LGBTQ Films in the Ithaca College Library

During the years from 1934 to 1968, the Motion Picture Production Code, usually called the Hays Code, stifled filmmakers or made them creative when it came to sexuality. The code stated that "any inference of sex perversion," including homosexuality, was prohibited. Films could be made if nothing was overt and if queer characters were not presented positively. It should be noted that this was not government censorship; the restrictions were self-imposed by the movie industry itself – but out of concern that if they didn't act the government might impose regulations on the industry. By the sixties, the code was routinely was being tested.

Advise and Consent (1962) [in Controversial Classics collection] DVD 6495

One the good guys is being blackmailed for a homosexual indiscretion.

Barbarells (1968) DVD 7490

In which the Great Tyrant may have been filmdom's first lesbian supervillain.

Becket (1964) DVD 5667

Were Henry II and Thomas a Becket lovers? Being the sixties, there's only a strong suggestion.

Billy Budd (1962) DVD 3610

All about a captain's fatal attraction and obsession.

The Chelsea Girls (1966) DVD 10900

This Andy Warhol creation was called by Rex Reed “a three-and-a-half-hour cesspool of vulgarity and talentless confusion which is about as interesting as the inside of a toilet bowl.”

The Children's Hour (1961) DVD 474

The lesbian relationship, which makes up the heart of the film, is never spoken of directly.

La Dolce Vita (1960) DVD 4101

Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender characters are interwoven throughout the film.

The Haunting (1963) DVD 8063

Its depiction of a predatory​ lesbian is as clear as it is unspoken.

The Killing of Sister George (1968) DVD 2180

​How a lesbian soap opera star copes with the killing off of her character.

A Lion in Winter (1968) DVD 6901

Richard the Lionhearted's physical relationship with Philip II of France is a major sub-plot.

Satyricon (1968) DVD 7003

The perversion and degeneration of Nero's Rome. Allegorical?

Teorema (1968) DVD 3239

A stranger tries to seduce every member of a bourgeois Italian household. In Italian.

A Taste of Honey (1961) DVD 7885

The only person with any sympathy for theawkward pregnant lass is gay.

Victim (1961) DVD 10182

Boldly a closeted barrister takes on a blackmail ring.