The queerness hiding in plain sight in the work of Hollywood Golden Age director George Cukor
The following is an excerpt from the new book George Cukor’s People: Acting for a Master Director by Joseph McBride, available now from Columbia University Press.George Cukor is a widely admired but little understood director.
Most critics and cinephiles acknowledge his extraordinary talent in directing actors and will admit having several Cukor films among their favorites, from Camille and The Philadelphia Story to Adam’s Rib and the Judy Garland version of A Star Is Born, but the critical literature about his work is skimpy.
Cukor does not flag his characteristic themes as obviously as some other directors tend to do, but his personal preoccupations stand out clearly when one surveys his body of work.
Most striking and pervasive is Cukor’s characteristic gravitation to socially adventurous, subversively rule-breaking, audacious dreamers who are often sexually transgressive and gender-fluid in ways that seem far ahead of their time and strikingly modern today.
