Sick and Dirty
Hollywood’s Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness
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Sick and Dirty
Narrated by:
Robin Speare
Buy Now for £16.50
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Narrated by:
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Robin Speare
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By:
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Michael Koresky
AN ALLSTORA'S QUEER HISTORY 101 BOOK CLUB PICK
"An absorbing landmark of film criticism.” --The Chicago Tribune, "The 10 Best Books of the Year"
A blazingly original history celebrating the persistence of queerness onscreen, behind the camera, and between the lines during the dark days of the Hollywood Production Code.
From the 1930s to the 1960s, the Motion Picture Production Code severely restricted what Hollywood cinema could depict. This included “any inference” of the lives of homosexuals. In a landmark 1981 book, gay activist Vito Russo famously condemned Hollywood’s censorship regime, lambasting many midcentury films as the bigoted products of a “celluloid closet.”
But there is more to these movies than meets the eye. In this insightful, wildly entertaining book, cinema historian Michael Koresky finds new meaning in "problematic” classics of the Code era like Hitchcock’s Rope, Minnelli’s Tea and Sympathy, and—bookending the period and anchoring Koresky’s narrative—William Wyler’s two adaptations of The Children’s Hour, Lillian Hellman’s provocative hit play about a pair of schoolteachers accused of lesbianism.
Lifting up the underappreciated queer filmmakers, writers, and actors of the era, Koresky finds artists who are long overdue for reevaluation. Through his brilliant inquiry, Sick and Dirty reveals the “bad seeds” of queer cinema to be surprisingly, even gleefully subversive, reminding us, in an age of book bans and gag laws, that nothing makes queerness speak louder than its opponents’ bids to silence it.©2023 Michael Koresky (P)2023 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
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Critic reviews
An uncommonly fun and sophisticated dark cultural history that will drive you back to film . . . . An absorbing landmark of film criticism.
Koresky . . . brings his deep knowledge of Hays Code-era (1934-1968) cinema to this celebration of queer film culture . . . In this reading delight, Koresky highlights the work and stories of those whose resistance kept queer filmmaking alive.
Koresky takes an entertaining romp through movies from the 1930s to the ’60s to examine the effects of the Motion Picture Production Code.
Not only is Michael Koresky master of his subject matter, he writes with uncommon clarity, precision, and verve. His love for the possibilities inherent in the art of film is obvious . . . Marvelous . . . Sick and Dirty will appeal to film students, aficionados, and anyone who wants to better understand the artistic tensions and limitations during this period.
Revelatory . . . Koresky wears his erudition lightly, teasing out the mixed messages of code-era films with aplomb. It’s a sterling work of film criticism.
Koresky analyzes Judy Garland as a gay icon and probes the portrayal of the social outcast in Tea and Sympathy and in Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly, Last Summer. Such movies resonate for queer viewers, Koresky asserts, because they capture the longing for acceptance . . . A sensitive response to a rich trove of movies.
Koresky is a beautiful writer, and his scholarship accommodates bursts of lightheartedness . . . ‘queer cinematic’ history comes to shimmering, affirming life in Sick and Dirty . . . In this uncommonly insightful critique, Michael Koresky identifies, dissects, and celebrates the queer coding found in Hollywood movies from the Motion Picture Production Code era.
The film historian delivers an erudite and personal history of gayness in cinema, from the thematic smuggling in classic Hollywood to the more recent out-and-proud movies of the American independent film movement. The book is both very serious and unabashedly fun.
Erudite and accessible . . . Koresky’s engaging, spirited discussions . . . serve as a superb reference guide.
Astute yet tender.
An engaging and thought-provoking book recommended for LGBTQIA+ and film studies collections.
In Koresky’s capable hands we meet some of the most remarkable queer figures of classic Hollywood . . . combining scholarly and historical rigor with accessibility . . . The power of a book like Sick and Dirty lies in its ability to deeply excavate the painful and conflicted histories of queerness in Hollywood.
From the 1930s through the 1960s, film production codes forbade ‘any inference’ of LGBTQ+ lives. Still, many found ways to inject queer-coded themes into movies. Michael Koresky's riveting and insightful new book, Sick and Dirty, celebrates the contributions of the LGBTQ+ community and reframes early pieces of queer cinema.
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