Meu Passado me Condena

It would be easy to view this movie as nothing more than a somewhat dated film. However, for it's time, this movie was ground-breaking, for any number of reasons, including its superb acting. Dirk Bogarde and Sylvia Syms, in particular, were perfect in their parts.

What many don't realize is that this movie is credited with helping to decriminalize homosexuality in Britain. When "Victim" was released, it started a nationwide discussion about homosexuality and associated blackmail. At the time, approximately 90% of all blackmail cases involved homosexuals, and Bogarde's character was a classic example of a blackmail "victim". The point of the movie wasn't that all homosexuals were victims, but they could only be victims so long as the law permitted it. The blackmail wasn't merely because they were homosexual, but due to the harsh prison sentences a homosexual could (and often did) receive. How often does a movie get the opportunity to help create such a profound change in society?

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.

This is the story of Melville Farr, a high-ranking English barrister who has just been offered an appointment to be a Queen's Counselor. But Farr is gay, and in investigating who has been blackmailing a friend he is exposed to being blackmailed himself. How Farr deals with this and the impact it has on his career and marriage makes for a quality drama.

I was thinking that in order to appreciate this film you had to put yourself back in the time when homosexuality was against the law in England, since we have now come such a long way from that time to where some elected officials are now openly gay. On the other hand, the basic theme of this movie still plays. A closeted high-ranking lawyer with a reputation as an upstanding family man could still be open to blackmail. People are still "accused" or "suspicioned" of being gay and often feel the need to defend themselves against such charges, as if there were something inherently wrong with it. Acceptance of differences comes slowly.

The performances are good, particularly Bogard and Syms. Lovers of skillfully filmed high contrast black and white will appreciate this - it's an art form that has pretty much disappeared. The first half hour, before you really know what's going on, is particularly engrossing. It plays in the style of a film noir thriller.

The one thing I found a bit bothersome was the apparent need for the characters to vocalize their plight, with statements like "Don't they understand that we are just like anyone else," and "Why are we singled out," and so forth. The plot makes these points well enough, what with a suicide, a heart attack, ruined careers, and multiple blackmails.

However, it probably took a fair amount of courage at the time just to make this film, which was clearly a plea for legal reform. Reform that came six years later in 1967.

1961 in England. Homosexuals were routinely jailed just because they were homosexuals. It was still the love that dare not speak its name.

Blackmailers had a terrific open season on gays - extorting funds for silence. It is incredible that this movie was made - on two levels. One being the obvious, who would want to star in such a controversial film?

Enter one Dirk Bogarde, putting both his reputation and his career on the line. He moved deliberately beyond his "Doctor in the House" series of light romantic leading men to make this benchmark film.

It may seem dated today to some eyes, but it captures an authentic London of 1961 and is filmed on location in the streets for most of it. One can see the barriers, goofophiles, holding the passersby back from the location shooting! "Flower Drum Song" is featured on a marquee in one of the scenes.

The suspense is carried along beautifully, you are never sure how it is all going to turn out, there are no easy solutions, there are some wonderful sub-plots, unexpected little surprises, like the childhood friend of a victim staunchly loyal against his wife's homophobic wishes.

The husband and wife story is beautifully depicted and completely non-formulaic. I love the rush and buzz of London surrounding the taut, tense story. Groundbreaking film. 8 out 10.

Five years before Parliament repealed the sodomy laws in Great Britain, unfortunately too late for the colonies they had already let go in the third world who still have vigorously enforced sodomy laws on the books, Basil Dearden directed this ground breaking film Victim about a group of gay men being blackmailed.

The ring starts to unravel when young Peter McEnery is caught embezzling funds from his construction firm. But this embezzler is hardly living it up considering the money he's taken. When the police investigate and try to get the truth out of him, McEnery hangs himself in his cell.

What else back then could he have done he thought? He was guilty of breaking the law for an act of love that could have gotten him jail time. One of the people McEnery thinks of when he looks for money to quickly leave the United Kingdom was barrister Dirk Bogarde. But Bogarde refuses to see him.

Bogarde was like so many gay men who even today still live in the closet because of pressure in the areas they do live and in the professions they are in. But back then being open could close a lot of career doors to one. But his back is up and he's figuring whoever is blackmailing McEnery will be knocking on his door shortly.

Of course the hard part is telling wife Sylvia Sims of his predicament. He's married to her because convention expects it. He was in fact more open with her about his life than either Heath Ledger or Jake Gyllenhaal was in Brokeback Mountain, but he said to her he'd left all that behind when he took the marriage vows. I'm sure he tried also in his own way.

And he's feeling guilty a bit about McEnery's death. It sends him on a quest to flush these bottom feeding slime balls out from under the rocks they were hiding under.

Bogarde of course was a closeted gay man himself and never quite came out in his life. He was in a committed relationship for over 40 years and was at the time of Victim. Another closeted gay man was Dennis Price who has a small role as an actor and another of the blackmailer's victims. These two guys were taking daring steps for 1961.

What I liked best about this film was the portrayal of the young blackmailer Derren Nesbitt. He hangs around the gay haunts of 1961 London at the time with his latest camera equipment just taking all kinds of candid shots for future use. There's a scene in his room where he's talking real tough on the phone to one of his victims. He gets up off his bed to leave the room and the camera takes in a picture on the wall of an anatomically correct Greek statue. This poor wretch of a human being was fighting his own feelings because of what society told him was wrong. Internalized homophobia can twist a soul like nothing else. That Basil Dearden was farsighted enough to pick up on that in people and use it in the film is commendable.

Bogarde knows his career will be in the toilet but does it anyway. I'd like to think when those laws were repealed which they would be later in the Sixties, he could pick the pieces up. Many never could.

Which brings to mind one of my claimants from my former job at New York State Crime Victims Board. A dear little man named Ernie who is probably not with us any longer. He was living in an SRO in New York City and was assaulted by a trick he picked up in the mid Eighties, Ernie was in his early sixties.

When I got to know him, I found out that he had a degree in political science and had graduated before World War II from the Columbia University School of Far East Studies. He had hopes to enter the Foreign Service, but the McCarthy era discouraged that. Back then he was a 'security risk' because of his sexual orientation. So robbed of the career he could have had by homophobia he slid gradually down the societal scale until I met him. He made a living doing secretarial temp work when he wasn't abusing a lot of substance.

As surely as Dirk Bogarde's career went, so did Ernie's in real life. And this review is dedicated to Ernie and all the others like him who could not realize their full potential because of some archaic mores.