Colorful costumes, drag queens, and bloodletting: Brazilian gangster film ‘The Devil Queen’ gets 4k restoration
The 1974 queer Brazilian gangster film, “The Devil Queen,” is getting a 4K restoration and re-release, and this fantastic film is well worth seeing on the big screen. This remarkable — and remarkably sleazy — film, directed and cowritten by Antonio Carlos da Fontoura, is tremendous fun. It features drag queens and bloodletting in equal … Read More
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The 1974 queer Brazilian gangster film, “The Devil Queen,” is getting a 4K restoration and re-release, and this fantastic film is well worth seeing on the big screen. This remarkable — and remarkably sleazy — film, directed and cowritten by Antonio Carlos da Fontoura, is tremendous fun. It features drag queens and bloodletting in equal measure.
The Devil Queen (Milton Gonçalves) is a drug dealing criminal mastermind who has a coterie of gang members with names like Little Limp, Velvet, and Mean Chap. He is first seen lying on a bed shaving his legs with a straight razor. While his current lover attends to clipping the Devil’s toenails, Devil upbraids his team for getting the police interested in Robertinho (Edgar Gurgel Aranha). He even uses his blade to threaten one man — because the Devil is as tough as he is feminine. Willing to do anything to keep the adorable Robertinho out of jail, the Devil hatches a plan to find a culprit they can give up to the cops instead.
Catitu (Nelson Xavier) finds the perfect patsy in Bereco (Stepan Nercessian), a handsome young man he seduces (not sexually, although there is plenty of sexual tension between them) to do crime. Bereco is involved with Isa (Odete Lara, the director’s ex-wife), a singer at the Beloved Woman’s Milk nightclub.
Bereco and Catitu go on a crime spree, robbing gas stations and stores, but then Catitu asks, “How come guys like us work for a fag?” Catitu plots to overthrow the Devil Queen to be King of the dope, and he slowly convinces the Devil’s gangsters to join him.
It is not the only double cross in this delicious film, which generates tremendous fun as various twists and turns are revealed. Isa gets an idea to gain the upper hand in the drug dealing after Bereco leaves her hanging when the cops turn up in one scene. Another character also attempts to take over the underworld, but such schemes may backfire. Even when the Devil and Bereco eventually meet, it begs the question: Will the Devil kiss or kill this pretty boy he wants to frame?
“The Devil Queen” is certainly pulpy in its plotting, and several of the violent sequences are gleefully over the top. (There is some obvious fake blood in one murder.) The nastiest episode, however, features the Devil, surrounded by his drag queens, torturing a character in a hair salon. He burns his victim with his cigarette before moving on to using a heated curling iron as screams fill the soundtrack. It can be hard to watch.
Yet the film should be appreciated for its colorful costumes. Catitu sports tight white pants that leave little to the imagination. He also dons a polka-dotted shirt with plaid trousers in a scene that will have viewers admiring his high style. Bereco dresses in paisley shirts — when he bothers to wear a shirt. Isa, too, looks incredible in a green wig and a sparkling dress. The drag queens are equally fabulous, especially during a party sequence where they try to cheer up the Devil, who is depressed the folks are coming after him and his drug business.
The performances also play to the film’s heightened tone, with Milton Gonçalves making the Devil a character to root for even as he draws blood to make the point he is not to be crossed. (One uncomfortable scene has him slashing a character’s face to teach them a lesson.) As Catitu, Nelson Xavier is a peacock whose ambitions may just get the best of him. Xavier is always pulling attention on screen, and he alternates from being seductive to sinister as it best suits his needs. Stepan Nercessian displays the appropriate guile as Bereco and is always fun to watch. Rounding out the main cast, Odete Lara is scene-stealing in her role as Isa. She plays up the melodrama in the film’s first half, getting better and better as she shifts into femme fatale mode. Watching her perform a song in the nightclub is one of the film’s many highlights.
That “The Devil Queen” has an empowered gay gangster at its center feels ahead of its time, which may be the best reason to see the film now. For genre fans, it should not be missed.
“The Devil Queen” | Directed by Antonio Carlos da Fontoura | Opening June 19 at the Alamo Lower Manhattan | Distributed by Kino Lorber
