VICTIM

"Are you sure you weren't feeling too fond of him?"

VICTIM (1961). Director: Basil Dearden.

"I'm not a life bell for you to cling to." -- Laura.

A young man named Jack (Peter McEnery of Tales That Witness Madness) is wanted by the police for embezzlement, but won't tell them what he needed the money for. Jack refuses to admit that he is being blackmailed for being homosexual -- which was still a criminal offense in those days. Although he has tried to get in touch with a friend, the well-known lawyer Melville Farr (Dirk Bogarde), Farr -- who is married to Laura (Sylvia Sims) -- refuses to talk to him. Laura learns of Jack's suicide and confronts her husband about him. Apparently she knew about a gay fling he had in the past and had hoped that he could change. Melville admits that he had sexual feelings for Jack but rejected him before anything could happen. He knows this may destroy his career and even his life, but decides to go after the blackmailers who, in essence, murdered Jack and are destroying others ... Victim was ahead of its time, and it remains a powerful and completely absorbing movie, with excellent performances from the entire cast. It is by no means a perfect movie, however, and one could not expect it to have nothing but 21st century attitudes when the film was made over fifty years ago. Still it's surprising how much sophisticated stuff managed to get into the picture. When Sgt. Bridie (John Cairney) suggests that Farr can't be homosexual because he has a wife, his superior, the more sympathetic Inspector Harris (John Barrie), immediately says "Famous last words." The notion is put forth more than once that homosexuals can't be converted, as well as the idea that there is nothing wrong in homosexuality and the laws against it are unfair and antiquated.

However, I do have a problem with the ending. The implication is that Melville and Laura may ultimately stay together, which seems unrealistic, although others have seen the ending more as an acknowledgment of deep friendship -- and Melville will certainly need friends when the blackmail trial is over, along with his career and future. More problematic is the way Melville burns the photograph of himself and Jack in the fireplace. This was used as blackmail evidence, but it can't be used to harm either himself or Jack anymore, and it seems cold that Melville would burn what is probably the only photo of a man who loved him enough to sacrifice himself to save him. True, one can't expect Melville to walk off into the sunset arm and arm with another man (which Dirk Bogarde did in real life) -- this was 1961 after all and it's lucky the film was even made -- but some more self-acceptance on Melville's part would have been welcome. The ending was possibly meant to suggest that Melville would go on suppressing his "unfortunate urges" and retain a semblance of a marriage, supposedly "triumphing" over his homosexuality like one of those delusional "ex-gays" -- a notion that undercuts the more positive statements of the picture.

Dirk Bogarde

In fact, one might wonder why this "self-hating homo" would destroy his career and marriage when he doesn't exactly have an activist's bent. Why not just forget it, breath a sigh of relief and move on? It makes his burning of the photo even more senseless. Victim may be trying to show how a glib, dishonest man can summon up inner strength and resolve -- indeed that's surely what the film is suggesting -- but the ending needed to be much stronger. It is also unfortunate that it is the married closet case who takes on the blackmailers, when all the other gay men -- who seem far more accepting of themselves -- all just want to pay them off. (This is completely unfair to the many activists who existed on both sides of the Atlantic even during the sixties.) I also wish more had been made of the confrontation between Melville and the bookseller Harold Doe (Norman Bird), who was previously involved with Jack and blames Melville for his death. Melville's reaction is rather cold, but one could argue that there's a coldness, or at least a coolness, not only to Melville but to the whole movie.

Bogarde was an understandably closeted gay man in real life, and it was brave of him to take on this role, which could have destroyed his own career. As he later noted, it did serve to get him away from the superficial "pretty boy" roles and led to much meatier parts, for which he was grateful. As for his performance in Victim, it's good, but not as great as in other films, perhaps because he was confused as exactly how to play the part, and because of the improbability of his character doing what he does in the first place. Sylvia Sims is first-rate as his loving but disillusioned and heartbroken wife, and there are notable turns from McEnery as Jack; Charles Lloyd Pack [The 3 Worlds of Gulliver] as the tragic barber, Henry; Dennis Price [Dear Murderer] as the actor Calloway; Donald Churchill as Jack's friend, Eddy Stone; Margaret Diamond as the hateful Miss Benham; and others previously mentioned or not. An interesting aspect of the picture is that Victim unfolds as a thriller or suspense film, with much information -- such as the reasons for the blackmail -- being withheld from the audience for quite some time.

Verdict: Whatever its flaws -- and that ending! -- Victim is a memorable film and a landmark in gay cinema. ***.

LADY IN A CAGE

Trapped but determined: Olivia de Havilland

LADY IN A CAGE (1964). Director: Walter Grauman.

Cornelia Hilyard (Olivia de Havilland of Not as a Stranger) is a determined lady who has apparently been rather stifling towards her probably gay son, Malcolm (William Swan).  Malcolm goes off for a few days, leaving a letter basically telling his "darling" to let him live his own life, while Cornelia -- who has broken a hip -- gets trapped in her home elevator when there is a power failure. Her attempts to draw attention with an alarm system fail, and in short order she is "visited" by everyone from a wino (Jeff Corey of Bright Leaf) and a sluttish friend of his named Sade (Ann Sothern of A Letter to Three Wives) to three young mentally-defective "troglodytes" -- Randall (James Caan), Essie (Rafael Campos) and Elaine (Jennifer Billinsley) -- all of whom are looking for booty. Then Randall gets the idea that the wino, Sade, and Cornelia should all be done away with ...

Billingsley, Caan and Campos

Lady in a Cage is a decidedly repellent film on many levels, but it is also well-directed and well-made, and has many effective and suspenseful moments. The acting is a little more problematic, with virtually everyone seeming stagy and obvious at times as if they thought they were in a play. In spite of this, de Havilland is generally good, and Corey and Sothern are mostly on-target as well. Caan and Billingsley, who were "introduced" in this film (both had previous TV credits), are less impressive, as is Campos as the decidedly weird Essie, as probably none of them had a clue as to what their characters were all about. William Swan, who is fine, mostly had television credits.

Slattern and wino: Sothern and Corey

This pre-Stonewall film tries to suggest that this dominant mother figure "turned" her son into a homosexual, a dated notion to be certain. Arguing that Malcolm is not gay, Cornelia mentions all of his "charming women friends," to which Essie -- who may have sexual identity issues himself -- responds "'women' friends he met in public shower rooms!" When this film played on television years ago, that line, among others, was excised, as was the shot of a certain individual's head after being crushed under the wheels of a motor car.

Verdict: Whatever you think of the movie it gets points for being unpredictable. ***. 

BREAKING THE CODE

Derek Jacobi and Julian Kerridge

BREAKING THE CODE (1996). Director: Herbert Wise.

Brilliant mathematician Alan Turing (Derek Jacobi of The King's Speech) knows his knowledge of cyphers and science can help the British war effort during WW2, and he's chosen to find a way to break the code of the German's Enigma machine. His genius also eventually brings about the creation of digital computers, but his work and worth are diminished in his later years simply because he is gay and apparently unapologetic about it. He pays a hard price for his indiscretion.

Prunella Scales and Derek Jacxobi

Breaking the Code is based on the successful and heralded 1986 play by Hugh Whitemore, and Jacobi reprises his acclaimed stage performance in this TV adaptation. Despite Jacobi's being nearly sixty at the time (Turing died at age 42), Jacobi's performance is excellent, although some may feel his frequent deliberate stuttering (not employed by Benedict Cumberbatch, who later played the same role in Imitation Game) is a bit of a distraction. There is also fine work from Prunella Scales [The Wicked Lady] as Turing's concerned mother; Richard Johnson [Zombie] as Knox, who interviews and hires him; Julian Kerridge as a man with whom Turing dallies; and Amanda Root as a colleague who falls in love with him in spite of his orientation. While Jacobi shows the feisty and slightly arrogant side to Turing's nature, he also lets his amiability and sweetness come through as well.

Verdict: Despite some technical explanations that go on a little too long, this is altogether admirable. ***.

THE IMITATION GAME

Benedict Cumberbatch

THE IMITATION GAME (2014). Director: Morten Tyldum.

Genius mathematician Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch of Star Trek Into Darkness) joins, and eventually takes over, a group of crypto-experts who are trying to crack Germany's Enigma Code. At first Turing is disliked because of his rather obnoxious, superior personality, but eventually he wins the respect of his peers, not only cracking the code but building technology that will eventually lead to the creation of modern-day computers. Unfortunately, he doesn't get his due until long after his death due to his conviction on a homosexual morals charge ...

The Imitation Game is the second film about Turing after the superior Breaking the Code (which also has the much better title with its double meaning), which came out nearly twenty years earlier. This is a splashier, longer, opened-up and bigger-budgeted version but it does not at all improve on the earlier picture. Benedict Cumberbatch gives a good enough performance, but perhaps makes his character more repellent -- especially in the earlier sequences -- than he needs to be; he almost plays it like an old-fashioned "bitchy queen." He is not as good as Derek Jacobi was in the earlier film. A bigger problem with this fictionalized biopic is that it not only tries to deal with his orientation as little as possible -- there are absolutely no sequences showing him even having conversations with other gay men -- but strips the film of true drama (his conviction, trial, etc.) and substitutes some events that I found very suspicious. Dramatic license is one thing, but Imitation just makes up sequences out of whole cloth (like the one when Turing and the others decide not to warn a convoy that is about to be bombed because then the Germans will know they've cracked the code. Sounds reasonable, until you really think about it. )

Like the earlier telefilm, this movie goes back and forth in time when a linear narrative might have been more compelling. There are some good supporting performances from Charles Dance [Victor Frankenstein] as Commander Denniston, and young Alex Lawther as Alan at school (he has a wonderful scene trying not to show how devastated he is by a loving friend's death), among others, but on the whole the picture is a big disappointment and somewhat on the dull side. Perhaps the worst thing is that this film simply accepts that Turing was a suicide when the first film, and some biographies, have suggested that he might have died by accident or even been killed off as a security risk. Who knows? The film was highly acclaimed and made a great deal of money, but since then many people have noted its glaring inaccuracies.

Verdict: Stick to Breaking the Code. **. 

GAY PRIDE SPECIAL: GAY-THEMED MOTION PICTURES

Dirk Bogarde in Victim

SEVERAL GAY-THEMED MOVIES FOR GAY PRIDE WEEK.

New York City celebrates Gay/LGBT pride this coming weekend, and in honor of that, Great Old Movies looks at several gay-themed movies and documentaries from different time periods and countries. First we have Victim, the classic 1961 drama about a British lawyer victimized by a blackmail ring (back when it was a crime just to be gay); the more recent film, Jonathan, a German drama in which a young man deals with the fact that his dying father once had a loving relationship with another man; the Israeli short Summer Vacation, in which a closeted man with a wife and children is confronted with his gay past at the beach; the 1974 Butley, with Alan Bates as a teacher who learns that both his estranged wife and boyfriend are moving on to other men; and the documentaries A Bit of Scarlet (gay depictions in British film), Uncle Bob (about the gay activist who streaked the Oscars), and Do I Sound Gay?, which kind of deals with gay stereotyping.

For more gay-themed films just type "gay" or "LGBT" into the search bar on the upper left hand corner of the blog. Thanks for reading!

A BIT OF SCARLET

A BIT OF SCARLET (1997). Director: Andrea Weiss.

Taking its cue from The Celluloid Closet, this documentary looks back at depictions of queer characters in older British movies, with various sections on such subjects as "unrequited love," suicidal characters, and the like. It counts down the rules that gay characters seemed to have to adhere to in the British cinema if they were to appear at all. A Bit of Scarlet takes a while to get going, but eventually it turns into an interesting compilation, consisting primarily of unidentified clips put together in such a way as to create an amusing or thematic juxtaposition. Many of the clips, of course, present faux homosexuality as well as a lot of silly cross-dressing. I recognized clips from such films as Victim, The Family Way, The L-Shaped Room, The Naked Civil Servant, and Staircase, among others, but there's no way to tell what the other films are just because they're all listed at the end. (Flashing the title of each film as the clip is shown would have certainly made sense.) A Bit of Scarlet is entertaining enough, but it's a minor LGBT documentary. Ian McKellen "narrates" the film, but there is actually very little commentary.

Verdict: Okay survey of LGBT images in the British media. **3/4.

JONATHAN

Jannis Niewohner

JONATHAN (2016). Director: Piotr J. Lewandowski.

Jonathan (Jannis Niewohner) lives on a farm in Germany where he takes care of his father, Burghardt (Andre Hennicke), who is dying of skin cancer. Jonathan gets little help from his Aunt Martha (Barbara Auer), a bitter woman who has had something against her brother for years. Then the cause of this tension appears in the form of Ron (Thomas Sarbacher), a handsome old friend of Burghardt's who moves in with the family. Now what's going on here? Yes, this is yet another movie in which a "self-hating homo" makes a decision to marry a woman and it has negative consequences for virtually everyone. Jonathan won't be satisfied until he gets answers from his father about his mother, whom he barely knew before she died, but when he finds out Ron was Burghardt's lover (apparently Martha had a thing for Ron as well), he isn't at all pleased. Jonathan is well-acted and handsomely produced, with excellent photography and a sensitive score, but it is also slow and rather contrived, and the script seems twenty years old. It's another movie in which the characters avoid confrontations and really talking to one another because the filmmakers fear the movie will come off like a soap opera. Frankly, a little dramatic soap opera-ing might have helped this picture, which is a little too low-key. Some viewers were mightily disappointed that Niewohmer, the sexiest German actor to come down the pike since Horst Buchhollz, only gets to do love scenes with the lady caregiver (their relationship is another contrived development); however, the two gay lovers do get it on in a hospital bed at one point.

Verdict: Comes so close to being special but misses the boat. **1/2.

ANNUAL GAY/LGBT FILM ROUND UP

Gerald Grant and Calvin Culver in Score

As this is Gay Pride Month in New York and elsewhere, it's time for my annual round-up of gay-themed films. Gay-oriented movies have proliferated incredibly in recent years, although many of them seem to be sit-com style independent comedies. However, there are literally dozens if not hundreds of films to choose from,  everything from camp-fests with cavorting drag queens to serious romantic stories to sobering or uplifting documentaries. This week I look at the groundbreaking seventies film A Very Natural Thing, the spicy, ambisexual romp Score, documentaries on gay life both before and after Stonewall, a recent theatrical film about that very event -- which was both controversial and little-seen -- and others.

A word about Score. It is not my policy to review "adult" films here, not because of any squeamishness or priggishness on my part, but because of a general lack of interest. However, Score, in spite of its hardcore sequences, is an example of the kind of erotic movie that began to proliferate in this period, ones in which there were more complex plots, longer running times, more interesting characters, and naked people who could actually act even when their clothing was on. Eventually these movies became out-dated as the increasingly graphic sexual nature of both films and TV shows pretty much made a lot of porn obsolete. I imagine that "adult" films today are back to focusing on the sex act and little else.

LGBT ROUND-UP

Far From Heaven

Here's our annual round-up of gay/LGBT films in honor of the Gay Pride celebration in New York City. Its a really mixed bag this year, with everything from the William Wyler classic The Children's Hour to a silly documentary about two self-hating gay men who live with a woman, Three of Hearts. Then we've got Tom Hanks in his Oscar-winning turn in Philadelphia; Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert, and Julianne Moore in Far From Heaven; and a couple of ersatz "gay" movies such as the telefilm Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn, Coffee Date, and the highly interesting -- and somewhat ambiguous -- Family Way.

Over the decades gay portrayals and how society sees homosexuality has greatly changed, although sometimes it may seem that the more things change, the more they stay the same. In any case, positive portraits of LGBT individuals are always welcome, but that doesn't always add up to a successful movie.

Anyway, here are a few films to ponder.

PASSION

PASSION (2012). Director/writer: Brian De Palma.

Christine Stanford (Rachel McAdams) is an advertising executive who takes credit for an idea developed by her assistant, Isabelle (Noomi Rapace). When Isabelle starts to assert herself -- and sleep with Christine's what-are-they-thinking? boyfriend, Dirk (Paul Anderson) --  Christine doesn't like it and humiliates her publicly. It all leads to bitchery of the extreme kind, as well as betrayal and murder. This is a remake of the mediocre Love Crime and is slightly better than the foreign original, though no world-beater. The film is more homoerotic than the original, but more likely because De Palma finds girl-on-girl action sexy than because of any desire to seriously explore lesbianism -- in fact, it's fairly exploitative and childish when it comes to the subject. The movie even goes so far as to present a lesbian as a blackmailing sexual predator! [In one stupid scene Christine calls an employee, Dani (Karoline Herfurth) a "dyke" and the latter lets her get away with it even though she just witnessed Christine kissing Isabelle on the lips!] Passion holds the attention and isn't badly acted, but it's nowhere in the league of De Palma's best movies, such as Carrie.

Verdict: Only for people who are easily titillated. **1/2.

GREAT OLD MOVIES EXTRA -- GAY-THEMED FILMS

Forbidden kiss between two men in The Sergeant

GREAT OLD MOVIES EXTRA: Gay-themed movies.

In honor of the 2013 Gay Pride March in New York this Sunday June 30th, here is a group of gay-themed movies in  review. Gay men and lesbians were generally invisible in movies for decades aside from the occasion "nance" or caricature. Then there was a new wave of liberalism, if that's what you want to call it, in the sixties, and a new cinematic frankness in regard to sexual themes. Unfortunately, the gay community did not benefit from this as much as you might expect, as there were less enlightened, realistic portraits of gay people then there were more caricatures, evil "fags" and nasty "dykes," all manner of homo-villains, and a plethora of suicides among gays who hated themselves even more than society did. Even the supposedly sympathetic The Boys in the Band presented mostly negative, pre-Stonewall [modern day Gay Liberation] attitudes. For better or worse, here are some gay-themed movies that run the gamut [full reviews below or click on a link]: Advise and Consent, where one character's closeted homosexuality is a major plot point; the unrequited love story of The Leather Boys; the lesbian burlesque of The Killing of Sister George; the tortured sturm und drang of The Sergeant; and the more modern sitcom-like Straight-Jacket.

Other gay-themed movies [or films that at least have gay characters or sub-plots] that have been reviewed on this blog include Streamers; Prayers for Bobby; Scream of the Butterfly; Reflections in a Golden Eye; Walk on the Wild Side; The Legend of Lylah Clare; Fellini Satyricon; Something for Everyone; and even The X Files: I Want to Believe; among others.