Los personajes homosexuales en el melodrama clásico: adaptaciones de Broadway a Hollywood (1951-1961)

Abstract

The success of Broadway have been one of the main sources of inspiration for Hollywood. In the 1940s, Tennessee Williams took hegemonic space of Eugene O’Neill, so their powerful themes and characters interested quickly to Hollywood. At the beginning of the 1950s, the strict Hays Code censored some sexual aspects of their successful film adaptations, but the presence of homosexual characters was very novel. Following this trend, Robert Anderson and Lillian Hellman dramas that treated them were adapted in these years. With the aim to influence the impact of characters of this orientation in Hollywood, will be analysed as a person and as a role –according to Francesco Casetti and Federico di Chio-, the protagonists of Tea and Sympathy (1956), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and The Children Hour (1961). This work tries to reflect how the characters of Anderson, Williams and Hellman, respectively, contributed to openness theme in Hollywood, the Hays Code breaking and the evolution of the classic melodrama between 1951 and 1961.