But I really cannot find anything in Vanessa beyond a lot of campy posturing that evades any dramatic point, set to pretty but terminally bland, vaguely expressive music. To me it represents everything most objectionable in 50s high-middlebrow culture, and particularly the pre-Stonewall closety gay male subculture; better the unpretentious humanity of an Anthony Mann western than this tastefully overblown kitsch.