was the guy on the scooter gay as well?

When watching the film I thought the same thing - that the male blackmailer was also gay. If this is the case then it's interesting, as he's partner to the zealous woman in her blackmailing. So he hears her carping on all the time about gays, but inside he isn't sure about himself.

It's goes along the lines of when you hear people who talk badly about gay people, they always either have some kind of camp affectation or it can be reasoned that they haven't come to terms with sexual thoughts everyone has.

This truly is a groundbreaking film, something I believe should be shown at schools - as it has a lot to say about being yourself, and not living your life how others believe it should be lived. Also as a historical document to the arcane laws once thought moral and correct.

L_C

He was certainly gay. The way the filmmakers chose to imply this was amusing - the fact he listens to classical music, for example - but such was the era in which the film was made.

I assumed he and the woman simply lived together, rather than being romantic partners, although a brother-sister relationship is plausible.

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I've been (unreliably) informed that the actor who played "Sandy"=--motorcycle villain--was gay (in other words, I don't really know if he was or not). The photo of the naked David statue on his wall, which the camera lingers on after he leaves the room is certainly interesting!

(He is not uneducated. He twice refers to 'flourish like the green bay tree"--a biblical, and later, reference to those who are evil, but manage to lead a very comfortable life, and his Latin quote--forgive me if I get it wrong, I nearly flunked it "mens sano in corporae sano"--a clean (healthy) mind in a healthy body. He listens to some lovely music on the phonograph--Mozart, I think---...which all goes to show: all filthy blackmailers are not ignorant, unshaven, uneducated--or necessarily heterosexual.)

I guess it's pretty obvious that this is one of my favorite films. Trotz (sp?) melodramatic music, lack of humor (but what was funny, eh?), and a relationship between the protagonist and his wife which could start an HOURS long discussion of the difference between "need" "want" and "love."

What is it he calls his accomplice? "A cross between an avenging angel and a peeping Tom?" certainly a good description. No, I don't think Bea and Sandy are related.

"Thus began our longest journey together." To Kill a Mockingbird

I got the impression that the woman was gay too. She had a lot of the "codes" for being a lesbian in film. Such as being a thin, severe, unfeminine, unmarried woman with an unloving or non-nurturing attitude. I suppose the thinking was that without a man, a woman becomes a bitter, shriveled, spiteful harpy. Two scenes in particular were examples of the stereotypes.

- When the bookstore owner was upset about his little friend killing himself. Instead of the woman in the glasses being comforting or motherly to her grieving boss, she just barked out something about being there for the paycheck.

- When the woman in the glasses arrived at the blackmail apartment. First the apartment is kind of cold and efficient, not too many womanly touches. Second, she takes off her street shoes and puts them on the coffee table. I guarantee you most women who saw that move reacted with revulsion. So I chalk it up as another example in the movie of how glasses lady was not a "normal" woman.

Like another poster said, many times, people who dwell on punishing gay people are often conflicted about their own sexuality or feelings. Perhaps glasses lady was jealous of the men in the photos who knew who they were, what they wanted and acted on it. Rather than stay repressed and bottled up like her.

No two persons ever watch the same movie.