One of the great high camp performances in the history of cinema, right up there with Faye Dunaway in MOMMIE DEAREST. How hysterically funny was Perkins in this movie? From his inability to get it up while attempting to make love to Tracy to his sick come on to Brian with the gun and his grossly hilarious suicide in the speeding car while he took pictures of Tracy because he "wanted to see death." Perkins was a riot in this movie.
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I agree, I think he high on cocaine the whole time. Actually poor Anthony was kind of conflicted in real life and it shows here, his performace is over the top and a highlight of this movie!
shareTo the OP, maybe you can help me I'm a little confused. I just watched this movie for the first time today, and I certainly didn't understand what the hell was going on with Brian and Sean when they were wrestling with the gun, but in no way in that scene did I see a "come on". If anything, the only interpretation I could give the scene was just one guy trying to assert he was more macho than the other and losing.
And when you're done explaining that, maybe you can tell me why Tracy poured candle wax on herself. That made no sense.
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I saw this film in a theater where it was re-released...When it came time for the fight scene, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The symbolism of Williams pointing the gun right in Perkin's mouth is pretty obvious.
I don't think he could realize how the combination of shots read until after the film was cut...It's pretty obvious what the director and editor were trying to infer!
I thought the Perkins character was ridiculous...Diana Ross really let down her Gay fans with permitting this portrayal into her movie. Look how negative it was...although the apologists will say that Perkins was demented because he was forced to repress his sexuality. Whatever.
Honestly, not all Gay people have "private rooms" with "arty photos" and collect guns which they display on walls in special frames.
Goodbye and good riddance to these endless demented Gay characters that populated movies for YEARS from the 1950's all the way up to 1992 when Michael Douglas got fried for his pathetic portrayal of a Lesbian killer in Basic Instinct.
I went to see that out of morbid curiosity (didn't pay, snuck into it at the multiplex!!)...and my blood boiled at the "oooh! creepy!!" music that came on the screen whenever "Roxy", the psycho Lesbian girlfriend came on the screen.
By then the Gay groups had HAD IT and fried Douglas's ass with protests. And then he showed up all smug at the Oscars wearing his red ribbon. What a hypocritical jerk.
I'll admit the scene between Billy Dee and Anthony Perkins was pretty homoerotic, but what I find much more offensive than the portrayal of gays as psychos in the movies is the inclusion of a silly, shopping obsessed, finger snapping, Cher worshipping, blathering nelly belle in almost every single movie or television program that features a gay character. Where did this start? With Jack on 'Will & Grace?" "Queer Eye For The Straight Guy," the most repugnant, offensive show I have ever seen in my entire life? Sorry, but I'd much rather see a gay character as the villain of a movie than as the pathetic comic relief--something for the straights to laugh at. These characters do more to perpetuate negative gay stereotypes than a thousand Roxies in "Basic Instinct." What is incredibly sad is that a lot of gays find this crap (which basically boils down to the homosexual equivilant of a blackface routine) not only acceptable but totally hilarious. By the way, Michael Douglas DIDN'T play the lesbian killer in "Basic Instinct." That would be Sharon Stone. If Douglas HAD played the part I'd say he should have been given the Oscar for doing it so convincingly. :-)
For Connie n Raymond Marble, it was the beginning of the end!
Thanks Connie & Raymond: although at least Jack in W & G isn't sexless - he may in some ways be a complete stereotype (his continual desire to perform, his campy exuberance etc) but my god, he also revises the stereotypical queen through actively expressing and discussing his sexual desire for guys, and acting on them too, instead of being a neutered nelly who wouldn't know a blow job from a crochet pattern...... like certain tiresome caricatures in Ugly Betty I could think of!
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I am 100% sure not one person thought "Hey, all gay people must have secret rooms with artsy photos and guns" when they watched this.
shareOr maybe that's just his character. People think way too deeply into AP and the roles that were available to him. Sometimes it's not about life imitating art, it's just acting.
shareI thought the gun scene with Sean and Brian was totally bizarre.
shareI agree. Loved him in this movie. Hilarious!!
shareAnthony Perkins is a terribly underrated actor. I love his performance in an otherwise uninspired film vehicle for Ross, whose weaknesses as an actor are highlighted by an inexperienced director. Despite being typecast as a "psycho," Perkins puts the neuroses of his Mahogany character on full display in ways that are pathetic, hilarious, and above all, believable.
share“I love [Anthony Perkins’] performance in an otherwise uninspired film vehicle for Ross, whose weaknesses as an actor are highlighted by an inexperienced director.”
About sums it up.
THANK YOU!! I've been in love with this performance since I was a child. One of the great, campy moments in cinema history. He WAS a riot. My fav scenes are the almost love scene, the fight with Brian and the speeding car scene.
BTW, if you must use the f word, I should tell you that I'm a woman.
I agree. Anthony Perkins managed to create a very interesting character. Very pernicious guy .
But I do wonder why people call him gay. I wonder if knowing he was gay in real life AND the fact that the character is a photographer in the fashion industry, influences why people think the character is gay. I don't get the impression that Barry Gordy wanted to depict the character as gay, but as having an interest in Tracy. So anything that appears as 'gay' was probably unintentional lol.
I always interpreted the character has becoming very obsessed with the women he worked with, and simply loved to create and destroy them out of some demented need to stay in control. But this was definitely one of the better performances out there.
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Replying to this old thread just to say that the first time I watched this movie I didn't think Sean was gay. but after watching it a second time I started to think that maybe he was, and that he'd just repressed it or something. Some of the dialogue between him and Diana Ross hinted that something was amiss in that way. Anyway, whichever way he swings, there is definitely something wrong with the Sean. His reaction has nothing to do with sexuality, it's all about his need for control.
I also gotta say that this has to be one of my favourite performances by Anthony Perkins. Love the sheer campy goodness of it, and the gun-fight is perhaps one of the most hilariously tense scenes ever committed to film. Considering getting the DVD so I can show it at my next 'so-bad-its-good' movie night.
~I used to be schizophrenic, but we're OK now~
i own the movie for years, it's my sunday night girl movie a few times a year. my cousin begged to watch it ,so i loaned it to her. i think mahogany has some cult status out there.
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I'm replying to this incredibly old OP because I love how it contains a comparison of Mahogany with Mommie Dearest--I just watched Mahogany for the first time last night on MOVIES. The movie that preceded and followed Mahogany? Why, Mommie Dearest, of course!
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