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Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood is the deliciously scandalous story of Scotty Bowers, a handsome ex-Marine who landed in Hollywood after the Second World War and became confidante, aide de camp and lover to many of Hollywood's greatest male--and female-stars. In the 1940s and '50s, he ran a gas station in the shadow of the studio lots where he would connect his band of friends from the military with those who had to hide their true sexual identities from the public. An unsung Hollywood legend, Bowers would cater to the sexual appetites of celebrities - straight, gay and omnivorous - for decades. In 2012, he finally spilled his secrets in the bestselling memoir "Full Service," which revealed a dramatic counter-narrative on Hollywood's Golden Age. While the studio PR machines were promoting their stars as hetero, wholesome, and monogamous, Bowers was fulfilling their true desires. This cinema-vérité documentary tells his story, as well as an alternate pre-Stonewall history of Hollywood.
Rating
NR
Director
Matt Tyrnauer
Studio
Greenwich Entertainment
- By the time the film ends with Scotty's 91st birthday, we emerge feeling simultaneously soiled and invigorated.Reply
- More challenging and complex than a simple interview with a gossip, this documentary has almost an automatic pass to the nominations of the awards season. [Full review in Spanish]Reply
- 'Scotty and the Secret History' is a fascinating portrait that neither lionizes nor judges its subject. It merely lets you take him for what he is.Reply
- The present-day footage is more compelling than any of the gossipy bits, which turn out to be the hook that pulls the film into more fraught and complex directions.Reply
- Tyrnauer captures this figure with empathy, humor, and as much fascination as we too possess watching.Reply
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- A nicely filled-out look at different eras, one secrecy-ridden and dedicated to the preservation of illusion, the other wide open and blasé about personal predilections.Reply