This film reminds me of the gay porn movies I saw in the early and mid-70s in Manhattan at such places as the Park Miller Theatre. In those pre-video, pre-DVD days--those early days of gay porn films--the films had a narrative line so that the exhibitors, if arrested for showing obscene films, could resist conviction claiming the films had "redeeming social value." Thus, those early gay porn films often focused on problems boys had with prison officials, school principals, other authority figures, etc. Inevitably, there came a moment in the plot when everyone got naked and had hard-core sex.
"The Singing Forest" has the same plot structure, the same poor production values of these early gay porn films, the same inept acting those porn "stars" provided, the same bad lighting, sets, and sound.
The story here focuses on Christopher Hayes, a columnist for a magazine or newspaper, who appears to have a major drinking problem. He hasn't seen his daughter, Destiny, since she graduated from college some years ago.
Time out here: Christopher "met" Destiny's mom, Savannah, when he raped her after following her as she walked home from the library! Savannah became pregnant with Destiny because of the rape. But she still married Christopher and, we're supposed to believe, lived happily with him and her daughter until her early death.
Now Destiny is about to marry Ben Ross, so Christopher is going to the wedding. He will be staying with the couple at their home before the nuptials.
Christopher believes that he is the reincarnation of a former self who was executed in 1933 by the Nazis. Back in that former life, Christopher was a gay man, whose lover, Alexander, was also executed.
When Christopher gets to his daughter's place, he immediately thinks that her fiancé, Ben Ross, is his former lover Alexander, reincarnated! The plot is a hoot from beginning to end and makes no sense. Just as in those early gay porn films, if a woman was present, she had to be off the scene most of the time. Here Destiny is always at work, so she is not home when drunken Ben returns from his bachelor party and falls into bed naked with Christopher, who is already in bed and naked. Of course, Christopher turns over and begins to make love to Ben. Now in the gay porn flicks of yesteryear, we would have seen the explicit footage. Here there's a fade out.
And the next morning we actually have that old dodge: Ben asking, "How did I get here in this bed? Why am I naked? I was so drunk I can't remember a thing." Ha! Not only does Ben have to be drunk to have homosex, he also has to be reincarnated, as does Christopher.
There are other opportunities for Christopher and Ben to be in bed naked while Destiny is at work (is that a pun?). We have unintentionally hilarious lines like Jon Sherrin as Christopher trying his best to be confused and hesitant at the same time as he mutters, "Uh--here I am--I can't believe it--in bed with my soon-to-be son-in-law." That sounds like a line Rock Hudson would have needed 35 takes to get right.
And Craig Pinkston as Ben can say, "I'm not some crazy ghost from your past. I'm from Des Moines." And you can imagine the many howlers that arise because of Destiny's name.
The director doesn't realize he's making a motion picture since virtually all of the scenes are static, showing the actors speaking dialogue such as no actual people would naturally say. The actors are sitting on the couch in the living room, at the kitchen table, on a bed, on the rocks by the sea--but they are sitting, not moving. The locations appear to be actual bedrooms, kitchens, and living rooms in low-rent apartments.
Although the film is listed as having a 93-minute running time, it actually runs just 62 minutes, followed by 7 minutes of slow-crawling credits. It just seems like--well, 93 hours.
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