BOOKS

Notices and reviews of books, articles, plays and poetry dealing with homosexuality and the sex variant. Readers are invited to send in reviews or printed matter for review.

FORD

VICTIM by William Drummond, adapted from an original screenplay by Janet Green and John McCormick; Transworld Publishers, London, 1961.

This is not so much the review of a book as it is of a movie I have not seen, and which, presumably, since I understand that it may not be allowed to be shown on the west coast, I will never see. I do not know whether it is a good movie or a very bad one, but, to give it the benefit of the doubt, I can imagine that with the proper direction something akin to the old pre-war, pre-Hollywood Hitchcock touch-it might be interesting, suspenseful, even exciting. But I have read the book and there is no doubt of its quality. It is, after a fairly interesting beginning, dull, poorly written, and almost trashy. As a piece of fiction it does not merit this review.

The book and, presumably, the movie are certainly not indecent nor obscene there are no sex scenes whatsoever, there are scarcely any coarse words. By no stretch of the imagination is there anything which can be called prurient or sexually stimulating. Why, then, should the movie not be shown on the west coast, and why should I bother to write this review? The answer is the same to both questions-the movie is banned, and the book is reviewed here because of its forthright discus-

sion of homosexuality and homosexuals.

It is not that homosexuality is depicted in an attractive light or even sympathetically for this is not the case. At best it is described as an unfortunate and rather wretched condition, but it is considered as something which is here to stay and which is not going to be made to disappear either by failing to recognize it or by treating unfairly those who practice it. The homosexual characters in the book are not attractive people. Only the hero, a prosperous, successful, and extremely promising young barrister is presented sympathetically. And he, I must hasten to add, is a man who, while he openly admits having had homosexual tendencies in an earlier day (it is definitely not clear whether he had ever actually indulged in homosexual practices) has steadfastly and morally rejected these tendencies, married a charming and understanding woman to whom he has confessed his onetime weaknesses, and gone on to complete fulfillment and happiness as a heterosexual. All the other homosexuals we meet are either sniveling weaklings, semi-underworld types, or, in the case of those who are financially, professionally or socially successful, promiscuous, foppish, and unprincipled lechers.

The plot itself turns upon the existence of an organized blackmail ring which preys exclusively upon

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