Arthur Laurents, RIP

I knew I had heard somewhere in the Texas fog that Arthrur Laurents had died on May 5th, but was reminded that he had passed by GAY USA this morning (a popular news program broadcast on the Free Speech Network). 


Fans of Hitchcock will know that Arthur Laurents worked with the director on Rope. Here is what the wikipedia has to say about his work on the film:  "Alfred Hitchcock hired him for his next project, the film Rope starring James Stewart. Hitchcock wanted Laurents to Americanize the British play Rope (1929) by Patrick Hamilton for the screen. With his then-lover Farley Granger set to star, Laurents was happy to accept the assignment. His dilemma was how to make the audience aware of the fact the three main characters were homosexual without blatantly saying so. The Hays Office kept close tabs on his work, and the final script was so discreet that Laurents was unsure whether co-star James Stewart ever realized that his character was gay."

Arthur Laurents and his long-term partner Tom Hatcher

It's interesting that Laurents passing comes on the heels on his former lover, Farley Granger.  As to whether Laurents was successful about letting the audience know that the characters in Rope were gay--I'm not sure he got it quite right, and Jimmy Stewart would not have been the only one to miss that fact.  


Rope has grown in popularity and to some degree stature in the last few years.  The seamless, very few cuts visual style plays better with modern audiences--and the characters come across today as more modernly gay than if they had cliched' it up a la 1948.  Hitchcock was fascinated by sexuality and its variations, as is evident from his story choices and his very subtle, sympathetic (albeit a bit twisted) portrayals of gay and lesbian characters.  


Tom Hatcher, Laurent's partner of more than fifty years, died in 2006.