81 min listen
Episode 38: Red Drayton's HOLLYWOOD COWBOY (1974)
Episode 38: Red Drayton's HOLLYWOOD COWBOY (1974)
ratings:
Length:
110 minutes
Released:
Mar 11, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
This week on the podcast, we explore one of the strangest and most outrageous gay films of the 1970s: Red Drayton’s HOLLYWOOD COWBOY. With a cast and crew assembled from filmmaker Pat Rocco’s fan club SPREE, HOLLYWOOD COWBOY feels like both an undiscovered midnight movie and a hardcore variation on the troupe’s original gay-themed stage plays. Joey Daniels stars as the eponymous Cowboy, the proverbial new kid in town who quickly finds himself thrust into Los Angeles’s seamy pornographic underbelly shortly after stepping off the bus from Texas. A chance bar brawl leads him to the benevolent Pops, a former filmmaker whose career ended in dark scandal. As the two form a platonic bond, Cowboy sets off on a quixotic mission to avenge his disgraced elderly friend and help him make one last movie. Will he succeed? In this episode we’ll uncover the likely identity of the mysterious one-and-done filmmaker Red Drayton — and find out how this film was truly a family affair. We also touch on the longevity of Pat Rocco’s fan club, revisit the idiosyncratic court-reporter-turned-filmmaker David Allen and his equally-bonkers THE LIGHT FROM THE SECOND STORY WINDOW, and also note the influence of John Schlesinger’s MIDNIGHT COWBOY on the genre. This week on the podcast, we explore one of the strangest and most outrageous gay films of the 1970s: Red Drayton’s HOLLYWOOD COWBOY. With a cast and crew assembled from filmmaker Pat Rocco’s fan club SPREE, HOLLYWOOD COWBOY feels like both an undiscovered midnight movie and a hardcore variation on the troupe’s original gay-themed stage plays. Joey Daniels stars as the eponymous Cowboy, the proverbial new kid in town who quickly finds himself thrust into Los Angeles’s seamy pornographic underbelly shortly after stepping off the bus from Texas. A chance bar brawl leads him to the benevolent Pops, a former filmmaker whose career ended in dark scandal. As the two form a platonic bond, Cowboy sets off on a quixotic mission to avenge his disgraced elderly friend and help him make one last movie. Will he succeed? In this episode we’ll uncover the likely identity of the mysterious one-and-done filmmaker Red Drayton — and find out how this film was truly a family affair. We also touch on the longevity of Pat Rocco’s fan club, revisit the idiosyncratic court-reporter-turned-filmmaker David Allen and his equally-bonkers THE LIGHT FROM THE SECOND STORY WINDOW, and also note the influence of John Schlesinger’s MIDNIGHT COWBOY on the genre.
Released:
Mar 11, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (47)
Episode 3: David Allen's THE LIGHT FROM THE SECOND STORY WINDOW (1973): On this week’s show, we’ll be looking at one of cinema’s more outrageous vanity projects: David L. Allen’s semi-autobiographical 1973 epic, THE LIGHT FROM THE SECOND STORY WINDOW. Originally running a full three hours long, the film —... by Cruising the Movies