Victim (1961) on Netflix

A closeted lawyer risks his career to bring a blackmailer to justice.

A plea for reform of England's anti-sodomy statutes, Melville Farr (Sir Dirk Bogarde), a married lawyer, tries to locate a blackmailer who has photos of Farr and a crying young gay man (who is being blackmailed and later commits suicide) in Farr's car. After the suicide, Farr tracks down other gay men being extorted for money by the same blackmail scheme. Worldly Police Detective Inspector Harris (John Barrie) considers the anti-sodomy law nothing more than a license to blackmailers, and eventually is contacted by Farr to capture the malicious blackmailer. The movie, far ahead of its time, ends with Farr and his loving wife coming to terms with his homosexual tendencies in advance of the public exposure he will face in the team of blackmailers' trial.

—Mike Mills <mills@colorado.edu>

"Boy" Barrett, a young English construction worker, is arrested for stealing a large sum of money from his firm. When he learns that the police know he used the money to pay a ring of blackmailers who threatened to expose him as a homosexual, he hangs himself rather than endanger the career of Melville Farr, a successful barrister with whom he had become emotionally, but not sexually, involved. Farr does become implicated, however, when the police discover that the blackmailers were using a photograph of them together to extort money from Barrett. Filled with remorse and angered by the existence of a law that makes homosexuals criminals, thereby making them easy prey for blackmailers, Farr decides to jeopardize both his marriage and his career by bringing those responsible for Farr's suicide to justice. Before his marriage Farr had admitted to his wife, Laura, that he had homosexual tendencies; now, forced to confess that these tendencies still exist, he offers Laura her freedom. Despite pressure from both the blackmailers and their victims, Farr cooperates with the police in tracking down the blackmailers--a sadistic young hoodlum, Sandy, and an embittered spinster, Miss Benham. Though fully aware that the scandal will ruin him, Farr insists upon prosecuting; as he prepares his case, Laura, who still loves him, realizes that her husband's need for her is stronger than any passing emotion he may feel, and she intimates that she will return to him when the trial is over.

Jack Barrett (Peter McEnery) is found dead in his jail cell. He was being held for embezzling money from the construction company where he worked, and that he admitted to the Police to doing it. He committed suicide rather than admit the truth of why he took the money, because he was being blackmailed for being a homosexual, at a time in 1960s England when anti-sodomy laws were still in place. The other person involved and photographed with Jack, is married barrister Melville Farr (Sir Dirk Bogarde). Barrett tried to contact Farr, but the lawyer thought the young man was trying to blackmail him. Farr comes to realize that Barrett was trying to warn him. Farr decides to risk his own high standing in the community, and recent appointment to the Queens Council, by tracking down the blackmailer. Farr enlists the help of Barrett's gay friend Eddy Stone (Donald Churchill) to try to find someone else who is being blackmailed so he can make contact with the blackmailer. Farr knows his career is over if he involves the Police. Through this turmoil, Farr must deal with the fallout with his loving wife Laura (Sylvia Syms), who knew of her husband's tragic college homosexual experience before they were married. Farr discovers the blackmail scheme involves several acquaintances and gets an offer of assistance from sympathetic Detective Inspector Harris (John Barrie). Farr is challenged to find those responsible before anyone else is hurt and he breaks the law through his involvement with the embezzlers.

—Huggo