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MGM’s star-studded, loosely biographical musical of garish proportions CALAMITY JANE is David Butler’s Trojan Horse: a star-studded spectacle sprinkled with surface distractions in which unapologetic queerness thrives amongst flamboyant costumery and dazzling dance numbers. Its sybaritic excess only further perpetuates its running undertones, permitted by way of a razor thin and largely loveless union that finds Jane in the arms of her longtime friend. It’s a flimsy but necessary shield, put in place to permit and excuse a bountiful bevy of sapphic intimations. Any chance at subtlety is immediately vanquished as soon as Day leaps onto screen donning dirty menswear. She gleefully introduces the town, chipper as a fiddle to showcase the seedy little town bar she frequents alongside her male buddies. Women are scant in Deadwood, and the ones around are far too mature and maternal to woo the sex-starved patrons.
Jane is one of the guys and proud of it, reveling in her masculinity and parading it whenever possible. She grows oddly jealous as the saloon men start chattering about Adelaid Adams, a risque songstress whose likeness adorns a tobacco card over which they slobber. Jane, threatened, expresses resentment — the story tries its best to attribute blame to the wandering eye of a supposed love interest, but it is Adams that Jane is hung up on more than a man. When a hopeful recruit by the name of Frances turns out to be a man and not a woman, Jane resolves to journey to Chicago and bring back Adams herself!
Instead, she returns with Adams’ assistant, a young brunette by the name of Katie who harbors stage ambitions of her own. Katie tries unsuccessfully to feign Adams’ act and is booed, but a vehement Jane comes to her defense. Even having been deceived, Jane is sweetly sympathetic to Katie and encourages her to perform it in her own way. In doing so, Katie becomes a roaring success and subsequently fond and protective of Jane. The two women then decide to cohabit in Jane’s cottage, which Katie helps to feminize in a very suggestive song number concerning domestic bliss. With Katie’s help, Jane is able to appear feminine and soft, yet it’s worth noting she only feels comfortable in such garb when in Katie’s presence. Without her present, Jane is a fish out of water –stiff, awkward, slightly too rowdy in movement and gesture to truly pass for a proper lady.
The two male romantic interests (Keel as Bill Hickok and Carey as the Lieutenant) gamble in hopes to take Katie to the ball — naturally, neither one wants Jane. But Katie and the Lieutenant end up going and sharing a kiss, which sends Jane into a blinding and destructive rage. The lack of chemistry coupled with all the other subtextual clues recontextualize it to really capture the maelstrom within Jane’s mind in regards to her sexuality. We already know that she has never displayed chemistry with men, despite her preoccupation with the Lieutenant — who serves as a displacement buffer for her own compulsory heterosexuality, when it is more than evident that her dismay stems from losing Katie. Little does she know that Katie herself resisted advances from the Lieutenant because of her affection for Jane. Suddenly, this light-hearted musical has lapsed into a mess of melodrama, culminating when Jane orders Katie to leave, which she inevitably does.
Jane’s internal dissonance is ultimately the very thing that liberates her repressed desire. After learning that Katie has left, Jane embarks with a desperate frenzy in an attempt to catch her before she reaches the station. Ultimately she is successful, and the two women share an intimate and physical reunion within the confines of the carriage in private confidence. The lust and longing seemingly leaps off the screen with electric vigor — and yet it cannot last and persevere in 1953 America. I savor the moment as I do a fine wine, letting it settle for a moment to savor its every facet before it finally sinks in. To me, that is the true ending of CALAMITY JANE: her reconciliation with Hickok is a farce, a setup solely arranged so that she can entertain her desire for Katie in total security, conforming to law in theory but not in desire.
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