Youthful American men were the centerpiece of a very important marketing strategy in 1950s television and cinema: The more they sigh, the more they buy. Enter Arthur Gelien, aka Tab Hunter, and his story as Hollywood's “Sigh Guy” in Tab Hunter Confidential, which documents his life from humble beginnings to superstardom to apathetic separation to ultimate happiness, all the while accepting his homosexuality in the undercurrents of a very successful Hollywood career.

Let's recognize that you could not be openly gay in the 1950s, let alone be gay and also a dreamboat teen idol. That being said, the documentary explores just how Tab was able to have his cake and eat it too, and doesn't answer the more intriguing question of a celebrity's self-image in a culture that demands details of their everyday lives. The closest thing to an answer is in the story of Tab and his then appointed girlfriend Natalie Wood going to a club together, getting photographed dancing, then leaving out the back door where she would leave with Dennis Hopper while he went to rendezvous with Tony Perkins.

When watching a documentary in the talking-head tradition, the most important question is the reliability of the heads themselves. The subject must be present, but not the overpowering voice, otherwise there's a perception of bias that skews the story we receive. Tab Hunter Confidential exhausts its Tab Hunter screen time. It is less a documentary and more a conversation with a man after a long, mostly successful life.

It's insipid, it's banal, it's Ken Burns sans encyclopedia—but it's something, and if you would like to sit down and have a cup of coffee for 90 minutes with a former Hollywood teen idol, I invite you to this portrait of a man, as mostly narrated by the man. recommended