Out of the Closet, Off the Screen: The William Haines Story (2001)

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While all but forgotten today, between 1926 and 1935, William Haines was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, an affable leading man with cocky charm and a self-depreciating comic touch. Haines enjoyed his first major hit with the collegiate football comedy Brown of Harvard, and several years later he was one of the few silent stars who effectively made the transition to talking pictures. But a series of ill-advised pictures sent Haines' career into a tailspin, and he might have enjoyed a comeback if it weren't for one thing -- Haines was gay, and while in 1935 he could hardly openly declare his sexual orientation, he stubbornly refused to deny it either, and sometimes alluded to his lifestyle in fan-magazine interviews. Hollywood legend has it when executives at MGM told Haines he had the option of either agreeing to an arranged marriage with an actress or never working for the studio again, Haines chose the latter; the result was he never appeared in another film. Instead, Haines turned his hobby of interior decorating into a lucrative career, and he maintained a sometimes stormy but ultimately loyal relationship with his lover, Jimmy Shields, which lasted from 1926 up until Haines' death in 1973. Joan Crawford is quoted as saying they had "the happiest marriage in Hollywood." Out of the Closet, Off the Screen: The William Haines Story is a documentary produced for the cable film channel American Movie Classics that examines Haines' life, both onscreen and offscreen, featuring interviews with people who knew him as well as reenacted sequences, with Christopher Lawford and Chris Allen portraying (respectively) Haines and Shields. Stockard Channing narrates. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Complete Cast:

Director(s):

Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato

Writer(s):

Gabriel Rotello

Producer(s):

Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato

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