Victim (1961)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Victim (1961) – B. Dearden

Homosexuality was illegal in the UK until 1967.  So, Basil Dearden’s sympathetic thriller about the problem of blackmail was clearly designed to promote social change.  Dirk Bogarde, until then a romantic leading man, took a big risk in tackling the complex role of a barrister who decides to fight the blackmailers (because he too is gay although possibly not acting on his desires).  The fact that the Bogarde character frankly expresses his desires and that the filmmakers do not shame him, nor any of the other gay characters, made the film controversial --for this was too shocking for many at the time.  And although the film soft-pedals the type of stigma that gay men still experience (no physical violence here, apart from a shop being smashed up), the impacts of the stigma on the men affected is painfully clear.  Dearden wisely utilises the structure of the thriller (rather than the social problem film) to engage viewers that might otherwise turn away from more didactic fare – and the film is engaging, building suspense from the very start when we meet a character on the run for some unknown reason.  Both the police and Bogarde realize that blackmail is underfoot but it takes some time to identify and capture the perpetrators.  In the end, Bogarde must decide whether to risk his marriage, his successful career, and his very well-being in order to expose the blackmailers and the law as morally bankrupt.  A brave and important film.