GusF
The first English language film to use the word "homosexual" in dialogue, this is an excellent social justice drama / thriller. The first rate script by Janet Green and John McCormick is a scathing indictment of Section 61 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and related legislation which criminalised homosexual acts between males in the UK. It was still in force at the time that the film was made. Such acts were finally decriminalised in England and Wales by virtue of the Sexual Offences Act 1967, though they remained a criminal offence in Scotland until 1980 and Northern Ireland until 1982. It is worth mentioning that the UK was far from unusual in this respect as, for instance, homosexuality was an offence in East Germany until 1968, West Germany until 1969 and the Republic of Ireland, where I'm from, until 1993. Returning to the matter at hand, the film was very progressive and groundbreaking for its time in its liberal and sympathetic attitudes towards homosexuality. While it may appear a little diffident by today's standards, such social issues films are best considered in the context of their time. The same is true of the very condescending reference to gay men as "little people" who are afraid to come forward and one or two other comments of this nature. The film is very well directed by Basil Dearden, who is able to maintain a high level of suspense throughout the proceedings.The film stars Dirk Bogarde in a characteristically wonderful performance as Melville Farr, an extremely successful London barrister who has been called to the silk at the young age of 40 and is expected to one day become a judge. However, Farr is a closeted gay man who is desperate to hide his sexuality as, even if he managed to avoid a prison sentence, the revelation would destroy him professionally. As such, he ignores the multiple attempts made by Jack "Boy" Barrett, with whom he previously shared a romantic relationship, to contact him. He had assumed that Barrett was attempting to blackmail him over their relationship, which was never consummated, but he discovers that Barrett was himself the victim of blackmail and was seeking his assistance. Farr is guilt stricken when he is informed that Barrett has committed suicide. Although she is aware that he had a dalliance with another young man named Phil Steiner in Cambridge, Farr's wife Laura, played very well by Sylvia Syms, is shocked to learn of his relationship with Barrett. The reason behind her astonishment is that she thought that she had been able to cure him through their marriage. Farr says at one point that he has attempted to deny his sexuality for most of his life. The clear implication is that he has never had sex with another man and perhaps even that he hoped that marriage would indeed cure him. Farr admits that his feelings for Barrett had more to do with lust than love and that he broke up with him after he realised that he "wanted him." He later tells Laura that he loves her deeply but I got the feeling that he may have trying to convince himself of that since there is no indication that he is bisexual. Bogarde is excellent at conveying the character's inner turmoil and there is always a real sense of conflict and tension in his performance.Although Bogarde was both a major box office draw and a brilliant actor (two things which do not always go together), the first choice was Jack Hawkins, who turned it down because it thought that playing such a role would damage his career. Since Bogarde was gay in real life, he had far more to lose than Hawkins but accepted it nonetheless. By this time, his sexuality had been an open secret in the British film industry for over a decade. After the release of "So Long at the Fair" in 1950, Rank intended to release a cover story that he was dating his co-star Jean Simmons but those plans were ruined when she married Stewart Granger. By all accounts, Bogarde was a shy and intensely private man so it is perhaps unsurprising that he never publicly came out. While it was a courageous decision on his part to make the film, it did damage his career as it ended all serious prospects of him having a major Hollywood film career. It has been suggested that he might have had more luck in the US if he had entered into a marriage of convenience with a woman, as Rock Hudson and Charles Laughton did.Charles Lloyd Pack is excellent in his small role as Henry, a gay barber and another victim of the blackmailers. He has been imprisoned four times over the years and does not have the strength to go through it again. He claims that nature played him a "dirty trick" but nevertheless says that homosexuality can't be cured, not least by putting people behind bars. Dennis Price is very good as the gay theatre actor Calloway, a thinly veiled version of Noël Coward which was probably obvious to everyone in 1961. It also features an appearance by Hilton Edwards, who founded the Gate Theatre in Dublin with his lover Micheál Mac Liammóir in the late 1920s. Their romantic relationship was a very open secret but no one really passed any remarks on them. They were actually very well liked. The film also features strong performances from Nigel Stock, Norman Bird, Anthony Nicholls, Derren Nesbitt, John Barrie and John Cairney. John McEnery, who plays Barrett, is certainly the weakest link but he does not have a huge amount of screen time.Overall, this is an extremely effective social justice film which is serves as a powerful statement against homophobia in whatever form that it might take.
Prismark10
Victim had to tread a fine line between being an earnest issue based movie and a gripping thriller where a barrister's life is spiralling out of control because of his homosexual past.Victim is a snapshot of its time. This is evident in the scenes of the building site where London was going through post war regeneration and scenes of a plush car showroom in the middle of town which is rather a rare sight these days.Victim is also marks a society where homosexuality is illegal. The film-makers took a brave stance in making a sympathetic campaigning stance on the liberalisation of the ban on homosexuality and Dirk Bogarde who stars as Melville Farr, the wealthy upwardly mobile barrister was a someone regarded as a matinée idol and a hit with the ladies. Bogarde was one of the several actors taking a risk in making this film. Given that Bogarde himself was later reputed to be gay only heightened the risk to his professional career.Farr is going far in the world. He is married and taking silk and a place in the judiciary is not far behind. However he had a 'liaison' in his student days which had a tragic outcome. Farr also had a friendship with a construction worker who stole funds because he was being blackmailed for being gay and later dies.This event spurs Farr on to pursue the blackmailers even if this puts his personal and professional life in jeopardy.The film comes close on being preachy on a few occasions but that is expected for a bold, campaigning film of the time but it works well as a decent thriller with a few twists towards the end. It depicts the gay community as a disparate group from wealthy to the working class, old to young. You see a few hanging around a pub, regarded as a gay pub yet the publican has a loathing of homosexuals. In contrast the police inspector has a rather liberal attitude noting that the ban on homosexuality was a blackmailer's charter.Homosexuality was decriminalised in 1967 but that was not the end of the story but a beginning of a chapter which would take another five decades before their would be almost full equality. Until then there was Mrs Thatcher's attack with Section 28 and some police chiefs who thought it was more important for undercover police officers to hang around toilets and entrap gay men than go out catching burglars and drug dealers.
ha-rob
Looking at this film from today's perspective it looks very tame, the story is a group of gay men from different social economic groups being blackmailed, but this film was made in 1961 6 years before the 1967 Sexual Offences Act which decriminalised sex acts between men over the age of 21 in private, the film was made during the period which became known as the British new wave when British films wanted to become more realistic and challenge the accepted view of society and the establishment but this was still a brave move at the time, the film treats the men sympathetically (who at the time would've been regarded as perverts and criminals) and argues (as much as it dares) for the law to be changed, Dirk Bogarde plays a successful barrister who decides to take on the blackmailers and let the chips fall where they may, knowing that that decision will destroy pretty much every aspect of his life, the film is well acted and very well made, i think because of its time and subject matter the film will always be very interesting as a period piece more so as time goes by, to think that less than 50 years ago there were laws like this and people were persecuted and prosecuted for their preferences is a disgrace and i think that's what most of todays audiences will think.
Arcturus1980
Being the first English language film to use the big bad word "homosexual," Victim was banned at first in the United States (cue the eye roll emoticon). The film intelligently takes on the absurdity of sodomy laws in '60s England and the blackmailing that was the worst of it by that time. Top marks to Dirk Bogarde who wouldn't be dissuaded from his compelling performance as the star of this picture.Not being one to denigrate the passage of meritorious ideas, I appreciate cinema, as I do literature, for its capacity to influence the collective mindset in positive ways. I have my egalitarian sensibilities to credit for the lofty perspective permeating this review.
