Keith Deutsch:
> "Gunsel," for instance, used by Hammett in the
"Maltese Falcon" serialization in
> the 1929 issues of Black Mask, didn't mean a gunman.
It was slang for a
> homosexual, and Hammett used it to refer to Wilbur,
Gutman's "boy" bodyguard.
Anyone knows when this homosexual connotation
disappeared?
"Gunsel" is used in Huston's movie version, and I find it
hard to believe that anyone could be that explicit in the
movies in 1941.
When I saw the movie some time ago the Swedish subtitles
translated "gunsel" by the homosexual meaning, and I figured
then the translator had made an error (the translation was
otherwise pretty bad, so it was reasonable assumption). It
was a *very* odd experience to see Bogie use a word meaning
appr. "faggot" or "queer"...
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