Bordering on being simply an exploitation film, the actual story is worthy of early Swedish Ingmar Bergman, and equally doom laden. Made in Denmark in 1957 this ' exposes ' a male prostitution racket, except that the gay customers never get their money's worth. Homosexuals are depicted in a grey sort of area, and one says ' I hate myself ' which sums up their ' outcast ' state in a dog eat dog society that is both brutal and uncaring towards the dispossessed, especially the poor. One such poverty stricken man says. ' they all get us in the end ' and nobody except the rich win. A sad comment on Denmark of the mid-1950's. The story itself is that of a seventeen year old youth, good looking and vulnerable who cannot get a job, and finds himself prey to a couple of pimps waiting to exploit his looks and his life. I was reminded of certain prostitution films made in France during the same era, usually played by either Francoise Arnoul, or Odile Versois in the English made ' Passport to Shame ', except for the female prostitute there is a handy understanding male to save them. This is not the case for young Anton played by a placid actor ( Ib Mossin )who looked like a lamb waiting for the slaughter house, and of course the character he plays is heterosexual. As a critique of a rotten society it deserves a 5 and is as gloomily fatalistic as early Bergman, which is a compliment to its film making. Full of shadows and mist it shows oppression and self-destruction well, but its depiction of homosexuality is appallingly negative, shown one-dimensionally as the worst of pitiful fates. The well of loneliness never looked deeper! 1957 also produced ' The Third Sex ' in Germany, and both were not given a certificate in the UK.
Review of Sin Alley
