THE BOYS

UK, 1962, 124 minutes, Black and white.
Richard Todd, Robert Morley, Dudley Sutton, Ronald Lacey, Tony Garnett, Felix Aylmer, Jess Conrad, Wilfrid Brambell, Colin Jordan, Kenneth J. Warren, Allan Cuthbertson, Roy Kinnear, Patrick Magee.
Directed by Sidney J. Furie.

The Boys is a slice of life from the early 1960s. It is set in London. The film is also, basically, a court case.

Four young men, led by a very young Dudley Sutton, are accused of killing a nightwatchman. They intended to rob the company of a hundred pounds but only fifteen shillings was in the box. Richard Todd plays the prosecutor, Robert Morley the defence counsel, Felix Aylmer is the judge.

Of interest is the cast of a lot of the witnesses: Wilfrid Brambell, Colin Jordan, Allan Cuthbertson, Roy Kinnear.

The film is talkative, much of the court action is in testimony. However, there are various flashbacks to the versions of the story told by the young man as well as those of the witnesses.

The film has a lot to say about Teddy Boys and the kind of violence among the young in London at the period. However, compared with the thugs of later decades, these boys are very well dressed with coats and ties and speak quite well. However, the mindless brutality and greed that they exhibit continued to be part of the British heritage as well as the gangs in London and other British cities.

The film was directed by Canadian Sidney J. Furie who went on to make The Leather Boys with Dudley Sutton, a film about gangs as well as homosexuals. He had a long career in Hollywood, with such films in the 1960s as The Naked Runner with Frank Sinatra, in the 1970s with Go Tell the Spartans with Burt Lancaster. After that he tended to direct action films but also directed Superman 4 in the 80s.

1.An interesting film? For British audiences? A perspective on the past? Relevant to contemporary crime?

2.The black and white photography, the court sequences, life in London, homes, the streets? The musical score?

3.The structure of the film: the introduction of the boys, their plea, the prosecutor and the defence counsel, the judge? The court hearings? The succession of witnesses? The flashbacks? Webster and his recalling the boys? The flashbacks for their version of what happened? The ultimate confession? The sentencing?

4.The death penalty, the history of the death penalty, innocent and guilty? The later dropping of the death penalty?

5.Richard Todd as Victor Webster: the prosecutor, his questions, his passion? His checking on the accounts paid by the boys? His realisation of the truth? His final cross-examination of Stanley Coulter? The confession?

6.Robert Morley as Montgomery, his cross-questioning of the witnesses, of the boys? His final speech about crime, compassion?

7.The judge, hearing the case, his interventions, permissions, summing up?

8.The boys, their age, experience and backgrounds? In the court? The stories and the flashbacks, the man and his girlfriend with the car, the toilet attendant, the man in the cinema queue, the bus conductor? Their behaviour, loutish? The support of each other?

9.Coulter as the leader, his influence on Billy Herne as an apprentice? The friendship with Thompson? The role of Lee? Their characters, age, seeing Billy at home, shaving? Thompson and his family? Lee and his mother? Their going out together, a night out? The need for money, the truth of what happened, the confrontations? The build-up to the truth about the attack on the nightwatchman, the brutality of the stabbings? The taking of the fifteen shillings? Using it? Coulter being trapped on the stand about the expenses and where he got the money? The penalties, Thompson innocent, the others guilty, Coulter to be executed? The brutality of the crime?

10.The succession of witnesses, on the stand, their various stories, how true their accounts?

11.The point made about the generation gap, Montgomery’s interrogation about criminal look, Teddy Boys? Their own personal stories? The attempt to discredit them, the behaviour of the man in the cinema queue and bringing in the young man to witness against him? The urinal attendant and his age? The bus conductor and his psychiatric situation? The man with the car – and whether the young woman was his wife or not?

12.The cumulative effect of the court case, the interrogations, the flashbacks? Guilt? Penalty?

13.A film of the 1960s, the British style of justice, treatment in court? The role of the jury? The role of the judge?