Creditable and believable performances by the main actors. Hilarious play and screenplay by Charles Dyer.
The two homosexual hairdressers in Charles Dyer's play were created here by Paul Schofield and Patrick Magee and then played on Broadway by Eli Wallach and Milo O'Shea. Excellent actors all but with a view to box office receipts Rex Harrison and Richard Burton were cast in this version directed by Stanley Donen.
When I think of how hard it is even now to cast heterosexual men in gay roles just the fact that Richard Burton and Rex Harrison consented to play gay in Staircase might make this a landmark film of some note. But a lot of the ground covered in Staircase was far better done in Boys In The Band a much better work.
The most disgusting movie ever seen. Really.
The novelty of "Cleopatra's" Rex Harrison and Richard Burton playing British homosexuals may have seemed like an interesting acting exercise, but the result is a depressing and somewhat offensive story. They are a gay version of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf's" George and Martha with Burton cast as "the wife" and Harrison "the husband", both unlikable and stereotypical, making the friends of Mart Crowley's "The Boys in the Band" seem totally real in comparison.
Rex Harrison and Richard Burton certainly perfected their parts as aging frustrated homosexuals in this 1969 movie. Correction, Harrison claims to be bisexual as he was supposedly married.
I can see why this might have been disappointing from a 1969 perspective, especially if it was the first relatively mainstream gay couple movie. They behave like an old embittered married couple, hardly promoting the concept of gay relationship harmony.
The film came out in 1969 and was based on a popular play by Charles Dyer. The Great Stanley Donen got a hold of it and decided to bring it to the big screen with two BIG stars!
