Blog Movie Recap, Special Stonewall Edition: Some of My Best Friends Are....

Here's one of the most obscure movies I've ever seen, broadcast on (what else?) Turner Classic Movies as part of its commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. Aside from a brief write-up in "The Celluloid Closet," this 1971 movie seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. It's never, as far as I can tell, been released on home video, and it's not even included on the extremely comprehensive Every 70s Movie site.

Taking place on a single night (Christmas Eve) and in a single location (The Blue Jay, a gay bar in Greenwich Village), "Some of My Best Friends Are ..." (written and directed by Mervyn Nelson) is a fascinating relic of an earlier age. Released in an era when gay characters were just starting to be included in Hollywood films without being elaborately concealed or "coded," it's startlingly dated in how it depicts those characters. It's also startling in how it takes place in a world almost no other movie was willing to explore back in 1971.

The Blue Jay is full of gay men who embody the stereotypes of the era -- they're either desperately unhappy, lovelorn (and unhappy), closeted (and unhappy) or wildly flamboyant (and unhappy). All that unhappiness is cranked up to near-oppressive levels by the end of the movie, but there's enough variety in the storylines to keep things interesting: Jim is a hustler pretending to be the "nephew" of an older, richer guy. Graphic artist Terry and pilot Scott are happy (for the moment), but Lita brought Scott to the bar originally and now wants to destroy their happiness. Ski instructor Michel is trying to convince his closeted lover Barratt to leave his wife. And, in the most dramatic (and brutal) plotline, macho Jim tries to re-establish his straight bonafides by dancing with Karen, a lonely woman at the end of the bar -- only to discover that Karen is actually not a woman after all. Then there's the cop shaking down The Blue Jay for lucrative pay-offs (something quite common in real-life gay bars), the waiter seeking true love and Helen, the woman who helps run the bar and acts as a substitute mother for its customers (especially Terry, whose actual mother shows up -- invited by Lita -- and is less than thrilled to discover her son's big secret).


At its heart, "Some of My Best Friends Are..." is little more than a semi-tragic melodrama, but because it's a melodrama focused on characters who remained hidden in the background of other movies, and because the emotions involved are so nakedly on display, I found the damned thing mesmerizing. It's not especially well-made, and it's definitely not slick or impressive-looking, but in my life, I've watched hundreds of low budget movies fueled by subject matter bigger movies wouldn't touch, and this fits right in with those. Plus, the cast includes some surprising names: Gil Gerard (yes, Buck Rogers) plays Scott, Gary Sandy (Andy from "WKRP") plays Jim, Fannie Flagg (of a million '70s gam shows) plays Helen, Rue McClanahan (of "The Golden Girls") plays Rita and Warhol regular Candy Darling plays Karen. All of them are surprisingly good, especially Gerard, playing a regular, down-to-Earth character with many more shades than Buck.

I've praised Turner Classic Movies many times in this blog, and this showing of a movie like "Some of My Best Friends Are..." is a perfect example of why it's so prized by fans of film history. Who else is going to go to the trouble of unearthing an artifact from the dawn of gay rights and put it on the air?

By the way, if you're interesting in watching this slow, melodramatic -- but fascinating -- time capsule, you can do so right now, for free, on Amazon Prime.