A dead blackmailer, a pact of silence, and one artist who saw too much.
A blackmailer is murdered, and those who witnessed the scene agree to keep quiet; the complication is that the scene is also witnessed by a young artist, a victim of blackmail as well. (BFI Website)
Acting
Bogarde's simmering desperation as compromised artist Stephen.
Direction
Allégret's claustrophobic framing traps you with the conspirators.
Director
Marc Allégret
Mai Zetterling
Mrs. Carol Edwards
Fay Compton
Mrs. Christopher
Dirk Bogarde
Stephen Mundy
Robert Flemyng
Dr. Giles Freeman
Michael Gough
Maurice Edwards
James Robertson Justice
Mr. Sine
Joan Rice
Alma
Wilfrid Hyde-White
Lord Dearsley
Cyril Chamberlain
Police Constable
Harold Huth
Hugh Sainsbury
Nora Gordon
Sine's Housekeeper
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Shot in just four weeks on a shoestring budget, this was Bogarde's warm-up for his darker Victim twelve years later.
The blackmail victim being an artist was code for 'gay' in 1951 British cinema — the Hays Code couldn't touch UK productions, but audiences knew exactly what Stephen's 'compromising letters' meant.
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