Rock Hudson's Home Movies

This humorous video lecture replays and freeze-frames the movies of model-male beefcake and former truck driver Hudson until his gayness stares you in the face. It's also a passionate, albeit critical, tribute to the man, an analysis of the screen parts, and a warning. Hudson's AIDS diagnosis and subsequent death in 1985 rocked a few preconceptions. Here are clips from the early Universal days, through the '50s adventure pics, the Oscar-nominated role in Giant, his melodramatic grand hour with Douglas Sirk, the suggestive pyjama games with Doris Day, right up to the late comedies and soaps. Eric Farr, a weed in white singlet, impersonates the Rock and presents the well-argued case for the offence, taking the liberty of having Hudson discuss himself from beyond the grave, wringing his screen hypochondria to dubious premonitory effect. When Rock explains his dislike of 'fish' to Paula Prentiss in Man's Favorite Sport?, Farr screams, 'What do you think they were talking about, dickhead?' Such hectoring palls, but all in all it's a healthy rant.