Fortune and Men’s Eyes (1971)

This Canadian film could easily have been subtitled “How To Become Homosexual In A Few Not-So-Easy Lessons” – that’s what this movie is all about, and those who aren’t queer to start with end up being so.

Set entirely in a prison where the inmates apparently do no work and take no exercise, but spend all their time calculating who is going to get who, the film tends to become monotonous and comes across as contrived and somewhat too sensational rather than shocking or brutal.

A 19-year-old college student named Smitty (Wendell Burton) is sentenced to six months in prison for possession of marijuana (after being turned in by his father).

There, he descends into a bizarre world of terror. His cellmates are Rocky (Zooey Hall), a brooding and aggressive man who nobody will fight; Queenie (Michael Greer), the prison’s flamboyant but harmless drag queen, and Mona (Danny Freedman), a sensitive, quiet little fellow.

Rocky saves Smitty from a gang rape and offers to protect him. Gradually, Smitty becomes aware that to survive in prison, no one is independent – he must have an “old man” behind him.

He accepts Rocky’s offer, naively believing it is akin to being buddies.

But Rocky then turns on Smitty, rapes him, and forces him to do his chores.

Queenie encourages Smitty to beat up Rocky and end the daily degradation he must endure.

When Smitty does, he comes full circle and intimidates Mona, offering to be his “old man.”

The cold, stark tunnels and cells of the bleak 100-year-old prison outside Quebec beget loneliness, frustration, violence and homosexuality. The sadistic guards push dope and turn a deaf ear whenever a weakling prisoner is subjected to a gang bang by other prisoners.

Harvey Hart replaced Jules Schwerin as the director after nine weeks of shooting. The title, incidentally, is a quote from a Shakespearean sonnet.

Playwright John Herbert was unjustly jailed as a teenager for a short sentence in the Canadian prison system and turned his experiences into a play, which opened off-Broadway in 1967. He also remained an active campaigner for prison reform throughout his life.

He died on 22 June 2001, aged 74.

Smitty
Wendell Burton
Queenie
Michael Greer
Rocky
Zooey Hall
Mona
Danny Freedman
Screwdriver
Lee Broker
(as Larry Perkins)
Holy Face Peters
James Barron
Catso
Lázaro Pérez
Sgt. Gritt
Jon Granik
Warden Gasher
Tom Harvey
Rabbit
Hugh Webster
Guard Sullivan
Kirk McColl
Sailor
Vance Davis
Doctor
Robert Goodier
Cathy
Cathy Wiehl
Fiddler
Georges Allard
One-Eye
Modesto
Young Prisoner
Michel Gilbert
Piano Player
Robert Saab
Drummer
A. Zevtouman

Director
Harvey Hart
Jules Schwerin