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The picture marked Mart Crowley’s feature film screenwriting debut. His play, upon which the film was based, debuted at an off-Broadway theater on 14 Apr 1968. By 1 May 1968, that day’s LAT announced the stage production was a “smash hit”; German rights had been sold to Peter Witt; a production in Paris, France, was under discussion; and Crowley was asking $500,000 for screen rights. According to the 12 May 1968 NYT, Crowley had written the play over the course of five weeks in 1967, while babysitting actress Diana Lynn’s children in Beverly Hills, CA.
       Crowley was determined that Robert Moore, who directed the play and had collaborated with him on edits and rewrites, stay on to direct the film. He also wanted to adapt the screenplay, himself, and hoped that director of photography Boris Kaufman could be hired to shoot the film. The playwright reportedly turned down “lucrative offers from several studios” that did not meet his requirements, the 3 Jul 1969 LAT noted, and Kirk Douglas was named in the 12 May 1968 NYT as one of those who had expressed interest in making a film of the play.
       Six weeks after The Boys in the Band play opened, the 29 May 1968 NYT announced that Cinema Center Films, the motion picture production arm of C.B.S. Films, had acquired screen rights for a reported $250,000 “plus a percentage of the movie’s profits.” The 13 Jul 1969 NYT echoed that number, stating that Crowley would be paid $250,000 and ten percent of gross profits. An article in the 4 Aug 1968 LAT noted that Cinema Center had “conceded to [Crowley’s] every demand,” and listed the purchase price as $350,000 plus ten percent of the gross.
       The film marked executive producer Dominick Dunne’s first theatrical motion picture venture. According to the 27 Nov 1968 Var, Dunne took a leave of absence from his vice president post at Four Star International, a television production company, to work on The Boys in the Band.
       The 27 Jan 1969 DV stated that principal photography would take place in and around New York City in late spring 1969, and the film would be directed by William Friedkin. Friedkin replaced Moore, who left the project over a rumored salary dispute, and instead agreed to act in Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon (1970, see entry), as noted in the 3 Jul 1969 LAT and 13 Jul 1969 NYT. As part of the agreement with Crowley, the nine original cast members from the stage production were brought on to reprise their roles, although an article in the 13 Aug 1969 Var indicated that Friedkin would have preferred to re-cast with film actors.
       Three weeks of rehearsals preceded the shoot, which was underway as of 5 Jun 1969, when NYT reported that filming locations included LaGuardia Airport, the Sherry Netherland Hotel, a Doubleday bookstore on 5th Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman’s department store, and Bryant Park. An exterior scene was also shot on West 42nd Street. According to the 13 Jul 1969 NYT, some interiors were shot at Chelsea Studios on 26th Street. As of 30 Sep 1969, principal photography was still underway, the 28 Oct 1969 DV noted.
       Crowley’s screenplay adhered closely to his original work, with the exception of an introductory sequence showing the main characters going about their lives in New York City, including a scene of “Bernard” at Doubleday bookstore; “Emory” hailing a taxicab; and “Hank” playing basketball at the 23rd street Y.M.C.A.
       The 12 Jun 1969 LAT listed fashion models Maude Adams and Gail Strickland as cast members, and the 18 Jul 1969 LAT noted that Steve Deming would appear in the film.
       The Boys in the Band’s portrayal of homosexuality received criticism as the play continued its run in New York City and expanded across the country and overseas. Crowley acknowledged in the 13 Jul 1969 NYT that he had received flak for portraying the main characters as sad and downtrodden. However, he insisted his story was about self-destruction inherent in a faction of people who are “shunted aside and considered freaks by society.” He was quoted as saying, “I hope there are happy homosexuals – they just don’t happen to be at this party.” The play, and subsequent film, also drew criticism for its harsh language. In what the 17 Feb 1970 DV referred to as a “landmark decision,” the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) awarded the picture with an R rating instead of an X, despite “a great deal of normally X-rated dialog.” MPAA administrator Eugene Dougherty called the film “a dead-serious social document” but acknowledged that the rating set a potentially controversial precedent for future films with similar language. In a 7 Jun 1970 LAT editorial, film critic Charles Champlin expressed concern over the increasing tolerance of obscene language and “sexual frankness” in motion pictures, and cited The Boys in the Band as an example of what he considered a problematic trend.
       As announced in the 6 Aug 1969 LAT, National General Pictures planned to release the film at select engagements in Mar and Apr 1970, with a general release to follow in Jun 1970. Friedkin had reportedly lobbied the distributor for a Los Angeles, CA, opening in late 1969 so the film would qualify for Academy Award consideration, but the 13 Aug 1969 Var noted that National General refused the request.
       A premiere was set for 26 Mar 1970 at the newly built National Theater in Westwood, CA, according to the 9 Mar 1970 LAT. Members of the Gay Liberation Front, who considered the play to be “old-fashioned sexualism,” picketed the Westwood premiere, as reported in a 27 Mar 1970 DV item.
       Critical reception was mixed. The 16 Mar 1970 DV praised Friedkin’s “cinematic flow and staging” but criticized the script as too close to the original play, and suggested that Cinema Center had been too indulgent of Crowley, while the 18 Mar 1970 NYT review echoed some of the protestors’ complaints by stating that the picture was reminiscent of Broadway plays from the late 1930s and early 1940s, with portrayals of homosexuals that hearkened back to that era. Meanwhile, the 29 Mar 1970 LAT deemed the picture “historic” if flawed, and stated that “the joys and sorrows of adult male homosexuals in full cry have never… been treated so unreservedly and unevasively in a movie aimed for a commercial rather than a cultist market.” The May 1970 Vogue review deemed the picture “even better than the play” and credited it with clearing a path for future films about homosexuals. Actor Kenneth Nelson received a Golden Globe Award nomination for New Star of the Year – Actor.
       According to an item in the 31 Mar 1970 DV, the film grossed a “torrid $35,000” in its opening week at the National in Westwood. In a 19 Aug 1970 box-office chart, Var listed the film’s cumulative earnings at six theaters as $2,976,129. The Boys in the Band was still in release as of 10 May 1972, when a Var box-office chart listed the gross in select markets as $3,253,880, to date.
       The film was initially banned in Italy due to obscene language, according to the 8 Oct 1970 DV. However, a news brief in the 11 Nov 1970 Var indicated that it had premiered the previous week in Milan, Italy, “before a ‘ladies only’ promo audience.” No edits had been made, but some dialogue had been re-recorded.
       In 2011, Mart Crowley’s play and the 1970 film adaptation was the subject of a documentary by Crayton Robey, titled Making the Boys (see entry).

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