Lords of Flatbush: Fonzie Before Happy Days

Lords of Flatbush (1974) was a precursor of next year’s Happy Days, about four Brooklyn greasers (about 30 years old but still in high school) whose same-sex relationships are doomed by the “discovery” of girls. Chico (Perry King) courts a rich girl, and Stanley (Sylvester Stallone, pre-Rocky, never shirtless but filling out his t-shirts beautifully) gets his girlfriend pregnant.

 The other two gang members, Butchie (Henry Winkler) and Wimpy (Paul Mace), seem not particularly interested in girls, in spite of their obligatory smooching sounds and breast-grabbing gestures whenever girls pass. 

 Butchie especially, short, slim, with a desperate, haunted look in his eyes and a curious diminution of a name that protests too much, behaves in a decidedly transgressive fashion.  He likes boys, but the objects of his interest keep rejecting him.

Late one evening, the others decide to look for girls, but Butchie wants to hang out at the deserted soda shop with Eddie (Joe Stern), the dark, curly-haired soda jerk. No one else is present, so Eddie asks if they might “get personal.” Butchie, grinning, says: “as long as you don’t come over here and give me a great big kiss, anything goes.”

This is a curious response; although his grin suggests that he is stating a laughable absurdity, his quickness at considering it, and the accumulation of adjectives (it’s not just a kiss, it’s a great big kiss) suggest that it is close to conscious thought: perhaps Eddie could kiss him. Indeed, he has specifically rejected an evening of girl-chasing to be alone with a man. What does he expect to happen? 

 But then Eddie rejects him, telling him that he is wasting his life by spending all of his time in the soda shop, oblivious to the possibility that Butchie might hang out there because he likes Eddie. Understandably angry, Butchie goes home.

Later, Chico sneaks into Butchie’s room. They sit, one on a chair, the other on the bed. “Do you have anything to tell me?” Butchie asks. They gaze at each other for a long moment. 

 Chico considers telling him something, but then decides against it. What are they leaving unsaid? Somewhat angry, Butchie prods him further: “Because if you don’t have anything to tell me, I guess I could go to sleep.”

Chico stares at him for a moment more, and then angrily jumps up and runs for the door, refusing to tell him, leaving Butchie silent and frustrated, rejected twice on the same evening. Butchie remains silent and frustrated as Chico, still refusing to tell him, weds the rich girl.

Henry Winkler went on to superstardom as Fonzie on Happy Days, a sitcom that also had tons of gay content.

"Missing: The Other Side": The Gay Leader of the Village of the Dead

 

Missing: The Other Side, a Korean drama on Netflix: "a con artist encounters a village where the spirits of missing persons are trapped until the mystery of their disappearance is solved."  Sounds like you could just as easily say "murder victims," but I'm interested in mysterious disappearances, and the promo shows a femme blond guy -- the con artist or his friend?  -- so I'll check for gay subtexts.  No episode descriptions, so we'll start at the beginning.

Scene 1: Billboard: "It's been 10 day since my daughter Kim Soo-hee went missing."  We see her leaving school, walking slowly down an alley, and getting grabbed by a shadow, then her body being disposed of.  Next the shadow grabs a man sleeping in a car, and Kim Me-Ok, age 33, breaks into a freezer, retrieves a frozen book, and burns the pages.  

Scene 2: Con Artist (Ko Soo, left) convinces Rich Guy to hand over 100 billion won ($730,000) for a scam investment.  He shoves it into his briefcase and tries to leave, but first Rich Guy calls to see if he's legit.  Yes, the woman on the phone says, he's our team leader.

Out in the hallway, Con Artist is relieved.  They got away with the scam!  

Scene 3:   The three con artists meet.  A woman tells them about their next target, Mr. Park, a "scumbag who swindles local businesses," like a shop owner out of her life savings.

Rich Guy and his cronies call again, get the real Kim Seok-hun, and realize that they've been conned.  They run out of the room yelling in anger. Wait -- was the earlier scene a flashback?  Is this guy Mr. Park?  Way to confuse the audience!

Scene 4:  Sangwon Market.  Con Artist delivers the money that Rich Guy swindled from the shop owner, minus his commission.  She gives him some produce to share with his team.

Meanwhile, the police are retrieving the body of a girl from a deep freeze.  She's Kim Soo-hee from Scene 1, missing for a year. The scruffy detective Baek Il-du notices rope burns on her neck, and concludes that she was strangled.  More background: single, age 33, worked in publishing.  Wait -- the girl in Scene 1 was dressed in a school uniform, and said goodbye to 3,000 similarly dressed girls.  She must have been a different victim from Kim Soo-hee.  Wait to increase audience confusion!  

We are introduced to a new character, Gruff Cop Shin Jun-ho (Ha-Joon), who is upset due to an argument with his fiancee.  He goes to a tux shop fora  fitting for the wedding, and discovers that she cancelled it!  

Scene 5: Con Artist sees a girl being kidnapped, and intervenes.  The gang chases him.  Just then, Rich Guy's gang tracks him down.  He runs away, being chased by two gangs, through Saengwo Market, where he is hit by Gruff Cop's car!  

Scene 6: At the hospital, Gruff Cop looks on in horror as Con Artist goes into cardiac arrest (doctors are working on him right in the lobby).  But he doesn't die.  He awakens.  Gruff Cop says "You should be fine now."  There was a pool of blood under his head.  Why isn't his head bandaged?  Is this the afterlife?

Scene 7:  Scruffy Detective working on the case of the dead girl, when a distraught mother rushes in with another missing person case: her son, Ha-neul.  He begins a search, sending his team to pass out fliers and dredge nearby lakes.

Meanwhile, the Blond-Haired Guy from the promo (Song Geon-Hee) is putting a "help-wanted" sign up on his castle when a guy appears-- with Ha-neul!  Kidnappers?

Scene 7:  Con Artist is released from the hospital, still with Gruff Cop: "Since you're paying for everything, I asked them for a colonoscopy, but they refused to do it."  

Scene 8:  At the crime scene, Gruff Cop finds a delivery slip lying on the ground for everyone to see, with a name: Kang Myeung-jin.   Meanwhile, Con Artist is on his way back to the hideout, when he is grabbed by Rich Guy's gang, tied up, and taken to the woods. While they are digging a hole to bury him in, he escapes. Is he going to die soon?  I'm getting tired of waiting.   Running blindly through the woods, he falls off a cliff -- but lands on a tree branch.  A gardener finds him.  Surely he's dead now.

Scene 9: Gears turning and candles lighting themselves.  A woman comes through a mirror.  In another room, Con Artist awakens, half-naked, screaming.  The Gardener gives him some clothes and sets out dinner.  This must be the afterlife village.

Meanwhile, Con Artist's friends go to the spot where his cell phone last tracked him. They find his charm bracelet. 

Scene 10:  Looking for his wallet and cell phone, Con Artist returns to the spot where Gardener found him.  Uh-oh, the bad guys from last night arrive, looking for a body to show their boss.  He hides behind some rocks.  Suddenly a very large, mentally-disabled guy appears and offers him a flower.  Con Artist tries to shush him, but he is too excited to see another person.  Strangely, the bad guys don't notice.

Moving on, Con Artist passes a "Do Not Enter" sign and goes through a hazy time-space portal, I guess, to The Village: Observation tower, weird plants, people in costumes from different time periods. 

Scene 11: While Ha-neul, the Kidnapped Boy from Scene 7, eats a sandwich, the Blond Guy talks to a woman: "There's a bounty on him."  "How long will you keep him here?" "Not long."  She offers to keep the boy at her place.

Meanwhile, Con Artist goes into the Cafe Hawaii (sign in English).  Everybody stares.  Blond Guy stands behind the bar.  Con Artist wants to borrow his landline.  "It doesn't work.  Cell phones don't work here, either.  And there are no police around."

He orders a espresso, but...no espresso machines, so iced tea it is.  "I haven't seen you around before," Blond Guy says.  "Where did you come from?"   Con Artist thinks he is just being nosy.  

Wait -- a woman walks by outside, using a cell phone!   Con Artist runs outside to ask to borrow it, but she is gone.  Wait -- she's standing right there!  Gardener sees her, and realizes that something is wrong -- Con Artist doesn't belong in the Village.  Because he's not dead?

Scene 12: Con Artist returns to the Gardener's house, changes back into the clothes he came in, and prepares to leave.  "There's a bus stop about a 30 minute walk that way."

Darn, he arrives at the bus stop just as it is pulling away.  The next one isn't until tomorrow.  Is this the afterlife or not?   He trudges back to the Cafe Hawaii to insult Blond Guy's town and then ask for a place to spend the night (not a smart strategy).  Blond Guy shows him to a room, which he complains about.  

He tries to sleep, but is awakened by the crying Kidnapped Boy.  He says that he's been waiting for his mother for two nights, but she never shows up.  Con Artist tries to comfort him by saying that he lost his own mother (not the best strategy, dude).  Suddenly he remembers seeing Kidnapped Boy on a missing person poster. 

Blond Guy intervenes. "I'll take the child to bed.  Go back to your room."

Scene 13: Blond Guy -- Thomas --and Gardener talking: "I should have left him to die.  He'll only be trouble."  Meanwhile, Con Artist concludes that he's stumbled onto a kidnapping gang. 

Pictured: Hu Nam-ju, who appears in Episodes 3-5.

While Love Interest looks on from afar,  Sleazy Guy complains that there's nothing to do, and can he help the Gardener kick out the new guy?  Gardner seethes in rage and gives us a new plotline: "My blood boils whenever I think of how you tricked me into accusing an innocent person."  "She wasn't innocent!  She stabbed me in the back!" Literally? "She was your wife!'

Scene 14: In the morning, Con Artist leaves.  On the way, he passes a house with some kids playing in the yard: Kidnapped Boy, the Mentally Disabled Big Boy, and a third.  A woman brings out snacks.  Why is she being so nice to kidnapping victims?

Suddenly a Crazy Lady is standing next to him.  "Be quiet.  If she sees you, she'll kill you.  Another person died last night. Was it you?"

Scene 15: For some reason, he agrees to go back to the Crazy Lady's house, where she reveals that she recognizes him: "Your mother told me all about you."  So Mom actually did get lost, and ended up in the Village.  

Scary Lady from the yard enters and asks angrily "What are you doing here?" No fraternizing with dead people!   Con Artist leaves.

On the way, he runs into a lot more kids playing hide-and-seek, Kidnapped Boy among them.  He decides to take Kidnapped Boy with him.

Scene 16: Blond Guy and the rest of the staff interrogating the kids about the disappearance of Kidnapped Boy: "The new guy took him."  "You mean the handsome man with big eyes?" Blond Guy asks.  Definitely gay.

They run, and catch up to Con Artist pulling a suitcase on wheels.  Kidnapped Kid must be inside!  Nope -- it's a trick!  Ha-neul was actually hiding in the bushes.

As soon as they are gone, Con Artist hides Ha-neul in the suitcase for the rest of the trip to the bus station.  But when he opens it up again, Ha-neul has vanished!

Scene 17: Con Artist catches up to the bus, borrows the driver's cell phone, and calls the police.  Brusque Cop agrees to check it out.  Then he returns to the Village: there's Ha-neul, playing happily with the Mentally Disabled Guy, who explains: "He got lost, so I brought him back."  

Con Artist grabs him and runs, chased by the staff.  Crazy Lady beckons them into her house to hide, but when they enter, she's gone!  And the house is deserted!  Meanwhile, Gardener watches a tv story about Crazy Lady's body being discovered: she had dementia, and wandered off from the nursing home three months ago.  

Scene 18: Continuing with Ha-neul, Con Artist stops to ask Gardener and Sleazy Guy about Crazy Lady's disappearance. (Wouldn't you think he was in on it, and run?).  Sleazy Guy explains: "Everyone in the village is dead. But..."  As he is speaking, he and his stuff begin to evaporate.  Apparently when your body is discovered, you move on to the afterlife.

Suddenly he realizes that Ha-neul is dead.  The end.

Beefcake: One shirtless scene, an occasional bulge.

Gay Characters: Thomas appears to be gay.  No one else has expressed any heterosexual interest, but an episode guide reveals that Con Artist will become interested in Gruff Cop's dead fiancee.

Gay Subtext: No doubt Con Artist and Gruff Cop will have to work together to find the bodies of the Village inhabitants so they can go on to the afterlife.  

My Grade: The flashbacks and multiple characters with the same storyline becomes confusing, but I liked the touches of humor throughout.  B. 

Update: In Episode 2, Con Artist's female partner is so happy to see him alive that she grabs and hugs and kisses him; he pointedly pushes her away.  Then he rejects her date request to go out with a male friend.  As the main character, I doubt that he will be canonically gay, but he's got a massive subtext going on.

"The Secret of the Greco Family": Lesbian Text, Gay/Bi Subtexts in a Kidnapping Family in 1980s Mexico

 In the promo to Mexican series The Secret of the Greco Family, a middle-aged man in a ritzy kitchen puts on a ski mask and takes a tray of food down a secret staircase.  I think "100 to 1 he's got a girl tied up down there."  Surprise!  It's a guy! 

 There's no big mystery -- the guy is being held for ransom -- but just having a Man in Distress instead of a Damsel incites my interest.  

Problem: this tv series is based on a real kidnapping family in Argentina in the 1980s, so there will doubtless be no gay characters.  Maybe some daring boy-on-boy rescues, though.

Scene 1: Tribune of Justice, Jalisco, Mexico, 1985.  Andres Greco (Manuel Masalva, top photo), a  bearded young man,  is interrogated by the police.  He claims that he had no choice: his father forced him. The interrogator: "Gustavo Balbuena tells us that you were in charge of the gate, so you could have helped Gael escape at any time."  

As Andres is led out of the interrogation room, he runs away, jumps from a second-story gallery, and crashes into a glass display case below.  He's still alive, but severely injured.

Scene 2:  Flashback.  Andres playing polo, the Sport of Kings.  He and his teammates frolick naked in the showers (bare butts, no cocks), then get dressed and head into a small party at the country club.  

He kisses his girlfriend and shakes hands with Gael Espinoza, the future kidnapping victim.  Gael (Junior Pisanu) seems a bit feminine, dressed all in pink, with a sweater wrapped around his neck.   Maybe he's gay-coded?  Nope, he compliments Andres on having "pretty sisters."  

He offers to give Andres and his girlfriend a ride home. They have no car?  I thought they were rich.

Scene 3:  The upper-middle class Greco house.  Mom and a daughter are cooking, and another daughter, Abril, is roller-skating.  Andres and his girlfriend enter, and get grabbed by brother Dario (Alejandro de Hojos, bottom two photos), on a surprise visit home (he lives in Baja California).  

Scene 4: Andres wonders why Dad (Fernando Calunga, left, old photo) is hiding out in the bathroom, smoking and drinking but not...you know.  He explains: "In the life of every man, there is a moment of lucidity where you can choose your destiny or remain a nobody forever."   That doesn't explain the bathroom, dude.  After several epigrams of a similar nature, Andres asks why Dad sent brother Dario a letter saying he was in bad health, when he's fine.

Scene 5: Apparently Dad didn't answer (except in epigram): Dario and Andres are discussing the mystery.  Andres tells a story of the epigrams Dad delivered back when he went to the Open with Prince Charles (whew, this guy is gliterati). Sister Abril comes in and complains that Andres is always being featured in teen magazines.  They frolick.

Meanwhile, Dad gets ready for bed.  A closeup of his bare foot.  He steps on a cockroach, then decides to let it go and says "Goodnight, Beautiful"  Is he talking to the cockroach or his wife? 

Scene 6: In the morning, they sit down to breakfast. Dad compliments Abril on how beautiful she is (creepy, dude!).  

A young nun arrives for older sister Sabrina; Mom sends her upstairs to wake her up.  Whoa, and she does: the two girls caress each other's faces.  They are secret forbidden lovers!   

Scene 7: Dad takes daughter Abril into the basement bathroom and instructs her to scream, while older daughter Sabrina listens upstairs in the kitchen.  Very creepy!  Andres, still in his underwear (bulge shot), wants to know what's going on.  Dad won't say.

Scene 8: Dad in his office.  He has just told son Dario about The Project, but he won't tell Andres until the right moment: "When the boy is playing polo, he's something, but off the horse, he's nothing,  But you're ok.  You understand."

Scene 9: A party at Andres' house, the women in skimpy bikinis, the men fully clothed except Gael, the rich kid, wears his shirt open.  He and Andres discuss business ideas, then dance, snort cocaine, and make plans to go on go-karts.  Weirdly childish, but apparently Gael has a dedicated go-kart track on his estate.  

Scene 10: Andres awakens in his bedroom.  Dad sits at the foot of his bed, giving himself a foot rub. That's the second close-up of Dad's bare feet in 17 minutes.  Does someone have a fetish?   

He circumambulates about the Project: "I have a lot of debt, and people are threatening to hurt your sisters. Do terrible things to them.  When I was a cop, I arrested a lot of kidnappers, but they were clumsy and did a bad job.  We won't make mistakes."   

Next he justifies the kidnapping by pointing out that the rich got that way by exploiting the poor.  It's only just to take some of their money.  I'm confused.  Isn't Dad rich?  He lives in a mansion, and his son plays polo with Prince Charles.  Finally he asks Andres to choose one of his rich friends to become the victim.

Scene 11: Church.  The Nun and Older Sister Sabrina are sitting together. Dad and brother Dario take the consecrated host in their hands instead of their mouths.  I'm not sure why this is significant.   

Afterwards, Andres, Sabrina, and their romantic partners flirt in the town square.  Dad's friends offers to set him up in business, but he refuses.  That's two people who have offered to help the family financially.  I think Dad and Dario just like the idea of committing a crime.

Scene 12: Dad discussing logistics of The Project with Dario and two older guys.  Andres has the job of luring Gael to the pickup spot.  

Meanwhile, Mom and her friend Lupe are taking tennis lessons and discussing how handsome their instructor is.   Andres arrives just as they leave, enters the country club, sees Gael, and feels guilty.  He goes home, where the gang is preparing the victim's cell and the van, and lies down on his bed, feeling guilty.

Scene 13: Morning.  Dad criticizes younger daughter Abril for wearing her skirt too short.  Andres goes to a party at Gael's house, and runs into his Uncle Hugo, Dad's partner from when he was a cop.  Five parties so far, and this is the first where Gael is shown with a girl.   

Andres asks Gael "Are you busy?", and he responds: "No.  Shall we all head upstairs?"  Flashing signficant looks, Andres, Gael, and the Girl head upstairs -- for a three way?  So Andres and Gael are bi?

Meanwhile, Dad and the gang argue over how to split the money.  Dad wants a larger portion, since his sons are involved, too.

Scene 14:  Older sister Sabrina and her nun-girlfriend are doing girl stuff when Andres stops by the room with his shirt off, to see if he turns on the nun.  He does.  Then Mom drags Sabrina off to a massage session, in spite of her protest that she wants to stay home...in an empty house...with her girlfriend.  

While the women get massages, Dad and Andres start the kidnapping.  "He won't be a good victim.  He knows Uncle Hugo, your old cop partner."  Dad is upset, but it's too late to choose another victim now.

Everyone waits in their separate cars and van for Gael to drive by and see Andres on the street.  He explains that he's waiting for his girlfriend to get out of class.  Gael offers him a ride.  Suddenly the guys put a bag on Gael's head, punch him, and drag him into the van, where they use chloroform to knock him out.  But won't he wonder why Andres didn't intervene?  

Andres runs home and opens the gate so they can drag Gael in, then starts crying.  Dad orders him to go to the club for polo training, like usual.

Scene 15:  Polo training, followed by nude-butt showering.  Dad and Dario are back home, watching tv. The women return from their day-long massage and begin preparing dinner.  Andres returns from practice, glances at the hidden door, and feels guilty.  They sit down to dinner, and say the Lord's Prayer.  The end.

I fast-forwarded through the rest of the series.

Beefcake: Mostly Andres, showering, in underwear, and having sex with two women in various positions.  

Foot Fetish: One or more closeups of a man's bare feet in most episodes.

Gay Characters:  Older daughter and nun have a canonical gay relationship, complete with kissing.  

No more hints that Andres is bisexual, at least none that I could see by fast-forwarding.

Dario is never shown interacting with women, and seems to be falling in love with kidnapping victim Gael:   "We talked all day.  When I wake up in the morning, the only thing I can think of is seeing him again."  He also flirts with the second kidnapping victim (and tickles his bare feet, of course).  It remains subtext, although the scene where he practices oral sex on a banana comes close to text. 

James MacArthur's Fade Out Kiss

James MacArthur  had already made a cinematic splash in The Young Stranger (1957), in which his character overtly falls in love with a buddy, when Disney hired him as an Adventure Boy, one of the stable of young, muscular, attractive teens who would represent "the epitome of young masculinity" (others included Tommy Kirk, Kurt Russell, Tim Considine, Kevin Corcoran, and Jeff East), MacArthur played Disney Adventure Boys four times: in The Light in the Forest (1958), Third Man on the Mountain (1959), Kidnapped (1960), and Swiss Family Robinson (1960). Unfortunately, the Disney version always required him to kiss a girl, regardless of how alien girl-craziness was to the original story.

In Conrad Richter’s original novel Light in the Forest (1953), the white boy raised by Indians bonds with boys and rejects girls.  In the Disney version, there is only a subtle homoerotic subtext between True Son  (MacArthur) and his mentor Del Hardy (Fess Parker).  But the beefcake was stunning: True Son is shirtless almost every scene, his chest and shoulders embossed with a Technicolor glow. When he is tied to a stake, his face, painted black and white, melts into a stoic mask, but his bare chest remains bright.

All Disney Adventure moves must have a fade-out kiss, so scriptwriter Lawrence Edward Watkin dug through the novel to find a servant girl, mentioned fleetingly, and transformed her into the “love interest” Shenandoe (Carol Lynley). She teaches True Son how to dance, hold hands, and kiss.

He makes mistakes, at first: at a party, he finds a ring hidden in a piece of cake. He is supposed to present it to the one he loves best, so he gives it to Del Hardy. Del corrects him, “You don’t give it to a man. You give it to the girl you love the best.” True Son has learned that modern American adolescents must express heterosexual desire.

The movie concludes with True Son and Shenandoe kissing, as the music swells. The Light in the Forest, the meaning of life, has paradoxically switched from “the wild beloved freedom of the Indian” in the Richter novel into heterosexual love.

Swiss Family Robinson (1960) also combines beefcake and the fade-out kiss.  Both national treasure James MacArthur and nineteen-year-old Tommy Kirk are bare-chested and bronzed in nearly every scene.

But early on, Father and Mother Robinson worry that, if the family is stranded in their desert island Paradise forever, their sons will grow up without girls to ogle. Dad asks, “Don’t you sometimes feel this is the life we were meant to live?” Mom responds, “It’s wonderful now, but what about tomorrow? What about our sons? What future is there for them? They’d never know what it is like to be married. . .what it’s like to have a family”

The dearth of females precipitates the decision of Fritz (MacArthur) and Ernst (Kirk) to explore the other side of the island, where they become not chums but competitors: they encounter a puzzlingly sissy “boy,” Bertie, who turns out to be a girl, Roberta (Janet Munro).

There is a girl in the original novel, an “English cousin” that no one bothers to fall in love with, but in the Disney version Fritz and Ernst spend the rest of the movie posturing, flirting, and fist-fighting over her. Roberta is always talking about how she misses London, with its color and excitement, but at the end of the movie she refuses rescue, deciding to stay with Fritz and found a colony.

“Two people,” Roberta says, “if they have each other, what more could they want?” Fritz replies, “I guess. . .to be alone.” Then they kiss as Ernst grimaces.

Ernst goes off to Europe to be educated: Fritz, Bertie, and their heterosexual desire are necessary to bring American-style civilization to the tropics, and boy-pals are merely a hindrance.

After retiring from Disney, MacArthur became well-known as an adult actor, especially as Dano on the long-running tv series Hawaii Five-O.  But he rarely had any shirtless shots or homoerotic buddy-bonding.  When asked if he would be interested in doing a big-screen version of Hawai Five-O, he said "Not as Dano.  Maybe an old man ogling the girls on the beach."  So he wants to be cast as a perv?

He died in 2010.