Watch Victim - BFI Player (2025)

Overview

This thought-provoking 1961 classic stars Dirk Bogarde as a prominent lawyer who risks his career to hunt down a blackmailer. Jack Barrett (Peter McEnery), a blackmail victim who has stolen a large sum of money from his employer, desperately tries to contact married barrister Melville Farr (Bogarde) but is arrested before he can reach him and commits suicide in his cell. Farr realises someone must know about their homosexual relationship - still illegal at that time - and Barrett was attempting to save his reputation. With his loyal companion dead and wife Laura (Sylvia Syms) demanding answers, he must think and act fast.

This sociologically significant film played an influential role in liberalising attitudes regarding the illegality of homosexuality in 1960s Britain.

Director

Basil Dearden

Featuring

Dirk Bogarde , Sylvia Syms and Dennis Price

Genres

Crime and Drama

Certificate

Watch Victim - BFI Player (1)Contains mild language and sex references

Country

United Kingdom

Language

No Dialogue with English subtitles

Accessibility

CC

Crime

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Mr. Holmes Mr. Holmes

Crime 2015 104 mins Director: Bill Condon

Ian McKellen plays the august detective, now a 93-year-old whose principle case is trying to unravel the mysteries of his own past.

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Triple 9 Triple 9

Crime 2015 115 mins Director: John Hillcoat

Chiwetel Ejiofor, Casey Affleck, Kate Winslet and Woody Harrelson make up the heavyweight cast for John Hillcoat’s (The Proposition) stunning heist thriller.

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Nightcrawler Nightcrawler

Crime 2014 118 mins Director: Dan Gilroy

Jake Gyllenhaal stars as a crime journalist scouring the streets of after-dark LA in a stylish thriller that examines the morals of mass media.

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If Beale Street Could Talk If Beale Street Could Talk

Crime 2018 119 mins Director: Barry Jenkins

Barry Jenkins follows his Oscar®-winning Moonlight with an audacious, distinctive and assured adaptation of James Baldwin’s account of love, injustice and racism in America.

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The Rover The Rover

Crime 2014 103 mins Director: David Michôd

Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson star in a post-apocalyptic thriller set in the Australian outback, from the director of Animal Kingdom.

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Neds Neds

Crime 2011 124 mins Director: Peter Mullan

Peter Mullan's forceful drama about a boy who becomes embroiled in gangland life in 1970s Glasgow, peppered throughout with a rich vein of black humour.

Archive Treasures

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The Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands The Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands

War 1927 106 mins Silent Director: Walter Summers

This dramatic reconstruction of two decisive naval battles from the First World War is one of the finest films of the British silent era.

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La Belle et la Bête La Belle et la Bête

Fantasy 1946 95 mins Director: Jean Cocteau

Jean Cocteau’s ravishingly restored 1946 film is a cinematic classic. “Five stars. [This] magical exploration of the fairytale is a compelling and bizarre masterpiece” –Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

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Underground Underground

Romance 1928 93 mins Silent Director: Anthony Asquith

The BFI National Archive restoration of one of Anthony Asquith's finest silent films set in London's Underground, with a new score.

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Journey to Italy Journey to Italy

Drama 1954 86 mins Director: Roberto Rossellini

Roberto Rossellini's acerbic but finally very moving masterpiece about marital crisis boasts great performances from Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders

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Winstanley Winstanley

Biopic 1976 96 mins Director: Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo

An authentic historical drama about the visionary Gerrard Winstanley who led a group of impoverished 'Diggers' to assert their common rights.

Featuring Dirk Bogarde

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Darling Darling

Drama 1965 123 mins Director: John Schlesinger

Julie Christie stars in the quintessential swinging sixties film, as a young woman flitting nonchalantly through London's nightlife.

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Death in Venice Death in Venice

Drama 1971 131 mins Silent Director: Luchino Visconti

While away in Venice, a tormented composer (Dirk Bogarde) finds himself falling for teenager Tadzio (Björn Andresen) , in this classic adaptation of Thomas Mann's elegy from Luchino Visconti.

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The Blue Lamp The Blue Lamp

Police drama 1950 85 mins Director: Basil Dearden

Dirk Bogarde stars as a loose-cannon crook with Dixon of Dock Green (Jack Warner) on his tail, in the classic Ealing policier.

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The Sea Shall Not Have Them The Sea Shall Not Have Them

War 1955 92 mins Director: Lewis Gilbert

After their aircraft is shot down, four military men cast adrift must struggle to survive in this gripping WWII drama.

Featuring Sylvia Syms

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Flame in the Streets Flame in the Streets

Drama 1961 93 mins Director: Roy Ward Baker

John Mills stars as a progressive union leader who is confronted with his own internal prejudices when his daughter brings her West Indian boyfriend home.

Directed by Basil Dearden

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The Blue Lamp The Blue Lamp

Police drama 1950 85 mins Director: Basil Dearden

Dirk Bogarde stars as a loose-cannon crook with Dixon of Dock Green (Jack Warner) on his tail, in the classic Ealing policier.

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The Goose Steps Out The Goose Steps Out

Comedy 1942 75 mins Director: Will Hay and Basil Dearden

Will Hay's third film for Ealing Studios finds the legendary comic parachuted into Nazi Germany when British intelligence discover that he's the spitting image of an enemy master spy

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Sapphire Sapphire

Police drama 1959 92 mins Director: Basil Dearden

A young student with a secret is brutally murdered in this British Academy Award winning thriller about race, sex and jealousy.

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Pool of London Pool of London

Crime 1951 85 mins Director: Basil Dearden

Earl Cameron plays a naive Jamaican sailor who's dragged into a botched diamond robbery when trying to help a friend.

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They Came to a City They Came to a City

Fantasy 1945 78 mins Director: Basil Dearden

Long-unavailable Utopian fantasy (or 'socialist propaganda'?) - a true oddity from the wartime Ealing Studios.

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All Night Long All Night Long

Drama 1962 91 mins Director: Basil Dearden

Othello is transposed to the 1960s Soho jazz scene as a malevolent drummer sows mistrust between husband-and-wife jazz luminaries.

New

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In Camera In Camera

Drama 2024 95 mins

A struggling actor faces relentless knockbacks in Naqqash Khalid’s sharp-witted comment on race and identity in the film industry.

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Kneecap Kneecap

Drama 2024 105 mins Director: Rich Peppiatt

Fantastically outlandish biopic about the anarchic Belfast rap trio and their fight to save the Irish language.

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About Dry Grasses About Dry Grasses

Romance 2023 198 mins Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Turkish Palme d’Or-winner Nuri Bilge Ceylan returns with an icy portrait of a teacher whose life unravels following an accusation of inappropriate behaviour.

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Close To You Close To You

2023 99 mins Director: Dominic Savage

Simmering apprehensions surround a family get-together as Elliot Page’s Sam returns home for the first time since transitioning, in this highly collaborative feature.

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The Light between Oceans The Light between Oceans

Drama 2016 132 mins Director: Derek Cianfrance

Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander star in Derek Cianfrance’s sweeping romance about a lighthouse keeper, his wife, and the baby they rescue from a drifting boat.

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Jackie Jackie

Biopic 2017 100 mins Director: Pablo Larraín

Natalie Portman is exceptional as the iconic First Lady who has to quickly adjust to the world-shaking trauma of her husband’s assassination.

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