Customer Reviews

The Leather Boys [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"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.

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.

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.

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 quickly 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 all 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.

I saw this movie in a theater in Springfield, Mass. in 1965. I took a chance and ordered a used copy. Could've fooled me, except that the seal was broken on the case. No complaints, great film (sort of an anthropological study of the Cafe Racer subculture).

This British New Wave film is in the social comment style of A Taste of Honey and A Kind of Loving and it is one of the best of these films. The relationship between the two mates in the story has been misunderstood since gay liberation and so therefore has the film. The film is about the disillusionment of youth in the modern world. The story has two young buddies enjoying the freedom of the roads on their motorbikes while facing having to grow up in the modern adult world. One of them gets married and finds himself entangled in the responsibilities of marriage, while the other (Dudley Sutton's character) is determined to avoid this fate and keep his motorbike and the freedom of the roads, so he has nothing to do with girls. However at the end of the film, when the two friends finally part to go their separate ways, Dudley Sutton's young man is left facing a future of rootless drifting with the spectre of homosexuality lurking ahead of him. The homosexual figure at the end of the film is delberately intimidating and the film's ending would not have the power that it does if he was already a homosexual. The film is about the fall of innocence and youth. Seen this way (as it was in the 60s) the film is very powerful.