Dragging Out Cross Dressers

There’s no doubt about it, Hollywood just loves to dress men up.

The studios have been doing it for years, mainly for laughs. Put a brawny, bow-legged guy in an evening gown, make sure the falsies don’t slip, get the makeup and wig just right, and let the howls begin. Gender-benders, at least in the world of mainstream movies, are often the highest order of clowns.

Robin Williams apparently knows that. With his just-released “Mrs. Doubtfire,” Williams goes with tradition. Doing it in drag--in this case as an elderly nanny--means that Williams is following a path tramped by some mighty big actors crammed into some mighty big high-heeled pumps.

A good duo to start with is Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in “Some Like It Hot.” Billy Wilder’s 1959 hit, a brouhaha of hilarious dialogue and hysterical images, works so well because Curtis and Lemmon seem to enjoy being girls so much.

Lemmon all but turns into one in this tall tale of a couple of musicians who don stockings and garters to hide out in an all-woman band after witnessing the St. Valentine’s Day massacre. There are few courtships on film to rival the one between Lemmon and a smitten millionaire, played by Joe E. Brown.

Like many first-rate comics before and after him, Jack Benny couldn’t resist the urge to visit the frilly side of the wardrobe rack. In “Charley’s Aunt,” Benny played the Oxford student posing as his maiden aunt, a charade that soon sails out of control. The 1941 movie, based on Brandon Thomas’ stage comedy, frequently sputters, but Benny still has a batch of fine mincing moments.

Dustin Hoffman once said he admired the great female impersonators, like Lemmon and Benny, and they had something to do with his decision to star in “Tootsie.” Sydney Pollack’s 1982 picture gave Hoffman the opportunity to find his distaff side and, as Lemmon before him, he embraces it like a long-lost relative.

His character, an annoying New York actor masquerading as a female soap opera star, actually becomes a better person in drag. This satire of gender roles (written by Larry Gelbart and Murray Schisgal) dovetailed nicely with society’s developing notions of the women’s movement and men’s place in it.

Despite their ticklish plots, those films are definitely fixtures in the traditional cinema. But fringe directors have also routinely turned to dragging along their outsiders’ way.

Edward D. Wood, perhaps the worst movie-maker ever, turned out a classic of sorts in 1953. “Glen or Glenda?”--ostensibly a serious pseudo-documentary about a confused transvestite who can’t wait to wear his fiancee’s clothes--transfixes with its awfulness.

John Waters can get pretty awful, too, especially when he lets his cross-dressing diva, Divine, out of her cage. There are several ways to go when going Waters’ way, but “Pink Flamingos” (1972), a clumsy, comic gross-out with a subversive streak, is his underground cult favorite. For those with delicate sensibilities, “Polyester” (1981), Waters’ first try for a more mainstream audience, might be a better introduction to Divine’s out-sized glory.

It’s not much of a step from Waters to Andy Warhol, whose minimalist film adventures usually featured a passel of men modeling women’s fashions. Start with “Trash” (1970), his low-key stumble through the life of a male hustler junkie who has, ah, problems performing in bed. Part of the fun with “Trash,” as with most of Warhol’s flicks, is figuring out just what sex everybody really is.

The riddle of what Norman Bates is all about fuels Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” though you don’t find many giggles in the answer. The 1960 horror masterpiece deserves passing mention, though, just because Anthony Perkins’ Bates may be the weirdest dragster in movie history. The knife-plunging mother of all drag queens, if you will.

Women have also taken a walk on the other side, although the jaunts haven’t been nearly as frequent. In 1935, none other than Katharine Hepburn got manned-up in “Sylvia Scarlett,” which was directed by George Cukor. Hepburn, teamed with Cary Grant and Edmund Gwenn, disguises herself as a boy to travel with a touring show and becomes entangled with smugglers along the way.

She also becomes entangled in her odd characterization, but it’s mostly fascinating watching her try to pull everything off, even as her brittle beauty keeps poking through.

“Yentl” is a melodramatic, too dewy-eyed Barbra Streisand vehicle, but her fans (a loyal group) tend to love it. Streisand, who also directed this adaptation of an Issac Bashevis Singer story, plays a girl who dresses as a boy to get an education. The 1983 picture questions gender stereotyping the same way “Tootsie” does, but not nearly as entertainingly. It does, however, have 12 songs, providing Streisand ample opportunity to show off her potent pipes.