Scott Thorsen is a film set animal trainer. On meeting Bob Black in a gay bar he is then taken to a performance by Liberace. Black knows the flamboyant performer and so takes Scott to meet him backstage. Liberace is taken with Thorsen and employs him but they quickly become lovers with Thorsen then becoming part of Liberace’s stage show and moving in with him.

I was intrigued by Behind The Candelabra when it was released. Michael Douglas as Liberace would either be fantastic or utterly terrible. Fortunately, it’s the former with Douglas giving one of the best performances of his career but then the same could be said of Matt Damon, Rob Lowe (amazing as the reptilian cosmetic surgeon) and indeed, any of the cast.

But the thing I love most about the film is the fact that this isn’t some puff piece made about one of America’s most beloved performers. Instead, this is like some kind of Hollywood Babylon expose that contains many jaw-droppingly candid moments that Thorsen documented in his book. There were many sequences that quite literally made me exclaim ‘What the fuck?!’

The sequence in which Liberace and Scott take a trip to Lowe’s cosmetic surgeon is extraordinary and very telling. Lowe is instructed by Liberace to make adjustments to Scott’s face so that he will look more like him! Liberace is clearly intent on turning his new lover into his own mirror image. We also see Liberace have yet another facelift but this time with the unfortunate side-effect that the skin on his face is now so tight that it is impossible for him to fully close his eyes. It’s telling that Dorian Grey is name-checked in the film with the issue of eternal youth and fame playing a major part in proceedings. It also feels as though Liberace is almost like some kind of vampire with his much younger lovers giving him the youth that has eluded him decades before.

Ultimately, Scott realises that he is disposable and just as Liberace’s former beau was elbowed out by Scott, so Scott faces a similar fate with someone younger and less drug-addled than Scott at the end of his tenure in Liberace’s life.

Behind The Candelabra is outrageous. Wanna see Scott (dressed in a fur coat) vomiting in the backroom of a dirty bookstore whilst Liberace (also dressed in a fur coat) is being serviced by a patron through a glory hole? Wanna see Liberace explaining about the ‘implants’ that he’s had fitted in his cock that make him forever semi-erect? Wanna see Liberace and his lover arguing when Liberace wants to change sides and fuck him for a change when they’re in the sack?! Sure ya do!

Behind The Candelabra reminds me so much of Mommie Dearest. They’d make a great double bill. Cinema programmers, are you listening?!