I'm gonna guess many of the comments in this thread were made by people under 40 yrs old:
"However, it's the more staunch adherents to the status quo (i.e., the doorman and the authories) who refer to Balsam as a "fag" and a "deviant."
This movie was made in what - 1971 or so ? This was before a group of gay psychiatrists successfully challenged the DSM classification of homosexuals as 'deviant'. At the time this movie was made, that cop was using the correct term.
Secondly:
"I can't believe two persons involved in law enforcement would show such a lack of respect for the court by using slang terms. I can't see them saying the word "joint" -- let alone the word "fag" -- when making a petition before a judge. Second, I can't believe the judge tolerated their colourful words without giving them a lecture, like, "Gentlemen, you are not in a locker room;
you are in my court. And in my court, we speak proper English."
And:
"I'm not saying that such language wasn't used, nor am I commenting on the attitudes of the time. What I am saying is that ven in 1971, people kept their street slang out of the courtroom and used more formal diction in that arena."
There came a point, I don't remember exactly when (mid 60's/70s ?),when the top brass in the NYPD became concerned with how police officers came off in televised news interviews due to the often used crude/rude or simplistic language and/or cop slang used and understood amongst cops only.
The NYPD as well as other big city police agencies came up with policies which were meant to standardize the way police spoke to the press when being interviewed and in general more proffesional sounding while on duty. When you hear cops being interviewed at crime scenes using terms like 'The perpetrator' entered the building at approx 3pm at which time the subject was' ...blah blah blah and 'subsequently apprehended' ...blah blah 'the perpetrator then did in fact expire from his wounds due to profuse bleeding' ...blah blah blah" its largely due to these new policies. It was a laugh riot at the time because the use of these terms was not only new to most cops but to the viewing public also. What was most funny was how uncomfortable the cop being interviewed sounded when using these terms. NYPD cops often had a jaded, bland,monotone 'matter of fact' manner of speaking which gave comics, sit/com writers and humorists of all kinds a new subject to joke about.
These days we're used to hearing these terms but when they were new to us all, but back then it was hysterical !! Cops got just as much a laugh out of this, if not more, then the public. The cop who appered on last nights 'evening news' had to take having his balls busted for some time after. And back in the 60's when perps might call a cop, to his face, right there in the court room, 'PIG', Nazi, Storm Trooper or carrying on about 'The Man', police brutality etc etc., judges often over looked a cops lapse in good manners and/or lack of use of polite language. Letting the 'f' word (fag) slip out would be nothing back in those days and a lot of judges wouldn't get their panties in a wad over it. So its possible that the writer was making fun of something that was topical at that time in history - just like the stereotypical gay antique dealer, mob guys etc. This was the way people talked back then.
The only language that rang false to me was the mob guy calling 'the blacks' 'spooks' as 'Mully' was the term most of these Italians used to call 'da blacks' ('moulignon').
BTW, I wrote the above while trying to watch the follow up movie 'The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3' on TCM - hope it made some kind of sense. And speaking of language ...
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