Saturday 3 March 2012

Horst Buchholz made me gay...

Horst Buchholz died 9 years ago today. He was born in Germany 1933 and died aged 69 on March 3rd 2003. He had a beauty that was strangely modern - the picture to the right was taken, I think, during the 1950's. You'd be forgiven for thinking that it was taken during the 1980's.

He appeared in many films, most notably as Chico in The Magnificent Seven. But it is for his appearance in another film that I love him. In 1959 he appeared in Tiger Bay alongside John Mills and his daughter, Hayley Mills, in her debut picture. The film follows the story of a Polish sailor (Korchinsky), played by Horst Buchholz, who shoots his girlfriend whilst on shore leave in Cardiff and is helped whilst on the run by a young girl played by Hayley Mills - the only witness to the murder.

It's a highly entertaining film and has an added interest for me in that it's set in a now long disappeared Cardiff of the 1950's. More specifically, the main backdrop for the film is Cardiff's docklands, once known as Tiger Bay but now called Cardiff Bay, which is where I now live.

I first saw the film when I was eight or nine years old and I remember being fascinated by it. Of course, at that time, it was not the location that interested me as I didn't move to Cardiff's docks until the 1990s. No, I was fascinated, enraptured, besotted even by this man's beauty. Before I had the faintest inkling that I was gay; in all innocence - I fell in love with a Polish sailor called Korchinsky. I never tire of watching the film.

It's almost as if Buchholz shaped my idea of male beauty entering my imagination as he did at such an early age. How interesting to now learn that he was bisexual. Here's a clip from the film Tiger Bay. The area where this scene was filmed is now known as Mermaid Quay; how times change.

R.I.P. Horst Buchholz.
Today's run at 08:29
Distance4.01 kmTime22:45
Pace5:40 min/kmCadence82 spm
Comments: Sunny, blustery, cold.

10 comments:

  1. I totally agree. I've just seen Tiger Bay for the first time and I am captivated by his beauty.

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  2. Glad you agree and hope you enjoyed the film. Thank you for leaving a comment.

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  3. Tiger Bay has always been One of my favourite films, as a young girl I fell in love with horst buchholz, he was stunning, apparantly hayley mills had a crush on him during filming!

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  4. Tiger Bay has always been One of my favourite films, as a young girl I fell in love with horst buchholz, he was stunning, apparantly hayley mills had a crush on him during filming!

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  5. I grew up in northern Virginia. One summer night, my mother came into our house from a small party at the house next door. It was in the early 1970s. She said, "You'll never guess who is next door! Horst Buchholz!" I looked out a window to patio next door and saw a group of people talking. I didn't know who this man was, but gosh now I do. I still have no idea how he came to be there.

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  6. I've just watched that film again after 30+ yrs and he still has that effect on me.

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  7. The Tiger Bay is excelent movie...

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  8. CARLOS VES LOSADA DESDE ARGENTINA CONFIESO QUE A MI TAMBIEN ME HIZO GAY.
    BESITOS

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  9. I first saw him in the movie "Fanny" and fell in love. He is beautiful


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  10. Just saw "Magnificent" again last night. That film gives me wanking fodder for days.

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