The Salisbury Pub, St Martin's Lane, Covent Garden, London, England, UK

Jason Holliday in Portrait of Jason (1967)

Dirk Bogarde and Margaret Lockwood in Cast a Dark Shadow (1955)

I can see you're a true puritan, Bridie. Eh?

Of course not. There was a time when that was against the law you know.

Dirk Bogarde and Sylvia Syms in Victim (1961)

Donald Churchill and Peter McEnery in Victim (1961)

Dirk Bogarde and Donald Churchill in Victim (1961)

Dirk Bogarde and Noel Howlett in Victim (1961)

Dirk Bogarde

Sylvia Syms

Dennis Price

Janet Green

John McCormick

A closeted lawyer risks his career to bring a blackmailer to justice.

Basil Dearden

Victim

The gays&apos; raven.

Henri-George Clouzot&apos;s &quot;le corbeau&quot; (the raven,1943) always comes to mind when it comes to slanderous mail.The principal differences between the French movie and Dearden&apos;s one  is that in the former,the raven was not a blackmailer,he was not in it for the money ,but out of pure wickedness,and he would &quot;punish&quot; not the gay-it was too soon- but the adulterer,the abortion and other little sins.

Dearden&apos;s work is a bold move for the time.The movies dealing with homosexuality were very rare then.It was one of the first to fight against intolerance. Of course this topic was in Tennessee Williams&apos; plays ,but it was not really militant .We can mention in the sixties the almost contemporary &quot;children&apos;s hour&quot; (Wyler,1963) &quot;the fox &quot;(Mark Rydell,1967) and &quot;the staircase&quot; (Donen,1969).

Dearden&apos;s work suffers from a certain inflation of secondary characters which weakens the drama.(Dennis Price&apos;s part does not seem much relevant.)Consequently,the best moments are to be found in the first twenty minutes:Peter MC Ennery (who would be Rasputin&apos;s assassin in &quot;j&apos;ai tué Raspoutine&quot;(1967) ,and coincidence,this Yusupov was also a gay)&apos;s escape ,recalling sometimes James Mason&apos;s in &quot;odd man out&quot; ,is breathtaking:alone in a world gone hostile and threatening,his phone calls remain unanswered,and everybody turns his back on him:his buddy&apos;s girlfriend&apos;s attitude is telling ,full of contempt and repulsion.The scenes between Dirk Bogarde -I do not need to add to the praise he has already received- and his wife are also great moments of true emotion.Had Dearden focused on the husband/wife/young man,his film would have gained in strength.Nevertheless,this courageous plea is still worth watching.

Official Trailer

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNGYzZDJlZWYtZjQ4Yi00YWUyLTk5NzUtMjAyYjM1ZjY3YjI1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXRyYW5zY29kZS13b3JrZmxvdw@@._V1_.jpg

Henri-George Clouzot's "le corbeau" (the raven,1943) always comes to mind when it comes to slanderous mail.The principal differences between the French movie and Dearden's one  is that in the former,the raven was not a blackmailer,he was not in it for the money ,but out of pure wickedness,and he would "punish" not the gay-it was too soon- but the adulterer,the abortion and other little sins.

Dearden's work is a bold move for the time.The movies dealing with homosexuality were very rare then.It was one of the first to fight against intolerance. Of course this topic was in Tennessee Williams' plays ,but it was not really militant .We can mention in the sixties the almost contemporary "children's hour" (Wyler,1963) "the fox "(Mark Rydell,1967) and "the staircase" (Donen,1969).

Dearden's work suffers from a certain inflation of secondary characters which weakens the drama.(Dennis Price's part does not seem much relevant.)Consequently,the best moments are to be found in the first twenty minutes:Peter MC Ennery (who would be Rasputin's assassin in "j'ai tué Raspoutine"(1967) ,and coincidence,this Yusupov was also a gay)'s escape ,recalling sometimes James Mason's in "odd man out" ,is breathtaking:alone in a world gone hostile and threatening,his phone calls remain unanswered,and everybody turns his back on him:his buddy's girlfriend's attitude is telling ,full of contempt and repulsion.The scenes between Dirk Bogarde -I do not need to add to the praise he has already received- and his wife are also great moments of true emotion.Had Dearden focused on the husband/wife/young man,his film would have gained in strength.Nevertheless,this courageous plea is still worth watching.

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