Gender Benders

GENDER BENDERS

These three hilarious comedies explore what happens when gender is not quite so solid as it seems. In A Woman, Charlie Chaplin makes a surprisingly beautiful woman when he dons women’s clothing—and becomes a prize object of affection for his girlfriend’s womanizing father!

 I Don’t Want to Be a Man! is a zingy comedy from Ernst Lubitsch about a girl (Ossi Oswalda) who disguises herself as a boy to have a night on the town. Little does she suspect that her uptight tutor (Curt Goetz) will fall for her, and they go home in a carriage together, drunkenly making out. Only the next day does the disguise get unraveled!

 In Madame Behave, advertised as “a cousin to Charley’s Aunt,” The famous female impersonator Julian Eltinge reprises one of his celebrated Broadway roles. A wacky comedy of errors in which Eltinge’s character must cross-dress to keep his uncle out of jail, while two men fight for his affection.