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Drag in the Cinema: The Late Sixties

The Editor | Dec 24, 2018

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Lee J. Cobb in disguise.

More Spies and Other “guys”

The spy trend that started with the James Bond films continued in the late ’60s with many more imitators.

One of the more classier entries was Our Man Flint (starring James Coburn as Derek Flint) which was followed by In Like Flint (1967). In the latter, it’s not Flint who gets into drag but his boss Clagg Brag played by Lee J. Cobb. In order to penetrate a spa for women Cobb gets into matronly drag (even shaving his mustache), but is quickly discovered by the bad guys (who in this particular case are all women!)

Ursula Andress and Jean -Paul Belmondo in up to His Ears.

Not really a spy film, but certainly in the vein, is a French film called Up To His Ears starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, as guy who puts a “hit” out on himself and then tries to stop it. In order to escape the assassins, he tries various means, including donning drag to perform a striptease in a nightclub.

1968’s No Way To Treat a Lady was no spy film but it was a tour-de-force for Rod Steiger who uses various disguises to kill women in a psychological comedy-thriller. One is a decidedly effeminate gay hairdresser, but the one of main interest here is his disguise as a woman, in order to kill one of his victims (a woman in a bar) played by real-life female impersonator Kim August (who also had a small part in the 1967 film The Tiger Makes Out).

Real life female impersonator Kim August with Rod Steiger in drag.

But wait . . . we’ve talked about spy movies without yet talking about an actual James Bond film itself. As far as I know there were only two incidents of drag in Bond films. One happened in one of the Bond films from the ’70s. The other was 1967’s Thunderball. In what is commonly know as the “pre-credit sequence.” James Bond attends the funeral of enemy agent Jack Boivard. However, Boivard is not dead and attends his own funeral disguised as his widow. Bond becomes suspicious when he sees Madame Boivard open the car door for herself instead of waiting to be helped. He follows her home and there offers his condolences . . . in the form of a fist. Up until the fight scene, Madame Boivard was played by actress Rose Alba, however during the brawl, stunt man Bob Simmons took over in full drag! It’s a short sequence but interesting, especially if you view it on home video, or better still DVD, where you can slow it down to get the full appreciation of a stunt man in drag!

Last but probably least, two Doris Day spy films incorporated drag (no not Doris). . . 1966’s The Glass Bottom Boat had funnyman Paul Lynde get into drag as a security man who tangled with CIA agents for Doris. In 1967’s Caprice was more industrial spying, this time in the cosmetics world with Ray Walston in drag in a role more reminiscent of Psycho than My Favorite Martian.