Peter McEnery on Victim: 'I got a lot of letters om the gay muny sayg: We all thank you’ | Film | The Guardian

Contents:

• VICTIM AT 60: THE HEARTBREAKG GAY DRAMA THAT PHED BOUNDARI
• GAY HISTORY – MARCH 28, 1921: #BOTD ACTOR DIRK BOGAR
• DIRK BOGAR AND THE MOVIE THAT BROKE GAY TABOOS
• WHAT ONE ACTOR DID FOR GAY RIGHTS BRA
• VICTIM REVIEW – GROUNDBREAKG GAY THRILLER GIVEN TIMELY RERELEASE
• PETER MCENERY ON VICTIM: 'I GOT A LOT OF LETTERS OM THE GAY MUNY SAYG: WE ALL THANK YOU’

VICTIM AT 60: THE HEARTBREAKG GAY DRAMA THAT PHED BOUNDARI

Then, 1961 wh his ntract at Rank g to an end, Bogar took the role of barrister Melville Farr Basil Dearn's Victim, a black-and-whe thriller about gay men beg blackmailed unr threat of exposure and jail time, which was ma six years before the Sexual Offenc Act crimalised "homosexual acts private between nsentg adults" the UK. But by that time, he'd said, 'Come on, I jt want to make the work I want to make' – John ColdstreamThe obv danger was that Bogar was gay and livg wh his partner Anthony 'Tote' Forwood, as he would until Forwood died 1988. Victim was the first Brish film to e the word "homosexual", and played a role helpg the 1967 Sexual Offenc Act through s 10-year gtatn perd.

Prs baron Lord Beaverbrook, owner of The Daily Exprs, Sunday Exprs, Eveng Standard and The Sttish Daily Exprs, all but banned the mentn of homosexualy his tl, pecially a sympathetic ntext.

Bogar's 1961 film Victim was the first Brish productn to e the word "homosexual" (Cred: Alamy)He wasn't terted Hollywood and perhaps Hollywood wasn't terted him, although he dabbled, starrg oppose Ava Gardner 1960 war drama The Angel Wore Red.

GAY HISTORY – MARCH 28, 1921: #BOTD ACTOR DIRK BOGAR

Released to a world where sex between adult men the Uned Kgdom was a heavily policed crime, is the first Brish film to e the word homosexual si a narrative that thoughtfully and unsensatnally ptur the cumulative daily strs and adly effects of the law. Unr the guise of a thriller, Victim addrs how the crimalisatn of homosexualy ma gay men, as a character says, the victims of “any cheap thug who fds out about our natural stcts. Dearn’s film is shaped by outrage, which ught the public imagatn – Victim has been ced as one trigger for the Sexual Offenc Act, which eventually crimalised homosexualy Bra 1967.

In his later years, Bogar published several btsellg volum of memoir – throughout this refully nstcted rerd of his life there was no mentn of homosexualy. In 1961 his reer took a different turn when he starred Victim, one of the first films to al wh the qutn of homosexualy, which has been creded wh helpg prepare the way for the crimalisatn of homosexualy 1967.

DIRK BOGAR AND THE MOVIE THAT BROKE GAY TABOOS

Dirk Bogar is generally nsired to have been gay, although he nied durg his lifetime (gay sex was agast the law for much of his actg reer). It’s not a slur, or a profany, but was enough to make dienc wce and censors bristle: 1961, the simple word “homosexual” was more dangero than an idle swear.

Dearn and his llaborators would have been horrified by the accatn, havg 1961 ma a film that was a new benchmark s acceptance and unrstandg of gay characters.

WHAT ONE ACTOR DID FOR GAY RIGHTS BRA

But my lleague wasn’t entirely wrong, eher: Victim is perhaps most movg as a snapshot of how far the mid-century gay man had (or hadn’t) e acceptg himself, amid a surfe of laws and popular disurse that st him, wh varyg gre of passn, as an aberratn of nature. As exprsns of allyship go, ’s on the tepid si – homosexualy is amed throughout Victim as an abnormaly, a setback, an unfortunate ndn to be managed, though as long as was still illegal (for another six years) unr the Sexual Offenc Act, the filmmakers would have been hard prsed to prent any other way a mastream entertament. “Nature played me a dirty trick, ” plas one gay sendary character the film; Victim dar to exprs sympathy for this pot of view, though keeps s disagreement ’s certaly as chaste a boundary-breakg film about cency as has ever been ma: the “sex” bracketed the troublome word “homosexualy” is as far as gets acknowledgg physil terurse between men.

Dirk Bogar’s protagonist Melville Farr, a high-climbg London barrister, is prented as a gay man who has never acted on his forbidn sir.

VICTIM REVIEW – GROUNDBREAKG GAY THRILLER GIVEN TIMELY RERELEASE

When he’s mbled a blackmail plot targetg an assortment of closeted gay men across the pal (begng, fatally, wh Boy Barrett, played by Peter McEnery, the young object of Farr’s affectn) the smokg gun isn’t pecially salac: the blackmailers are posssn of a ndid snap of a fully clothed Farr nsolg a cryg, fully clothed photograph is tenr, not explic; as one lawyer pots out, if the younger man wasn’t weepg, there’d be nothg crimatg about at all, which tells you everythg about the climate of macho paranoia which the film was ma. While today, the emphasis on love over sex queer-rights disurse is often a sanisg measure, lculated to meet straight sceptics at their emotnal level, Victim ’s an addnal provotn, a suggtn that homosexualy ns eper than the thrill of the illic – and th a more piercg threat to the social norms that a wherg law was only barely holdg the rpects, Victim is a film plaly ma for a straight dience, patiently pleadg for them to open their mds even if means slightly patronisg s gay characters (and potential viewers) the procs.

A straight male dience at that, I should add: what’s perhaps most dated about Victim today isn’t s cintal homophobia but s poted misogyny, as practilly every female character (bis Syms’ wronged, simperg wife and Mavis Villiers’ haggish barfly) is a mouthpiece for society’s most vicly gay-hatg views. Lra’s reward for standg by her man, meanwhile, is the promise of ntued, sexls pannship: perhaps wh the censors’ sensibili, Victim’s noirish plot of fightg crimal homophobia bends self to a pretzel so as to end on a scene of a man (a gay one, but no matter) clarg his undyg need for his wife.

)The are the tuive, near-visible signals that even the most gifted straight actors often fail to perform when st queer rol: one scene between Bogar and the allegedly bisexual Dennis Price, as another targeted gay man, posively fizz wh mutual regnn and sparrg empathy. It’s as a showse of clive, game-regnise-game gay performance that Victim might be most endurgly, exhilaratgly h and unual – even if the film, and s brilliant star, uldn’t claim as much at the time. Wh secrecy and the fear of disvery still engulfg gay actors 2011, is any wonr that the reer – and life – of the entirely closeted Dirk Bogar was a nundm and a ntradictn?

PETER MCENERY ON VICTIM: 'I GOT A LOT OF LETTERS OM THE GAY MUNY SAYG: WE ALL THANK YOU’

The great irony of Bogar's posn, however, is that no other screen actor has given such affectg and extraordarily powerful gay now, the dtry regards playg gay as beg potentially reer-damagg, an act so "brave" that your Osr virtually wh the ntract – step forward William Hurt for Kiss of the Spirwoman (1985), Tom Hanks for Philalphia (1993), Philip Seymour Hoffman for Capote (2005), Sean Penn for Milk (2008). Regardls of the thenticy – or lack thereof – of those performanc by straight actors, they pale bi the still astonishg impact of Bogar's shockgly tthful performance back 1961 as a barrister embroiled a secret gay affair Victim.