

Set Decoration by
Philip Smith

Costume Design by
W. Robert La Vine

Makeup Department
Verne Caruso	....	hair stylist
John Jiras	....	makeup artist
Bob O'Bradovich	....	makeup supervisor

Production Management
Paul Ganapoler	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Fred T. Gallo	....	assistant director
William C. Gerrity	....	assistant director

Art Department
Joseph M. Caracciolo	....	property master
Edward Garzero	....	master scenic artist
James Halligan	....	construction grip (as Jim Halligan)
Robert H. Klatt	....	set dresser (as Robert Klatt)
Ken Paquette	....	head carpenter
Robert Wightman	....	assistant art director

Sound Department
Jean Bagley	....	dubbing editor
Arthur Bloom	....	boom operator
Vincent Connelly	....	sound editor
Jack Fitzstephens	....	sound editor
Al Gramaglia	....	sound re-recording mixer
Jack C. Jacobsen	....	sound
Sanford Rackow	....	sound editor
James Perdue	....	sound (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Michael Mahony	....	key grip
Sal Martorano	....	chief electrician
Willie Meyerhoff	....	chief electrician
Dick Mingalone	....	camera operator
Muky	....	still photographer
Felix Trimboli	....	assistant camera

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Joseph W. Dehn	....	wardrobe supervisor

Editorial Department
Lynn Lewis Lovett	....	assistant editor

Other crew
Everett Alson	....	title designer: main titles
Peter Benoit	....	unit publicist
Nancy Hopton	....	script supervisor (as Nancy Tonery)
Adeline Leonard Seakwood	....	production secretary (as Adeline Leonard)
Ruth A. Oberdorfer	....	secretary to producers (as Ruth Oberdorfer)
Lillian Osorowitz	....	production auditor

Production Companies

• Cinema Center Films
• Leo Films

Distributors

• National General Pictures (1970) (USA) (theatrical)
• S.N. Prodis (1970) (France) (theatrical)
• Umbrella Entertainment (2009) (Australia) (DVD)

Runtime:

118 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

France:-16 (1972) | Australia:R | UK:15 | Finland:K-16 | Norway:18 (1972) | Sweden:15 | USA:R | Iceland:12

Company:

Cinema Center Films

Trivia:

Stars all of the same actors from the original play. Producer/author Mart Crowley insisted that the entire original cast of the off-Broadway production be used in the film.

Goofs:

Continuity: When he arrives at the party, Cowboy's hairstyle is completely different than it was when he appeared in opening montage as street hustler just several hours earlier.

Quotes:

Michael: Show me a happy homosexual and I'll show you a gay corpse.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Indie Sex: Censored (2007) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Take The Fifth Amendment

"King of the Pig People!"

I suppose all gay men must have a reaction to BITB one way or another. It must be respected for being incredibly daring when it came out: the first play to focus exclusively on gay characters and show us as average men with basically normal lives. (As late as the 60s few plays, & far fewer films, even acknowledged gays existed; those that did used gays as symbols of abasement or decadence. 'Different from the Others'-1919 and 'Victim'-1961 were isolated exceptions.) The sexually frank dialog was also a groundbreaker. A gay friend who saw the original stage production remembers being astonished by Harold's line, 'Your lips are turning blue. You look like you've been rimming a snowman!' Crowley wins laurels for being the first playwright to present our community without apology.

That said, I admit I found the film dated when I first saw it in the 80s, when I was in my 20s. Watching it now, I have a different reaction. For one thing, I adore the brilliant dialog. What an inspiration to write a comedy of manners set in the archly mannered world of New York gays! There hasn't been a screenplay with this many epigrams per inch since 'All About Eve.'

The first act is funny and marvelous. The second act teeters into melodrama, stealing the device of all-night boozing and humiliating party games to 'strip characters bare' from 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' Michael, the host and game emcee, is such a bitch that we can't feel sympathy when Harold confronts and effectively destroys him. Kenneth Nelson's performance as Michael doesn't help: it's like an acting class exercise, all shrieking and hysterics.

While the ensemble as a whole is strong, Leonard Frey's brilliant, definitive Harold enables him to walk off with the film. The straight Cliff Gorman does fine work as the flaming, ultimately touching Emory; Keith Prentice is very good as the one well-adjusted party goer, the happy sensualist Larry; and Reuben Greene and Frederick Combs make the best of underwritten characters (Combs get lots of chances to show his rear end to great advantage, including a gratuitous nude shot).

Besides good acting, the film has other points to recommend it. The film's 'opening up' of the play is never intrusive or contrived. Friedkin's camera never seems trapped, though almost the entire picture is shot in one apartment, and he keeps the story moving swiftly along. And Crowley shows courage in leaving the question of Alan's sexuality somewhat ambiguous, despite his affirming his wife as the person he truly loves, thereby rejecting Michael as a gay man and precipitating his collapse.

The themes of love, truth, self-loathing, friendship and relationships speak to audiences gay & straight. They are dealt with in a well made film and a script crafted with wit and humor. While the 'if we could just not hate ourselves so much' viewpoint does date the movie, it has more skill and substance than 75% of the films on the market-and (I agree with other posters) 99% of the 'gay' films out there now.