Suddenly, Last Summer is an adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ play, which follows Catherine Holly (Elizabeth Taylor) after she witnesses her cousin’s death while on a trip to Europe. Meanwhile, her aunt, Violet Venable (Katharine Hepburn), doesn’t want the news about her son’s death to get out, so she bribes a surgeon named John Cukrowicz (Montgomery Clift) to give Catherine a lobotomy. The story had its own depiction of a gay character.
They Came to Cordura stars Gary Cooper as U.S. Maj. Tom Thorn, who sets out on a mission to Mexico. He’s tasked with helping transport a group of heroes for an honoring ceremony after he’s considered a coward. Meanwhile, Adelaide Geary (Rita Hayworth) is charged as a traitor against the United States, but she reveals herself to be the most heroic of the bunch. The film implies a gay relationship between Cooper and Tab Hunter’s characters.
Wayne called both movies “too disgusting even for discussion” and “too distasteful.” Further, he claimed, “to be put on a screen designed to entertain a family, or any member of a decent family.” Wayne used them as examples of what was “poison polluting Hollywood’s moral bloodstream.” He detested the use of LGBTQ+ themes and violence in these films, slamming them in response.
He hated Midnight Cowboy, Best Picture Oscar
Wayne wasn’t afraid to come forward about other movies that he deemed “morally corrupt.” Among those films included the 3-time Oscar-winning movie Midnight Cowboy, which hit theaters in 1969. It took home the statues for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.
Nevertheless, the movie star used a slur against the LGBTQ+ community to describe the film in his 1971 interview with Playboy, which he referred to as “perverted.” He thought the male physique was “distasteful” when showing “hairy, sweaty bodies in the foreground.”
