Victim (1961)
Directed by Basil Dearden

Film Review

Although it now appears dated and overly cautious, Victim was a hugely controversial film when it was released in the early 1960s.  Famously, it was the first British film ever to use the dreaded word "homosexual", and it also broke new ground in its sympathetic portrayal of gay men, avoiding the familiar stereotypes.  This was one of a number of films by director Basil Dearden and producer Michael Relph which explored the important social issues of the day.  More than anything, the film shows how much attitudes towards homosexuality have changed since the 1960s.

The motivation for Victim was to spread awareness of the injustice of a law that made criminals of gay men (not gay women - lesbianism has never been criminalised in Britain).  Not only did the law fuel intolerance, destroy lives and waste the valuable time of police and law courts, but it effectively provided a charter for blackmailers.  The film was a surprising commercial success and had a significant impact on public attitudes in Britain towards homosexuality, paving the way for the Wolfenden Report which would result in the decriminalisation of gay sex in 1967.

The sensitive nature of the film's subject caused some difficulties during its production - not everyone involved was sympathetic to what was being presented.  Several actors rejected the lead roles before Dirk Bogarde and Sylvia Sims agreed to appear in the film.  Bogarde himself was a closet homosexual, although he went to great lengths to conceal the fact.  (The sexual nature of his long-term relationship with his agent-manager Tony Forwood only became public knowledge several years after the actor's death.)  This was the first of a number of important films in Bogarde's later career in which he would play characters who were either overtly or suggestively gay - the most famous being Death in Venice (1971).

It is interesting that director Basil Dearden should choose to shoot the film in the style of an old-fashioned film noir, with moody high contrast black and white photography and some very effective use of lighting.  This striking noir look conveys a palpable sense of existentialist angst and emphasises the bleak nature of the world in which British gay men of the time lived, cold, loveless, solitary and full of hidden dangers.  Bogarde's intense yet masterfully restrained performance, one of his best, gives the film great poignancy and really does compel the spectator, whatever his or her views, to reflect on the morality of a law that condemns people to a life of fear, misery or imprisonment, on the basis of sexual orientation.

Film Synopsis

A successful middle-aged lawyer, Melvin Farr, does his best to avoid a series of phone calls from a desperate young man named Barrett.  A short time later, Barrett is picked up by the police and charged with stealing money from the construction company he worked for.  The police suspect Barrett is being blackmailed, but fail to extract the truth from him.  Hearing that Barrett has hanged himself in a police cell, Farr immediately realises the truth.  Some time ago, he and Barrett had had an intimate relationship.  Someone must have found out and started to blackmail the younger man.  Infuriated, Farr resolves to use his money and his influence to expose the blackmailers, even if it means jeopardising his marriage and his career...