I Just Went "Gay" All of a Sudden!

This blog is now fifteen years old today! And I am now 57 years old (! - Can it be?!) And I had never seen, much less profiled, the rather divisive, semi-obscure "fish-out-of-water" comedy The Gay Deceivers (1969) until just the other day...! It was always something I felt I needed to watch, but somehow it just eluded me over and over until finally I, er, gave it a whack! Though this movie has its share of both champions and detractors, I'll tell you up front that one thing you'll never see here is a vintage product being judged by the (often allegedly) enlightened times we live in now. Anything that might not sit well with me is taken as a reflection of what someone (or, sometimes, most people!) thought at that time and hopefully not now. (I say that as I was not too long ago encouraged by a heterosexual couple, longtime friends, to watch a "hilarious" TV series that I positively "had" to see. I loathed Uncoupled so much that it would take having me staple-gunned to the furniture to ever watch NPH in anything again... But I digress.) In any case, I was drawn more to the era of Deceivers and to the physical charms of one of the movie's leads than to its contrived, sitcom-level story line. This film is available for viewing on YT, but requires a rather considerable decision. There's a widescreen version, which shows off the gaudy set decor more fully, but has rather faded color, or there's a more squared-off rendition, with better picture quality (and more visuals on the top and bottom), but lacks full picture on either side. I opted to use the latter version for this post. (At the present time, this rendition can also be viewed on Tubi.)

The title of this post, for any of you young'ns who didn't recognize it, comes from a line of Cary Grant's in 1938's Bringing Up Baby, in which he's forced to wear a woman's robe and is then confronted by a sudden visitor who wants to know why.

The movie's hook is set up before and during the opening credits. We see Uncle Sam informing young men that the draft for the Vietnam War is on, with police action and burning draft cards seen behind.

Recruitment officer Jack Starrett is in charge of screening individuals for suitability and eligibility in the armed services. (Known homosexuals were generally not eligible for induction in the armed services, though merely stating such was rarely enough to achieve deferment.) 

Straight boys Kevin Coughlin and Larry Casey concoct a scheme in which they pretend that they want to get into the U.S. Army, yet do everything they can to appear as a gay couple so that it will be the Army's decision to pass on them.

Starrett watches them clasp hands at the thought of being stationed together and puts them on hold, presumably with an investigation to follow. This means that in order to continue the ruse, the young men will have to continue the charade.

Coughlin has a fiancee, stewardess Brooke Bundy, which complicates things for him considerably.

His parents, Richard Webb and Eloise Hart belong to the country club set and are under the impression that an old knee injury is what has kept their son out of the service.

Their friends include Jeanne Baird, whose older, cigar-chomping husband isn't quite doing it for her in the sack.

Coughlin's sister is played by Jo Ann Harris (in yellow) who I swear resembled Lee Grant on more than one occasion in this movie! They don't look alike, but somehow her styling in this one led to a resemblance nonetheless. She and Baird's daughter are scrutinizing chick-magnet Casey, who is a lifeguard at the country club.

Casey's been seeing Baird's daughter (among a plethora of others!), but that's about to change thanks to his decision to play gay during this period.

Coughlin becomes annoyed that Casey is toying with a "swish" persona at the club, even though it was his idea for them to head down this route. Casey has such searing tan lines that sometimes it looks as if his red suit is trimmed in white, but it's not!

If you're a regular visitor here, then you know that I am a nut for anyone who resembles Malibu Ken...!

Publicity for Deceivers emphasized the fact that the movie was going to featured only men fooling around and that curvy women would be along for the ride, too.

As a "thank you" for helping him evade the draft, Casey sets up a rendezvous at his apartment for Coughlin with pretty prostitute Lenore Stevens. Check this dress out!

Clearly unconcerned by his betrothal to Bundy (!), Coughlin is about to succumb to the charms of said call girl until he recalls that Army colonel Starrett is outside the apartment checking up on Casey's activities! 

Coughlin sends Stevens out the back way, then bursts into Casey's room to alert him they're being surveilled by Starrett and cannot be entertaining women. He hurls a nearby garment at Casey, telling him to get dressed.

An exasperated Casey complies.

There's a very brief flash here, but it looks as if Casey is wearing a sheer covering of some sort, which obscures a decent view.

Sure enough, Starrett is looking up at the apartment to see what's going on inside. Casey has to send his female friend packing. But first he has to give her back her dress, which he threw on himself in haste!

In order to throw Starrett off the scent, the two friends reluctantly embrace in front of the window. Coughlin demonstrates a strong reluctance that sure wouldn't have matched my own reaction...! Ha ha!

Realizing that they will need to make a bolder move in order to carry out their guise, the boys decide the next morning to rent a cottage in a distinctly gay enclave.

Neighbor Michael Greer (with two remaining curlers in his hair!) is watering his beloved flowers as he checks out the newbies.

Meanwhile, another neighbor Christopher Riordan sashays out the door to walk his dog, which is sporting a huge red bow on its collar.

The cottage is a showplace of kitschy statuary, but nothing can top the bedroom, with its circular bed and Pepto-pink walls. 

That day at work, we're treated to all sorts of glimpses of Casey at the bat, wandering around the pool in his abbreviated swimwear.

We find that he has never been one to discriminate as he slathers suntan oil onto a plump, older former conquest of his (who is apparently enjoying an old fashioned while sunning.)

This shot made me chortle because it seemed to recall a whole other scene from a whole other movie...

Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)

I feel like I stumbled on a few various references in this movie, such as when Casey is thinking over the scenario he's gotten himself into...

Anyway, that evening as the boys are moving in, things get a touch more complicated when a fruit with a basket, er, I mean a visitor with a basket of fruit drops in to welcome them.

It's neighbor (and, as we discover, landlord) Greer with an artfully designed basket of oranges and bananas.

Coughlin and Casey can only look on in bemused bewilderment at the sight of this member of the Welcome Wagon.

He flamboyantly saunters around the living room, taking credit for the decor.

That heavy-duty lighter isn't the only thing that's flaming, children...

Now it's bedtime and Casey is doing calisthenics before turning in.

Prudish Coughlin prepares for night-night by changing clothes in the closet!

Though we can't see anything, Casey's gaping pajama bottom fly was drawing my attention.

The two take forever to turn down the covers on their big pink bed and, in the process, have their first quarrel amid the new surroundings.

Casey puts together a little bud vase as a peace offering before they hit the sack.

The next morning, Coughlin, who's never lived away from home before, is making a mess in the kitchen as he sips beer and attempts to put together a bachelor's breakfast.

Greer pops in, is appalled, and opts to clean up the debris and prepare one of his own specialties for the newbies.

The camp routine he puts together as he prepares an omelette is something that must be seen to be believed. Remarkably enough, Casey finds the whole show amusing rather than deeming it repellent.

Greer is horrified when Casey slops a bite of omelette on some bread and dots it with ketchup.

On his way out the door, Casey runs into Coughlin's parents coming up the walk (!) and impishly allows them to head into the cottage without any warning for his roomie.

Once inside, Hardt seems pleased with how lovely the place is.

She's a bit taken aback, however, by a sculpture of two nude wrestlers in an almost 69 position...!

Meanwhile, Webb's curiosity is piqued by the perfume atomizer and framed shots of Casey in his li'l red lifeguard trunks punctuating the dressing mirror. (Where are those NOW is my question...!)

Still discreetly seeing Bundy, she is beginning to get overly curious and concerned about his new apartment and why he hasn't shown it to her.

Greer is back on the scene the next day, this time with yet another piece of decor, a Statue of David lamp. Also along for the visit is his "husband" Sebastian Brook.

As Casey prepares some canapes, Brook reveals some of the challenges of a long term relationship, especially with Greer who is, well, a bit extra.

Before the foursome can get too heavily acquainted, though, there are yet more visitors to the new apartment!

Coughlin's sister Harris and one of Casey's squeezes have dropped by unannounced.

Like others before them, the two are more than confused by some of the decor and sleeping arrangements to be found in the new nest.

Things get even more convoluted the next day when Baird stops in. The married friend of Coughlin's parents is revealed to be sugar mama to Casey and she's ready for more action from him.

Casey attempts to fend her off, but by the time she gropes him (out of frame), his resistance has all but faded away.

While she darts into the bathroom, Casey drops trou and prepares for the first roll in the hay he's had since moving here.

Unfortunately, Coughlin has, once again, prevented Casey from sealing the deal. He's stunned to see his mother's gal-pal in this predicament. 

She pooh-poohs the fact that she's naked and prepares for a speedy exit.

As she hastily grabs her things, we can see a sliver of Casey's tan lines behind the pillow he's clutching.

This between-shots publicity still, from an angle not shown in the movie depicts it even better.

As he's yanking his pants back on, there's a nanosecond of treasure trail.

Hardt stumbles through the courtyard and manages to trample some of the flowers that Greer has so diligently worked on.

This leads to what is unquestionably the movie's most well-known moment, when she and Greer get into a shouting match which ends with him clutching a potted geranium and telling Hardt, "...I know a BITCH when I see one!"

After Harris' eyebrow-raising visit to her brother's new apartment, she plants seeds of doubt into her father's mind about what Coughlin and Casey are up to.

Here is an example of how cropping can either maintain or destroy an illusion. Casey is at the club, on his way to the shower, ostensibly nude and carrying a towel. This is from the widescreen version.

Here, in the version I'm working from, we see that Casey has on sheer, flesh-toned briefs as he walks the locker room hallway.

He strolls into the shower with some of the members. (And damn that towel boy for stocking the cloths so high! Ha ha!)

Though his buddies don't really seem to be taking him all that seriously, he starts mincing it up. (Check those weird, low, shower nozzles...!)

These remarks are overheard by the nearby Webb, who is displeased to say the least.

As a result, Webb goes to the club manager and demands that the "perverted" Casey be fired from the club. (This is a scenario that surely happened all too often for real back in the day.)

A dejected Casey is let go and returns back to the cottage to drown his sorrows in a ber.

Not helping matters is the fact that Coughlin is heading out for yet another date with Bundy. He seems to be able to do whatever he wants, but Casey is up on blocks with his engine racin'...

Either to continue the ruse (or perhaps due to subconscious interest) Casey wanders down the street to continue drinking and winds up in a gay bar called The Lush Life.

Needless to say, he quickly garners attention, particularly from one interested party, who buys the surly Casey a drink.

In sheer plot contrivance, Coughlin and Bundy walk by the same bar and she insists that they go inside to check it out. A happy hookup is exiting and they file in.

Inside, Bundy takes in some of the bar's wall mural, covered in Tom of Finland-inspired gents in tight pants.

Here's a closer look at what I'm referring to.

Things do not go smoothly inside and when the three of them leave, Casey and Coughlin have a disagreement over the life they're leading which causes Bundy to regard it as a lover's quarrel!

Later, Bundy relays her beliefs to Coughlin's sister Harris.

Considering her own experiences with the guys along with this latest info, Harris decides to take matters into her own hands.

Back at the ranch, Casey and Coughlin are still not exactly past their differences. Casey decides to head to the beach for the day, especially since he can no longer lifeguard at the pool. 

I've said this before in other posts, but I really don't think certain leading men should wear very many clothes in movies. Ha ha! (See James Franciscus in Beneath the Planet of the Apes, 1970, for example.)

Before he can even make his way to the beach, he's stopped by Greer who informs him that  he's throwing a big soiree that evening in which everyone is to come as their favorite camp character.

Casey's beach football game is interrupted when Harris shows up and calls him over.

She makes it clear that she hasn't got much on and that she'd like to get it on. Like right now...!

While there are reservations about his best friend's sister as a love object, he's eventually won over...

...and the two of them slink back into the cottage for some afternoon delight.

Harris isn't going to let anything stop her from seducing Casey.

And while he continues to worry about it being Coughlin's sister, by the time she's full-on topless, he can't resist. (Fans of Harris will want to see this as she does turn around a offer some bare chest, albeit fleeting.

Something has now caused Casey to experience the impossible... Impotence! The resident stud suddenly can't make it.

In what has now become a pattern, Coughlin bursts in. In a hilariously awkward (and presumably unscripted) moment, he reaches out to grab his sister's arm and pulls her top open!

Before he's had a chance to process what's going on, Greer darts in with the components of a costume he wants Coughlin to wear to the party. Coughlin is hardly in the mood for such a thing, though.

Casey has no such reservations and heads to the party in a Dracula cape, which earns him plenty of attention. (And "Tarzan" seems to approve!) But it's not the cape...

...it's the sheer briefs and fig leaf he's opted to wear under it!

Amid testicular balloons, with the occasional schlong in-between (!), Casey gets all sorts of looks and attention.

Also on hand at the party are the man who bought him a drink the night before and neighbor Riordan.

Most of the costumes are quite slapdash, but there was this "gal" whose moniker for the evening was Myra Brokenbridge. And there was a hybrid guy in drag who went by "Just Streisand."

This is who melts Casey's butter, however.

As a scrutinizing Greer looks on...

...Casey breezes by his other admirers and takes this latest prey to a nearby bedroom.

Are you buying what "she's" selling?

Before everything is said and done, a brawl erupts. This ends up being the straw that broke the camel's back and leads to the guys coming clean with the Army. (A "twist" ending, while probably amusing to moviegoers, really doesn't make a great deal of sense when one really thinks it over. But... This isn't exactly Leo Tolstoy-level storytelling!)

Coughlin was a child model who joined the cast of Peggy Wood's 1949 TV series Mama at only age five. (The show was inspired by the same book that had generated the hit film I Remember Mama, 1948.) Having worked on that show until nearly his teen years, he next did movies such as The Defiant Ones (1958) and Happy Anniversary (1959), followed by a fair amount of episodic TV such as The Patty Duke Show, Combat! and The Fugitive. In his 20s, he worked in troubled youth flicks like Maryjane, Wild in the Streets and The Young Runaways (all 1968, the latter with Bundy.) Though Deceivers was a hit movie, and he wasn't even truly playing gay, his career began to slow considerably. He mainly had bit roles and an occasional TV guest shot. In 1976, not long after turning 30, he was struck by a speeding driver as he was cleaning his windshield along Ventura Boulevard. His (second) wife witnessed the accident which took his life. The driver sped away and was not apprehended.  

Coughlin was born with club feet, which made walking difficult, but was able to overcome that disability to forge a screen career.

Athletic Casey (often billed as Lawrence Casey) had aspirations of becoming a professional baseball player before he was sidelined by the death of his father and was needed at home. Emerging in his mid-20s as an actor, he appeared on Dr. Kildare and Gunsmoke, but was most readily known for two seasons of the WWI desert action series The Rat Patrol. After that show ended, he worked on episodes of The Mod Squad and Bonanza before turning to racier fare like this movie and The Student Nurses (1970.) Though his career didn't exactly soar, he was able to work regularly, including a two-year stint on the daytime soap Return to Peyton Place (as Rodney Harrington, natch!) and quite a few guest roles on TV. He performed his last screen acting role on L.A. Law in 1992 before retiring and is 83 today. Like Coughlin, he was married at the time of this film and Casey remains so today.

Casey's pretty-boy looks were semi-obscured on The Rat Patrol by a uniform and eyeglasses. Only on rare occasions was he seen without them on the series.

Starting out as a young model prior to appearing on TV as a late-teen, Bundy was a very busy bee. She made the rounds of virtually all the hit TV series of the 1960s such as The Donna Reed Show, Route 66, Wagon Train, Rawhide, Gidget and many others. Her first movie was 1968's Firecreek, with James Stewart and Henry Fonda. Many TV roles, made-for-TV movies and work on daytime followed. For me, she is immortal as nurse Diana Taylor on General Hospital who was slain in her kitchen, her fingers spelling out the name of her alleged killer in her own blood! She continued to stay busy on TV as well as appearing in two of the Nightmare on Elm Street sequels. Retiring in 1991, except for one Nightmare short film, she is currently 80.

Harris had begun working on TV in 1967 with the Ben Gazzara series Run for Your Life, followed by parts on Dragnet 1967 and Adam-12, among others. Like Coughlin, she had been in Maryjane (1968) as well. She appeared as a young seductress in the Clint Eastwood drama The Beguiled (1972) and worked on many of the Quinn Martin TV shows of the 1970s like The Streets of San Francisco and Barnaby Jones. As the 1990s dawned, Harris began to work less but found a place in the world of The Simpsons as a voice artist for several episodes. She came back to on-screen acting later, working with Tracy Ullman on both Tracy Takes On... and State of the Union. She is currently 75.

In this publicity photo, you can see the toll that the searing desert sun during Patrol took on Casey's light complexion. You can also see some of the "Lee Grant" thing I was going on about with Harris.

 

In a bit of a spin on expectations, it was Greer of all people who, in real life, had actually served in the military! He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force at age sixteen and served three years in the Far East. While in the service he joined a vocal group and afterwards pursued an entertainment career at "talent nights," adopting the last name of Greer after the actress Jane Greer. Though his appearances in mainstream projects was limited to a degree, he was a pioneer in the fact that he was openly gay in Hollywood when virtually no one else was. His biggest claim to fame was portraying the rather vicious "Queenie" in the play and later movie version of Fortune and Men's Eyes (1971.) His costar from the play, Don Johnson, helped him win a costarring role in The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart (1970) after Joe Dallesandro had been fired after one day. As time went on, there were fewer mainstream opportunities for Greer, but he did club dates and voiceover work. So convincing was his Bette Davis imitation that he actually dubbed lines for her in at least two projects when she wasn't available! A lifelong chain smoker, he was claimed by lung cancer in 2002 at age 59.

Brook's career was far more stymied than Greer's. He'd had a small part in Rosemary's Baby (1968) - as a Greek bearing a gift - and also appeared in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970), but most of his output was in (very) low budget fare, much of which has now slipped into obscurity like The Curious Female (1969), which also featured Greer, and A Clockwork Blue (1972.) I wasn't able to discover any further information about him, including whether or not he's still alive.

Straight-laced, liver-lipped Webb was the perfect choice to play his disapproving, narrow-minded father role. Webb had begun playing bit roles in the 1940s in a variety of films, some notable like Hold Back the Dawn, Sullivan's Travels (both 1941), This Gun for Hire (1942) and Out of the Past (1947), with Jane Greer! More substantial roles followed in movies like Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) and This Woman is Dangerous (1952) until 1954 when he was cast on TV as Captain Midnight, followed by the series Border Patrol. He toiled on many a television show, often playing authority figures, up until 1978. A former drinker and longtime smoker, Webb suffered from severe respiratory illness in his later years and took his own life in 1993 to end the discomfort. He was 78.

Starrett began in the Tom Laughlin movie Like Father, Like Son (1961) as a football coach and soon enough found a niche playing authority figures in movies like Hell's Angels on Wheels and Tom Laughlin's The Born Losers (both 1967.) He continued to pop up in various rough and tumble movies (an exception being his role as "Gabby Johnson" in Blazing Saddles, 1974) while also emerging as a director of drive-in movie fare like Cry Blood, Apache (1970), Slaughter (1972) and Cleopatra Jones (1973.) In 1982, he was cast as the sheriff who makes Sylvester Stallone's life hell in First Blood. A heavy drinker, he died in 1989 of kidney and liver disease at only age 52. He'd been working continuously up to that time. Trivia tidbit: He wife and widow, Valerie Starrett, had originated the role of nurse Diana Taylor on General Hospital that Starrett's costar Bundy later inherited!

That about brings us to The End...

Okay, now then. The End!

Thanks for your interest in Poseidon's Underworld over the last fifteen years! I'll be back when I can with more TV and movie shenanigans.