In early 1960s London, barrister Melville Farr (Dirk Bogar) is on the path to succs. Wh his practice wng s and a lovg marriage to his wife (Sylvia Syms), Farr's reer and personal life are nearly idyllic. However, when blackmailers lk Farr to a young gay man (Peter McEnery), everythg Farr has worked for is threatened. As turns out, Farr is a closeted homosexual -- which is problematic, due to Bra's anti-sodomy laws. But stead of givg , Farr cis to fight.
Contents:
- VICTIM AT 60: THE HEARTBREAKG GAY DRAMA THAT PHED BOUNDARI
- VICTIM REVIEW – GROUNDBREAKG GAY THRILLER GIVEN TIMELY RERELEASE
- IS ‘VICTIM’ THE ORIGAL GAY THRILLER?
- GUNNSHOTS: TOP 10 GAY CRIME FILMS
VICTIM AT 60: THE HEARTBREAKG GAY DRAMA THAT PHED BOUNDARI
Dirk Bogar’s elegant, sensive portrayal of a man g to terms wh beg gay played a val role the partial crimalisatn of homosexualy * victim gay film *
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.
VICTIM REVIEW – GROUNDBREAKG GAY THRILLER GIVEN TIMELY RERELEASE
The groundbreakg film do somethg radil: treats a gay man as a sympathetic character. * victim gay film *
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. 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.
IS ‘VICTIM’ THE ORIGAL GAY THRILLER?
Decrimalisatn changed the way homosexualy and gay culture were portrayed on screen. * victim gay film *
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.
GUNNSHOTS: TOP 10 GAY CRIME FILMS
Wh his darg role Victim, the Brish star helped to change the gay narrative for ever * victim gay film *
)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.
* victim gay film *
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. The film has hts of Terence Rattigan and Patrick Haton, and I have long had the theory that the elliptil language of gay pickups an age of state-sanctned homophobia is somethg that spired Harold Pter’s language of enigmatic dm-tight drama has a uple of smart twists: s -wrer is Ja Green, who scripted Midnight Lace. The plot hg on anonymo blackmailers who llect regular payments om wealthy and famo gays, and on the cisn of a proment barrister to stand up to man is Melville Farr, who at the young age of 40 has jt been offered the opportuny to bee a Queen's Counselor.
The landmark 1961 blackmail thriller Victim trac a secretive gay London while also filmg some of the pal’s most exclive areas. More than 50 years later, how have s lotns fared? * victim gay film *
He only rais his voice two or three tim the movie, but we sense an unrcurrent of anger: He fds wrong that homosexualy is punished, wrong that gays nnot go to the police to pla of blackmail, wrong that hypocrisy flourish. To the almost unnvcgly wise and civilized Detective Inspector Harris (John Barrie), 's an open-and-shut se: Barrett has no money, lived simply, had stolen thoands om his employer, seemed gay, and therefore was a blackmail victim.
When iends, cludg mystery wrers, learned that I was pilg my list of the ten bt gay film mysteri, several exprsed surprise that I uld fd that many. * victim gay film *
To play a homosexual 1961 would brg an end, his agent warned him, to those kds of mastream rol, and make him unemployable Hollywood jt at the moment when Amerin directors were terted he went ahead anyway, jt as Melville Farr did, and ed never aga appeared as a nventnal male lead.