• Rating:
• Genre: Drama
• Movie Type: Crime Drama, Psychological Drama
• Themes: Blackmail, Social Injustice, Righting the Wronged
• Director: Basil Dearden
• Main Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Sylvia Syms, Dennis Price, Anthony Nicholls, Peter Copley, Peter McEnery
• Release Year: 1962
• Country: UK
• Run Time: 90 minutes

Plot

In its time, Victim was considered as a daring a film as had ever been made in England. Taken at face value, Janet Green and John McCormick's screenplay is nothing new: Dirk Bogarde plays a lawyer who agrees to defend an old friend (John McEnery) on a theft charge, only to be enmeshed in a blackmailing scheme. What set this one apart is the fact that the lawyer had once been the male lover of his client. At a time when homosexuality was a criminal offense in England, any film that depicted the gay scene in a non-judgmental light was in for a rough time from the bluenose brigades. What really startled filmgoers of 1962 is that the homosexuals shown in Victim were seemingly normal, everyday blokes, a far cry from the stereotyped "nance" characters common to films. Denied the MPAA seal when it was released to the United States, Victim surprisingly ran into very little interference when it was released to television in the mid-1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Review

Motion pictures were entering a new era of greater permissiveness in the 1960s. Victim, released in 1962, helped to push out the boundaries with regard to cinematic acknowledgement of homosexuality and is for that reason, something of a landmark in film history. At the same time, because many of the societal advances the film endorses have been achieved, Victim inevitably feels somewhat dated. However, it very powerfully presents the fear and persecution (both legal and inner) with which gay individuals lived at the time. Basil Dearden's on-the-mark direction often makes the viewer squirm in sympathetic discomfort. Dearden's best work is in the first 15 minutes, as we watch Peter McEnery desperately seeking help and finding that there is none to be had. Victim's biggest asset is star Dirk Bogarde, proving here that he was an actor of depth and substance rather than just a matinee idol. The character's inner torture is always present, though often subtly. The way in which Bogarde lets a brief smile flicker across his face when realizing that the other men with him share his secret is especially telling. He is matched by Sylvia Sims, whose conflicting love, anger, and hurt upon learning she has been deceived are wonderfully expressed. Bogarde would give another masterful performance a year later in The Servant. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide

Cast

• Dirk Bogarde - Melville Farr
• Sylvia Syms - Laura Farr
• Dennis Price - Calloway
• Anthony Nicholls - Lord Fullbrook
• Peter Copley - Paul Mandrake
• Peter McEnery - Jack Barrett

Norman Bird - Harold Doe; Nigel Stock - Phip; Donald Churchill - Eddy Stone; Derren Nesbitt - Sandy Youth; John Barrie - Detective Inspector Harris; John Cairney - Bridie; Alan MacNaughton - Scott Hankin; Frank Pettitt - Barman; Mavis Villiers - Madge; Charles Lloyd Pack - Henry; Hilton Edwards - P.H.; David Evans - Mickey; Noel Howlett - William Patterson; Margaret Diamond - Miss Benham; Alan Howard - Frank; Dawn Beret - Sylvie

Credit

Basil Dearden - Director; Philip Green - Composer (Music Score); John Guthridge - Editor; Otto Heller - Cinematographer; Michael Relph - Producer; Alexander Vetchinsky - Art Director; Janet Green - Screenwriter; John McCormick - Screenwriter

Similar Movies

Advise and Consent; The Best Man; The Children's Hour; Hollow Reed; Fixing Frank

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