Director Richard Oswald’s Different From the Others is
one of the most remarkable films to come out of Germany during the brief period after WWI when the country’s film censorship
board was disbanded. Created with the assistance of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, not only is it one of the earliest films to
feature explicitly and openly gay protagonists, but it’s the first to call for the repeal of anti-gay sodomy laws and equal
rights for gays, lesbians, and the transgendered.
Starring Conrad Veidt (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,
Casablanca), Fritz Schulz (Children of Darkness, Only You),
and Reinhold Schünzel (Victor and Victoria, Notorious),
Different From the Others follows the life of Paul Körner, a gay musician, and how his sexuality has been used
against him ever since grade school and even now, as a blackmailer comes between him and his boyfriend, Kurt Sivers.
Today’s gay feature silent:
