I've read in several places that the Van CLeef character and the other tough were supposed to be gay. Although they are always together and in one scene they are in the same room together asleep, does that make them gay?
Dire_Straits
lover of all B&W; especially film-noir
I often get irritated these days when reading comment after comment on classic movies boards/threads where members seem to see a gay relationship where there isn't one. To so many around here, scenes depicting wholeome, good old fashioned male camaraderie/bonding can't be just that. But really, in this movie at least, there can be little room for doubt.
The line "I can't swallow any more salami" - c'mon, the line had nothing to do with furthering the plot nor was it necessary on any level except to be a tongue in cheek (no, no pun...) wink and a nod to the audience that these 2 were gay - ditto for the drinking straight from the tap. I watched this movie for the first time tonight (that I can remember at least) and had to log on here to see how many others caught on ... I knew I wouldn't be disappointed and for once, I have to agree, these two were an item :-)
I thought it was pretty unique, considering the year this movie was released, that they didn't resort to lisps, limp wrists or any of the other usual stereotypical behaviors used in so many modern movies - they even depicted the heartbreak of a person who has just learned their significant other has just been killed. Overall, pretty unique for the 50's.
*BTW, never, ever hold a light near your head/close to your person when using it to look for an armed/dangerous adversary !
We don't.
I'm surprised by this lengthy thread on the supposed gayness of the two henchman. They eat crummy food, live in a run-down room, wear drab clothing and generally have a very dreary life-style. There's nothing fabulous about it at all. The film doesn't have even one brief scene of them shopping or accessorizing.
Frankly, the two I had my suspicions about were the Lt. and his Capt. Always meeting late at night to 'discuss the case', the Capt's jealousy of the gangster's moll the Lt. seems interested in, the Lt. shaving in front of the Capt. etc.
"The night was sultry."
[deleted]
Actually they had a nice apartment and shared a bedroom. Did you miss that scene? It was just before they got the order from Mr. Brown to kill detective Diamond.. They ended up in a basement after machine-gunning McClure.
Watta ya lookn here for?
The oral sex scene makes them gay.
shareThe whole thread sounds like it was cooked up by Jerry Falwell. Try turning on subs. If people are referring to 1:10:32, Mingo calls him by his name, Fante. If no one accepts that, then get with the people who put out English subtitles and convince them.
I think the sausage reference is overblown too. In the times leading up to this movie, refrigeration hadn't been around all that long and not much in the way of food would have come vacuum sealed. Sausage making used to be a good deal more about preserving than it is today. Find photos of old butcher shops and you'll see the window lined with sausages. A loaf of bread, a chunk of salami, a bottle of something to drink and you’re all set. Very familiar to gangsters descended from old world Italian families.
As far as food that did come in plastic, for those too young to remember, those were times when the courts had banned artificially colored margarine or “Oleo”. But it was legal to sell an unbroken packet of yellow dye inside a larger packet of otherwise colorless margarine. So the mixing of the color was done at home. That ban was not lifted nationwide until 1967. If you lived in Quebec, it stayed in force until 2008.
Mingo says "honey." "Honey" sounds nothing like "Fante." Reality is what it is, and subtitles are not to be trusted, pal --especially when they contradict what you hear.
A gangster calling another gangster honey? Duh.
Plus, they share a bedroom --and there's no indication of them being so badly paid that they need to do it. (In fact, the last thing Fante says before opening the dynamite-filled box is that Mr. Brown is "generous.") And their touchy-feely relationship is nothing like what you normally see between movie gangsters.
The salami bit was probably thrown in as a joke, since I highly doubt a gay guy is going to seriously complain about eating "nothing but salami" --instead, it would have been something like "I like salami," or "the more salami, the better."
I fart in your general direction.
The ONLY dimension given to these two characters, who share a central role in the entirety of the story, as that of Brown's henchmen, is their inseparability. They are as one. Of course they are lovers, homosexual lovers, which was understood at the time as deviant, forbidden, depraved (we've come SUCH a long way since, right?!). A perfect attribute for your homicidal enforcers. Two cold blooded killers, but good, clean, American pals who really care about each other? C'mon, this is noir, this is the fifties: dread, McCarthy, dope fiends, molls, angst. And they weren't "gay", because such a term didn't exist. Gay came with the struggle for legitimacy and acceptance. This was when homosexuality was taboo. And of course they die, they were homosexuals. This was the B-side of pre-Brokeback Mountain Hollywood by decades.
shareDefinitely gay lovers, definitely calls him "honey," definitely the script worked hard to avoid censorship.
It's hardly the first time we have seen someone gay in a crime film - there is a movie with Stephen McNally, "Split Second" where the horrible, brutal character played by McNally is a teddy bear when dealing with his injured friend. I don't know if anyone else picked up on it, but I saw the potential there.
There is another film where it is blatant - "Sworn Enemy," where the mob boss, Emerald, is crippled and, from his treatment of Florence Rice's character, has no use for women. When he brings Hank into his deco steam room, it's filled with Greco-Roman friezes of nude men.
Sex between any two people, no matter the sexual preference, was implied in films during the code years.
It's clever what you all say, but I don't believe the film makers were trying to make some avant-garde gay statement with this B-noir. Mingo and Fante were just brothers-in-arms, so to speak, hired killers who could only trust each other, in a business where you can't trust anyone except the one who hires you.
shareMingo: I can swallow any more salami.
Fante: It's all we got.
There is nothing in the movie to verify that they're gay. They could be, of course--anyone could. But all we see is two close friends who share a room, not a bed. Near the end, Mingo is distraught because his buddy Fante is dead. That's not gay, that's just human. Passing references to sausage and closets in a 1955 movie are not indications of gayness. But you all will read into it what you want to see.
share