Against The Law (DVD Review) – A look back at one of Britain’s most infamous gay sex scandals

Against the Law was the opening night film of this year’s BFI Flare London LGBT Film Festival and one of the centrepieces of the BBC’s Gay Britannia series. It’s easy to see why a film about Peter Wildeblood seemed apt this year. He was one of the key figures in what happened in the run up to the Wolfenden Report, which recommenced that gay male sex in England and Wales should be decriminalised. Although it took 10 years for the government to act, eventually gay sex was partly made legal 50 years ago in 1967.

The events were previously turned into a very good 2007 docudrama by Channel 4 in the form of A Very British Sex Scandal (the 50th Anniversary of the Wolfenden report). However, while A Very British Sex Scandal was mostly interested in the beginning of the story, Against The Law focuses its thematic energies on what happened next. It also includes documentary elements, with a collection of older gentlemen offering their remembrances of what life was like when being gay was illegal. It’s a style reminiscent of Switzerland’s excellent gay movie, The Circle (Der Kreis), which was also a proper film, but included contributions from real people involved in the world it was talking about.

In the early 1950s Daniel Wildeblood (Daniel Mays) is a writer working for the Daily Mail. He’s also gay. While many gay men at the time are wary of forming lasting relationships as it can leave them open to blackmail or police prosecution, Wildeblood begins to fall for a young soldier called Eddie (Richard Gadd). That leads to a weekend at a cottage on the Beaulieu estate of Daniel’s friend, Lord Montagu, along with a man called Michael Pitt-Rivers.

Wildeblood then gets caught up in the police’s determination to imprison Lord Montagu, as the cops’ previous prosecution for gross indecency failed. All those who attended the weekend party at Beaulieu are hauled in front of the courts. While Peter has lived his life trying to be as discreet about his sexuality as possible, he begins to realise that the situation he’s in and the unfairness of it may be something he fight against, which leads him to becoming one of the few gay people who submitted evidence in person to the Wolfenden Committee.

Often looks at Wildeblood and the court case he was involved have focused on the more prurient aspects. They’ve lip service to looking at the social and legal surrounding homosexuality in the UK in the 1950s, while really being more interested in what went on in the small beachside house at Beaulieu and whether the men did get up to sexual shenanigans or not. Against The Law seems aware of that, to the point where it treats what went on that weekend as rather irrelevant (which to a large extent it was). Whatever happened it was unfair and a total witch-hunt. However, the high-profile case helped mark a shift in public opinion, with many starting to see such prosecutions as unnecessary persecution of people whose actions weren’t affecting anyone else and couldn’t help their ‘condition’.

Against the Law concentrates on the transformation of a man who starts out relatively timid, afraid and desperate not to call attention to himself – knowing he could be sent to prison for being gay, Wildeblood tries to stay under the radar. However, as he faces increasing oppression for something he has no power over, he begins to rethink his relationship with his sexuality and to discover a power and confidence he never knew he had. In this context, his story become a microcosm of the gay rights struggle over the last 50 years, from lurking in the shadows to standing up and demanding to be heard.

Admittedly, his testimony to the Wolfenden Committee does sound rather archaic and homophobic now, but for the time he was being incredibly progressive. This leads to an odd moment in the film where his dismissal of camp, openly flamboyant men in front of the committee is contrasted with one of those ‘sissies’ facing a homophobic beating. It’s presumably supposed to show that Wildeblood doesn’t appreciate what those who were visibly gay or gender non-conforming at the time went through, but it could easily be taken as the film backing Wildeblood up by punishing a camp person for their showiness.

Overall though it’s an interesting and nicely made film. The addition of the interviews with real, older gay people adds power to the piece and emotional resonance to its conclusion, especially those who admit their continuing pain about their collusion with the state oppression of homosexuals, despite being gay themselves. Their testimony backs up what’s on the screen and gives it a broader context. It’s a reminder that while this may be about one of the most famous gay ‘scandals’ of the 1950s, the laws around gay sex and society’s hatred of gay people effected a broad swathe of people from all walks of life.

Daniel Mays is great in the central role. He’s an actor who’s always good, but doesn’t get to take centre stage as often as he should. He brings a real sweetness and humanity to Wildeblood, so that even when the character does things that could seem cowardly or self-hating to modern eyes, it’s understandable. Indeed, while showing the unfairness and cruelty of how society treated gay people, it also makes you wonder how you would have reacted back then, when being openly gay wasn’t really an option.

Overall Verdict: Against The Law manages to be both educational and entertaining, mixing retelling a famous gay sex scandal with a tale of empowerment and the recollections of real men who can remember being gay at a time when it was illegal.

Reviewer: Tim Isaac