The Laughing Policeman (1973)

This is an early example of the police detective genre where the hero policeman solves the case not by unlikely leaps of deduction, but by grinding legwork. This doesn't necessarily make for entertaining watching, and Walter Matthau's style, as the dour and unsmiling non-laughing policeman is a mixed blessing.

The film starts with mass murder of a number of bus passengers in San Francisco and Matthau's investigations take him into the gay sub-culture, which at that time was only beginning to emerge from the underground.

Here while Matthau is talking to an informer, we see this couple, one of whom has a moustache.

Later Matthau has to go to a gay bar; there are several transvestite customers.

HF May 2007

This Page: The Laughing Policeman Return to Alphabetical Index Page Return to Home Page

Hazel Freeman's International Transgender Film Guide is maintained by

Hazel Freeman

and hosted at