History of London, 20th Century
This paper is interested to uncover the history of London in the 20th century. What was it like in London in the 20th century? What were the evils that prevailed? Which characters that were deemed illegal were spotted throughout the 20th Century? These are some of the questions this article hopes to answer so as to satisfy the inquisitiveness of the reader towards the social evils that prevailed in the 20th century in London. My interest in the article lays on two social evils that were deemed illegal in the century and still are. These will be the main theme of the article and they are blackmail and homosexuality.
I will use the setting of a movie that gave an accurate depiction of the way life used to be in London in the 20th century during the year 1961, the time at which the movie was produced. This theme from the movie will also be supported from several secondary sources that I will base my review from. Basil Dearden, a movie director, in the movie, Victim (1961), uses several different characters in order to express and bring out setting of London in the 20th century with respect to homosexuality and blackmail.
[...] Of specific interest are sections on the John Christie killings, on the book of the Wolfenden Review, on the transformed characteristics of men's sex club. It also gives details of the Profumo affair. In each section, Mort draws together his resources to provide parts of social activities. For example, to talk about the killings of John Christie, Mort positions the activities within the discussion of city planning in post-war, the flow of city worries, and the tense atmosphere between the working-class families of whites and Western Native Indian immigrants. [...]
[...] This movie shows the type of moral decadency that was at the time in London in the twilight zone. This was decay in the moral fiber of the society both in queer sexuality and in the decriminization of homosexuality hence leading to blackmail of those who are engaging in the act of homosexuality. Those who were engaging in the queer behavior often opted to pay up blackmailers just to keep their secrets safe and hushed up. The movie brings out a dark depiction of what was going on in London in the 20th century. [...]
[...] His journey as an intellectual is majorly based with his involvement with the Gay Liberation Front in Britain. Weeks had one of his books named Coming out. In this book he has highlighted the history of the politics of homosexuality in Britain based on a viewpoint that came to be referred to as the 'social constructionist, concept of sexual identities (this theory was highly influenced by the article 'The Homosexual Role' that was written by Mary McIntosh in 1968). He drew his findings and research from London school of business library. [...]
[...] It gives a story of a character named Cyril. The young man Cyril L., in the August of 1934, had written to Billy who was his friend about all the interesting men he had met during his visits to swinging nightclubs and the vivid new lifestyle he had made for himself in the big city of London. He had written that he had been queer since the time he came to London approximately two years ago and before that he knew nothing about being queer. [...]
[...] The investigator (Barrett's friend) recognizes a gay hairstylist who has also been blackmailed by the group of blackmailers, but the hairstylist is not willing to disclose who his blackmailers are. The hairstylist in course of the investigation is visited by one of the tormentors (blackmailer) and in the process he experiences cardiac arrest. Before his loss of life, he is able to call Farr's home and he manages to leave a mumbled message making reference to another individual under blackmail from the same group. [...]
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