Staircase (1969)

Directed by Stanley Donen. Starring Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Cathleen Nesbit, Beatrix Lehmann, Avril Angers, Stephen Lewis.

Embarrassingly tasteless movie sees Burton and Harrison gussy themselves up in tired gay mannerisms as an aging East End couple who bicker with each other for an hour-and-a-half. Their bitchy squabbling is harder to take than the stereotypical swishing and shrieking, and there’s simply no respite from them—they’re so joined at the hip, their names are anagrams of each other’s (Harry C. Leeds & Charles Dyer). Worse still, it’s all for show, since director Donen makes no effort to rein in the camp hysterics, and the lead actors (Harrison, especially) project the characters instead of inhabiting them, falling just short of winking at the camera to make sure we all know they’re just “having a laugh” at the expense of an entire social community. Based on a two-character play by Charles Dyer, who (as shown above) named one of the characters after himself, and also penned the screenplay adaptation.

24/100