Review of Tab Hunter Confidential (2015) by Roberta B — 24 Jul 2015

I saw this at the 2015 Cleveland International Film Festival. Directed by Jeffrey Schwarz who has made several films about the lives of Hollywood people or people on the outskirts of the Hollywood mainstream.

Produced by Allan Glaser, Tab Hunter's longtime partner. This doc is packed with archival clips and interviews. Tab Hunter himself tells his story over multiple interview sessions, although he's been kept in the closet about being gay for so long that it still seems difficult for him to reveal this private part of his life.

Tab Hunter, born Arthur Kelm, was as much a character created by the studio system as Marilyn Monroe. Not only was he a star of war pictures and westerns, but he also had hit songs on the charts. Every woman following his career and the love life created for him by the studios in the fan magazines wanted to be with him.

The studio publicists in the 50s and 60s sure were busy inventing wholesome dreamlike lives for all their stars. The biggest surprise of this story was his relationship with Anthony Perkins for a short time.

The fact that there were closeted gay actors working in Hollywood and that audiences were fooled into thinking all these idols were perfectly straight is not news nowadays, but hearing the confidential details of stories like this makes the suppression and persecution of this lifestyle more real for those of us who are not LGBTQ.

And, so, it is an important and, not to mention, entertaining film to open people's eyes.