Product Details

• Actors: Rita Tushingham, Colin Campbell, Dudley Sutton, Gladys Henson, Avice Landone
• Directors: Sidney J. Furie
• Writers: Gillian Freeman
• Producers: Raymond Stross
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Kino Video
• VHS Release Date: June 27, 2000
• Run Time: 108 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305381194
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #315,783 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Though Sidney J. Furie's Leather Boys was controversial in its day, its boldness has dissipated with time. Set in the world of the leather-jacket-clad motorcycle clubs of British youth, this product of the British social-realist "kitchen sink" movement is at its best capturing the details of working-class life: the holiday camps, the claustrophobic studio homes, the pubs and cafés that dot neighborhood streets. Schoolgirl Dot (the engaging Rita Tushingham) and mechanic Reg (Colin Campbell) marry too early and quickly discover adulthood is not nearly as much fun as they expected. She's a social gadfly and he's a stick-in-the-mud homebody and they bring out the worst in each other. Mere months after exchanging vows he moves out to care for his widowed grandma, inviting his new mate Pete (Dudley Sutton) to bunk with him, but Pete's interest in Reg, as we learn, is more than just friendly. Tushingham is marvelous as Dot, an immature young woman alternately selfish, sincere, and desperate, and Campbell makes the soft-spoken Reg as blind to her needs as she is to his, but Furie barely hints at what brings them together in the first place--the moment the vows are spoken they seem to be at loggerheads, disagreements turning to vicious bickering. The film's reputation largely rests on its oblique exploration of the gay underground, provocative in its time, but today it's a lesser companion to such classics as The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner and This Sporting Life. --Sean Axmaker

From the Back Cover

Three lives ripped savagely apart. A bold and engaging drama set agaisnt the decadent motorcycle clubs of 1960s England, The Leather Boys combines the sexual frankness and harsh realism of the British New Wave with the homoeroticism of Kenneth Anger's Scorpio Rising.
Rita Tushingham (A Taste of Honey) and Coin Campbell star as Dot and Reg, a pair of high school sweethearts who marry and quickly learn about the follies and hardships of adulthood. When the couple splits, Reg finds solace in the company of his irresponsible pal Pete (Dudley Sutton), but comes to discover that event this carefree friendship is not without its complications.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Out of the Past, April 1, 2000

By 

A. Hickman (Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Leather Boys [VHS] (VHS Tape)

"Leather Boys" is a black-and-white noirish film of the kitchen sink school directed by Canadian Sidney J. Furie and starring '60s pop icon Rita Tushingham. However, it is Colin Campbell, as Tushingham's young husband, who takes center stage in the drama, and his performance is heart-breaking. "Leather Boys" is essentially a drama about consequences. Campbell's character marries Tushingham because that's what a young man from his class and with his prospects does. But he is unhappy in marriage and with the lack of options available to a young man in the era before London began to swing in the 1960s, without really knowing why. Then a new mate comes into his life, played by the great character actor Dudley Sutton, and his world is suddenly turned upside down. Can a couple of motorcycle jocks find love in England in 1963? You probably already know the answer to that one, but see for yourself how it plays out on film. The closing scene is a study in ambivalence. To my mind, this is a little-known classic of early "gay" cinema.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good drama, not really dated, July 1, 2004

By 

J. A. Torrontegui (Spain) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Leather Boys (DVD) 1963 (DVD)

If you've read other reviews you know about the plot. I think the movie is quite good.
Some people call the movie dated, but I think it's a consequence of its time-capsuling quality. I mean, the movie looks and sounds so real, it's true that this characters wouldn't exist today, but it's also so human, we can still relate to them, and at the same time we get the feeling of life in another era.
The acting is excellent, uncompromised. I hear the leading lady was an iconic pop idol. Well, hers is a really unflattering character and she doesn't try any trick to make her more sympathetic. But we still care for her, or at least understand her behaviour, becouse the script is so true and balanced, I'd say it's a fair script to every character.
I think the most troublesome character from today's audience's point of view, is the young husband played by Colin Campbell. I guess becouse it takes him a really loooong time to realize that his new buddy is gay. But if you look at it in its context time-wise, this may be easier to understand. Also, there's the hint that he might really know about it much sooner, but doesn't want to acknoledge it, the same way he does with the troubles with his wife.
About the dvd: this is a 2.35 non-anamorphic transfer, and not a very good one. There's a lot of aliasing, everywhere and most of the time. The sound is so-so, but worst of all for me is that there are no subtitles or captions at all.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Different Look At The Lonely, January 21, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Leather Boys (DVD) 1963 (DVD)

This film is a really wonderful example of the fact that anyone can feel polarized, alone, and alienated. Reg is a young straight biker mechanic who gets married to a harpy of a woman who is just awful to him. Rita Tushingham plays his young wife as a woman with seemingly no love just a desire to complain and be absolutely nasty to Reg. So along comes Pete, a homosexual motorcylist who befriends Reg. Reg does not realize Pete is a homosexual, and can't quite figure out Pete's motivations some times, but he really likes Pete and consider's Pete his best friend. As the relationship between Reg and his terribly cruel wife (who obviously has no soul) deteriorates he spends more and time with Pete. Pete believes that they should go off to America together (he and Reg) as Reg has no intention of staying with the gorgon back at home. Reg finally realizes Pete likes him and doesn't quite no how to take it but since Pete is the best friend he ever had he does not want to lose him. Reg and the medusa try once more to get back together but as usual she shows her true colors. Really, her character is the most unsympatheticly written person ever in a movie...you can't help but hate this woman because she is just awful and not satisfied with anything. So Reg tells Pete that the trip to America is on. But on the way to the boat Pete leaves Reg in a gay bar where several very aggressive men hit on him. Reg is sort of taken aback and realizes that maybe he does not belong with Pete in his world either. The film ends with Reg leaving Pete standing in front of the gay bar and Reg walking away absolutely alone. This film dispels the myth that gay men are the only ones with identity problems. At the end, Pete still has his idendity, the horrible wife does. But the straight guy is left with nothing. He is alone, and fits in nowhere. He does not belong in the straight or gay world. He is a misfit. Doomed to walk off alone onto the highway. He doesn't know where he's going and who know's where he'll ever end up.