Tab Hunter Confidential (2015) HD Movie

The story of matinee idol Tab Hunter from teenage stable boy to closeted Hollywood star of the 1950s.

Director:

Jeffrey Schwarz

Stars:

Clint Eastwood, Paul Newman, Portia de Rossi |

Storyline

In the 1950s, Tab Hunter is number one at the box office and number one on the music charts. He is Hollywood's most sought-after star and America's boy next door. Natalie Wood, Debbie Reynolds and Sophia Loren are just a few of the actresses he is romantically linked to. Nothing, it seems, can damage his skyrocketing career. Nothing, that is, except for the fact that Tab Hunter is secretly gay. Now, Tab Hunter's secret is out. In TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL we will meet, for the first time, the real Tab Hunter as he shares with us the whole story of a happy, healthy survivor of Hollywood's roller coaster.

Movie Details

Confidential, a new documtary by Jeffrey Schwarz — and featuring Tab Hunter, John Waters, Clint Eastwood, George Takei, Debbie Reynolds, Robert Wagner, Portia de Rossi, Noah Wyle, Connie Stevens, and Robert Osborne — the all-American heartthrob's star was in the rise, yet all the while he harbored a secret that could have derailed his film and televison career. 

A new documentary showing at SXSW charts the life and career of one of Hollywood’s first heartthrobs, Tab Hunter. Directed by Jeffrey Schwarz and featuring in-depth interviews with the actor, as well as Golden Era luminaries such as Clint Eastwood, George Takei, Debbie Reynolds, and Robert Wagner, this new film focuses on the difficulties Hunter faced being the All-American boy next door while harbouring a secret; living a closeted life as a gay man. As he has stated in a previous interview, this balancing act “was difficult for me, because I was living two lives at that time. A private life of my own, which I never discussed, never talked about to anyone. And then my Hollywood life, which was just trying to learn my craft and succeed…” Tab Hunter: Confidential (2015), based on his bestselling autobiography, is long overdue in terms of chronicling the actor’s early career and examining the devastation of being closeted during a time when men didn’t even have a definition of what it meant to be gay.

Also see my blog post, Top Ten Best Looking Actors from the Hollywood’s Golden Age, in which Tab Hunter appeared at number 10.

As the documentary Tab Hunter Confidential is set to premiere this month at the SXSW Film Festival, Vanityfair.com has been granted a look at a teaser reel, which you can watch above. In this slick, savvy, rollicking, and eye-popping film, Hunter, the former matinee heartthrob, aged 83, speaks with more frankness than ever before about the travails of being a closeted actor in Hollywood in the 1950s.
“Tab is much more comfortable in his own skin now talking about his private life,” insists producer Allan Glaser, Hunter’s partner and business associate for three decades, explaining how the film—six years in the making—picks up from where the actor’s 2005 memoir left off. “He was more guarded in his book because he never discussed his sexuality [publicly] before. But to hear him talk firsthand about his relationship with [actor] Tony Perkins and others is fascinating.” The documentary, by director Jeffrey Schwarz (I Am Divine), also presents contemporary interviews with are a parade of Hunter’s peers, including Clint Eastwood, John Waters, Debbie Reynolds, Lainie Kazan, Connie Stevens, Robert Wagner, and George Takei.
Tab Hunter Confidential is not only brave for its candor and enlightening for the social context it provides, it is also a delightful eyeful, using ingeniously edited vintage clips and employing rarely seen still photos in that lush, three-dimensional format pioneered in the film The Kid Stays in the Picture. Though Tab has anything but a light touch, employing some of the same tabloid conventions that it decries or spoofs, it wears its camp loosely, like a dazzling cape. The kid can’t help it.

Details

In the 1950s, Tab Hunter shot from stable boy to the biggest star in the Warner Brothers galaxy, with teen-heartthrob recording star tossed in for fun. He was the masculine ideal of the age: blond haired, blue-eyed, and heart-stoppingly gorgeous. Defined by his All American good looks and surrounded by a Hollywood and country that openly persecuted gays, Tab Hunter walked a tightrope through most of his career. And now it can be told. Get ready boys (and girls) for your dream date with Tab Hunter! With unaffected charm and grace, Tab (who still looks wonderful) tells the story he hasn't really wanted to tell. He candidly discusses his family, his personal demons, and yes, his secret Hollywood romances. Like the man, this film is a total class act. With a star-studded cast of guest commentators and enough glorious vintage film clips to satisfy any film fanatic, this witty and exuberant film tells it all with style to burn.