VICTIM Movie Review

A successful, married English barrister (Dirk Bogarde) with a concealed history of homosexuality finds himself the victim of blackmail after the death of a former lover. When the blackmailers, who are the cause of his young ex-lover's suicide, are caught, Bogarde decides to prosecute them himself, even though it means bringing his hidden past into the light, thereby risking his career and his marriage. Basil Dearden's entertaining and cleverly constructed Victim was pretty bold stuff when it was released in 1961, and though time has certainly taken its toll in some respects (homosexuals are referred to as “inverts” in the film), in bigger ways the film still seems revolutionary. Bogarde's character is not treated as insane or as someone who needs to be institutionalized or “cured”; he's the star, and the audience is expected to sympathize with him. Yet it was almost as risky for Bogarde to take this part as it was for his character in the film to take the case. It turned out to be a wise move, for though he'd been acting for decades before Victim, it was only after 1961 that the quality of his roles, and the regularity of his accolades, began to grow dramatically.

NEXT STOP … Sapphire, Accident, Death in Venice

1961 100m/B GB Dirk Bogarde, Sylvia Syms, Dennis Price, Peter McEnery, Nigel Stock, Donald Churchill, Anthony Nicholls, Hilton Edwards, Norman Bird, Derren Nesbitt, Alan McNaughton, Noel Howlett, Charles Lloyd Pack, John Barrie, John Bennett; D: Basil Dearden; W: John McCormick, Janet Green; C: Otto Heller; M: Philip Green. VHS HMV