The title of this film is a bit of an intentional misnomer. These sisters are anything but gay - in any sense of the word. Susanna Gaylord (Nancy Coleman) is drearily trying to find happiness after a 4 hour marriage the groom refuses to annul, Evelyn Gaylord (Geraldine Fitzgerald) is bitter and spiteful and Fiona Gaylord (Stanwyck) is hard as nails and completely unforgiving. They've been orphans (albeit rich ones) since they were children, and the estate their father left them has been in probate for 20 years. It's being held up by developer Charles Barclay (George Brent) who wants to buy the family mansion, tear it down and build a complex. Fiona refuses to sell and the standoff has been a stalemate. Of course there's more to this than real estate. There's more to the relationship between Fiona and Charles than meets the eye...
This super soaper is the film that gave Gig Young his name. He plays an artist who forms the sticky point of a love triangle between Susanna and Evelyn. Warner Brothers decided after casting him in this film that he should take the characters name professionally. It's sort of odd to hear the character referred to by name so often in the film (And they do it endlessly, using both given and surname so it almost seems like a parody) knowing that since then, the name also refers to the actor.
The Gay Sisters has yet to be released on DVD, though it can be watched in its entirety on YouTube, thanks to an upload by heapsoflovenozomi. Part 1 is above. It's also occasionally screened on TCM, which is where I saw it. The poster above is available at MoviePosterShop.com.
Obscurity factor: 7 (not on DVD, mostly unknown to the general public)
I just watched this on Turner. It is an odd movie. Very odd. The ending is unsatisfactory, and seems like it was an afterthought. Not to say it was not entertaining, but the ending left me scratching my head. It is like ice going from a solid to a gas in one step, sublime. How someone can go from a full stop to 100 hundred miles an hour in one second.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised no one seems to notice that Fiona is raped on her wedding night and that's how she becomes pregnant. This would help to explain why she hates Barkley so much, but not why she "loves" him in the last few seconds of the movie.
ReplyDeleteWell, perhaps it could be explained as a kind of Stockhold syndrome... Our tormentors can become objects of love.
ReplyDeleteWhen is this movie to be released in dvd?
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't look like there are plans to release it right now.
ReplyDeleteGet over the rape business. What malarkey. She probably melted into his arms. Gawd, I hate these revisionists who try to visit their moral agenda on times past. And wasn't Fiona's duplicity a kind of moral rape?
ReplyDeleteIt was rape.
ReplyDeleteWould love to have this film released on dvd. Movie clips of it are not enough to tell a story.
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