In discussing the ‘unsuccessful effort’ of A Tale of Two Cities, Bogarde addressed the problem of having his name associated with matinée-idol roles in England which was not the case abroad: ‘I fear, because of my position in popular cinema then, it just came over as “another Dirk Bogarde piece.” OK for the fans, but not really suitable for the nobs. In the UK anyway, my name stuck to a classic was the kiss of death. Abroad it was not. After all, mine was a foreign name and abroad I had long been accepted as a serious player. I suppose because they had been mercifully spared most of the junk films I had had to make in the early years. So when it came to Thomas Mann and von Aschenbach no one curled sardonic lips. At least as far as I know.’ (For the Time Being, 116-117) On the other hand, Bogarde did not mask his lack of respect for critics, no doubt fuelling their negative reactions when he commented: ‘Far too many critics write to please themselves and a small band of chums.’ Further, he urged, critics ought to review a film not just for content but also ‘for the kind of audience at which it is aimed’ instead of damning it because it ‘doesn’t reach their personal intellectual level’ or to praise it simply because it is in a foreign language. (Films and Filming, May 1963, 13)

He also suspected that his name had kept him from being taken seriously by British producers and directors, who wrote off every new film, regardless of content or performance, as just ‘another Dirk Bogarde piece’. Bogarde wryly commented: ‘My name, I fear, held me back from being cast in classical films. Too foreign, too “pop”, too associated with lightweight stuff – funny doctors, sad-eyed subalterns, stern wing commanders, romantic “juves” - ever to be considered for the loftier realms of the classic-book department. Anyway, they weren’t making many. And when they did, the film chaps tended to use theatre people.’ (For the Time Being, 116)