Quiet compassion in Victim

Terence Davies, director of Distant Voices, Still Lives, The Long Day Closes, The House of Mirth, A Quiet Passion chooses a sequence from Victim.

In Victim, Dirk Bogarde plays a closet homosexual barrister who risks both his career and marriage to break a blackmailing gang when his young friend kills himself rather than implicate him.

There is a small scene towards the end of the film when Bogarde calls for his clerk to join him. Bogarde shows him the photograph that has obvious implications. William (the clerk) looks at the photograph and says they must get the negative, having added, if the boy wasn’t crying there could be no basis for a criminal charge. As William goes to leave, Bogarde says that surely he must have one question, and William says that he’s worked for Bogarde for 10 years and that he has never doubted his integrity.

It is a small scene of compassion and loyalty – a compassion that is so moving because of its very reticence. It moved me to tears then. It moves me to tears now.

From The Guardian, 17th March 2021

Kino Lorber have revealed that they are preparing a Blu-ray release of Basil Dearden’s film The Mind Benders (1963), starring Dirk Bogarde, Mary Ure, John Clements, Michael Bryant, and Wendy Craig. The release is expected to arrive on the market later this year.

Synopsis: Following the death of a fellow scientist accused of being a communist spy, Dr. Henry Longman (Dirk Bogarde) works to prove that his colleague had been brainwashed. To do so, Longman subjects himself to experiments in a sensory deprivation tank. This starts to take a heavy toll on his mental health; in particular, it alienates him from his wife. Additionally, his scientific credibility suffers and with it the chances for discovering the truth about his colleague. Soundtrack by Georges Auric (The Wages of Fear). NEW 4K RESTORATION.

Leading cultural historian Professor Christopher Breward recently gave a lecture at Falmouth University, titled Dirk Bogarde: From Doctor to Decadent, focussing on the nature of Dirk’s onscreen costume throughout his career.

A recording of the lecture is now hosted on the site, along with the full text of the original article. It can be found in the Style Icon section here

The headline is a quote from Dirk, speaking to James Fox at the Connaught, the old friends that Dirk refers to are Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithful.