In spite of graduating from that film school, working in theatre professionally for 35 years, working with and being friends with countless gay people, being propositioned by gay men, getting drunk in gay bars a lot 20 years ago, and watching plenty of films and plays where men had sex with other men (simulated and real)....... somehow I'm still not gay! I've only ever had intimate relationships with women and I'm just fine with that.
One of the primary reasons my program exists is so teens can be themselves around other people like them or people who are tolerant of them. We're very open with parents about this reality and if potential customers have the same fear as my Great-Uncle, no one's forcing them to enroll. Sometimes kids will play around w/ pronouns for a year or two, or identify as gay without actually dating anyone, and then eventually they arrive at a different identity or just settle into their original cishet life. Some of them remain heterosexual forever
which of course is also just fine.
THE RED MILL is the first feature-length film I've seen directed by Roscoe Arbuckle, working under the name "William Goodrich" during his official/nominal exile from the Hollywood spotlight. There's probably a good reason he stuck to making shorts for so long - maintaining hilarity for 75 minutes is tough. THE RED MILL is really more a romance w/ sporadic goofy comedy.
slaving away in rural Holland under the thumb of a sadistic master. There's a whole elaborate plot involving the arranged (by mail) engagement of Tina's wealthy Irish ex-boyfriend to her master's comically fugly daughter, who (sight unseen) the ex-boyfriend thinks is Tina 'cause she lied to him and told him she was rich and blah blah blah, hijinks ensue. All of it is just an excuse for Davies to look and act cute, which she does quite well. In THE PATSY Davies reminded me of Kirsten Dunst; here she's a redhead and looks more like Gillian Anderson or Tea Leoni.
The screenplay (credited to a female author) is far more pedestrian than the usual Arbuckle mayhem, but it does seem like he had some influence on the intertitles, and he creates one opportunity early on for Davies to perform some solo physical comedy in the kitchen that is really impressive and reminds one of the kind of stuff Lucille Ball would get up to on her show in the 50s. Davies was a far more capable actress than her legacy (painted alas by Orson Welles in CITIZEN KANE) would suggest.