30 of the Gayest Straight Movies Ever Made[html]
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Gay marriage was legalized in Massachusetts just over two decades ago and has been the law of the land in the U.S. since 2015, yet somehow, queer movies are still feel relatively rare. Despite a string of critically acclaimed entries over the last couple of years (The History of Sound, Pillion, Queer, I Saw the TV Glow, Ponyboi, Blue Moon, etc.)—2025 was a low-point for queer representation onscreen.
But that doesn't mean no one is gay in the movies, you might just need to look a little harder to find them. After all, Hollywood has been making gay movies since the advent of film—albeit with plausible deniability. The late 1920s and early 1930s were a golden age for movies that explicitly (or nearly so) dealt with queer characters (Garbo, Dietrich, and Hepburn were bisexual icons before that term was commonly used); the same can be said of the independent-minded 1970s. At other times, representation was all about subtext—the filmmakers sneaking in themes that would go over the heads of the censors but land with the right audiences, or arising as unintended subtext. Which is to say, sometimes even the straightest movies are gay as hell—the inevitable result of straightness trying too hard.
Rope (1948)
In 1924, Leopold and Loeb, two wealthy University of Chicago boyfriends, kidnapped and murdered a 14-year-old largely to prove that they could, the pair having read just enough Nietzsche to convince themselves that they were the Übermensch of whom he wrote. They weren’t, of course, but they wouldn’t be the first rich white boys to believe themselves inherently superior.
The murder was a tragedy, but for someone with Alfred Hitchcock’s sensibilities, it was also too juicy a story to pass up. Rope is most famous because of its unique filming technique: it’s presented as one continuous take, though in reality the takes were about ten minutes long, limited by the film technology of the era. But Rope is based on a play loosely inspired by the Leopold and Loeb murders, and in the play, the pair are explicitly gay. The movie, being a product of its time, obscures that without really suggesting anything else. These effete and sassy “roommates”—played by Farley Granger (who came out late in life) and John Dall (who is widely believed to have been gay, though he never came out publicly)—hold a party at which the body of their murder victim has been concealed. Screenwriter Arthur Laurents, who was gay, was an expert at dodging the restrictions of the Hays code in order to sneak in subtext that was just subtextual enough, a trick Hitchcock likewise excelled at.
Was it truly lost on 1940s audiences that these characters were more than friends? Apparently, Laurents and company didn’t clue in Jimmy Stewart about his character, and the actor never caught on. You can rent Rope from Prime Video.
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Following the events of Frankenstein, the eponymous doctor is all ready to settle down with his fiancée when his old college mentor shows up: Dr. Septimus Pretorius, who lures Henry away from the arms of his promised in favor of the two of them getting together after hours and building more bodies. Dr. Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger), given to sassy retorts and chain-smoking in mausoleums, was high-camp before the notion was codified. Although there’s nothing explicit here, there’s no real queer-coding, either: the fascinating Thesiger never made any effort whatsoever to hide his queerness, nor to accommodate anyone’s ideas of masculinity, and he certainly doesn’t in this role. Following an injury while serving in World War I, he took up needlework and passed the skills on to other injured soldiers, despite formal warnings that the work was too “effeminate.” Later, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for both his embroidery skills and his acting career. Even with all that, he remains most famous for luring Colin Clive’s Frankenstein out of retirement.
This movie is so gay it inspired 1998's Gods and Monsters, a super queer biopic of its director, James Whale, played by Ian McKellen, who came out publicly in 1988. Rent Bride of Frankenstein from Prime Video.
The Matrix (1999)
Beloved by cinema kids and dudebros alike, The Matrix broke ground back in 1999 for its blend of trippy philosophizing and fast-paced (and sometimes veeeery slow-paced) action, but there was something else going on under the surface, with themes speaking to the experience of trans people who saw in its fable of transformation from an artificial outward image (life in the Matrix) to one that's truly authentic (awakenening in the real world) as a mirror for the challenges of gender dysphoria. Its story of breaking free from societal constraints has inspired thoughtful analysis and appealed to some of the worst people imaginable (when Elon Musk and Ivanka Trump invoked the film's "red pill" imagery, co-director Lilly Wachowski famously responded with a hearty "Fuck both of you"). Sometimes queer themes emerge from art without much conscious thought on the parts of the creators, but Lily Wachowski has been clear that the trans allegory was always part of this very dense soup. Rent The Matrix from Prime Video.
Cat People (1942)
Directed by Jacques Tourneur and, crucially, produced by the unconventionally highbrow Val Lewton, Cat People stars Simone Simon as Irena Dubrovna, who believes that she's descended from a line of, well...cat people. Convinced that she'll shape-shift into a panther if she ever allows her true and repressed sexuality to come out, she avoids engaging sexually with her new husband. The metaphors involving otherness work on multiple levels, but seeing Irena as a woman stuck in a straight marriage that she was never meant for is the reading that sticks. Stream Cat People on the Criterion Channel or rent it from Prime Video.
Johnny Guitar (1954)
This low-budget Nicholas Ray film isn’t one of Joan Crawford’s better known movies, but it is one of her best and most fascinating, earning its entry into the vaunted Criterion Collection. Playing a saloonkeeper in the wilds of old-west Arizona, Crawford’s character is introduced by one of her employees just so: “I never met a woman who was more man.” Her arch-nemesis is a “cattle baron” played by Mercedes McCambridge, a straight (as far as we know) actress who became a gay icon for her portrayals of strong, queer-coded women. There are male love interests here, but they’re largely incidental. It’s the seething energy between the two leading women—frequently facing off while decked out in black leather that borders on the fetishistic—where the film’s true heart lies. Stream Johnny Guitar on Kanopy or rent it from Prime Video.
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
Moody, sensitive teen Jim Stark (James Dean) meets Plato Crawford (Sal Mineo) and Judy (Natalie Wood) at the police station, and one of cinema's great emo love triangles was born. Though restrained in the finished film, it's impossible not to see the attraction that Plato has for Jim, nor was it unintentional—worried censors told director Nicholas Ray during production that “It is of course vital that there be no inference of a questionable or homosexual relationship between Plato and Jim.” Still, Mineo spoke later about how Dean instructed him to "Look at me the way I look at Natalie...” None of it is terribly ambiguous in retrospect, and the pin-up of then-heartthrob Alan Ladd in Plato's locker is just one of the many winks to a savvy audience. Rent Rebel Without a Cause from Prime Video.
Ben-Hur (1959)
Don’t tell Charlton Heston, but everyone else involved in crafting Judah Ben-Hur’s relationship with his old friend Messala was down with the idea that the two were lovers. Script doctor Gore Vidal claims to have convinced the producer, director William Wyler, and actor Stephen Boyd that none of the rest of the film’s high drama involving the relationship would make any sense if there weren’t strong hints that the two had been knocking sandals. Everyone was in on the bit, except for Heston (who, being an enormous baby, was pissed when he found out about it decades later, calling the suggestion an insult to the director). Rent Ben-Hur from Prime Video.
Red River (1948)
Nobody tell John Wayne, but the queer subtext of Red River has been discussed for decades, which makes a special kind of sense given that it provided a breakthrough for gay actor Montgomery Clift, who plays Matt, the more sensitive ward of a typically butch Wayne. Complicating life during the film's core cattle drive is the introduction of John Ireland as Cherry Valance—the scene during which Matt and Cherry compare guns is justifiably memorable as euphemism, and even characters in the movie seem not unaware of what's going on: Wayne describes them as pawing at each other, and Walter Brennan's old-timer character describes them as "...having some fun. A peculiar kind of fun." Which I think is a Grindr filter. Stream Red River on Prime Video.
