{ "id": "epzvzb2f89", "slug": "the-boys-in-the-band-1970-film", "title": "The Boys in the Band (1970 film)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form", "label": "Films by genre, form, and subject", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations", "label": "Adaptations of literature, stage, and other media", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations.stage-play-adaptations", "label": "Films based on stage plays", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations.stage-play-adaptations" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations", "label": "United States · 1946 to 2000: Adaptations of literature, stage, and other media", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations", "path": [ { "id": "geo.us", "label": "United States", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946", "label": "United States · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form", "label": "Films by genre, form, and subject", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations", "label": "Adaptations of literature, stage, and other media", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations" } ] } ], "excerpt": "The Boys in the Band (1970) is William Friedkin's film of Mart Crowley's Off-Broadway play, with the original nine-man stage cast; the first Hollywood film with an all-gay cast, rated R over X-rated dialogue, picketed by the Gay Liberation Front.", "snippet": "The Boys in the Band (1970) is William Friedkin's film of Mart Crowley's Off-Broadway play, with the original nine-man stage cast; the first Hollywood film with an all-gay cast, rated R over X-rated dialogue, picketed by the Gay Liberation Front.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations.stage-play-adaptations", "markdown": "# The Boys in the Band (1970 film)\n\n**The Boys in the Band** is a 1970 American comedy-drama film directed by [William Friedkin](https://www.edgepedia.org/william-friedkin), written and produced by Mart Crowley from his own 1968 [Off-Broadway](https://www.edgepedia.org/off-broadway) play, in which nine men gather for a birthday party in a Manhattan apartment that turns into a night of confession and confrontation. It was the first Hollywood film to center on gay characters, and it used the play's original nine-member stage cast.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23502-THE-BOYS-IN-THE-BAND) • [2](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/89949--the-boys-in-the-band/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Release | R rating, 120 minutes, comedy-drama; New York opening 17 March 1970[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23502-THE-BOYS-IN-THE-BAND) |\n| Key credits | Director William Friedkin; writer and producer Mart Crowley; cinematographer Arthur J. Ornitz; production company Leo Productions, Ltd. (Cinema Center Films)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23502-THE-BOYS-IN-THE-BAND) |\n| Cast | Kenneth Nelson, Leonard Frey, Frederick Combs, Cliff Gorman, Reuben Greene, Laurence Luckinbill, Keith Prentice, Robert La Tourneaux, and Peter White, all reprising their stage roles[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23502-THE-BOYS-IN-THE-BAND) • [2](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/89949--the-boys-in-the-band/) • [3](https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/boys-band-17726/) |\n| Source play | Debuted Off-Broadway on 14 April 1968; Crowley wrote it in five weeks in 1967[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23502-THE-BOYS-IN-THE-BAND) |\n| Rating decision | The MPAA awarded an R instead of an X despite what Daily Variety called \"a great deal of normally X-rated dialog\"[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23502-THE-BOYS-IN-THE-BAND) |\n| Box office | $35,000 in its opening week at the National in Westwood; $2,976,129 at six theaters by 19 August 1970; $3,253,880 in select markets as of 10 May 1972[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23502-THE-BOYS-IN-THE-BAND) |\n| Later versions | Subject of the 2011 documentary *Making the Boys*; remade in 2020 for Netflix with the 2018 Broadway revival cast[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23502-THE-BOYS-IN-THE-BAND) • [4](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-boys-in-the-band-movie-review-2020) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story and staging\n\nThe drama confines itself to a single night. A group of friends gather in the Manhattan apartment of Michael (Kenneth Nelson) to celebrate the birthday of Harold, described by the Australian Centre for the Moving Image as \"wry, razor tongued\" and played by [Leonard Frey](https://www.edgepedia.org/leonard-frey). The party turns when Michael receives an unexpected visitor, an old heterosexual college friend struggling with his own sexuality, and the alcohol-soaked evening becomes, in ACMI's words, \"a night of psychosexual torture, vicious games and brutal confession.\"[2](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/89949--the-boys-in-the-band/)\n\nCrowley's screenplay adhered closely to the play, with one addition: an introductory sequence showing the characters going about their lives in New York City, including Bernard at a Doubleday bookstore, Emory hailing a taxicab, and Hank playing basketball at the 23rd Street Y.M.C.A.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23502-THE-BOYS-IN-THE-BAND) Critics have generally treated the film as a faithful transplant. Les Spindle, writing in *Backstage*, called it \"among the most faithful stage-to-screen transplants ever\" while still \"a cinematic experience through and through,\" and a Metacritic-cited review credited Friedkin with translating a story set in a cramped apartment into a movie that rarely feels stagey.[3](https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/boys-band-17726/) • [5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-boys-in-the-band-1970/critic-reviews/)\n\n## From play to screen\n\nCrowley wrote the play over five weeks in 1967 while babysitting actress Diana Lynn's children in Beverly Hills; it opened Off-Broadway on 14 April 1968 and was a \"smash hit\" within a month.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23502-THE-BOYS-IN-THE-BAND) He turned down what the Los Angeles Times called \"lucrative offers from several studios\" that would not meet his requirements, and Cinema Center Films, the motion picture production arm of C.B.S. Films, acquired the screen rights six weeks after the play opened for a reported $250,000 plus a percentage of the profits; an August 1968 LAT article listed the price as $350,000 plus ten percent of the gross.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23502-THE-BOYS-IN-THE-BAND)\n\nCrowley's terms shaped the production: it would be shot in New York City, use the original cast, be scripted by Crowley himself, and carry no extra-diegetic musical score.[6](https://www.scielo.br/j/ides/a/JzrJwCXpXjjp4ZfCL5mmzvt/?lang=pt) Stage director Robert Moore, whom Crowley wanted to direct the film, left the project over a rumored salary dispute and was replaced by Friedkin, whom Crowley had tapped after seeing the director's adaptation of [Harold Pinter](https://www.edgepedia.org/harold-pinter)'s *The Birthday Party*.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23502-THE-BOYS-IN-THE-BAND) • [3](https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/boys-band-17726/) Although the nine original cast members reprised their roles as part of the agreement with Crowley, Daily Variety reported that Friedkin would have preferred to re-cast with film actors.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23502-THE-BOYS-IN-THE-BAND)\n\n[Principal photography](https://www.edgepedia.org/principal-photography) took place in and around New York City from June 1969, with locations including [LaGuardia Airport](https://www.edgepedia.org/laguardia-airport), the Sherry Netherland Hotel, a Fifth Avenue Doubleday bookstore, [Bergdorf Goodman](https://www.edgepedia.org/bergdorf-goodman)'s, Bryant Park, and West 42nd Street, and interiors at Chelsea Studios on 26th Street.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23502-THE-BOYS-IN-THE-BAND)\n\n## Censorship, protest, and reception\n\nThe film's language was a ratings landmark. In February 1970 the Motion Picture Association of America awarded an R rather than an X despite the dialogue, and MPAA administrator Eugene Dougherty called the film \"a dead-serious social document\" while acknowledging that the decision set a potentially controversial precedent.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23502-THE-BOYS-IN-THE-BAND) Film critic Charles Champlin, in a June 1970 Los Angeles Times editorial, cited the film as an example of what he considered a problematic trend toward tolerance of obscene language and \"sexual frankness\" in movies.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23502-THE-BOYS-IN-THE-BAND)\n\nProtest came from within the gay community as well. Members of the [Gay Liberation Front](https://www.edgepedia.org/gay-liberation-front), who considered the play \"old-fashioned sexualism,\" picketed the Westwood premiere on 26 March 1970, and activists singled out lines such as \"show me a happy homosexual and I'll show you a gay corpse\" as evidence of a homophobic outlook at odds with the affirmation politics of the period.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23502-THE-BOYS-IN-THE-BAND) • [2](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/89949--the-boys-in-the-band/) Crowley acknowledged receiving criticism for portraying his main characters as sad and downtrodden, but insisted his story was about self-destruction among people \"shunted aside and considered freaks by society,\" saying, \"I hope there are happy homosexuals – they just don't happen to be at this party.\"[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23502-THE-BOYS-IN-THE-BAND)\n\nCritical reception in 1970 was mixed. Daily Variety praised Friedkin's \"cinematic flow and staging\" but criticized the script as too close to the play; a New York Times review found the picture reminiscent of Broadway plays of the late 1930s and early 1940s. The Los Angeles Times, by contrast, deemed the picture \"historic\" if flawed, noting that the joys and sorrows of adult male homosexuals had never been treated so unreservedly in a movie aimed at a commercial rather than a cultist market, and Vogue called it \"even better than the play\" and credited it with clearing a path for future films about homosexuals.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23502-THE-BOYS-IN-THE-BAND) A 1970 TIME review wrote that if the situation of the homosexual was ever to be understood by the public, \"it will be because of the breakthrough made by this humane, moving picture.\"[7](https://time.com/3742951/boys-in-the-band/) Kenneth Nelson received a Golden Globe Award nomination for New Star of the Year – Actor.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23502-THE-BOYS-IN-THE-BAND)\n\nThe film was initially banned in Italy because of its obscene language, but premiered in Milan in November 1970 before a \"ladies only\" promotional audience, with no edits made and some dialogue re-recorded.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23502-THE-BOYS-IN-THE-BAND)\n\n## Box office and afterlife\n\nThe film earned a \"torrid $35,000\" in its opening week at the National in Westwood, and Variety listed cumulative earnings of $2,976,129 at six theaters by 19 August 1970; it was still in release as of 10 May 1972, with $3,253,880 grossed in select markets to date.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23502-THE-BOYS-IN-THE-BAND)\n\nCritical judgment has shifted repeatedly since release. Vito Russo, in *The Celluloid Closet* (1980), wrote that \"the internalized guilt of eight gay men at a Manhattan birthday party formed the best and most potent argument for gay liberation ever offered in a popular art form,\" while later reassessments such as Edward Guthmann's 1999 [San Francisco Chronicle](https://www.edgepedia.org/san-francisco-chronicle) piece placed the characters' self-lacerating vision of themselves firmly in another era.[8](https://www.tcm.com/articles/159649/the-boys-in-the-band) A 2011 documentary by Crayton Robey, *Making the Boys*, examined the play and film and the controversy they generated, noting how many of the original company members later died of AIDS.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23502-THE-BOYS-IN-THE-BAND) • [9](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-making-the-boys-review-20110429-story.html) In 2020, director [Joe Mantello](https://www.edgepedia.org/joe-mantello) remade the property for Netflix with the cast of the play's 2018 Broadway revival, an ensemble made up entirely of openly gay actors.[4](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-boys-in-the-band-movie-review-2020)\n\n## References\n\n1. [The Boys in the Band (1970), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23502-THE-BOYS-IN-THE-BAND)\n2. [The Boys in the band, ACMI collection](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/89949--the-boys-in-the-band/)\n3. [The Boys in the Band, Backstage (Les Spindle)](https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/boys-band-17726/)\n4. [The Boys in the Band movie review, RogerEbert.com (2020)](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-boys-in-the-band-movie-review-2020)\n5. [The Boys in the Band critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-boys-in-the-band-1970/critic-reviews/)\n6. [À luz de uma revolta: a festa e o after de The Boys in the Band, Ilha do Desterro (2021)](https://www.scielo.br/j/ides/a/JzrJwCXpXjjp4ZfCL5mmzvt/?lang=pt)\n7. [How One Movie Changed LGBT History, TIME](https://time.com/3742951/boys-in-the-band/)\n8. [The Boys in the Band, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/159649/the-boys-in-the-band)\n9. [Movie review: 'Making the Boys', Los Angeles Times (2011)](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-making-the-boys-review-20110429-story.html)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Adaptations of literature, stage, and other media › Films based on stage plays*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-boys-in-the-band-1970-film", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-boys-in-the-band-1970-film.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"The Boys in the Band (1970 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-boys-in-the-band-1970-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[The Boys in the Band (1970 film)](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-boys-in-the-band-1970-film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/the-boys-in-the-band-1970-film](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-boys-in-the-band-1970-film). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"The Boys in the Band (1970 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-boys-in-the-band-1970-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "The Boys in the Band is William Friedkin's film of Mart Crowley's Off-Broadway play, with the original nine-man stage cast; the first Hollywood film with an all-gay cast, rated R over X-rated dialogue, picketed by the Gay Liberation Front." }