Instead of marketing it as the comedy-drama it was, the studio treated it like a camp comedy. It was panned by most critics, including Roger Ebert, who gave it one star in his review and called it "an unpleasant exercise in bad taste . . . Stanley[Donen] gives us no warmth, humor or even the dregs of understanding. He exploits the improbable team of Rex Harrison and Richard Burton as a sideshow attraction." The film was a commercial failure that lost most of its investment.
Rarely seen on television, the film was broadcast by Turner Classic Movies during its June 2007 tribute to gay cinema. Noting this broadcast, a month later film critic Armond White called the film "a rare Hollywood movie to depict gay experience with wisdom, humor and warmth", and "a lost treasure".
Judge for yourself:
Past Know Your LGBT History Posts:
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The Jeffersons and the transgender community
"a rare Hollywood movie to depict gay experience with wisdom, humor and warmth", and "a lost treasure"
ReplyDeleteHuh? This film is simply ghastly. I do not know how he could have said that about this film. It is horrible. On par with George Sanders in The Kremlin Letter.