Forty-four years ago this May, John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy rode into movie theaters and later won Oscars for best picture,
director, and screenplay. The gay story of the Bronx's own Ratso Rizzo and
Texan Joe Buck earned an X rating (which back then simply meant no one under 17, not porn) and bizarre reviews from the likes of Vincent Canby in the NYT. Schlesinger had previously made one of the first "swinging London" movies, Darling, (winning Julie Christie her best actress Oscar), and later made the bi Sunday Bloody Sunday, the first widely distributed film to show two men making love. His daring dwindled with the passing decades: The Day of the Locust, Marathon Man, Yanks, The Falcon and the Snowman, Madame Sousatzka, Pacific Heights, and the indie favorite Cold Comfort Farm. His last movie was the regrettable Madonna - Rupert Everett vehicle, The Next Best Thing in 2000. The London-born Schlesinger lived in Palm Springs with his partner of more than thirty years, Michael Childers, until his death in 2003. Read William Mann's biography Edge of Midnight: The Life of John Schlesinger
Of all the movies Schlesinger made, "Day of the Locust" was his favorite.
Posted by: Foster Corbin | February 16, 2013 at 07:32 AM
'Darling' is and always has been my favorite movie. Just the right combination of time and place for me. And a wonderfully crisp screenplay by Frederic Raphael, which, if the public demands, I will be happy to recite from start to finish. Only met Schlesinger once (at a press screening of SBS). But one day on the 'Mystery!' set, host Vincent Price's wife, the actress, Coral Browne, visited, spotted an Art Deco vase on the set, and turned to me to say, "Johnny Schlesinger's boyfriend would LOVE this." Why, oh why, did I not immediately grab it and mail it off to him? Johnny S had directed Coral and Alan Bates in the superb Alan Bennett-penned film 'An Englishman Abroad,' currently available in its entirely on YouTube.
Posted by: Sandy | February 17, 2013 at 05:55 AM