COVID-19, or at least for this lock down. I wouldn’t have got trapped in a Frank Vosper wormhole otherwise. So TCM is showing a movie called Shadows on the Stairs (1941), based on a play by Frank Vosper called Murder on the Second Floor (1929). Frank Vosper is a fascinating figure in gay history who, consequently, no one cares about. He’s quite a talented playwright -- and from the looks of it, he was a very talented actor too. He died tragically and mysteriously at age 36, and that’s what this blog is all about. So Vosper’s connections to the gay glitterati are intense. He undoubtedly knew Noel Coward because he played the villainous homosexual Dulcimer in the first production of The Green Bay Tree by Mordaunt Shairp, which was probably the very first modern gay play (produced in England in 1933, and then in New York City, financed by Noel Coward). Vosper also wrote a dramatic adaptation of a novel by G.B. Stern called No Funny Business, and G.B. Stern was part of Coward’s lesbian circle (he called her Peter) and one of Coward's favorite novelists. (Fascinatingly, a young, gay, Laurence Olivier was in both The Green Bay Tree and No Funny Business, the lesbian Gertrude Lawrence was in No Funny Business also — this was Coward’s circle.) Vosper’s work as an actor and author always involved murder and mayhem; he played the villain Ramon Levine (opposite Peter Lorre) in Hitchcock’s 1st try at The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) — undoubtedly Hitchcock saw him as the stereotypically effeminate homo in The Green Bay Tree and snapped him up. Vosper also wrote another very successful play — Love from a Stranger (1936) — which was an adaptation of a story by Agatha Christie. All the credit for that play is given to Christie, but from watching Shadows on the Stairs I can attest that Vosper was himself very talented. Shadows on the Stairs is meta-theatrical (this is a spoiler): the killer turns out to be — yes, an effeminate married man, cuckolded by his wife — who would rather play chess with his friend than cuddle her. He is also (the first?) cross-dressed killer — way before Psycho -- (he dresses as the maid to do the deed)— for he reveals in his final confession that he first cross-dressed as a boy, to act in the play Charley’s Aunt. Shadows on the Stairs is meta-theatrical in yet another way too, for it turns out that we are watching — not ‘reality’ — but a filmic enactment of a reading of a play written by the young playwright (Hugh Bromilow -- played by Bruce Lester) who is also the film’s hero. My point is that Vosper was interested in lies and artificiality — as Oscar Wilde was, and Coward was — and though he might not be as talented either of those two; he’s in their ‘camp.’ Now: Vosper’s life. Wow. I think I can solve the mystery of his death here, and also illuminate the death of Joe Orton. So Vosper’s lover at the time of this death was Peter Willes, an actor — young and blonde — and quite fetching. In 1937 Frank and Peter were returning to England from New York City on the SS Paris. It was a glamorous crossing, as not only Ernest Hemingway —but also Muriel Oxford — who, by the way, also happened to be Miss Great Britain — were both on board. Being a celebrity fag couple Vosper and Willes hung out with Miss Great Britain, and it was during their night together that Frank plunged to his death. No one knows what happened; it was investigated with no conclusion. There is no doubt that Frank dropped out of his cabin window, however it was not ever sorted out whether it was a suicide or by accident. Well, what about murder? This was hinted at by the press — could both men had been in love with Miss Great Britain and vying for her love? Well, in fact, it’s unlikely either Peter or Frank could have cared less about the sexual accoutrements of Miss Great Britain, who vehemently claimed at the time that she definitely not had sex with Peter Willes. Nevertheless, though Peter was cleared of any suspicion of murder, this did not stop the circulation of a popular saying: ‘Never get on a ship with Peter Willes.” Truer words were never spoken; I would amend them, and say never do anything at all with Peter Willes, and certainly don’t fall in love with him. It is my theory that there was a kind of triangle going on on that fatal night — on that fatal ship -- but not the one people thought. The gorgeous young Peter was pretending to flirt with Miss Great Britain and a jealous Vosper (jealous of losing his lover Peter not of losing Mss Great Britain) threatened suicide and finally did it, probably on a dare from Peter. You may say I’m nuts (and I am). But in my worm-holing on Peter Willes I discovered that later in life he was a very good friend of Kenneth Halliwell. Halliwell murdered his lover, Joe Orton. There were rumours Willes had something to do with Halliwell murdering Orton — because everyone knew Willes hated Orton immensely, and had encouraged Halliwell to hate him too. Let me put it this way: how likely is it that any one person would be so closely associated with two horrific and suspicious deaths — and yet be completely innocent? Bloody unlikely. Look at photos of Peter Willes. He started out as an angelic, delicious, ingenue and finished off as a middle-aged, devilish rogue. The face changes; but it’s the same man. Maybe I’ll write a play about Peter Willes some day. But I will, of course, be vilified -- as I always am -- for misrepresenting the 'good kind folx' that queer people always are. Listen, I don’t hate gay men -- any more than I hate people in general. People must be exposed whenever possible — as the selfish, greedy, lying, narcissistic, hypocrites most of them are. Look on the bright side; when you know how disgusting most people are, you come to value so very much those who are at least not-intentionally evil — because — under the circumstances— it’s really the very best that they can do.
