Alfred Hitchcock and the Mainstreaming of Gay Characters in the Movies

Among the many reasons to watch an Alfred Hitchcock film is that few other directors of the period featured so many homosexual characters in major roles. Some might well say that Hitchcock should be taken to task since most of his gay characters were also villains, but the flip side of that argument is that those characters also happen to be the most interesting. Consider how much more memorable the Martin Landau character is than the James Mason character in North by Northwest. Landau's character was probably an inspiration for the Smithers character on The Simpsons. Many-including those in the gay community-will say that contemporary depictions of "outed" gay characters in so many movies and TV shows today is proof that homosexuals are finally entering the mainstream. I would counter that today's gays are introduced specifically because of their homosexuality and so represent a step backward. The gay characters in Alfred Hitchcock's movies were not written so as to introduce a multicultural element nor do they exist in order to provide easy access to characterization and jokes. In fact, none of the gay characters in Hitchcock's movies are explicitly presented as homosexual. And that makes all the difference. For you see, they are people first and gay second.

Aside from the obsequious and slightly perverse character that Martin Landau plays in North by Northwest the most obviously gay characters in the Hitchcock canon are Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca, Norman Bates in Psycho and, my favorite Hitchcock character of all time, Bruno in Strangers on a Train. Of course, there are many others and you might even make an argument that such big time characters as Uncle Charlie in Shadow of a Doubt is gay. Yes, it is quite obvious that psychologically Hitchcock was a homophobe of the biggest type; every single one of these characters is not only gay, but psychotic. But, like I said, they are also the most interesting people in their respective movies.