Victim (1961 film)
| Victim | |
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Original 1961 British quad format cinema poster
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| Directed by | Basil Dearden |
| Produced by | Michael Relph |
| Written by | Janet Green, John McCormick |
| Starring |
Dirk Bogarde Sylvia Syms Dennis Price |
| Music by | Philip Green |
| Cinematography | Otto Heller |
| Edited by | John D. Guthridge |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Rank Film Distributors |
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Release date
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Running time
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96 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | £153,756 |
Victim is a 1961 British suspense film directed by Basil Dearden, starring Dirk Bogarde and Sylvia Syms. It was the first English language film to use the word "homosexual". It premiered in the UK on 31 August 1961 and in the US the following February. On its release in the United Kingdom it proved highly controversial to the British Board of Film Censors, and in the U.S. it was refused a seal of approval from the American Motion Picture Production Code.
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 his 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 has shared a romantic but non-sexual relationship. Farr rebuffs the approach, thinking Barrett wants to blackmail him about their relationship. In fact, Barrett has been trying to reach Farr to appeal to him for help because he has fallen prey to blackmailers who have a picture of Farr and Barrett in a vehicle together, in which Barrett is crying with Farr's arm around him. Barrett has stolen £2,300 from his employers to pay the blackmail, is being pursued by the police, and needs Farr's financial assistance to flee the country. After Farr intentionally avoids him, Barrett is picked up by the police, who discover why he was being blackmailed. Knowing it will be only a matter of time before he is forced to reveal the details of the blackmail scheme and Farr's role, Barrett hangs himself in a police cell.
Learning the truth about Barrett, Farr takes on the blackmail ring and recruits a friend of Barrett's to identify others the blackmailers may be targeting. The friend identifies a barber who is also being blackmailed, but the barber refuses to identify his tormentors. When one of the blackmailers visits the barber and begins to destroy his shop, he suffers a heart attack. Near death, he phones Farr's house and leaves a mumbled message naming another victim of the blackmailers.
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