Entertainment
Daily Dose
weekend binge
Care to know the origin of all those Turkish prison jokes?
Welcome to Screen Gems, our weekend dive into queer and queer-adjacent titles of the past that deserve a watch or a re-watch.Hollywood iconoclast Oliver Stone took home his first Academy Award for his screenplay to this film, an adaptation of Billy Hayes’ 1977 memoir. Midnight Express recounts Hayes’ actual stay in a Turkish prison. In 1970, Hayes rather unwisely tried to smuggle hash out of the country, resulting in his conviction by a Turkish court, and sentencing to stay in a draconian prison.