"Hothouse Clotheshorse" - Torch Song (1953) - Assorted Moments of Random Cinematic Hotness

Hothouse Clotheshorse
Torch Song (1953)

Toward the end of 1953's Torch Song, Marjorie Rambeau describes her daughter Joan Crawford's current boyfriend as a "hothouse clotheshorse." Upon hearing this evocative turn of phrase, MrStinky piped up: "Is that a homosexual?" And, given the evidence provided by the film, 'twould seem to be the case that "hothouse clotheshorse" might be yet another 1950s euphemism for queer. Crawford's boytoy, Cliff Willard, even boasts of his other, younger girlfriends as he bills Crawford's Jenny for his dates, a swagger that seems curiously off pitch, even when mouthed by notorious womanizer Gig Young (above). Then, when Young's Cliff is called upon to assist in assembling a spontaneous cocktail party for his patroness, the partygoers turn out -- surprise surprise -- to be exclusively well-heeled gentlemen like himself. A veritable cornucopia of hothouse clotheshorses, it might seem, with neither a damsel or dame in site, only La Crawford herself as the reigning diva. It's not mancandy per se but the assemblage of implicit queerness is its own variation on the them of assorted random cinematic hotness...