{"product_id":"sick-and-dirty-hollywoods-gay-golden-age-and-the-making-of-modern-queerness","title":"Sick and Dirty: Hollywood's Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eLonglisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Nonfiction\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAN ALLSTORA'S QUEER HISTORY 101 BOOK CLUB PICK\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"An absorbing landmark of film criticism.\" --\u003ci\u003eThe Chicago Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e, \"The 10 Best Books of the Year\"\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eA blazingly original history celebrating the persistence of queerness onscreen, behind the camera, and between the lines during the dark days of the Hollywood Production Code.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFrom the 1930s to the 1960s, the Motion Picture Production Code severely restricted what Hollywood cinema could depict. This included \"any inference\" of the lives of homosexuals. In a landmark 1981 book, gay activist Vito Russo famously condemned Hollywood's censorship regime, lambasting many midcentury films as the bigoted products of a \"celluloid closet.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBut there is more to these movies than meets the eye. In this insightful, wildly entertaining book, cinema historian Michael Koresky finds new meaning in \"problematic\" classics of the Code era like Hitchcock's \u003ci\u003eRope\u003c\/i\u003e, Minnelli's \u003ci\u003eTea and Sympathy\u003c\/i\u003e, and-bookending the period and anchoring Koresky's narrative-William Wyler's two adaptations of \u003ci\u003eThe Children's Hour\u003c\/i\u003e, Lillian Hellman's provocative hit play about a pair of schoolteachers accused of lesbianism. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eLifting up the underappreciated queer filmmakers, writers, and actors of the era, Koresky finds artists who are long overdue for reevaluation. Through his brilliant inquiry, \u003ci\u003eSick and Dirty\u003c\/i\u003e reveals the \"bad seeds\" of queer cinema to be surprisingly, even gleefully subversive, reminding us, in an age of book bans and gag laws, that nothing makes queerness speak louder than its opponents' bids to silence it.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1639732543\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781639732548\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Koresky, Michael, N\/A, N\/A\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Bloomsbury Publishing\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing","offers":[{"title":"HardCover (Jun 2025)","offer_id":45658666696901,"sku":"9781639732548","price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781639732548.jpg?v=1768902270","url":"https:\/\/www.inveni.store\/products\/sick-and-dirty-hollywoods-gay-golden-age-and-the-making-of-modern-queerness","provider":"Inveni","version":"1.0","type":"link"}