Vapors (film)

Last updated
Vapors
Directed by Andy Milligan
Written byHope Stansbury
Produced byAndy Milligan
StarringSee below
CinematographyAndy Milligan
Edited byAndy Milligan
Running time
32 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Vapors is a 1965 short film directed by Andy Milligan and written by Hope Stansbury. The film portrays the lives and conflicts of a group of gay men set during one evening in a New York bath house for men.

Contents

Plot

A young man riding a New York City bus disembarks and goes inside a building which is the St. Marks Baths. He asks for a room and is told by the clerk that the weekend price is $3.50, then the average price of $2 which are on the weekdays only. He is given a white robe, towel, slippers, as well as told to deposit his wallet and valuables with the clerk before entering. He is also told that there is no food or beverages allowed in the baths or any of the rooms. The young man enters a dark room, changes into his robe, and sits on a bed looking at the vapors of the baths as other men, run past the room talking loud and behaving weirdly. Nearby, a clerk named Sam, talks with another employee about the large number of customers for this Friday night.

As the young man sits in his room, a middle-aged man enters asking if he would like some company. The middle-aged man tells the young man that this is his first time at the baths, and the young man brags about coming there three or four times a week. The middle-aged man becomes awkward and asks the younger man if he would like something to drink and offers to sneak up some coffee from the convenience store in the lobby area. After the middle-aged man leaves, two gay couples, a pair of flamboyant out-of-costume drag queens known as Miss Parrish and Mavis, as well as another couple named Thumbelina and Taffy, walk by where Miss Parrish asks the young man if he would like some company for he is all alone. The young man tells them to leave for his friend is returning. A minute or so later, the middle-aged man returns with a pair of soft drinks which he claims to be Coca-Cola and 7 Up where he serves one to the young man. The middle-aged man finally introduces himself as Mr. Jaffee, and the young man introduces himself as Thomas.

While Miss Parrish and Mavis run around talking degrading things about the other attendees to each other, the awkward conversation between Mr. Jaffee and Thomas continues. Mr. Jaffee tells Thomas that he came to the baths because he did not want to return home to his wife whom he claims to have been married to for 19 years. Thomas then confesses to Mr. Jaffee that he lied for it really is his first time at the baths for he just wanted to see what really goes on there. Mr. Jaffee refers to it as "a lunatic asylum for homosexuals".

While Taffy and Thumbelina talk outside of an intruder that walks by them, Mr. Jaffee talks about his unhappy home life to Thomas and talks about a dream he once had about women's feet and how his wife's feet are repulsive to him. Mr. Jaffee even plays with Thomas feet while reciting the nursery rhyme "this little piggy went to market". Mr. Jaffee then talks about dealing with the analysis of women's sanitary pads and Thomas tells Mr. Jaffee how when he worked in a restaurant had to fish them out of a toilet because too many women tried to flush them down which clogged the restroom toilets.

Mr. Jaffee then tells Thomas that one of the reasons he came to the bathhouse is that it is the first anniversary of his 16-year-old son's death. Mr. Jaffee delivers a disturbing monologue about his son who drowned while swimming in an upstate lake which led to the disintegration of his marriage. Mr. Jaffee spooks Thomas even more when he tells him that his appearance reminds him of his young son. Just then, Miss Parrish and Mavis, and Taffy and Thumbelina, burst into the room looking for a party. Thomas angrily tells them to leave, which they do, and Mr. Jaffee then tells Thomas that he wants to give him a gift and tells him not to leave for he will return soon. After Mr. Jaffee leaves the room again, Thomas sits on his bed for seemingly a long time, smoking a cigarette, and staring at the black ceiling, looking at the steam vapors in the room, and staring at the obscene and vulgar graffiti on the walls. Just then, the two couples return to the room with a wrapped package in which Thomas again tells them to leave and asks the whereabouts of Mr. Jaffee. The four men tell Thomas that Mr. Jaffee got dressed and left, but he asked them to deliver the package to him. Thomas opens it up to find a paper sunflower. Thomas tells the guys to leave him alone, and he sits on his bed and cries over his seemingly abandonment.

As Thomas continues to cry, a man walks by his room and peeks in asking if he is all right for he heard him crying. Thomas tells the man that he is all right. Just when the man turns around to leave, Thomas tells the man to come on in. The man enters the room and without saying another word, disrobes and walks towards Thomas to have sexual relations with him.

Cast

Production

William M. Hoffman, playwright and friend of Andy Milligan, has said that all of the interior shots of Vapors took place in a vacant apartment floor on 199 Prince Street in Manhattan in the same building where both William and Andy lived during that time. Joel Thurm, who played the bathhouse attendant, has said that the shots of the transaction with the clerk took place in a candy store a few streets away either on 6th or 8th avenues. The opening exterior shot of the bathhouse was the only shot filmed outside the actual St. Marks Bathhouse on 6 St. Marks Place in the East Village, a destination famous as a rendezvous for gay sex, which was illegal at the time. The film was shot on 16mm black-and-white film.

Release

Vapors was Andy Milligan's first official film. It was first released as an underground gay film in selected art houses on December 3, 1965. Vapors was released to the general public in New York City in August 1967 at the Cameo Cinema as part of an adults only triple bill, two years after the film was produced. Both Something Weird Video (SWV) and the British Film Institute (BFI) have issued home video versions, but the film is in the public domain.

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Room at the Top</i> (1959 film) 1959 film by Jack Clayton

Room at the Top is a 1959 British drama film based on the 1957 novel of the same name by John Braine. It was adapted by Neil Paterson, directed by Jack Clayton, and produced by John and James Woolf. The film stars Laurence Harvey, Simone Signoret, Heather Sears, Donald Wolfit, Donald Houston, and Hermione Baddeley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gay bathhouse</span> Commercial space for male-male sex

A gay bathhouse, also known as a gay sauna or a gay steambath, is a public bath targeted towards gay and bisexual men. In gay slang, a bathhouse may be called just "the baths", "the sauna", or "the tubs". Historically, they have been used for sexual activity.

<i>Meet Joe Black</i> 1998 American romantic fantasy film by Martin Brest

Meet Joe Black is a 1998 American romantic fantasy mystery film directed and produced by Martin Brest, and starring Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, and Claire Forlani. Celebrating his 65th birthday, businessman and devoted family man Bill Parrish is visited by Death, who wants to know what it's like to be human in return for giving Bill extra days of his life. The screenplay was written by Bo Goldman, Kevin Wade, Ron Osborn, and Jeff Reno, and is loosely based on the 1934 film Death Takes a Holiday, an adaptation of the 1924 Italian play La morte in vacanza by Alberto Casella.

Black Angel is a 1946 American film noir starring Dan Duryea, June Vincent and Peter Lorre. Directed by Roy William Neill, it was his final feature film. Produced by Universal Pictures, it is set in Los Angeles and broadly adapted from Cornell Woolrich's 1943 novel, The Black Angel.

<i>The Drowning Pool</i> (film) 1975 film by Stuart Rosenberg

The Drowning Pool is a 1975 American thriller film directed by Stuart Rosenberg, and based upon Ross Macdonald's novel of the same name. The film stars Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, and Anthony Franciosa, and is a loose sequel to Harper. The setting is shifted from California to Louisiana.

<i>Thumbelina</i> (1994 film) 1994 American film directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman

Thumbelina is a 1994 American independent animated musical fantasy film directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, based on the story of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen. The film stars the voices of Jodi Benson, Gary Imhoff and John Hurt, with supporting roles from Gino Conforti, Charo, Gilbert Gottfried, Carol Channing and Joe Lynch.

<i>The Man with Two Left Feet</i> 1917 short story collection by P. G. Wodehouse

The Man with Two Left Feet, and Other Stories is a collection of short stories by British author P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the UK on 8 March 1917 by Methuen & Co., London, and in the US on 1 February 1933 by A. L. Burt and Co., New York. All the stories had previously appeared in periodicals, usually The Strand Magazine in the United Kingdom and The Red Book Magazine or The Saturday Evening Post in the United States.

<i>Carry On Doctor</i> 1967 British comedy film by Gerald Thomas

Carry On Doctor is a 1967 British comedy film, the 15th in the series of 31 Carry On films (1958–1992). It is the second in the series to have a medical theme. Frankie Howerd makes the first of his two appearances in the film series and stars alongside regulars Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Peter Butterworth, and Bernard Bresslaw. Hattie Jacques returns for the first time since Carry On Cabby four years earlier, while Barbara Windsor returns after her debut in Carry On Spying three years earlier. Carry On Doctor marks Anita Harris's second and final appearance in the series. The film was followed by Carry On Up the Khyber 1968.

<i>Edmond</i> (film) 2005 American drama film

Edmond is a 2005 American thriller film directed by Stuart Gordon and starring William H. Macy, based on the 1982 play Edmond by David Mamet. Mamet also wrote the screenplay for the film. Edmond features Julia Stiles, Rebecca Pidgeon, Denise Richards, Mena Suvari, Joe Mantegna, Bai Ling, Jeffrey Combs, Dylan Walsh and George Wendt in supporting roles. It was screened at several film festivals from September 2005 to May 2006, and had a limited release on July 14, 2006.

Andrew Jackson Milligan Jr. was an American playwright, screenwriter, actor, and filmmaker, whose work includes 27 movies made between 1965 and 1988. He directed productions in Staten Island. Most proud of, fellow Islander, Jeanie Columbo, who appeared in his production of ‘A Dolls House’. In spite of the fact that he directed a number of movies that have become cult favorites with horror movie buffs, he died in abject poverty in 1991 from AIDS and was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave in Los Angeles, California.

<i>Eloise at Christmastime</i> 2003 American film

Eloise at Christmastime is a 2003 American-Canadian made-for-television live-action film based on the 1958 book of the same name written by Kay Thompson and illustrated by Hilary Knight. The film stars young Sofia Vassilieva as Eloise, a six-year-old girl who lives in the penthouse at the top of the Plaza Hotel in New York City. This story takes place immediately after the events of Eloise at the Plaza; Eloise receives a package full of spy equipment from her friend Leon, the supporting character in the previous film who did spy work with Eloise.

The Ritz is a comedic farce by Terrence McNally. Rita Moreno won a Tony Award for her performance as Googie Gomez in the 1975 Broadway production, which she and many others of the original cast reprised in a 1976 film version directed by Richard Lester.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ancient Roman bathing</span> Custom of ancient Roman society

Bathing played a major part in ancient Roman culture and society. It was one of the most common daily activities and was practised across a wide variety of social classes. Though many contemporary cultures see bathing as a very private activity conducted in the home, bathing in Rome was a communal activity. While the extremely wealthy could afford bathing facilities in their homes, private baths were very uncommon, and most people bathed in the communal baths (thermae). In some ways, these resembled modern-day destination spas as there were facilities for a variety of activities from exercising to sunbathing to swimming and massage.

<i>The Chain</i> (1984 film) 1984 film by Jack Gold

The Chain is a 1984 British comedy drama film written by Jack Rosenthal directed by Jack Gold. It stars Maurice Denham, Nigel Hawthorne, Denis Lawson and Leo McKern. The film was produced and distributed by Film Four International. In 1994, a spin-off television series, Moving Story, was made for ITV in which Warren Clarke played the part of Bamber.

<i>Copacabana</i> (1947 film) 1947 film by Alfred E. Green

Copacabana is a 1947 American musical comedy film directed by Alfred E. Green starring Carmen Miranda, Groucho Marx and Steve Cochran. The film is a showcase for Miranda, who performs several numbers in her usual style, including a high-energy rendition of "Tico-Tico". Groucho, as Lionel, her fiance and agent, also sings a musical number, "Go West, Young Man", wearing his traditional greasepaint brows, mustache, and baggy suit. This was Groucho's first significant film appearance as a solo act, minus Harpo and Chico.

<i>I See a Dark Stranger</i> 1946 British film

I See a Dark Stranger – released as The Adventuress in the United States – is a 1946 British World War II spy film with touches of light comedy, starring Deborah Kerr and featuring Trevor Howard. It was written and produced by the team of Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, with Launder directing.

<i>You Gotta Stay Happy</i> 1948 film by H. C. Potter

You Gotta Stay Happy is a 1948 American romantic comedy film directed by H.C. Potter and starring Joan Fontaine, James Stewart and Eddie Albert. It was distributed by Universal-International and produced by Karl Tunberg. The film was written by Karl Tunberg and Robert Carson and was released on November 4, 1948. The story tells of a marital ruckus that causes pilot Marvin Payne to become enmeshed in the world of New York heiress Miss Diana Dillwood.

Bathhouse: the Musical! is a musical written by Tim Evanicki and Esther Daack with additional material by Ryan Beck and Jason Wetzel. The show follows the story of Billy, a wide-eyed youth venturing into a bathhouse for the very first time. He is looking for love, but soon realizes that the other patrons are looking for something "a little more temporary". With some guidance, Billy soon learns the ins and outs of bathhouse etiquette.

<i>Claudelle Inglish</i> 1961 film by Gordon Douglas

Claudelle Inglish is a 1961 American film directed by Gordon Douglas and based on the 1958 novel by Erskine Caldwell. It stars Diane McBain and Arthur Kennedy. It was nominated for an Academy Award in 1962 for Best Costume Design. The film was cast with many Warner Bros. Television contract stars, including Diane McBain who replaced the original choice for the lead Anne Francis. McBain was then co-starring in Surfside 6 and had previously appeared in Parrish.

References