Dirk Bogarde on TCM
Strangely, Dirk Bogarde never became a major star in the United States. I’m sure he was well known in the US in the ’50s and ’60s, but he wasn’t the superstar he was in Britain or the top star he was internationally. Perhaps Bogarde just didn’t care for Hollywood stardom — certainly not when in Europe he got to work for the likes of Joseph Losey, Luchino Visconti, Alain Resnais, Liliana Cavani, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, John Schlesinger, Anthony Asquith, and the now all-but-forgotten but generally capable Basil Dearden.
Anyhow, today is Dirk Bogarde day as Turner Classic Movies continues with its "Summer Under the Stars" series, which features two TCM premieres later this evening: The Blue Lamp (1950) and The Servant (1963).
The former is a conventional cop drama (directed by Basil Dearden) whose chief point of interest lies in the fact that it was a major box-office hit at the time, helping to propel Bogarde’s budding film career to bigger heights.
The latter film, on the other hand, is anything but conventional. Directed by American political refugee Joseph Losey and adapted by Harold Pinter from Robin Maugham’s novel about a valet who turns the tables on his aristocratic master, The Servant is one of the seminal works of the 1960s. (Much like another Losey-Pinter collaboration, The Go-Between, would become one of the seminal works of the 1970s.) Mixing class distinctions with power and sexual politics, The Servant is adult filmmaking at its most intellectually gripping, with Bogarde, James Fox (as the master), and Sarah Miles (as the servant’s "sister") delivering entrancing performances.
The Servant (right, with Wendy Craig) is also of interest on another standpoint.
Bogarde was gay in real life, but remained in the closet until his death in 1999. Additionally, from what I’ve read — including several of his tell-nothing autobiographies — Bogarde was a firm believer in traditional values such as xenophobia, anti-Semitism, racism, and colonialism.
Yet, he starred in a number of productions that could be called "subversive" (or at least "daring," e.g., the aforementioned The Servant, King & Country, The Damned, The Night Porter) and on top of that he was the first major film star to play a gay lead in a grade-A production, Basil Dearden’s Victim, released in 1961. (Bogarde had previously played a — somewhat implicit — gay character at least once: the psychopathic murderer in the 1958 thriller Cast a Dark Shadow.) In The Servant he becomes (implicitly) involved in another man-to-man relationship, something he’d do at least once again — and more obviously, albeit platonically — in Luchino Visconti’s Death in Venice in 1971.
I just find it bizarre that a reactionary, deeply closeted actor would be willing to tackle gay characters, and other assorted sexual and social "deviants" on screen for all to see at a time when most movie stars wouldn’t dare get near such roles.
I haven’t seen, yet, either Our Mother’s House or Damn the Defiant!. The former is a psychological thriller directed by Jack Clayton, who made a mere seven features during his four-decade film career. One of those was The Innocents (1961), which remains one of the best ghost movies ever; another was Room at the Top (1959), an unbridled melodrama that (somewhat surprisingly) was quite well received at the time. My point: Our Mother’s House should be worth a look.
Directed by Lewis Gilbert, Damn the Defiant! sounds like a British version of Mutiny on the Bounty, but set aboard a different ship. (I’m assuming it’s no coincidence that the film came out in 1962, the year the disastrous Mutiny on the Bounty remake directed by Lewis Milestone was released.) Since Bogarde and Alec Guinness are in Damn the Defiant!, it’s definitely worth checking out.
So Long at the Fair (1950) is a solid mystery-thriller (and a cautionary tale for the English abroad), in which Jean Simmons desperately searches for her missing brother through the streets of Paris, while Darling (1965, above) is another seminal ’60s flick. Directed by John Schlesinger, this Swinging London drama depicts the life and times of an ambitious young woman and her many men. Some believe that Darling has dated rather rapidly; I find it one of the most interesting films of the decade, thanks in large part to Julie Christie’s star-making (and Oscar-winning) performance.
Pacific Time
10 Monday
3:00 AM Esther Waters (1948)
A housemaid’s life is complicated by the attentions of a seductive groom. Cast: Kathleen Ryan, Dirk Bogarde, Cyril Cusack. Dir: Ian Dalrymple, Peter Proud. BW-110 mins.
5:00 AM Simba (1955)
A European family gets caught between English colonists and African rebels. Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Virginia McKenna, Basil Sydney. Dir: Brian Desmond Hurst. C-99 mins.
6:45 AM Spanish Gardener, The (1956)
The British consul in Spain resents his son’s friendship with a gardener. Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Michael Hordern, Jon Whiteley. Dir: Philip Leacock. C-95 mins.
8:30 AM Penny Princess (1952)
A young American woman with no political or financial experience finds herself the heiress to a tiny European country. Cast: Yolande Donlan, Dirk Bogarde, Edwin Styles. Dir: Val Guest. C-90 mins.
10:15 AM Doctor in the House (1955)
A medical student tries to balance partying with healing the sick. Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Muriel Pavlow, Kenneth More. Dir: Ralph Thomas. C-92 mins.
12:00 PM Doctor at Large (1957)
A young doctor tries to survive a series of disastrous nternships. Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Muriel Pavlow, James Robertson Justice. Dir: Ralph Thomas. C-99 mins.
1:45 PM Doctor in Distress (1963)
An intern and his antagonistic boss bond over romantic problems. Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Samantha Eggar, James Robertson Justice. Dir: Ralph Thomas. C-103 mins.
3:30 PM So Long at the Fair (1950)
A woman searches for her missing brother in Paris despite the fact that nobody believes he exists. Cast: Jean Simmons, Dirk Bogarde, David Tomlinson. Dir: Antony Darnborough, Terence Fisher. BW-86 mins.
5:00 PM Blue Lamp, The (1950)
A London Bobbie goes after the crooks who shot his partner. Cast: Jack Warner, Jimmy Hanley, Dirk Bogarde. Dir: Basil Dearden. BW-85 mins.
6:30 PM Servant, The (1963)
A wily manservant takes over his dissolute master’s estate. Cast: Dirk Bogarde, James Fox, Sarah Miles. Dir: Joseph Losey. BW-116 mins.
8:30 PM Our Mother’s House (1967)
Afraid of being separated, a family of children keep their mother’s death a secret. Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Pamela Franklin, Mark Lester. Dir: Jack Clayton. BW-106 mins.
10:30 PM Darling (1965)
A young beauty sacrifices love and happiness to become an international celebrity. Cast: Julie Christie, Dirk Bogarde, Laurence Harvey. Dir: John Schlesinger. BW-126 mins.
1:00 AM Damn The Defiant! (1962)
The crew of a British sailing ship threatens mutiny during the Napoleonic wars. Cast: Alec Guinness, Dirk Bogarde, Anthony Quayle. Dir: Lewis Gilbert. C-101 mins.
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Tags: Basil Dearden, Classic Movies, Darling, Dirk Bogarde, Gay Interest, Harold Pinter, Joseph Losey, Julie Christie, So Long at the Fair, TCM, The Servant, Turner Classic Movies
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3 Responses to “Dirk Bogarde on TCM”
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Interesting article, but since when are xenophobia, racisim, anti-semitism and colonialism “traditional values?” That line is insulting. There is nothing “traditional” about these abhorrent attitudes. Pervasive values of that day, perhaps. But I’m not even sure I would agree with that. It’s a bad line, thrown into the middle of an otherwise interesting article. Thoughtless. You can do better – and should.
Thanks for the comment.
I was being ironic. But then again, I was also making a point.
Those *are* traditional values that are passed on from generation to generation. They have been around for millennia — and are very much around and bandied about today, even if under different guises.
And there are still millions of deeply closeted Dirk Bogardes all over the place thanks to a “traditional value” called anti-gay bigotry.
Bogarde wsa really good in victim.
He was also fine in Death in Venice.