Dress Gray

I just saw "Dress Grey" for the first time since it was shown on TV in 1986. It got top ratings and reviews then.

On IMDb, and also searching the Web, I haven't been able to find anything about any other professional work by David Harum (who played Cadet Barham, head of the Honor Council) and Susan Hess (who played Elizabeth Hand).

According to IMDb, "Dress Grey" was Barum's only professional acting job, and Hess just disappeared after 1990.

That is disappointing, since they gave such striking performances.

"Blood and Orchids," is another favorite mini-series that I loved and it was shown on TV in 1986 also. I have two other favorite: "Evita Peron (1981)," with Faye Dunaway, and "The Thornbirds." In general, I hate mini-series and don't watch them ever.

Anyone out there with any info? Thanks!

In fact, I was there in 1985 when it was being filmed. I remember Alec Baldwin etc. As far as the movie goes, it was a great flick! I loved watching this after I graduated from New Mexico Military Inst. This movie was long but the content was good and of course, Owen Wilson and I were both cadets at this time. Perhaps this has influence on Owen?

Is it true that a homosexual is courting danger when he attempts to seduce a straight guy? Interesting premise, and that is certainly so in this 2-tape movie. Well acted by all concerned and the dialogue is dynamite!!

Comments like "Most of these cadets (poorly disguised West Point cadets) are children of judges back home" straight out depict the truth behind the facade of respectability and equality. Reminders of the cheating scandals at all the military academies are also brought up lest we forget. Despite that, the ending is upbeat and made me strangely proud of my country.

Of course, I'm a sucker for a marching set of uniforms and for some insane reason the equally insane military phrase, "I get paid the same for marching as I do for fighting" came into my mind. The fighting in this movie has to do with character and honor, most importantly the honor of West Point and all national military academies. Paradoxically, the commandant is also interested in preserving that honor, as evil as he is in showing it.

One of the subtleties about honor was brought to our attention as one of the cadets is set up by the evil commandant, played so wonderfully by Mark Twain himself, Hal Holbrook. This cadet does not want to get into trouble and allows himself to be used in the Honor Court against the falsely accused cadet. But when asked the hard questions by Alec Baldwin (in top form), h e painfully answers truthfully.

The twists and turns the plot takes before we know 'who dunnit' are wonderful. And Eddie Albert keeps us guessing as to which side of the good/bad coin he's going to turn up on until the last few minutes. I now own this one, and as proof of its excellence, I can't wait to see it again. Like good literature, the proof of a good movie is that you get more out of it with repeated viewings.

Did you know that if you washed out of the military academies, you were sent to Viet Nam during the 70's? That may have indeed been the case for some, but certainly not a rule.

In this 1986 whodunit, the death of a cadet at a U.S. military academy provides the basis for a story dealing with repressed homosexuality. The screenplay has great misdirection. You think the plot is headed one way, only to find at the end that it was headed in the opposite direction. Clues to the crime's solution are provided, but as with any good murder mystery, they are subtle and hard to find.

The acting ranges from good to excellent. {Hal Holbrook gives his usual, and endearing, deep-throated raspy voice performance). Production values are high. And the music is suitably eerie. Cinematography is quite good, and the film's ending has an Oliver Stone "JFK" feel to it, a sense that you are privy to the revelation of a cover-up (at the highest levels of course).

My only complaint is the verbose script. They could have cut back the forty thousand page screenplay considerably, without doing harm to the overall story. Nevertheless, "Dress Gray" is a well-crafted film, with an engaging plot that would, in my opinion, be of interest to anyone who enjoys a good murder mystery.

Lucian K. Truscott IV, scion of a military family, who went into writing and radical politics penned the novel from which Gore Vidal wrote a brilliant screenplay. Closeted gay men will identify with the murder victim and the devastating effects on the psyche that the closet can have.

Patrick Cassidy plays a plebe at U.S. Grant Military Academy which is West Point in all, but name is a closeted gay man who is hardly a typical stereotype. He's a champion athlete in high school who is the son of Eddie Albert one of the wealthiest and most powerful individuals in the state of Louisiana. He's also a total top and when someone he's involved with bottoms him, he has to be killed strictly as a matter of self defense. The body is found in the Hudson River.

Ron Rifkin who is the Academy physician conducts an autopsy on Cassidy and lets slip to Alec Baldwin another cadet who happens to have been involved with Cassidy's sister Susan Hess that he thinks this could be murder after Baldwin tells him that Cassidy was an excellent swimmer. That's a leak that sprung unfortunately when Deputy Commander of the Academy Hal Holbrook and his hatchet man Lane Smith decide to cover up the murder and say it was an accidental drowning.

This television film made in 1986 and set in the Sixties before Stonewall has an exceptional relevancy today. Back then being gay was the most god awful taboo there was. If you risked admitting it, you had an automatic exemption from the service that clung to you like a disease if you wanted to enter any other professions where being gay was similarly frowned upon. As we are now trying to get rid of the military policy of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' it would do well to remember that the implementation of that by the Clinton administration was a reluctant compromise and a lessening of the ages old military policy of search and eliminate.

As for Holbrook just the thought of the fact that the U.S. Grant Military Academy ever even had one of those kind of people as a cadet is an anathema to him. When Baldwin insists on digging at the behest of Susan Hess and his own sense of honor about the truth willing out, Holbrook becomes his enemy and is ready to hang Baldwin with that self same honor code.

Holbrook is indeed a sinister figure, but Eddie Albert who in his career played an astonishing variety of roles is just as sinister here. He wants to know the truth, except if his son turns out to have been gay. At that point he's all for shoving Cassidy's corpse back into the closet.

Even with such veteran pros in the cast as Albert, Holbrook, Lloyd Bridges as the school's commandant and Alexis Smith as Baldwin's mother, the best performance in the lot is that of Patrick Cassidy. He gives a riveting portrayal in flashback of a closeted gay man trying to enter a most macho profession and the devastating effects of the closet.

The lives of the people shown in Dress Gray are the best argument you could make for the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and allowing GLBTQ people to serve openly in the military. This film ought to be required viewing for the members of Congress.