The Boys in the Band

The Boys in the Band (1970) is an American drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by William Friedkin two years before The French Connection. The film brought Mart Crowley's landmark Broadway play to the screen with its original stage cast intact, including Kenneth Nelson, Leonard Frey and Cliff Gorman.

Everything happens inside a single Manhattan apartment over one birthday party. Michael has gathered a group of gay friends to celebrate Harold's birthday, and for a while it's sharp wit and easy laughter. Then the drinks keep coming, old wounds surface and Michael launches a cruel telephone game that forces everyone to say what they've been keeping to themselves. The night ends in a different place than it started.

In 1970 this was a genuinely daring film — one of the first Hollywood productions to portray gay men as complex people rather than punchlines or cautionary figures. The ensemble work is raw and precise. Stream The Boys in the Band (1970) online on iFILM.