Straight-Jacket

I really enjoyed this film. It was a fun, witty, and fresh look at 50s Hollywood. The fact that it deals with gay characters aside, it has a fun, but strong message about the extent of how far McCarthy era probes went to play on public fears. This time it's dished right back to the fear-mongers.

The movie is shot on high-color film stock that makes it feel more like a 50s Technicolor feature. The characters are over-the-top and the sets are "fabulous." On the technical side, this movie has several long single-shot scenes that make it feel more like a 50s-era movie. I hear that they were equally difficult for the actors and crew to get get a good take. Most movie takes today are only seconds long with different camera takes strung together to make a scene. In Straight-Jacket, they pan the camera to make a very long, stage-like scene.

The humor of the film is very smart & witty. I always like a comedy where secondary & minor characters are used to carry the comedy while the main characters carry more of a straight plot. In this film, you can't wait for the next witty entanglement with either the butler (Michael Emerson) or the agent (Veronica Cartwright.) Of course, there are several on-going gags that lighten the serious message of the film.

STRAIGHT JACKET began as a play by writer/director Richard Day and Day transforms this bit of fluff about Hollywood and its foibles and hidden secrets in the 1950s with the panache that true comedy must have: verisimilitude. The look of the film within a film has the constant appearance of being 'on camera' and that bit of execution makes the film really work. Day deals with issues such as closeted gay actors and actresses, film moguls with an eye on the buck more than on art, the sub rosa gay scene of the time (pre Stonewall) among others. Though there is some parody on the life of Rock Hudson it is only a sidebar.

Guy Stone (Matt Letscher) is a handsome, successful movie star with a devoted female audience who gives the public appearance of being straight while carrying on a wild but anonymous gay sex life. His agent Jerry (Veronica Cartwright) struggles to keep him in tow, always aware that should his sexual preference become public that his acting career would be over. When Guy is photographed en flagrante Jerry decides that the story must not leak, a story which would prevent his obtaining the role of Ben Hur, and convinces Guy to quickly get married - the most available 'wife' would be the ditsy, star struck secretary Sally (Carrie Preston) whose boss Saul (Victor Raider-Wexler) agrees as a solution.

Once married Guy discovers Sally's obsession with being a 1950s wife complete with the tacky re-do of his pad, drowning him in affection, and ...preventing him from his nightly sojourns into the gay world. Guy meets pro communist writer Rick Foster (Adam Greer) who has written Guy's latest film, a script that must be doctored to pass McCarthyisms. They do the courtship dance and eventually actually fall in love, much to Guy's consternation! The political and conscientious differences between the two are forgotten until their pairing is discovered. Guy is asked to go before the TV cameras to confess his homosexuality (which the McCarthyites equate with Communism) and to give names of others who are of like nature.

At this point the film becomes poignant and the manner in which the films is resolved is best left to the surprise of the viewer. While some may feel this 'change of direction' in a comedy is melodramatic, others will see the conclusion as a meaningful resolution that maintains that 'comedy' is just the other side of the mask of 'tragedy'.

The sets and costumes and flow of the film are quite well done, successfully transporting us to the dazzle of the Fifties and the many mindless motion pictures that flooded the screens. The individual actors are good with especial kudos to Veronica Cartwright who can toss away one-liners with the aplomb of the best of comediennes. Carrie Preston is wholly convincing as the platinum blonde fluff head and delivers a song very well. While Letscher and Greer perform well there is no magic in their bond, even after their true feelings are revealed: they remain uninvolved with each other as actors so there is little to no sexual tension. The musical score is just this side of atrocious but it suits the era. In all, this is an entertaining if overlong film with an important re-enactment of a scary time in Hollywood that meanders a bit too much for the final punch it could have had. Grady Harp

"Straight-Jacket" is a very funny satire showing what it must have been like for closeted homosexual actors living and working in Hollywood in the 1950's (and who's to say it's really that much better now?). Matt Letscher stars as Guy Stone, a matinée idol along the lines of Rock Hudson, who leads a tricky double life. To the public at large he's a macho superstar heartthrob, the fantasy love object of women the world over, all of whom dream of being the one to finally strip him of his status as filmdom's "most eligible young bachelor." In his private life, he spends most of his time prowling the bar scene for the next available hunk. In fact, Guy is so shallow that he doesn't even bother to learn the names of the star-struck men he sleeps with. Desperate to get the lead role in the upcoming epic "Ben-Hur," Guy agrees to enter into a sham marriage with a naïve young secretary working at the studio (she is unaware of Guy's sexuality and believes he actually loves her). Soon we're deep into a laugh-filled version of "Far From Heaven," with Guy struggling to maintain interest in his new heterosexual lifestyle, a charade that becomes even more difficult after he meets the man of his dreams, an idealistic young writer named Rick Foster, who makes Guy think twice about the life of deceit he's leading.

Director Richard Day has written a script (based on his own stage play) filled with lacerating wit, hilarious puns (starting with the title of the movie and the name of the main character) and absurdist situations. He casts a scathing eye not only on anti-gay prejudice but on Tinsel Town phoniness, Red-baiting and superficial relationships as well. The movie shimmers with the bright, shiny look of '50's films, while the sets and costumes capture the period with rib-tickling fidelity (Guy's peeling himself off a plastic, slip-covered sofa is priceless). The actors are all wonderful in their roles, particularly Letscher as Guy, Carrie Preston as his perfect little wife, Victor Raider-Wexler as the studio head and, above all, Veronica Cartwright (the young girl in "The Birds"), absolutely hilarious as Guy's understanding but pragmatic agent whose job it is to make sure Guy's career and hers don't suddenly come crashing down in flames around them.

"Straight-Jacket" is really a story about a man's coming to terms with reality, accepting himself for who he is, and changing society a little bit for the better in the process - with the Red Scare references serving mainly as allegorical allusions to the homophobia of today. This thematic layering is what makes "Straight-Jacket" one of the sharpest and most thoughtful movie comedies in a long time.

I wasn't expecting too much out of this little gay indie, but I was happily surprised at how much I ended up liking the characters, laughing at the jokes, and being delighted by the cinematography and art design. With the exception of some of the exterior shots (some done with CGI and some with grainy stock footage), the film looks exactly like a vintage production from the late-Fifties or early-Sixties, which is the era in which the film is set. In fact it's a perfect pastiche of the old Rock Hudson Universal comedies of that time like "Lover Come Back" and "Man's Favorite Sport?"

The characters, for their part, at first come across as being a bit annoying. A surprisingly buffed-up Matt Letscher (who played the anchorman character in the TV sitcom "Good Morning, Miami") is a closeted gay movie star in the Fifties (based on Rock Hudson) whose promiscuousness is matched only by his vanity; Carrie Preston plays a dippy studio secretary who's conned into marrying the actor as a "front" to the public; and Veronica Cartwright (looking a bit like Joan Crawford in the 1964 horror film called "Straight-Jacket") is his ball- busting, dyky agent.

Eventually, these characters do come to actually seem somewhat lovable, if not exactly like three-dimensional human beings. Letcher, when he finally falls in love with a man (the slightly dorky but utterly adorable newcomer Adam Greer) ends up seeming almost gallant in a Cary Grant sort of way. Preston, while she never loses her cartoony quality, ends up— especially after a fun musical number—seeming as delightful as she does ditzy. Her performance winds up being much like that of Ellen Greene's in "Little Shop of Horrors", a film with which this one has much in common.

Best of all is Veronica Cartwright, who plays Guy's agent Jerry. She's an absolute delight. She's always been one of those actresses who commands the screen whenever she's on it. Her short little part in "Kinsey" (virtually a cameo) as Alfred Kinsey's mother was perhaps the best performance in that film. As the other woman, besides Sigorney Weaver, in the first "Alien", she delivered a masterpiece of on-screen hysteria that should have gotten her an Oscar nomination. Here, doing broad comedy, she practically steals the show. Simple little throwaway lines like: "Can I just say that's beautiful… and retarded?" become dialogue classics in her hands.

Finally, the look of the film is beautiful. In creating a pastiche of 50s/60s Hollywood, it comes close to the bigger budget but not nearly as good Renee Zellweger film "Down With Love" from 2003. I strongly disagree with the review here that says this is a good film but more of a DVD rental than a "go out and see it" movie. Half the film's charm is in its Technicolor CinemaScope big-screen splendor.

In short, "Straight-Jacket" is a great little gay date movie. It's much better than, though similar to, a number of other gay indies I've seen recently like "Eating Out", "Slutty Summer", and "The Broken Hearts Club". It's not going to win any Academy Awards at the end of the year (not that comedies do anyway!) but if you want a fun big-screen film with a gay focus, you can't do much better than this screwball gem.

I had the privilege of attending a screening of STRAIGHT-JACKET at SXSW Film 2004, and it's been, hands down, my favorite film so far from this year's selections.

It's a smart and sassy homage to fifties films that expertly balances farce with message. Guy Stone (Matt Letscher), a Hollywood sex symbol whose randiness keeps threatening his career until his agent (Veronica Cartwright) and studio boss marry him off to a naive secretary (Carrie Preston). Everyone knows the marriage is a sham but Sally, who enthusiastically tries to domesticate Guy. Meanwhile, Guy meets Rick, (Adam Greer), who challenges his promiscuous ways as well as his willingness to live a lie at the height of the communist scare.

Letscher has the part down perfectly; he's an adorable cad who could be inserted into any romantic comedy of that era and fit right in. Preston and Greer, both from the original theatrical cast, are also solid casting. Cartwright seems to channel several actresses of the era known for being ballsy women. But the most enjoyable moments are the droll lines delivered by Michael Emerson, as Victor, Guy's Butler; I couldn't wait to hear what he'd say next.

Stylistically the film captures the spirit of the era, from the titles, to music, and the creative use of computer imagery and set design. The in-jokes are fast and furious, remaining suggestive without being offensive. It's solid film-making from top to bottom.

This is a movie I intend to own the moment it's available on DVD, as well as see again as soon as it gets distribution.