Rock Hudson's Home Movies (1992)

Documentary about the career and eventual death from AIDS of actor Rock Hudson.

Director:

Mark Rappaport

Writer:

Mark Rappaport

Stars:

Eric Farr, Cyd Charisse, Marc Christian

1 win.

Cast

Credited cast:
Eric Farr	...	Narrator
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Cyd Charisse	...	Charlotte King
Marc Christian	...	Himself
Doris Day	...	Jan Morrow
Phyllis Gates	...	Herself (archive footage)
Rock Hudson	...	Himself (archive footage)
Burl Ives	...	Dr. Brits Jansen
Otto Kruger	...	Edward Randolph
Paul Lynde	...	Mr. Akins
Jeff Morrow	...	John Doherty
Maria Perschy	...	Isolde 'Easy' Müller
Paula Prentiss	...	Abigail Page
Tony Randall	...	Jonathan Forbes
Gena Rowlands	...	Els Drager
James Stewart	...	Lin McAdam

Storyline

Eric Farr speaks to the camera as if speaking Rock Hudson's words from a posthumous diary. Film clips from more than 30 Hudson films illustrate ways in which his sexual orientation played out on screen. First we see tenuous and unresolved relationships with women, then clips of Rock with men, cruising and circling. Next comes pedagogical Eros: Hudson with older men. We see Rock with his sidekicks, often Tony Randall. We look in depth at comedies of sexual embarrassment and innuendo: films in which Hudson sometimes plays two characters, "macho Rock and homo Rock." He's masculine yet vulnerable, a hunk who needs taking care of. Last come cinematic reflections on death.

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Plot Keywords:

death | actor | aids | film clips | kiss | 

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Genres:

Documentary | Biography

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Planet Pictures

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1992 (USA)

Also Known As:

Os filmes 'Secretos' de Rock Hudson

Filming Locations:

Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Couch Potatoe Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

63 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White Color

Did You Know?

Goofs

In the closing credits, Twilight for the Gods is incorrectly credited as "Twilight of the Gods (1958)."

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Quotes

[first lines]
Rock Hudson: It was all up there.

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Connections

Features Battle Hymn (1957)

User Reviews

intriguing if flawed reimagining of RH film legacy

An intriguing project, but by no means a success, this is a reimagining and reinterpretation of RH's body of work with the gift of hindsight about his sexuality and early death from AIDS. The film clips are great fun, and speak volumes about the tension between Rock the Movie Star and Rock the Man. That's the problem - by comparison, the device of the actor impersonating Rock gets in the way, underlining the obvious and forbidding the viewer from drawing his/her own associations. Rock belonged to the last dawning of the studio era and shone gloriously, consistently even in the dopiest and most compromised of his films. This narrator looks/sounds NOTHING like Rock and his presence on camera makes the film look like the grad school project I suspect it is. A shame, because there's a real story to be told, and Rock deserves a stronger stand-in. We miss you, Rock.