The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies

By Robert B. Ray

Book Overview

Praised by the Chicago Tribune as "an impressive study" and written with incisive wit and searing perception--the definitive, highly acclaimed landmark work on the portrayal of homosexuality in film.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060961325
• ISBN13: 9780060961329
• Release Date: September 1987
• Publisher: It Books
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

The Grandaddy of Them All

Russo, Vito. "The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies", Harper and Row, 1987. The Granddaddy of Them All Amos Lassen Vito Russo's "The Celluloid Closet" is one of the first gay non-fiction books that I read. In fact, I reread it every once in a while. The first edition came out in 1981 and it broke ground and it still does so now 28 years later. It is informative and provocative as it looks at the images of...

Ground Breaking Work

Valley Gay Press Book Reviewer: Liz Bradbury (Author of Angel Food and Devil Dogs - A Maggie Gale Mystery) This was a ground breaking book in 1985, and it still is a fascinating, information filled read that is essential to any student of GLBT history. Film historian Vito Russo offers dozens of stories and photos that show how our community has been portrayed on film since the silent era. A significant amount of Russo's...

Great writing, great information

This is one of the very few books that has useful information on gays in cinema from the beginning of the film industry to (somewhat) present day. I used it as research for a writing project on homosexuals in film and it was probably the most useful source as a stepping stone of information. By current standards, some academics may say that this book is outdated and "overdone" however I consider it to be the best single...

One of the best works of film criticism ever written.

The movie "The Celluloid Closet" is great, but you occasionally get the feeling that the directors are straining to make a point about homosexuality in old movies. But you never feel this way reading Russo's book. Russo is not a gifted prose stylist, the writing of the book is wel, it's prosaic, but he's a good writer with a keen eye and an excellent memory. If you've seen the movie and enjoyed it get this book to complete...

Classic in its field

Russo, now deceased, published the first edition of this book in 1981, in the dark ages before queer independent cinema, and before mainstream cinema began the tradition of giving every female lead a gay man for a best buddy -- back when gay men appeared only as swishy queens or psychotic killers, and lesbians appeared only as psychotic killers, period. He exhumed hundreds of long-forgotten films, from moody German expressionism...