February 5, 1962
VICTIM, a 1961 landmark British thriller starring Dirk Bogarde in an acclaimed and career-altering performance about a blackmail ring that preys on homosexuals, opens in the United States. In her review Pauline Kael states, “this pioneering attempt to create public sympathy for homosexuals and to publicize the English laws that put them in jeopardy is ingenious, moralistic and moderately amusing.”
Unfortunately the film does not make a similar impression here. It is handled by American Pathe, an under-financed independent distributor that had scant resources for the release. The film is seen briefly in only the major cities and passes mostly unnoticed in the rest of the country. American Pathe would be absorbed by AIP, the home base of producer Roger Corman, later in the year.
