The Flaming Urge (1953)
A pyromaniac tries to fight his obsession with fire. This movie uses the pyromaniac urge as an extraordinarily transparent metaphor for homosexuality.
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Simply A Masterpiece
As Good As It Gets
If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.
The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.
If there is a movie I won't recommend, it is "The Flaming Urge". No strong cast, flat direction, very strange and boring story of a young man running after the fires. It happens in a little town, and everything is so calm, it seems completely amateur, like a movie shot by friends. Now, the question is : what I am gonna do with that print as I won't recommend it to anybody? Burn it (Ah Ah ...)? Total loss of time.
My brother-in-law asked me to help him find a copy of this and I did. Turns out that the film-maker filmed a lot of the movie in my brother-in-law's grandmother's house!!! How odd is that to watch a movie that was shot in the house you spent your summers in as a kid!!!!!!!!!!
The Flaming Urge tells an unusual story but is moderately entertaining. The town it is set in is a slice of small town America, somewhat similar to the town of Mayfield in Leave It to Beaver; in other words, it is the perfect town, and one that doesn't exist in reality. The setting is upset by the arrival of a stranger, and soon fires break out all over town. This turns the story into a detective tale, and leads to a suprising ending.The film is worth watching for the portrayal of the townspeople, whose sources of entertainment seem to be limited to going to the beach and chasing firetrucks; this latter activity leads to some funny moments.Lots of black humor abounds.The Flaming Urge is pretty much a forgotten film today, but worth watching if you get the chance to see it.
This movie uses the pyromaniac urge as an extraordinarily transparent metaphor for homosexuality. While it's really not worth watching strictly on its merits as a film, as part of the history of hidden homosexuality and as an example of a "coded" film (easily translated), it's stupendous.