SCOTTY AND THE SECRET HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD

US, 2017, 98 minutes, Colour.

Directed by Matt Tyrnauer.

Not so secret anymore!

This documentary is based on a memoir by Scotty Bowers, in association with Lionel Friedberg, Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars. And, if that sounds somewhat sleazy, it is. And Scotty Bowers is revealed in the documentary as sleazy himself – although, he can be aggressively defensive by labelling anybody who disagrees with him and his stances as “squares”.

At the making of this film, and his being interviewed by the director, he is in his mid-90s. There are many scenes of him meeting celebrities, going to socials, book signings, being feted for his revelatory book. And he basks in this. And he has basked all his life in this kind of world. We see him with his wife of many decades, his second wife, who is in the dark about his earlier life, only later discovering it, put off by it, but still loving him. A lot of time in different garages and houses which is acquired, full of stuff from over the decades.

The film gives a thumbnail sketch of Scotty Bowers’ early life, difficult childhood, on a farm, early sexual experimentation, going to the Armed Forces for World War II, serious action in the Pacific including in Bougainville, return home. On his return, he set up a gas station in Hollywood but, very quickly, getting the idea of being a liaison for men and women interested in sexual contact, especially in rooms near the gas station.

As he recounts in the film and in his book, one of his earliest clients was Walter Pidgeon. Quite a number of other names are given, but he was more notorious in his contacts with Rock Hudson and making him available to clients. The relationship between Cary Grant and Randolph Scott, which has been the subject of discussion for decades, and the Oscar-winning Australian costume designer, Orry-Kelly, are strongly featured. There is also a lot of discussion about the relationship between Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy – which would need some further historical verification rather than immediate acceptance of Bower’s opinions.

What Bowers did was get in touch with a number of his ex-service friends, with whom he had sexual contacts, and setting them up as hustlers, he becoming an arch-pimp. There are some sequences when some of these, much older men now, rather dirty old men in their statement of opinions, are interviewed for the film.

The film obviously appeals to our prurient curiosity especially about the private lives of celebrities and, especially, about sexual activity which was not so public back in those post-World War II years. To that extent, the film can be seen as a take it or leave it documentary about the seamy side of Hollywood and a portrait of a sleazy pimp who has profited over many decades.

Of interest is the television miniseries, Hollywood, 2020, directed by Ryan Murphy, focusing on Bowers, called Ernie West, and his relationship with Rock Hudson. He is played, perhaps with more intensity than the actual character deserves, by Dylan McDermott.