125 Rooms of Comfort

1974 Canadian film September 2025 125 Rooms of Comfort 125_rooms_of_comfort.png Patrick Loubert Don Haig Patrick LoubertVictor Coleman Tim HenryJackie BurroughsRobert A. Silverman Henri Filks Thomas Berner Canadian Film Development Corporation 1974 11 7 81 minutes Canada English 125 Rooms of Comfort is a 1974 Canadian drama film directed by Patrick Loubert. The movie stars Tim Henry, Jackie Burroughs, Robert A. Silverman and Les Barker. The film premiered at the Canada Filmexpo in November 1974. Plot The film is about a run down hotel in St. Thomas, Ontario, which is the location for a stag party, which features a stand-up comedy act by a washed up comedian. The hotel is also subject to being sold to a greedy buyer, Oscar Kidd, from the United States. When his father's will leaves him possession of the hotel, Billie Joyce, a gay former musician who has been involuntarily institutionalized in a psychiatric institutions by his family since showing up to his father's funeral in drag, refuses to acquiesce to the sale. The films climax results in Billie being discovered in drag by some drunken hotel guests, who insult him by calling him a faggot, and proceed to beat him to death and leave him in the alley behind the hotel. Kidd revels in his death, because now the sale of the hotel can proceed without further interference. Cast Tim Henry as Billie Joyce Jackie Burroughs as Bobbie Kidd Robert Warner as Jim McKeagan Robert A. Silverman as Oscar Kidd Les Barker as Leo Basho Sean Sullivan as Jack Michael Lewis as Pete Jackie Crossland as Marge Marcia Diamond as Doris Russ Little as Announcer Leonard Glenn as Byron Joyce Bob Vinci as Couple in Bed Enza Vinci as Couple in Bed Background and production The film was shot in location in St. Thomas, Ontario. The movie's title refers to the Grand Central Hotel in St. Thomas. Earlier working titles for the movie included "Johnny Canuck" and "The Adventures of Johnny Canuck", which refers to a Canadian comic book hero of the 1940s with whom the nightclub comedian in the film identifies with. It was also the first film that Don Haig produced. According to the director, Patrick Loubert, the character named Billie, is based on a real life "queen character" the filmmakers knew, and was offered a screen test, but "seemed too unstable to count on for the project." Canadian film critic Thomas Waugh observed that the film only had one or two screenings, and then faded into oblivion. He said that the films failure can be attributed to the Canadian Film Development Corporations interference, who were constantly removing the sex and violence scenes from the script. However, Loubert and Haig were able to restore some of them, including the queer-bashing scene. Robert Fothergill argued in Cinema Canada that the Canadian Film Development Corporation was "justified in demanding re-writes, and should be condemned not for deflowering the original script, but for failing to insist upon its further development." Critical response Cinema Canada wrote that "we simply are not made to care about the characters, so that what happens to them is never a matter of great concern to the viewer; the two separate stories of the comic and the co-owner never do come together satisfactorily; it seems that the makers of this film attempted too much; ambition should be made of sterner stuff." Critic Noel Taylor wrote that the film is "not the kind of movie to go raising roof beams about; it's a small film about small people and it is very modestly Canadian, which is about as complimentary as one can get about it." Film critic Gerald Pratley wrote "the owner dies and the manager wants to sell it, but the son refuses, this causes upsets both serious and amusing that keep this likeable little film moving along among the mixed collection of guests." Awards The film was a nominee for Best Feature Film at the 26th Canadian Film Awards in 1975, but did not win. See also Canada Film LGBTQ Cinema of Canada List of Canadian films of 1974 List of LGBTQ-related films of 1974 References Waugh Thomas Thomas Waugh Romance of Transgression in Canada: Queering Sexualities, Nations, Cinemas Movers and Shakers McGill-Queen's Press 2006 978-0-7735-7680-3 https://books.google.com/books?id=pbhsPYZvY58C&pg=PA426 426–427 Lerner Loren R. Canadian Film and Video: A Bibliography and Guide to the Literature Filmmakers and Video Artists University of Toronto Press Toronto 1997 978-0-8020-2988-1 https://books.google.com/books?id=OwwjSEJSMHQC&pg=PA1164 1164 Mansbridge Francis Fothergirll Robert Filmexpo; Film Reviews Cinema Canada March–April 1975 2 18 28, 58 https://archive.org/details/cinema-canada-1975-03/mode/2up Wise Wyndham Take One's Essential Guide to Canadian Film University of Toronto Press Toronto 2001 978-1-4426-5620-8 https://books.google.com/books?id=oveMBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA94 94 Pratley Gerald Gerald Pratley A Century of Canadian Cinema Lynx Images Toronto 2003 1-894073-21-5 161 Knelman Martin Competing as Canada's best https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-globe-and-mail-competing-as-canadas/181291030/ The Globe and Mail October 9, 1975 13 Taylor Noel 125 Rooms: A Slim Film, Modestly Canadian https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ottawa-citizen-125-rooms/181291584/ The Ottawa Citizen November 9, 1974 82 External links 0177472 Category:1974 films Category:1974 comedy-drama films Category:1974 LGBTQ-related films Category:Canadian comedy-drama films Category:English-language Canadian films Category:Films set in hotels Category:Films shot in Ontario Category:Gay-related comedy-drama films Category:Films set in Ontario Category:1974 English-language films Category:1974 Canadian films Category:English-language comedy-drama films Category:Canadian drag (entertainment)-related films Category:Canadian gay-related films