In looking for queer movies to cover each June I’m surprised I never got to this one until now: Victor/Victoria, the musical about cross-dressing, performance identity, gender, and gay attraction in the 1930s -the last really significant Julie Andrews film until her 2000s revival. Made in 1982, it was an adaptation of a Weimar era German movie called Victor and Victoria about a poor but talented singer who through a kind of double-drag con becomes a professional female impersonator. It’s a cute if faulty premise (the middle-man of pretending to be a man very quickly doesn’t feel necessary to her success) that definitely has that flare of a classic cross-dressing Shakespearean farce -especially where it plays around with sexual attraction.
And in fact that seems to be a primary purpose of at least Victor/Victoria, written and directed of course by Andrews’ husband Blake Edwards. Despite its’ 1930s setting it seems very consciously of an 80s sensibility in its approach to sexual politics, taking the homosexual subtleties of a Twelfth Night or As You Like It kind of story and addressing them head on. The man who is attracted to the woman disguised as a man surely ought to be thinking differently about his own sexuality. Forming a relationship with a woman presenting as a man invites its own slew of considerations. These ideas aren’t quite modern or advanced (certainly by our 21st century understanding of the fluidity of gender and sexuality), but they are immensely provoking to see in this kind of a movie -one that though it came out in the ‘80s is stylistically and aesthetically closer to a ‘60s grand Hollywood musical.
Part of that no doubt comes from the casting of ‘60s Hollywood staples -including two stars of three of the great musicals of that decade. And this film opens on one of them, Robert Preston, in bed with another man. He is Carroll “Toddy” Todd, maybe the best character of the piece, an openly gay Parisian club performer, who discovers at an audition Victoria Grant (Andrews), failing with the club owner in spite of an immaculate singing voice. She’s starving and impoverished, stuck in a cockroach-infested hotel room, and once Toddy is kicked off of his job for sparking a fracas, the two pair up. Through a series of comic but contrived circumstances they discover that in Toddy’s clothes Victoria looks like a man -so Toddy schemes to pass her off as one who can perform as a woman, a drag act who’s not really a drag act.
Putting aside the wide suspension of disbelief necessary for anyone to believe that Julie Andrews is a man simply for having a short haircut and a slightly lower-modulated voice, the con makes for a quite intriguing referendum on gender -some of it spearheaded by Victor/Victoria themself. Everyone applauds that debut performance by Victoria, but when it ends with the reveal of Victor (through simply a wig coming off), everybody is stunned, though curiously not mad or offended as might be the typical trope. In fact most seem to admire Victors’ apparent skill at masquerading as a woman. Of course the critic comes in the form of Chicago gangster King Marchand (James Garner), right away disbelieving Victor’s masculinity to their face. Victor simply counters by suggesting all that King sees as feminine is just a different kind of masculinity, one not bound by stereotypes or toxicity. “What kind are you?” he asks. “One that doesn’t have to prove it,” Victor responds. “To myself or anyone.” That whole scene acts as a remarkable display of bold gender affirmation, decades before transgender and gender non-conforming identity were given any dignity by general society.
But of course as the movie is doing this it still makes plain that ‘Victor’ is not the real Victoria, that it is a male act put on by a woman -and that of course makes for certain less intrepid connotations. This is a movie that emphasizes a gender binary, as much as presentation can mean crossing it, there is nothing outside of it. Though it comes close in several instances, it never outright raises the idea of transgenderism either, leaving only drag or disguise as explanation for the shifting of gender presentation -Victoria never ceases at least privately identifying as a woman in all this, and at the end chooses to give up Victor and remain Victoria for a heteronormative relationship. And of course there is the elongated sequence of King sneaking into Toddy and Victor’s home to ascertain for sure his suspicion that Victor is a woman -it being confirmed by him spying Victoria naked. But that being said, Victoria clearly finds a kind of unique, freeing self-expression as Victor, and despite being wary of the idea at first, ultimately takes charge of this identity -wishing to continue performing Victor for as long as possible. It’s not just because of the success too, and while Edwards might intend this more to reflect feminism and class (as a sophisticated man, Victor/Victoria is granted more freedoms than as a struggling woman), there is tangibly a queer emotional fulfillment there too. After all, though Victoria is playing a man, he is not a straight man.
Victor/Victoria’s frankness regarding homosexuality is really astonishing, not only in its’ depiction of gay characters but of questioning sexuality. One of the most interesting facets of the piece is the trajectory of King’s storyline in relation to Victor/Victoria. He sees her perform and is instantly attracted to her, but is dismayed when she “reveals” herself to be a man. Their subsequent conversation broaches the subject of sexuality and it’s clear a part of King’s disbelief is his refusal to entertain that he could ever be attracted to a man. Victor calls him out on this, as does his girlfriend Norma (Lesley Ann Warren). And I’m reminded of an episode of Blackadder II that deals in a similar plot, albeit without Blackadder openly suspecting his new manservant to really be a woman. However that show actually delves more into its’ characters’ inner complex than this movie does -I wish we could have seen King genuinely consider and grapple with the notion he might actually be attracted to men. After his peeping tom routine he still pursues Victoria, eventually kissing her and claiming he doesn’t care. She gives the jig up to him at this, but then crucially remains Victor for the public as they enter a relationship. And suddenly, King faces the judgement and scrutiny of being presumed gay –as he attends public events with Victor, co-habitates with him. A dejected Norma spreads the rumour as well, and suddenly King finds himself frequently in the presence of gay men –his bodyguard Squash (Alex Karras) comes out himself inspired by King’s “courage” and begins an affair with Toddy. All of it makes King uncomfortable, and yet he never himself experiences direct homophobia until his boss from the States comes a calling. It’s mostly his own self-consciousness that is the issue -he has a problem being perceived as gay which causes a rift with Victoria. It is something he cares inordinately about, and through its’ depiction of other gay characters, the movie is asking why. King is framed as stubborn for this, as sexually rigid amongst more open company, rooted in a sense of masculinity that leaves little room for diversity and is antiquated; and while it would have been nice for the movie to engage with that more seriously, there’s something trailblazing to it nonetheless.
Dramatic commentary and intense character study however might be a bit much to expect from what is essentially a light-hearted musical comedy that has fun with gender-bending themes. I mean the central musical set-piece is an elaborate Spanish-ordained number called “The Shady Dame from Seville” -it’s not meant to be taken too seriously. Yet that tone does allow for a palatable gay movie, enriching and humanizing these non-heteronormative non-cisnormative impressions. And it is quite fun in the process. Though it has nowhere the production scale of the classic musicals it is evoking, it still has plenty of that charm. That first song “Le Jazz Hot”, with its’ Bob Fosse-style lighting and choreography is infused with a lot of character -not least through Andrews’ performance. Indeed every song that Andrews performs is great purely by virtue of her performing them -Julie Andrews may forever be the greatest singer-movie star Hollywood has ever seen. The elegiac, moving “Crazy World”, with her in a darkened auditorium and stripped of the lavish costumes -performing the song explicitly as Victor in tux and tails, is probably my personal favourite of the musical sequences. But those given over to Toddy are pretty good too, especially his final comic but poignant reprise.
Preston as I said gives the best performance of the movie, pouring his heart and soul into a part I can’t imagine a lot of actors his age would have been willing to do (it was initially written for Peter Sellers). Andrews is terrific as usual too, this movie proving a great musical comeback for her that she is clearly delighted by in every second of screen-time. Famously, she reprised her role in the Broadway adaptation thirteen years later -her last appearance on stage and final musical engagement before the tragic loss of her singing voice. Both Preston and Andrews were nominated for Oscars, as was Lesley Ann Warren -which seems a bit less justified for a fairly one-dimensional if funny moll archetype (although she sings the hell out of “Chicago, Illinois”). The film also features John Rhys-Davies, hot off of Raiders of the Lost Ark, as the agent who gets Victor their big break. Garner as the romantic lead, for all of the interesting material he has to work with, is a bit underwhelming himself though. He doesn’t have any songs and outside of some comic smarminess, isn’t all that funny. It doesn’t translate well why Victoria would be so romantically attracted to this guy as to ultimately leave behind her performance identity.
That story does end in a predictably banal place, Victoria choosing womanhood with King over her singing career as Victor -after an admittedly funny confrontation with King’s mob handlers and Norma. Perhaps there was only so much Edwards could or was willing to do -he still has that clear ‘60s mindset in his direction that would require a happy ending for his romantic pair, despite ‘70s musicals like A Star is Born, New York, New York, and All That Jazz proving that doesn’t need to be the case. But Toddy gets to be the star of the finale and that’s just fine. Victor/Victoria is already a movie breaking barriers by that point in its’ very elegant, witty, pseudo-Shakespearean way. And it’s wonderful. This movie may be the last triumphant cry of the grand old Hollywood musical, and so it is fitting then that it be gay as all hell!
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