Victim (1961 film)
| Victim | |
|---|---|
| File:Victim film.jpg Victim DVD cover | |
| Directed by | Basil Dearden |
| Written by | Janet Green, John McCormick |
| Produced by | Michael Relph |
| Starring | Dirk Bogarde, Dennis Price, Sylvia Syms |
| Cinematography | Otto Heller, BSC |
| Edited by | John D. Guthridge |
| Music by | Philip Green |
| Distributed by | Rank |
Release date | August 1961 |
Running time | 96 min. |
| Country | Template:FilmUK |
| Language | English |
Victim (1961) is a British drama film directed by Basil Dearden, starring Dirk Bogarde and Sylvia Syms. It is notable in film history for being the first English language film to use the word "homosexual". The first film to use the word was the German film Anders als die Andern (1919). The world premiere was at the Odeon Cinema in Leicester Square on 31 August 1961.[1] On its release in the United Kingdom it proved highly controversial and was initially banned in the United States.[2]
Plot
A successful barrister, Melville Farr (Dirk Bogarde) has a thriving London practice. He is on course to become a Queen's Counsel and people are already talking of him being appointed a judge. He is apparently happily married to his wife, Laura (Sylvia Syms).
Farr is approached by "Boy" Barrett (Peter McEnery), a younger working class man with whom Farr shared a romantic but asexual relationship. Farr rebuffs the approach, thinking Barrett wants to blackmail him about their relationship. What Farr does not know is that Barrett himself has fallen prey to blackmailers who know of their relationship. The blackmailers have a picture of Farr and Barrett in a vehicle together, in which Barrett is crying. Barrett has been trying to reach Farr to appeal for help since Barrett (a construction site wages clerk) has stolen £2,000 from his employers to pay the blackmail and the police are now onto him. With Farr intentionally avoiding him, Barrett is soon picked up by the police, who in turn discover why he was being blackmailed. Knowing it will be only a matter of time before he is forced to reveal Farr's identity as the other man, Barrett hangs himself in a police cell.
After discovering the truth of what happened to Barrett, Farr takes on the blackmail ring and recruits a friend of Barrett's to investigate for him. The friend identifies a gay hairdresser who has also been victimized by the ring, but the hairdresser refuses to divulge who his tormentors are. However, when the hairdresser is visited by one of the blackmailers, he suffers a heart attack. Prior to his death, he manages to phone Farr's house to leave a mumbled message referring to another victim of the ring.
Farr contacts this victim, a famous actor, who refuses to help him, instead preferring, along with other victims, to acquiesce to the blackmail in hopes of keeping their secret. Laura finds out about Barrett's death and confronts her husband, demanding he tell her the truth. In a heated argument, it turns out that before their marriage Farr had had a relationship with another man who subsequently killed himself when the relationship ended. He had told Laura about this before they married and promised that he no longer had such urges, but on learning of this new affair, Laura decides to leave him.
The blackmailers vandalise Farr's property, painting "FARR IS QUEER" on his garage doors. Farr resolves to help the police catch them and promises to give evidence in court, despite knowing that the ensuing press coverage will certainly destroy his career. Working with the police, Farr succeeds in ensnaring the blackmailers, who are arrested. He is then surprised to find his wife still at home. He tells her he prefers her to go ahead and leave so she will not have to face the brutal ugliness that will befall him during the trial. But he lets her know he will welcome her return when the ordeal is over. She tells him that she believes she has found the strength to do so. Farr then burns the picture that originally incriminated him.
Cast
- Dirk Bogarde as Melville Farr
- Sylvia Syms as Laura Farr
- Dennis Price as Calloway
- Nigel Stock as Phip
- Peter McEnery as Boy Barrett
- Donald Churchill as Eddy
- Anthony Nicholls as Lord Fullbrook
- Hilton Edwards as P.H.
- Norman Bird as Harold Doe
- Derren Nesbitt as Sandy Youth
- Alan MacNaughtan as Scott Hankin
- Noel Howlett as Patterson
- Charles Lloyd Pack as Henry
- John Barrie as Detective Inspector Harris
- John Cairney as Bridie
- David Evans as Mickey
- Peter Copley as Paul Mandrake
- Frank Pettitt as Barman
- Mavis Villiers as Madge
- Margaret Diamond as Miss Benham
- Alan Howard as Frank
- Dawn Beret as Sylvie
- John Bennett as Undercover Detective (uncredited)
- John Boxer as Policeman in Cell (uncredited)
- Frank Thornton as George, Henry's assistant (uncredited)
Background and production
 | This section needs additional citations for verification. (April 2012) |
Until the 1967 Sexual Offences Act, which implemented the recommendations of the Wolfenden report, homosexual acts between consenting male adults were illegal in England and Wales. There were prosecutions and Sunday newspapers gave space to the court reports. Yet, by 1960, the police were as relaxed as possible over the old laws. There was a feeling that the code violated decent liberty. But police restraint did not deter the menace of blackmail.
Scriptwriter Janet Green had already previously collaborated with Basil Dearden on a previous British "social problem" film, Sapphire, which had dealt with racism against Afro-Caribbean immigrants to the United Kingdom in the late fifties. After reading the Wolfenden Report and aware of the context of several high-profile prosecutions against gay men, she became a keen supporter of homosexual law reform.
When the team of producer Michael Relph and director Basil Dearden first approached Bogarde, they warned him that a lot of people had already turned down the script because the material might be considered dangerous or unwholesome. In 1960, Bogarde was 39 and just about the most popular actor in British films. He had proven himself playing war heroes (The Sea Shall Not Have Them; Ill Met by Moonlight); he was the star of the hugely successful Doctor film series; and he was a reliable romantic lead in movies like A Tale of Two Cities. He was flirting with a larger, Hollywood career—playing Liszt in Song Without End. Bogarde was suspected to be homosexual, living in the same house as his business manager, Anthony Forwood, and was compelled every now and then to be seen in public with attractive young women. He seems not to have hesitated over the role of Farr. Similarly, Sylvia Syms never flinched from the part of his wife, though apparently several actresses had turned it down.
Other gay cast members included Dennis Price and Hilton Edwards. Though it mostly treats homosexuality in a non-sensationalised manner, there is one rather catty aspect to the film—Price's character (a prominent gay theater star) would have been fairly easy for contemporary audiences to identify with Noël Coward.
The script was originally entitled Boy Barrett, changing to Victim late in production. A number of controversial scenes were cut during discussions with the BBFC, including scenes with teenagers.[3]
Reaction
Victim became a highly sociologically significant film; many believe it played an influential role in liberalising attitudes (as well as the laws in Britain) regarding homosexuality.[4]
Originally given an 'X' certificate by the British Board of Film Censors in 1961,[citation needed] its most recent UK cinema re-release in 2005 received a 'PG' rating.[5] The use of the term "homosexual" kept the film from being released at first in the U.S.[citation needed] The film code changed within a year, and the film made its first official appearance in America.
The term "queer" is used in the film, with anticipation of complete understanding on the part of the (British) audience in two completely different ways. As reported, "FARR IS QUEER" is painted on Farr's garage door (i.e. Farr is homosexual), and the expression "Queer Street" (meaning in desperate poverty) is used in a letter to some red herring blackmailers.
Home media
The film was released by The Criterion Collection in January 2011.[6]
Further Reading
- John Coldstream: Victim: BFI Film Classics: British Film Institute/Palgrave-Macmillan: 2011: ISBN 978-1-84457-427-8
- Richard Dyer: "Victim: Hegemonic Project" in Richard Dyer: The Matter of Images: Essays on Representation: London: Routledge: 2002.
- Philip Kemp: "I Wanted Him: Revival: Victim" Sight and Sound 15:8 (August 2005): 10.
- Andrew Watson: "Shifting Attitudes on Homosexuality" History Today: 65.20 (September/October 2011): 15-17: http://www.historytoday.com/shifting-attitudes-homosexuality
See also
- Different from the Others (Anders als die Andern)—a 1919 German film seen as a precursor of Victim.
- List of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender-related films
References
- ^ "Intelligent Film On Homosexuality". The Times. 30 August 1961. p. 11.
{{cite news}}: External link in|newspaper= - ^ Afterelton.com
- ^ Robertson, James Crighton (1993), The hidden cinema: British film censorship in action, 1913-1975, Routledge, p. 120, ISBN 978-0-415-09034-6
- ^ Greenfield, Steve; Osborn, Guy; Robson, Peter (2001), Film and the law, Routledge, p. 118, ISBN 978-1-85941-639-6
- ^ Case Study: Victim, Students' British Board of Film Classification
- ^ "Victim". The Criterion Collection.
External links