Cinema: A Plea for Perversion?

Victim (Allied; Pathé-America), a British picture that the Johnston office has found "thematically objectionable," elaborates a startling statistic: in nine out of ten cases of blackmail in Britain, the victim is a homosexual. Why? The answer, as provided by a speech in the script: "A law which sends homosexuals to prison"—as Britain's does—"is a charter for blackmail." As the film begins, a young homosexual (Peter McEnery) who has robbed his employer to pay his extortionist is caught by the police. Rather than implicate the eminent barrister (Dirk Bogarde) with whom he is emotionally (though not sexually) involved, the boy commits suicide....