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Dennis Price, Dirk Bogarde, Sylvia Syms

Dirk Bogarde risked his career to make this 1962 film about a lawyer who risks his career to stand up to blackmailers. Part crime thriller and part plea for tolerance, Victim uses the terror of...( read more  read more... ) a blackmailing ring to point out the injustice of Britain's antisodomy laws. Bogarde plays Melville Farr, a married lawyer who learns of a blackmail scheme when one of its victims, an old friend, commits suicide rather than tell the police. As Farr conducts an investigation, he must confront his own past. Victim was ahead of its time--it was the first English-language movie to use the word "homosexual"--and as such it seems quaint and stilted at times. Straw-man clichés about homosexuality must be knocked down, and, like in all first-wave issue movies, occasionally characters need to have rather stilted debates. Still, the crime plot stands on its own, the performances are excellent, and the film is brave enough to make some very good points. This is an interesting and worthy bit of cinematic history. --Ali Davis

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79% liked it

858 ratings

Unrated, 100 min.

Directed by: Basil Dearden

Release Date: January 1, 1962

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DVD Release Date: January 21, 2003

Stats: 66 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (66)

  • webalina
    September 11, 2009
    webalina
    A man risking his career to expose a blackmailer is the focus of this story. Interesting enough, and more so because the risk is a barrister being exposed as a homosexual when such exposure is grounds for arrest and prison. Intelligently done, with the gay men (there are several ...( read more)being blackmailed) not portrayed as fey mincing freaks as they are in so many films, but as regular men. The film shows both sides of the homosexual issue -- the men who beg to be understood that they can't help what they are, and the prejudices of others who don't and won't understand. I was surprised to see Dirk Bogarde -- or any well-known actor -- in a part like this. Even now there are sometimes issues with actors playing gays in films, especially if they are secretly gay themselves. I can imagine the problems in 1962. I don't know Bogarde's orientation, nore does it matter. I'm just impressed that he would take such a risky role. I guess life imitates art in this case.
  • alush1
    September 25, 2008
    alush1
    Wow-sounds good-I'm going to watch it now!
  • littlecharmer1959
    February 6, 2008
    littlecharmer1959
    An interesting film. At the time this film was seen as very risky due to the fact it deals with homosexuality. The main plot involves lawyer Melville Farr (played by Dirk Bogarde). Although married Farr is secretly a homosexual. Farr becomes involved in a blackmail investigation ...( read more)after one of his fri...(read more)ends kills himself after being blackmailed due to them also being a homosexual. Farr then faces the decision of turning the blackmailers in (therefore ruining his career) or order them to keep quite, therefore becoming a blackmailer himself. At the time of release (1961) homosexuality was still illegal so obviously the film was considered quite ground-breaking. These days the film does seem a little dated, yet there is still a solid crime story in it.
  • jjnxn
    September 23, 2009
    jjnxn
    Groundbreaking in it's time and still a strong film today, excellent performances particularly Bogard's.
  • captainXiero
    September 23, 2009
    captainXiero
    I was so annoyed that I missed the en of this film! I really enjoyed the part of it i did see though
  • aprilneo
    February 11, 2009
    aprilneo
    I'd never heard of this movie and happened upon it on cable today. When it was first released in 1961, Victim was banned in the United States. Yet this movie continues to tap into something truly timeless...man's inhumanity to man!
  • lebulltaurus
    January 23, 2009
    lebulltaurus
    never heard of it was it a flop?
  • RichardMFindlay
    December 28, 2008
    RichardMFindlay
    A ground breaking film that was instrumental in decriminalising homosexuality. Dirk Bogarde bravely broke tradition and played against type.
  • pswede2002
    June 24, 2008
    pswede2002
    wow. the implications of this script resonate still, 46 years later.
  • maxwellshammer2
    July 22, 2007
    maxwellshammer2
    An almost surreal experience to watch given the unheard-of subject matter in the context of its time. Dearden thankfully avoids the temptation to turn this into a depressing pityfest (although goodness knows the reality for homosexuals in the mid-twentieth century is so depressin...( read more)g, the word "victim" doesn't come close) and thankfully weaves his damning indictment of what is possibly the most pointless law in history around a brisk, suspenseful thriller.

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