Victim at 60: the heartbreakg gay drama that phed boundari | Drama films | The Guardian

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

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.

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.

VICTIM REVIEW – GROUNDBREAKG GAY THRILLER GIVEN TIMELY RERELEASE

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. 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.

IS ‘VICTIM’ THE ORIGAL GAY THRILLER?

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. 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.

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.

For that he has been cricized by some gay wrers and activists, but nsir: By acceptg what looked like reer suici to star "Victim, " wasn't he makg much the same cisn as his character Melville Farr -- to do the right thg, and accept the nsequenc? Straightforward, non-sensatnalized Brish film, an origal om screenwrers Ja Green and John McCormick, has a rg of blackmailers takg advantage of the laws prohibg homosexualy England and threateng to 'out' certa parti if they don't pay up; after one victim ms suici, a former iend--and married lawyer--cis to play tective and expose the blackmailers, at the risk of g his own reer and marriage. "Flower Dm Song" is featured on a marquee one of the spense is rried along betifully, you are never sure how is all gog to turn out, there are no easy solutns, there are some wonrful sub-plots, unexpected ltle surpris, like the childhood iend of a victim stnchly loyal agast his wife's homophobic hband and wife story is betifully picted and pletely non-formulaic.

GUNNSHOTS: TOP 10 GAY CRIME FILMS

Dirk Bogar giv an excellent performance as a powerful married barrister, secretly gay, who thks he himself is on the verge of beg while the film th has obv tnal benefs, is also que entertag, thanks to the plot ratnale, which revolv around tryg to gus who the blackmailer is. Henri-Gee Clouzot's "le rbe" (the raven, 1943) always to md when to slanro prcipal differenc between the French movie and Dearn's one is that the former, the raven was not a blackmailer, he was not for the money, but out of pure wickedns, and he would "punish" not the gay- was too soon- but the adulterer, the abortn and other ltle ss. )Consequently, the bt moments are to be found the first twenty mut:Peter MC Ennery (who would be Rasput's assass "j'ai tué Raspoute"(1967), and cince, this Yupov was also a gay)'s pe, rellg sometim Jam Mason's "odd man out", is breathtakg:alone a world gone hostile and threateng, his phone lls rema unanswered, and everybody turns his back on him:his buddy's girliend's attu is tellg, full of ntempt and scen between Dirk Bogar -I do not need to add to the praise he has already received- and his wife are also great moments of te Dearn foced on the hband/wife/young man, his film would have gaed strength.

Five years before Parliament repealed the sodomy laws Great Bra, unfortunately too late for the loni they had already let go the third world who still have vigoroly enforced sodomy laws on the books, Basil Dearn directed this ground breakg film Victim about a group of gay men beg rg starts to unravel when young Peter McEnery is ught embezzlg funds om his nstctn firm. Get ready for a shock when 's revealed how the three men f to the story The st are very good, more so when you nsir that most of the origal choic turned the rol bee of the movie's subject matter, but Dirk Bogar is nothg ls than superb and probably giv a reer bt performance as gay barrister Melville Farr though he do e across as perhaps a ltle too self righteo to be tly effective and perhaps if he me out to both his wife and firm earlier he uld have saved himself a lot of grief. It was, therefore, an astonishgly brave cisn to take on the role of Melville Farr, the closeted gay barrister who is willg to 'e out' orr to break a blackmailg rg Basil Dearn's pneerg thriller "Victim".

"Victim" broke new ground by makg the central theme and by makg the gay characters sympathetic, the victims of the tle, and by makg the law, (at least the form of John Barrie's vtigatg pper), sympathetic to their plight. This is not to say that homophobia is not a ncern now, bee still is, however there have been large stris forward for the acceptance and tolerance of homosexuals mastream film is an excellent historil snippet at a time of ntent laws as well as beg a fe piece of art.

) However, I wasn't nvced the thors fully agreed wh the straight characters who were sympathetilly nscendg, partly bee of the pas they took to create strong gay characters, and also bee of the glimmers the film offers of a better future. The handlg of a particular photo also supports this ia: is hidn for most of the story, and then turns out to nta a more poetic and sympathetic image than we'd viewers thk "Victim" is no longer socially relevant, but I disagree: not only are many parts of the world still very anti-homosexual, but the ia that homosexualy is a choice is current Ameri, and this movie is one of the few I've seen that explor what happens when someone tri to force himself to lead a "normal" life. I was thkg that orr to appreciate this film you had to put yourself back the time when homosexualy was agast the law England, sce we have now e such a long way om that time to where some elected officials are now openly gay.

Fortunately, 's unual for any law to be rponsible for creatg more crime than actually ters, but the legislatn that crimalised homosexual acts between men me to be seen as the "blackmailer's charter" and ed an credible amount of human misery before crimalisatn 1967 eventually removed the timidatn and fear that so many Brish gay men had prevly endured. Basil Dearn's remarkable movie "Victim", provis a pricels snapshot of how the liv of many gay men livg London were affected by this now discreded piece of legislatn and so dog, pots to the need for more tolerance to be ed orr to achieve a greater measure of jtice for everyone. Although by 1961, public and police attus to homosexualy Bra were beg more relaxed, takg this kd of stand and addrsg the issue so overtly a mastream movie was still extremely ntroversial and risky.

Beg a closeted gay himself, Farr learns that a young man he once knew was beg blackmailed about supposed a relatnship wh Farr; the boy ultimately kills himself after unsuccsfully tryg to reach Farr aga and aga. Wh another lover's suici his past, Farr be termed, even if sts him his marriage and reer, to brg the blackmailers to the storyle may seem dated, "Victim" holds up very well today, showg the pa and unhapps of livg a life secret, the different views held on homosexualy nearly 50 years ago, and how far the gay movement has e. Victoria's urtier, Lord Arthur Somerset, had to flee to France and spend the rt of his life there as a you n see, the atmosphere of Great Bra to homosexuals was already poisono, and Labouchere's law solidified this.

But (for the most part) the people were protected by beg extremely discreet nductg their affairs (Blzste was a sad exceptn), or were so well liked they were not bothered by the sndal givg a ser soundg board on the legal difficulti facg Brish homosexuals, Basil Dearn, Bogar, and the crew of VICTIM serve high marks. " Dirk Bogar, two-time Goln Globe nomee, and six-time BAFTA nomee (2 ws), got one of his nomatns for this film, which he is a married, but gay, attorney who go after, there is no sex the film, and is not even certa that the attorney Melville Farr (Bogar) ever had gay sex. Even more ser is that until 1967, homosexual behavr was punished by imprisonment the UK--and the film was ma I said above, this isn't a gay-only picture, but a film that is for a much wir dience.

The bottom le is that the film is very well nstcted, wrten superbly and mak a very pellg se for the elimatn of the anti-sodomy laws, as ma those volved liable to blackmail and other actually was gay, though he only admted later life. There is none of the hio sniggerg anti gay attu here that characterize many later films about homosexuals (ie, Cisg, and pecially, Stairse-a tly awful film featurg two straight actors, Richard Burton and Rex Harrison, both engaged a disparate attempt to prove they are 'not gay' I suppose). This film was a highly ntroversial one when first me out; this was the first Brish film to al openly wh the subject of homosexualy, and the first English language film actually to e the word "homosexual".