Victim (1961)

Der extreme Höhepunkt des absoluten Kinos in Bezug auf die Basil-Dearden-Filmsaison.

Victim (1961) is a classic British later late period film noir blackmail and homosexuality socio public crime and mystery social issue internalised homophobia Basil Dearden lousy husband thriller noir which as well as being the the first British film to explicitly name homosexuality and deal with it sympathetically, is a sneak look into the male queer London underground as it affected lives high and low, pub going and inner court, bookshop and barber shop, and starring Dirk Bogarde, Sylvia Syms, Dennis Price, Anthony Nicholls, Peter Copley, Norman Bird and Peter McEnery as Jack "Boy" Barrett.

The Gentle Gunman (1952)

The season devoted to Basil Dearden should certainly include this curious and often overlooked film, which stands as a revealing example of his craftsmanship and of the thoughtful social concerns that quietly animate much of his work.

The Gentle Gunman (1952) is a rarely seen post-war English Limey gem wartime Blitz set Ealing take on Irish republican resistance paramilitary operation resistance and internecine war and peace moral Northern Ireland rural and Belfast-based discursive and at times genial and at times brutal adventure drama with Dirk Bogarde, John Mills, Elizabeth Sellars, Robert Beatty and also stars James Kenney who is better historically and famously known round these here parts as Cosh Boy, for he is such.

Cast A Dark Shadow (1955)

Cast A Dark Shadow (1955) is a psychopath targeting elderly widows black widower greed and murder English film noir suspenser tale of polished homicide with English cuppa tea undertones and dark shadows of psycho-style fifties persecution and cunning styled as a Limey film noir tale of manipulation and Freudian hang-ups drawing room crime thriller, directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Dirk Bogarde, Margaret Lockwood, Kay Walsh and Robert Flemyng.

The Blue Lamp (1950)

The Blue Lamp (1950) is a Limey crimey ensemble cast classic British police procedural and Ealing produced state of the nation values-led post-War copper drama, directed by Basil Dearden and starring Jack Warner, Dirk Bogarde, Bernard Lee, Peggy Evans, and is about as non-noir as it gets, while still being entirely relevant to the crime wave fevered press narratives of the day. 

its about the bonhomie and salt of the earth morality of the constables, all working men with values that we might like to interpret as British and are seen giving directions, and actually helping elderly women across the road. They even appear to have a separate division titled 'Women Police' (26:10).

The Sleeping Tiger (1954)

The Sleeping Tiger (1954) is a Brit-teen jazz-crime tearaway movie, with stiff upper lip, hot and sexy jazz in Soho, and failed psychanalysis taking place in the midst of an even harder failing marriage. 

The subject matter is the mood music of the British time; teenage criminality, the hopeless British stabbing at psychoanalysis; the tragedy of marriage and the family, and the failure of men to control the disastrous environments their misogyny created to begin with.

While Dirk Bogarde's character suffers from an inability to control his criminal teenage urges, his psychiatrist can't control his profession, and is a failure as a husband while obviously believing he is doing the right thing. When he is mansplaingly doing the wrong thing, again and again, while being the lamest husband ever.

And the teenage tearaway Dirk Bogarde is marvellous; his character longs to have actual issues but he is in fact a middle class boy, which makes his random bullying and cigarette puffing anger all the more wild; and how he has the hot-hots for his psychiatrist's moody wife!