Long live Fante & Mingo

Yesterday I received my second and final email reminder from Turner Classic Movies regarding this evening's screening -- and the TCM premiere -- of The Big Combo (1955), a touchstone film noir directed by Joseph H. Lewis, who also helmed the similarly thrilling Gun Crazy (1949, aka Deadly Is the Female). Combo, which actually airs in less than an hour but is available on DVD, is a highlight of TCM's ongoing program Screened Out: Gay Images in Film. Each night (Mondays and Wednesdays) of the monthlong series, presumably timed to June's gay pride celebrations, is devoted to a particular era, genre, theme or, as the case may be, setting. For instance, last Monday's offerings, with titles ranging from the perfunctory (Women's Prison) to the irresistible (So Young, So Bad), were organized under the subheading "Men and Women Behind Bars"[!] -- I really should have posted earlier -- and next Monday's slate addresses homosexuality and horror [!!]. The Big Combo and others, including The Maltese Falcon and Gilda, are featured today, maybe right now in fact, under the banner "The Dark Side: Film Noir & Crime."

Combo's gay credentials come in the form of the bold, matter-of-fact relationship between two seemingly inseparable gay thugs, Fante (Lee Van Cleef) and Mingo (Earl Holliman), who interact much like any married couple. (Although the signifiers of the true nature of their relationship may have been largely lost on the audience during its original theatrical release, those cues couldn't really be more clear today without risking painful obviousness. Lewis et al. should be credited for this refreshingly direct depiction -- from the Eisenhower era, no less.)

I often regard gay villains like Fante and Mingo with the same fondness I do femmes fatales. Sure they may, in either case, reflect or betray the homophobia or misogyny of the filmmakers. But these characters are often more complex and therefore more realistic, or stronger and therefore more appealing, than their counterparts in sensitive, politically correct and often preachy treatments. Just like the Jews of Munich, as acknowledged to comic effect in current release Knocked Up, what these characters do may be morally murky, highly problematic or just plain criminal, but they fight -- and fight back. They provide an alternative to the victims, and their stories may provide a temporary escape from authentic victimization.

The term "gay pride" always struck me as inaccurate if perfectly understandable. Ideally, sexual orientation is a source of neither pride nor shame. To my mind, whatever its genesis (a topic for another place, time and blog) and wherever one fits on that continuum, sexual orientation, like Fante and Mingo's love (if not their brutal chosen profession), is simply a matter of fact.

As for The Big Combo, beyond its pivotal and, ultimately, moving gay characters, the movie has something for everyone: exquisite photography (courtesy of the great John Alton), sensational violence and, so no one's left out, a strong suggestion of cunnilingus[!!!]. This ain't your parents' 1950s. Or, if it is, try not to think about it. And disregard the movie's title, which is particularly unfortunate in our era of fast-food supersizing.

Happy Gay Pride.

Wait, is that redundant?