“It’s a pattern seen often in pre-Codes. Bureaucrats are corrupt, law-enforcement officials are malicious, and the supposedly respectable people are the least honest of all.”

He is confessing, you realise. 'I would have helped them, he says again. But how can he say that? Because he did not help them. (...) Later, he says this, he whispers: 'Are you angry with me?' The question makes you feel it. You are detached because of the drinking. You are somewhere deeper inside your body. You feel the touch of him on your skin. You say, 'I love you', because you feel that you need to say it while you still can, while it's still true. You feel the heat of loathing inside yourself, a burn of disgust. How are you here, you think, how is this happening? How can it be that he isn't good?

"Pre-Code cinema did find room for overtly gay characters. Though they were usually presented as comic relief—in Fox comedies, for example, a “pansy” character became almost obligatory—at least they were acknowledged to exist and were recognized by the other characters as part of the social landscape. As eccentrics, perhaps, but not freaks."