Homosexual acts between consenting adults were first legalised in England and Wales by the Sexual Offences Act 1967. This Act is sometimes today wrongly regarded, largely by those who find it difficult to credit just how much social attitudes have changed in the last four or five decades, as a piece of legislative tidiness, the long-overdue repeal of long-obsolete and rarely enforced laws. In fact, in the fifties and early sixties the laws forbidding homosexuality were frequently enforced in Britain, and numerous gay men were sent to prison for breaching them. In 1957 the Wolfenden Committee, set up to review the law on sexual offences, recommended the repeal of the anti-homosexuality laws, but the Government proceeded to ignore that recommendation for the next ten years.
"Victim", dating from 1961 is sometimes regarded as the film which helped to influence public opinion in favour of reform. It was quite deliberately made as a plea for a change in the law, and concentrates on something which perhaps frightened homosexuals even more than the threat of a police prosecution- the threat of blackmail. The main character is Melville Farr, a highly successful barrister. At the age of forty, Farr is about to become a Queen's Counsel and there is talk of his being appointed a judge. He is apparently happily married to his wife, Laura. Farr, however, has a hidden secret; he is bisexual, and has had an emotional but non-sexual relationship with a young man named Jack Barrett. Barrett has fallen victim to a gang of blackmailers who specialise in preying on homosexuals and who know of his relationship with Farr. Barrett is eventually driven to suicide, and when he discovers the truth of what happened to his friend, Farr decides to expose the blackmail ring, although he knows that the publicity of a court case could jeopardise not only his career but also his marriage.
Dirk Bogarde, the star of this film, can be seen as a British Rock Hudson. Like Hudson he was handsome, highly popular with women, and secretly gay. As in Hudson's case rumours circulated about his sexuality, and the studio found it necessary to provide him with attractive female escorts in order to counter those rumours, although unlike Hudson he was never forced into a phony marriage. The role of Farr, therefore, must have had a deep personal significance for him, and he gives a particularly good performance here. Farr is not simply portrayed as a crusader in a noble cause; he is also driven by a sense of guilt arising out of Barrett's death. The younger man had approached Farr for help, only to be rebuffed because Farr wrongly suspected Barrett himself of being a blackmailer.
Bogarde receives good support from Sylvia Syms as Laura, who is a complex character. She is neither the typical loyal, supportive wife beloved of film-makers around this period, nor the typical wronged, innocent party. Her relationship with her husband is an unusual one; Laura knew at the time of her marriage that Farr was bisexual and that he had previously had relationships with men. She did not, however, know about his friendship with Barrett, and when the truth came out saw this as a betrayal. the film leaves open the question of whether their relationship can survive this revelation.
This film was a highly controversial one when it first came out; this was the first British film to deal openly with the subject of homosexuality, and the first English language film actually to use the word "homosexual". It was for a time banned in America, even though the American censors had not banned "The Children's Hour" which came out in the same year and which deals with the subject of lesbianism. Perhaps the difference was that "Victim" is a film which seeks sympathy and understanding for homosexuals, whereas "The Children's Hour", although it was daring in tackling a subject which had previously been taboo, nevertheless tended to approach that subject on the basis of the assumption (a common one in 1961) that same-sex love was both unnatural and immoral.
Like a number of films which were ground-breaking in its day, "Victim" can seem dated today. From the vantage-point of 2009 it probably seems to anyone unaware of the historical background like just another routine sixties crime thriller. When we see it in the light of that background, however, we realise just what a brave film this was. 7/10
