La escalera

This was a poor play,so naturally it made a poor movie.The casting was amiss. Harrison and Burton were two of the centuries finest actors, but, also two of the centuries most notorious womanizers, Harrison tries his best but manages only to give a few honest moments. Burton does not even accomplish that much. a total homosexual stereotype that would be more appropriate to a farce. Cathleen Nesbitt as Burton's mother gives the only honest portrayal in the film.But why blame the actors? It all boils down to the direction. a director is the controlling force of a film. if he could not evoke honest portrayals it rest on his head. ( AND THE AUTHOR.). a waste of talent in a poor production.

While the film in general, and actors Burton and Harrison in particular, were an embarrassment to all involved; it was based on the play by Charles Dyer which played in London's West End and on Broadway to great success. The stage version was about 180 degrees removed from the film version. The Broadway production of "Staircase" starred Eli Wallach and Milo O'Shea, and was directed by Barry Morse. Barry Morse said the following about the stage play: "It was one of the first productions to show truthful - but at the same moving and funny - portrayals of gay life. The film version was damaging to the text of the play, which was written in a very perceptive and sensitive way. It wasn't meant to be played as if it was some flagrantly exaggerated review sketch."

When I think of how hard it is even now to cast heterosexual men in gay roles just the fact that Richard Burton and Rex Harrison consented to play gay in Staircase might make this a landmark film of some note. But a lot of the ground covered in Staircase was far better done in Boys In The Band a much better work. Charles Dyer's play only ran 61 performances on Broadway even with Milo O'Shea and Eli Wallach in the roles that Burton and Harrison do.

Two of the most aggressively heterosexual men in the history of film star as a pair aging hairdressers who live together over their shop where Burton's mother whom he takes care of. These two are sadly aware that youth trumps all in the gay male culture. Burton's taking it far worse because he's grown bald and is afraid to show his new Kojak like looks. He goes nearly the entire film with some kind of skullcap that makes him look like a conehead who met with an accident.

Dyer himself expanded his two person show to include some small speaking parts. Cathleen Nesbitt is Burton's mom and she's a bedridden old crank that Burton is tied to. None of the others have any great speaking roles. Some blond trick Harrison picks up is involved in an extended scene with Burton, Harrison, and Nesbitt, but he has as much dialog as one of those extra Bowery Boys.

Boys In The Band has it way over Staircase other than actor's salaries.

All this film does is insult the intelligence and lifestyle of adult gay men. The shock value of watching two famously heterosexual male actors primp and mince about as poofs is about all this mixed up mess has going for it. I don't recall (for some strange reason) much of the specific lines of dialog, but I do remember that much of that was just as bad as most of the acting and all of the direction. This film survives the years as a curio only. If the director wanted to make fun of gays, he should have made a film with Nazi punks beating up their fellow gay officers, or better yet killing them-or something.

BTW, the Burton character is not a hairdresser, he's actually a barber, cutting men's hair--not necessarily a gay profession. Sexy Rexy plays a down on his luck, never-was actor who helps his boyfriend around the shop. Talk about stereotypes--neither one dresses ladie's hair!

I can see why this might have been disappointing from a 1969 perspective, especially if it was the first relatively mainstream gay couple movie. They behave like an old embittered married couple, hardly promoting the concept of gay relationship harmony. If you're gay, you may have hoped for people with more obvious emotional strength and dignity, to start things off.

But from this end, nearly 40 years later, there's a great deal to admire. Most of us can see them as just people, yes, suffering the issues of the day in certain respects, but otherwise going through the same relationship struggles experienced by any two people who've been together for a very long time.

With only a few mild changes, this movie could be set today, because it's confronting the aging process, a somewhat unequal relationship, the problem of elderly parents—just plain real life stuff told with pathos and humor.

As to the swishiness of either character, say all you want about the womanizing ways of these two actors, they both swished and preened through many of their other previous roles as well. It was enhanced in this movie, but not unnaturally so. There's now enough water under the bridge for us to understand this isn't the Singular Gay Trait, but it certainly does exist, and it's not necessarily the evidence for self-loathing by these two characters. Anyone can have doubts about themselves, and most of us do, in one way or another.

It's not a great movie, because it moves in fits and spurts and there are moments that seem a little emotionally vacant. But it's a decent movie because the characters are believable and you do grow to care for and about them.