Oh, Farley Granger. The absolute hunk excelledin playing nervous, wealthy playboys that made us swoon, but in real life, he was a confident hunk who was dedicated to his partner Robert Calhoun. Let's throwback to the sexy Farley and the amazingly progressive work he did starring in Hitchcock's Rope.
Farley was born Farley Earle Granger Jr. in 1925 and began his career in a controversial World War II film called The North Star that appeared sympathetic to the Soviet Union. Oops! That didn't stop his career at all. He starred in a few more films before he served in the Navy in Honolulu where he met other famous actors and started to explore his sexuality. Farley wasbisexual and never felt the need to be in the closet. He later wrote in his memoir, "I was never ashamed, and I never felt the need to explain or apologize for my relationships to anyone." A-fucking-men, Farley.
When he went back to Hollywood, he starred in They Live By Night which gave us our first look at Farley's toned body. Oh, late 1940's dudity! This was about as good as it got!
His next major film was Rope. Alfred Hitchcock'sRope is very famous for being shot in a single take (it wasn't, it was actually shot in a few ten minute takes, but we digress) as well as famously being based on the true story of Leopold and Loeb. But Mr. Man is much more obsessed over something else in the 1948 thriller: the rather in-your-face subtext that the main characters played by Farley Granger and John Dall are a couple.
What?! Yas, you read that right. Watch the movie now and it is impossible to miss that the main characters who clearly live together and are hosting a dinner party together are a couple. Here's some Hollywood trivia: the screenwriter Arthur Laurents and Farley were also a couple! OH, and John Dall was gay IRL, too. According to noted Hollywood pimp Scotty Bowers, Dall used to pay him to be tied upside down to a tree in Laurel Canyon once a week. Kinky! Anyway,Arthur Laurentsintended his characters to be a couple and for their professor played by James Stewart to be gay as well. Granger and Dall worked with Hitchcock on exploring that subtext (since the Hays Code wouldn't allow them to outright say this or show affection) and Farley said this film was his happiest to make. Another fun piece of trivia: Hitchcock wanted Stewart's character to be played by a gay actor as well but his choices of Montgomery Clift and Cary Grant both turned it down, possibly out of fear of getting outed. Stewart felt he was miscast in the role, but we're sure he had fun with it.
The film starts with the boys strangling their friend and then hiding the body in a trunk. They share this secret - the body in the trunk - almost as an allegory forkeeping their relationship as discreet as possible inhomophobic 1940s society. They decide to invite their friends over for a dinner party to prove they can get away with it, but their professor, who gave them the idea to do it (and who has the same "other secret"), catches on. This thriller is filled with secrets, drinking and sexual tension from start to finish! If onlyJohn and Farley went naked, then we'd finish, too.
After that, he starred in Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train which also starts with a very flirtatious scene between two men and Farley playing tennis. Farley departed a bit from film over the next decade, turning toward Broadway and eventually to televisionalong with his partner Robert. The pair co-authored a memoir called Include Me Out which was published in 2007. The following year Robert passed away and Farley died in 2011, leaving behind an amazing legacy filled with pride in his lifelong open sexuality and his gay roles. Farley doesn't get enough credit for being such a trailblazer with a sexy happy trail. #TBT Farley and his amazing contribution in Rope!
