MURDER AT THE BLUE GAY (DELITTO AL BLUE GAY)

Italy, 1985, 96 minutes, Colour.
Tomas Milian.
Directed by Bruno Corbucci.

Murder at the Blue Gay is an example of popular Italian entertainment of the 80s. It is very much for the home market and shows the reliance on the trends from overseas movies, especially interest in the world of homosexuals and transvestites. The film seems to have been made up as it goes along, showing musical numbers by Les Girls type of entertainers, a sudden murder without much preparation (or clues for motivation). The police investigation is scarcely believable with Tomas Milian (star of many Visconti films and filming in the US during the 80s with such films as Revenge, Cat Chaser, Havana).

He goes into the gay world as an undercover agent, using a transvestite friend as a contact. His wife is having a baby when he is called out to the investigation, he pretends to be overseas in New York, she discovers him at the club and the marriage is about to break up. The film focuses a lot on the transvestites and stereotypes them considerably, Italian style. It turns out that the murderer is a Russian agent, all kinds of connections with the KGB (including a visit to Berlin) as well as to a film set bring the plot to a solution, without much preparation at all. The film relies on a lot of corny humour, buffoonery and stereotypes. It is an example of how popular Italian cinema handled the gay movement of the 80s.