Some of My Best Friends Are...

... in that it is two years post Stonewall, but there is going to be time needed - about 17 years or so - before you can explore these kinds of themes more in depths as is done in "Torch Song Trilogy".

This film is set around Christmas time at a gay bar in New York City called, the Blue Jay. "Some Of My Best Friends Are..." had a very large cast and the story bounced around from character to character or relationship to relationship exploring the dynamics of the characters or the relationships as it pertained to their personalities, attitudes, and realities associated as gay men in 1971 (when the film was made).

There are several people that were familiar to me, but I couldn't recall their names. The four characters I did recognize were Rue McClanahan (a bar customer who likes to mock some of the clientele but realizes the bar is a safe haven for her since it's unlikely any patron will make advances to her), Fannie Flag (the coat-check lady that everybody loves), Gary Sandy (narcissistic stud who looked for some yum-yum on the side once he tired of his sugar daddy), and Gil Gerard (a pilot who comes off as straight, but loves being the 'rock' for his boyfriend). It wasn't a bad film, and I'd probably want to see it again to see if I could make other observations that might have passed over me the first time around. I'm not going to spoil anything here, but there is a fight scene toward the end of the picture, and the camera work with its quick movements in a tight space containing a lot of people is quite masterful.

It's two years past Stonewall and now certainly a story like Some Of My Best Friends Are could now be put on the screen. Still it was only a very few straight players who would cast in a gay film. You will see however a couple of adventurous souls you might recognize from the cast.

This film if anything shows Stonewall was for the young. The young gay men hanging out at the Blue Jay bar on Christmas Eve aren't content to live life as was ordained by the sexual orientation and their elders up to now. Not sure of where the direction is going, but the younger ones don't want to settle.

The older ones are scared. Not just of the dominant straight society oppression. If anything they're afraid that the young with their agitation and demonstrations will bring down unwanted attention. The older gay men in this film are deeply closeted and are afraid of the door being even slightly ajar.

The fact that back in the day the gay bars were mob controlled was certainly noted. One of the great changes in the past 50 years was first the fact that the mob ran fewer and fewer of these establishments. And then as the community developed non-alcoholic venues bars themselves began to decline. Probably a good thing because drinking establishments everywhere by their nature bring gloom after the high wears off.

Some Of My Best Friends Are is kind of an expanded version of gay life in the early 70s that Boys In The Band showed in the middle 60s. One wonders how that group of gay men would have taken to Stonewall.

I typed the script for SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS ARE right after grad school at UCLA for Mervyn Nelson. Moved to NY on 8/15/69 (missed WOODSTOCK at the airport) and eventually found a life in NY. When Mervyn made the film I had already been friends with Candy Darling through an incredibly interesting workshop Mervyn ran. Also in the class were Sylvia Sims, Thao Panglis (soap star) and Eric (Hank) Estrada.

I was in a fantasy scene in the film, and found the whole shooting process a great deal of fun, especially with people like Fanny Flagg and Rue McClanahan around. It opened, disappeared and was never heard of again, unless Marty Richards knows who owns it now. I think as a piece of history in gay films, this should not be forgotten. The NY Times got it right in their initial review. Sad, sad, sad.....but it laid the ground for WILL AND GRACE and BROTHERS. SO WHERE CAN I GET A COPY OF IT?

This title is just another of the many gay oriented flicks that needs to be released on disc. (Dinah East and Boys In The Band are two others.) I use to live in Birmingham where Flannie Flagg is from so when this movie first played there, we went to see it, not really knowing what to expect. I was thoroughly entertained, although every time I see Carlton Carpenter, I think of he and Debbie Reynolds doing "Aba Daba Honeymoon" in the 1950 Two Weeks With Love starring Jane Powell. Anyway, getting back to this movie, Rue, of course, went on to be known best for her Golden Girls role and Gary Sandy in WKRP in Cincinnati. Since it has been so many years since Some Of My Best Friends Are, was released, it's hard to remember that much about the movie so hopefully some film distributor can acquire the rights for a DVD release.

This film now plays a lot of gay film festivals..billed as.... " The movie you love to hate"! Of course it now looks very politically incorrect. But there was a time that it really was like this. I know..I was there! P.S. It's so much fun to see so many people who went on to greater things. Michael Bluegrass