Drag in Film.

As a special Valentine's Day treat, here's Brazil's sweetheart, Carmen Miranda, as done by Mickey Rooney in Babes on Broadway (1941), with very little intention to disguise who it really is. The clumsy posturing and the tripping on the heels are typical of the era, when fun was fun but couldn't go too far in the direction of realism.



Poor Carmen. In spite of being a real talent and spectacular at what she did, she was such an easy target for satire. Here's another send-up, this time in a movie in which Carmen herself appeared, Scared Stiff (1953), with Martin and Lewis. Here's Jerry doing the "honors", complete with the standard "giveaway" mannerisms to indicate that the poor guy wasn't all that interested in wearing a dress. A little glimpse of chest hair always helped in that department too.



There are many images of Bugs Bunny as Carmen on the internet, but in his appearance in Slick Hare (1947) he interacts with a cartoon Carmen, then solos doing her moves without the costume, all while trying to avoid Elemer Fudd just offstage. There was a full-on Bugs impersonation of Carmen at some point in his career, but I couldn't track it down.



The record holder for most movie appearances in drag has to go to Bugs. A poster on YouTube (Gregory May) has put together a great compilation. Bugs as Carmen comes in for a few seconds at the 1:20 mark. Enjoy and Happy Valentine's day.

Johnny Depp has made a career out of doing the unexpected and that includes drag, most notably in Ed Wood (1994), Tim Burton's movie about the director with a penchant for cross-dressing. Wood himself has been an object of fun for years for his earnest ineptness and shameless exploitation of popular genres on sub-zero budgets, but he stepped way beyond the boundaries of "popular" with Glen or Glenda? (1953), his cinematic treatise on transvestism, which was simultaneously looney tunes and prescient, considering the time in which it was made. Johnny did Wood's memory proud, giving the character a buoyant, innocent optimism which helped rescue Wood from the stereotypes which have grown up around him over the years, while still managing to celebrate the famous angora sweater. Good job, Johnny.



In 2001 Johnny did a cameo in Before Night Falls, the story of imprisoned and ultimately exiled gay Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas. While in prison Arenas (Javier Bardem) avails himself of the services of "Bon Bon" (Johnny) to transport manuscripts in a particularly intimate way, shall we say. Though Bon Bon's scruffy "soul patch" is fooling nobody, he has generally free access to visit the prisoners, so who knows what arrangements have been made with guards. As I said, it's a cameo, but a very memorable one. Johnny's scenes are on YouTube but require age verification and can't be embedded here, so I'll post the trailer to maybe inspire people to see this movie themselves.

Jinkx is certainly positioned for cross-over into the broader world of acting, also having a run in the musical Chicago on Broadway now on the resume. Hopefully, Jinkx can follow in the footsteps of Divine, who, as I recently mentioned elsewhere, was just on the cusp of transitioning toward acting both in and out of drag and was set for a recurring male role on the TV show Married with Children when he died suddenly. Best of luck, Jinkx.

To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar is a great suggestion. It's the crown jewel of drag on film and I've wanted to think about what I would say before jumping in. It was so groundbreaking that I'm sort of surprised how it's settled back into relative obscurity, so that it's now something you need to search for rather than something which is regularly featured in movie programming. Some of that may have been due to the complicated marketing strategy involved in selling male leads normally associated with much more masculine roles as drag queens. The trailer begins with a montage of Wesley Snipes and Partick Swayze in past action roles, so I think there was a hint of desperation in the air, not necessarily as to how the actors would acquit themselves but as to how the public would accept them.



This was well before RuPaul's Drag Race took drag into every crevice on the planet, so it was an uphill battle. Also, the fact that it was a somewhat tenuous marriage of reality and fantasy, with side trips into farce and pathos, may have confused some audience members who didn't necessarily understand that drag itself is a side trip into fantasy, farce and pathos. Luckily, Steven Spielberg and Amblin Entertainment came on board in the very early stages, assuring at least a respectful translation to the screen. It's a milestone because, other than scenes under the credits as the men prepare their looks, the entire movie is performed in some form of drag, so that the drag alter-egos are the stars, not the men who play them. Even when preparing for bed or lounging around in private...full drag. It's a movie about the adventures of Vida Boheme (Patrick Swayze), Noxeema Jackson (Wesley Snipes) and Chi-Chi Rodriguez (John Leguizamo) and male identities are left completely behind. It's can't be overstated what a challenging choice it was for the actors involved, since every career retrospective or tribute in the future would likely feature a clip of them in full drag and make-up, but there's no hesitancy to commit onscreen that I can detect. Here they are at their coronation as Drag Queen of the Year, their first introduction in character.



The script by Douglas Carter Beane was inspired by some dire fundamentalist warning that drag queens were out to take over every town in America, so he decided to see what that actually might look like and the film is constructed as a road movie bringing them into contact with the part between New York and Hollywood, the starting and ending points of their journey. But first, some rules of the road as laid down by Vida and Noxeema.



Their road trip cross-country is stranded in a small town, where their claim of being "career girls" is accepted at face value. If you don't buy this fantasy, you probably won't buy the movie, but if you do you'll see the populace responding positively to the new infusion of style, taste and, particularly, energy. Some locals become well fleshed-out characters, such as Stockard Channing as an abused wife who learns to take control of her life and Alice Drummond as the reclusive owner of the shuttered movie house who blossoms and bonds with Noxeema (Snipes) over movie trivia. Noxeema is also able to provide a valuable lesson in manners to some local detractors.



There are subplots about young sweethearts brought together and a young gay boy given a glimpse of the wider world in the form of Diana Vreeland's autobiography, as well as an ongoing subplot to bring the ladies to justice by a homophobic sheriff (Chris Penn). The plot maybe teeters a little toward the end, which seems to have been the focus of any negative criticism of the film initially, but the overall movie has heart and charm to spare, unless, of course, you're of a mind to disassociate yourself from such things, as some modern critics of the entire concept of drag seem to be. But if the maxim of one step back for two steps forward is true, this current step back won't obscure what a huge step forward this movie was in terms of cementing drag in the public's mind as an important component of queer culture. One thing the movie doesn't account for is the more modern concept of transgender, so if anyone wants to contribute impressions of the movie on that basis, it would be welcome.

It's available on YouTube, with ads, so it should be easy access. I don't know how much Pricilla intentionally influenced To Wong Foo, but you're right about the similarities. The influence may have been mostly in showing that a specialized movie like that could be successful at the box office. I checked wiki and it said it was the #1 movie the first two weeks of release, a pretty good indicator of how it went over, and Swayze was nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Actor, with Leguizamo nominated in the supporting category.

Torch Song Trilogy (1988) presented drag in a new way to movie audiences, as part of a larger story about the life of a person in and out of a dress. It was taken from Harvey Fierstein's hugely successful Broadway play but was, in my opinion, prettied up a little for mass audiences, not as rude and crude as the play had dared to be. Regardless, it was a pivotal step forward in making drag more than just an incidental novelty in film. Yes, the drag itself is incidental in this movie, but the character of the drag artist is not. It begins with a monologue in the dressing room while the character (Arnold) is getting ready to perform. Unfortunately, the only form in which the scene exists on YouTube is this clip shot from a TV screen, maybe for legal reasons?, but it's an important scene in bonding the audience with the character.



The ensuing musical number, the full cast of the club doing "Dames" from the early Warner's musical, is no longer out there, which is a shame because it includes some great shtick from Charles Pierce, the legendary female impersonator in, I believe, his only film appearance. Harvey participates as his then current drag persona, Virginia Ham.



And here's Charles Pierce teasing his "Dance of the Virgin", to be done "completely from memory". See, I told you...shtick.



In a later club scene Harvey does a solo number, "Svelte". Admittedly, it doesn't hold up as well today, using an eating disorder as a subject for comedy, but it's a good example of how Harvey was able to put that scratchy voice to work for comic effect, giving his performances a dimension which his voice alone didn't.

Here's some movie drag from the lowbrow end of the spectrum, back when fun was fun as long as there was enough five o'clock shadow and chest hair in evidence to dispel any unhealthy notions about what was going on. And check out the garters holding up the men's socks; way to mess with the illusion, guys. I won't be curmudgeonly enough to suggest this isn't fun; I'm sure it was a big morale boost to troops starved for something this silly and entertaining. But lines were definitely drawn as to the extent to which this would be acceptable beyond the realm of droopy stockings and slipping wigs. Everybody could be in on the joke as long as it was a joke. Stick Latrice Royale in this number and you'd have mass confusion on your hands. But times do change and it's at least nice to think of an era when there wasn't the perception right out of the gate that this would corrupt children and send the country into a spiral. It's a sad fact that just as drag is really coming into its own as an art form, the backlash against it is probably also at its strongest. I won't do a lot of this proselytizing, but it has to be said. Anyhoo, let's enjoy Alan Hale and "the girls" as "Ladies of the Chorus" from This is the Army (1943).



Perhaps the ultimate example of half-hearted drag for entertaining the troops is Ray Walston as Luther Billis in South Pacific (1958). The drag is so loosely approximated using found objects that it can skate on the absurdity of the look and there's no question of accountability for a man dressing as a woman. The gruff demeanor and the sloppy movements (ie: the male elements) help keep the drag above reproach, which only points out how much reproach there might be in the case of a full drag impersonation. They're toying with the mere idea of drag for comic effect, without having to deal with any of the possibilities behind the idea. It's interesting to note that even Mitzi's outfit is exaggerated to counterbalance any idea that she's actually dressed in men's clothing. The cuffs are rolled at the bottom, yes, but the crotch of the pants hangs so low that it's hard to imagine it ever fitting an actual male body; it had to have been made specifically as a costume, therefor not anything borrowed from a real sailor, which I think is what we're supposed to assume. Again, I know I'm going against the intention here by trying to make an illustrative point. The number is good, silly fun, and I appreciate it on that level too, so without further ado, here's Mitzi Gaynor and Ray Walston as cross-dressing buddies in "Honey Bun". The number begins at about 3:00.