The film

The Victim (1961) is the one film in the world that has made a difference to my life. It concerns a blackmailing racket whose victims were homosexual. The cast risked their careers by making the film at a time when homosexuality was a criminal offence. It is thought that this film was instrumental in paving the way for homosexuality to be de-criminalized in 1967.
I like the story because it is completely un-sentimental and the scenarios are based on fact. There is no stereotyping and there are no clichés. I remember that time and it was a dark one. Peoples' lives were destroyed by blackmailers or by being arrested, and by the terrible way in which such stories were reported in the press. People were liable to lose their jobs if their employers found out they were gay. Some people committed suicide when discovered because of the terrible 'shame'. Such discrimination was, of course, quite legal.
The law which proscribed homosexuality at that time was based on old testament bigotry. The same prejudice is expressed by the female gang-member in the film, when she is finally arrested on suspicion of blackmail.
I remember looking over my shoulder as a teenager, fearful of being arrested (the age of consent for us was then twenty-one) or blackmailed. Even then it was still unwise for one's employer to know about such things. I threw caution to the wind and would tell people if I were asked (but what it had to do with other people, and why they wanted to know, are beyond me). I faced a great deal of hostility from people in general and from one government in particular. I even had one dear, righteous lady at work (actually she was a vindictive old hag) telling me I would die before my next birthday, based on her old testament delusions. That cheerful prophesy, I hardly need add, did not come to pass.
Such views as I have described still exist in this country, but are not nearly as widespread as before. We are now subject to laws which are fair and just, so those pathetic views have become an irrelevance.