| Him | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Ed D. Louie |
| Starring | Gustav "Tava" Von Will |
Release date |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Him is a 1974 American gay pornographic feature film produced for gay audiences. [1] It was directed by Ed D. Louie (found to be the multidisciplinary artist Ed Lui) [2] and featured gay mural artist Gustav "Tava" Von Will in the role of Jesus. [3]
The film focuses on a young gay man who develops an erotic fixation with the life of Jesus Christ. The film initially premiered on 27 March 1974 at the 55th Street Playhouse at 154 West 55th Street in New York City. [4] This run lasted until 23 May 1974. It returned to the Playhouse on 6 December 1974, [5] and January 1976. [6] The film also played at the Bijou Theater in Chicago, [7] the Nob Hill Theatre in San Francisco, [8] the Sansom Cinema in Philadelphia, [9] Gay Paree Theatre in Atlanta, [10] Wood Six Theatre in Highland Park, [11] the David Theatre in New York City, [12] and the Penthouse Theatre in Pittsburgh. [13]
In 1980 Harry and Michael Medved cited it in their book The Golden Turkey Awards as the "Most Unerotic Concept in Pornography". [14]
As of 2024 [update] , no extant copies of Him have been located. The online magazine Film Threat cited it among the most sought-after lost films. [15]
Some online commentary attempted to debunk Him as a hoax, owing to the Medveds' admission in The Golden Turkey Awards that their book included a non-existent film which they challenged readers to identify. [16] [17] However, the hoax entry was Dog of Norway, a fictitious film illustrated with a photograph of the Medveds' pet dog. [3] In the 21st century, the film is mostly known as a purported origin for the gay Jesus film hoax, although Snopes concluded in their investigation that this is not the case. [18]
Reviews of Him from Screw magazine, Variety , and The Village Voice [19] have also been uncovered; [3] [20] along with a number of newspaper advertisements for its New York theatrical run. [3] [21] The film also received a passing mention in Time magazine. [22]
More information on "Ed D. Louie" has been uncovered, finding that he was actually Ed Lui, a multidisciplinary artist and a nephew of the 55th Street Playhouse owner Frank Lee. [2]
The Golden Turkey Awards is a 1980 book by film critic Michael Medved and his brother Harry.
Jesus Christ Superstar is a sung-through rock opera with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. Loosely based on the Gospels' accounts of the Passion, the work interprets the psychology of Jesus and other characters, with much of the plot centered on Judas, who is dissatisfied with the direction in which Jesus is steering his disciples. Contemporary attitudes, sensibilities and slang pervade the rock opera's lyrics, and ironic allusions to modern life are scattered throughout the depiction of political events. Stage and film productions accordingly contain many intentional anachronisms.
Dog Day Afternoon is a 1975 American biographical crime drama film directed by Sidney Lumet and produced by Martin Bregman and Martin Elfand. The film stars Al Pacino, John Cazale, James Broderick and Charles Durning. The screenplay is written by Frank Pierson and is based on the Life magazine article "The Boys in the Bank" by P.F. Kluge and Thomas Moore. The feature chronicles the 1972 robbery and hostage situation led by John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Naturile at a Chase Manhattan branch in Brooklyn.
The Greatest Story Ever Told is a 1965 American epic religious film retelling the Biblical account of Jesus of Nazareth, from the Nativity through to the Ascension. Produced and directed by George Stevens, with an ensemble cast, it features the final film performances of Claude Rains and Joseph Schildkraut.
James Mountain Inhofe was an American politician who served as a United States senator from Oklahoma from 1994 to 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he was the longest serving U.S. senator from Oklahoma. He served in various elected offices in the state of Oklahoma for nearly 60 years, between 1966 and 2023.
Sir David Rippon Hare is an English playwright, screenwriter and theatre director. Best known for his stage work, Hare has also enjoyed great success with films, receiving two Academy Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay for writing The Hoursin 2002 and The Reader in 2008.
Edward Macdonald Carey was an American actor, best known for his role as the patriarch Dr. Tom Horton on NBC's soap opera Days of Our Lives. For almost three decades, he was the show's central cast member.
The Jungle Book is a 1967 American animated musical adventure film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution. Based very loosely on the "Mowgli" stories from Rudyard Kipling's 1894 book of the same name, it is the final animated feature film to be produced by Walt Disney, who died during its production. It was directed by Wolfgang Reitherman and written by Larry Clemmons, Ralph Wright, Ken Anderson, and Vance Gerry. Featuring the voices of Phil Harris, Sebastian Cabot, Louis Prima, George Sanders, and Sterling Holloway, the film's plot follows Mowgli, a feral child raised in the Indian jungle by wolves, as his friends, Bagheera the panther and Baloo the bear, try to convince him to leave the jungle before the ruthless tiger Shere Khan arrives.
Gig Young was an American stage, film, and television actor.
Corpus Christi is a 1998 American play by Terrence McNally, written in 1997 and first staged in New York in 1998, dramatizing the story of Jesus and the Apostles, depicting Jesus and the Apostles as gay men living in modern-day Texas. McNally arranges the narrative through anachronisms that represent Roman occupation.
Henry Earl Holliman is an American actor, animal-rights activist, and singer known for his many character roles in films, mostly Westerns and dramas, in the 1950s and 1960s. He won a Golden Globe Award for the film The Rainmaker (1956) and portrayed Sergeant Bill Crowley on the television police drama Police Woman throughout its 1974–1978 run.
Trevor Griffiths was an English dramatist.
The Message is a 1976 epic film directed and produced by Moustapha Akkad that chronicles the life and times of Muhammad, who is never directly depicted.
Ben Daniels is an English actor. Initially a stage actor, Daniels was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor for Never the Sinner (1991), the Evening Standard Award for Best Actor for 900 Oneonta (1994), Best Actor in the M.E.N. Theatre Awards for Martin Yesterday (1998), and won the 2001 Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the Arthur Miller play All My Sons.
Jesus Christ Superstar is a 1973 American musical drama film directed by Norman Jewison, and co-written by Jewison and Melvyn Bragg, based on the 1970 concept album of the same name written by Tim Rice and composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, which in turn inspired a 1971 musical. The film, which stars Ted Neeley, Carl Anderson, Yvonne Elliman and Barry Dennen, depicts the conflict between Judas and Jesus and the emotions and motivations of the main characters during the week of the crucifixion of Jesus.
Kurt "Frenchy" Yaghjian is an Armenian-American actor and singer best known for his appearance as Annas in the 1973 film Jesus Christ Superstar.
The 55th Street Playhouse—periodically referred to as the 55th Street Cinema and Europa Theatre—was a 253-seat movie house at 154 West 55th Street, Midtown Manhattan, New York City, that opened on May 20, 1927. Many classic art and foreign-language films, including those by Jean Cocteau, Sergei Eisenstein, Federico Fellini, Abel Gance, Fritz Lang, Josef Von Sternberg and Orson Welles, were featured at the theater. Later, Andy Warhol presented many of his notable films in this building in the late 1960s. Other notable films were also shown at the theater, including Boys in the Sand (1971) and Him (1974).
Since around 1979, a chain letter has falsely claimed that a film is in the works in which Jesus will be depicted as gay and involved in a promiscuous swinger lifestyle. Born of half-truths regarding The Many Faces of Jesus, Jens Jørgen Thorsen's abandoned pornographic film about Jesus, the hoax initially implied that the film's would-be producer was a magazine that had run a poll about Thorsen's plans. The narrative has morphed over time to claim that the supposed film is an adaptation of the 1997 play Corpus Christi, which does depict Jesus as gay, although not in a sexualized manner.
The Many Faces of Jesus, alternately The Sex Life of Jesus or The Love Affairs of Jesus, is a screenplay and abandoned film by Danish writer and director Jens Jørgen Thorsen, which pornographically depicts Jesus engaged in homosexual and heterosexual sex acts, as well as drunkenness and robbery. After Thorsen announced his plans for a film in 1973, having secured funding from the government-run Danish Film Institute, the depiction of Jesus' sexuality immediately created controversy in Denmark and abroad: Thousands of Christians protested in the street, two parties ran on a platform against the film in the 1973 Danish general election, and opponents of the film firebombed the Danish ambassador's residence in Rome shortly after Pope Paul VI condemned it. Thorsen failed to secure funding in at least three countries, was blocked from producing the film in at least two, and was personally banned from entering the United Kingdom—where Queen Elizabeth II made a rare comment on a public matter, calling the planned film "obnoxious" through a spokesman. Even after Thorsen abandoned his plans in 1978, Canada's Revenue Minister banned import of the film despite acknowledging uncertainty as to whether it existed.