The Leather Boys (1964) User Reviews

interesting period piece

[yawnmower1 · 8/10 · 20 May 2007]

An engaging hybrid of British 'kitchen sink' drama and American biker film, this atmospheric feature was considered daring in 1964 as it touched upon homosexuality, however obliquely. It has a suitably somber appearance in B&W but, filmed in CinemaScope, there is a certain elegance to its images.

Dot (Rita Tushingham) and Reg (handsome newcomer Colin Campbell), a young working-class couple, get married. She is sixteen, shallow, selfish, and vain. He is sweet, generally light-hearted, and thoughtful, but under pressure reverts to macho, blue-collar stereotype. As a result, they fight constantly and soon separate. Reg meets Pete, a flamboyant and extroverted biker, who becomes his best mate. They move in together while Reg sorts out his life. Despite Pete's constant mothering, possessiveness, and jealousy, naive Reg only figures out that his friend is in love with him when Pete is outed in a dockside bar at the end of the film. Typically, there could be no happy endings for gay men in 1964.

The film is especially interesting due to the photography, period locations, and the early cinematic homosexual reference. Colin Campbell is beautiful, a wonderful actor, and quite suited to the role of a confused youth trying hard, but not prepared, to be an adult. His pretty, boyish presence is essential to the theme of sexual repression which precipitates all the minor tragedies and frustrations in his life.

Be careful of the edition you buy. The currently available Televista is a poor Pan&Scan version which severely reduces the impact of this cult classic. There are two widescreen issues, from Kino (out of print) on VHS and DVD, and Blackhorse (Region 2). They are well worth searching for, as it makes a great difference to see this handsome film in its original form without half the screen missing. The wide format is especially convincing in the road and racing sequences.

Great film!

[liz-173 · 8/10 · 4 May 2006]

Captures the atmosphere of the 60s biking scene brilliantly. Why in the reviews here does no-one mention the motorcycles??!!! The only reason I wanted to see this was to drink in the atmosphere of the Ace Cafe and see the bikes! It was a bonus that the film had Rita Tushingham and a good story.

Everyone seems to be getting excited about the 'gay' element, yes, it was pretty out there for the film made in the 60s, but it's really about society. It's about being an outsider, in more ways than one.

I saw an old interview with the director, Sidney J Furie; he said whilst filming at The Ace, all the locals completely ignored the cameras and even Rita Tushingham, because they were far more interested in their own scene than a load of actors.

It's hard to find this film now, but if you can, it's well worth a look. It might not be sophisticated as today's films, but that doesn't matter - it has the one thing they don't - originality!

Not a big moustache in sight, but a lot of leather!

[elysium36 · 8/10 · 9 August 2007]

I laughed when I saw the title. I thought that is a very dodgy title! I was even more surprised when I realised it had a gay character lurking in his sexy leathers behind the main character! (Not that he got up to anything behind him) Although, I have to say it is extremely well acted, and even though the film is rather ancient now, it was actually rather refreshing, and very entertaining. So if it pops up on television somewhere, and you happen to be in front of it, watch it! It is well scripted and splendid stuff. You don't have to be gay to enjoy it either! Nice bikes too, makes me want to get my three wheeler out of the garage. Pedal power... Oh yes... Work those legs!

Not really a gay film...but good

[preppy-3 · 7/10 · 30 November 2005]

Dot (Rita Tushingham) and Reggie (Colin Campbell) marry too young and realize it too late. Reggie starts to be good friends with Pete (Dudley Sutton) who just happens to be gay. And Dot wants Reggie back...

Technically this isn't really a gay film. Pete is gay but it's only suggested here and there and not made clear until the very end. And, despite the title, this doesn't deal with the heavy leather gay set. It's about Reggie trying to deal with his life--figuring out what he wants. Is it Dot...or Pete? SPOILER!!!!! The ending pretty much makes it clear that it's neither. He walks away from both but I never got the feeling it was because Pete was gay--I think it was because Reggie just wasn't ready for a relationship with anyone END SPOILER!!!!! The film is ahead of its time for having a sympathetic gay character and it IS an interesting character study (of Reggie) shot in stark black and white. Good acting too. Good luck trying to see this...I caught it totally by accident one night on a local PBS station.

Way Before it's Time

[angelsunchained · 10/10 · 8 May 2005]

Sidney J. Furie's 1964 Leather Boys was way before its time. Touching on the then controversial subject of homosexuality. The young cast of Rita Tushingham, Colin Campbell and Dudley Sutton are outstanding. Filmed in black and white, the story is a realistic look at relationships between a husband and wife, and between two friends, one who turns out to be gay. Even the title of the film seems to tell it all, yet there aren't any scenes in any "Leather" bars. Watching the film you can figure out that one of the two friends is gay, but I guess in the early 1960s it was more difficult to figure out. The movie is interesting to look at, as it captures the norms of the society for those days. Now, it's clearly out-dated and if the viewer can not figure out the historical significance of the film, than the movie will only be fair.

Kitchen Sink Youth Culture

[JamesHitchcock · 7/10 · 29 April 2021]

"The Leather Boys" is an example of the "kitchen sink" school of social realism, a popular cinematic genre in Britain in the late fifties and sixties. There were similar movements in the novel and in the theatre at this period, and this film, like other "kitchen sink" films such as "Look Back in Anger", "A Kind of Loving", "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning", "The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner" and "A Taste of Honey", was based upon a literary source, in this case a novel by Gillian Freeman. Although all those films have a youthful protagonist, in his or her teens or twenties, "The Leather Boys" deals with a subject not often touched on by the "kitchen sink" movement, namely contemporary youth culture. (The subject is dealt with in "Beat Girl", but that film is not normally regarded as "kitchen sink" because its characters are from a middle-class rather than working-class background).

During the 1960s the two major British youth subcultures were the Mods and the Rockers. The word "Mod", short for "modernist", originally denoted a devotee of modern jazz, although they later adopted other musical genres such as soul and R&B. The Rockers, as their name suggests, were fans of rock-and-roll. The differences between the two groups went beyond their tastes in music. Mods dressed smartly in sharply tailored suits, although they often incongruously hid these beneath a "parka", a baggy, shapeless anorak-like garment. They drove Italian motor-scooters, generally Vespas or Lambrettas, and were known for their drug use, especially amphetamines. They often avoided alcohol, preferring coke or coffee, and hung out in coffee bars. Rockers dressed more scruffily in jeans and leather jackets, often with a Pompadour hairstyle, drove powerful motor-bikes and had no objections to alcohol, although they despised illegal drugs. Their favoured hang-outs were transport cafés, particularly the Ace Café in North London, which features prominently in "The Leather Boys".

Another reviewer has compared this film to "Quadrophenia", a nostalgic look back at the Mods from the late seventies, fifteen years after the date when it was set. "Beat Girl" was made in 1959, before the term "Mod" was coined, but it clearly deals with the subculture which was to grow into the Mods. "The Leather Boys" from 1964 is about the Rockers. That was the year in which the pitched battles between Mods and Rockers- mostly in seaside resorts on Bank Holidays- reached their peak, but the film does not deal with the rivalry between the two groups. (Indeed, the Mods are not mentioned at all).

Reggie, a working class cockney teenager, marries his sweetheart Dot, but their marriage does not work out. After a number of quarrels they eventually separate, and Reggie starts to spend more time with his biker friends, especially a young man named Pete, slightly older than him. What Reggie does not realise at first is that Pete is gay and that his interest in him is sexual. (When the penny eventually drops, Reggie is not interested). This was not the first mainstream British film to deal with homosexuality- that was "Victim" from three years earlier- but the subject was still not one that cinema audiences were used to, and for most of the film Pete's sexuality is hinted at rather than spelt out explicitly. Even at the end of the film, when matters become clearer, the words "homosexual", "queer" and their synonyms are never used. ("Gay" was not used in this sense in Britain in 1964).

This required a subtle performance from Dudley Sutton (best known to me as Tinker Dill in "Lovejoy"). Pete is not obviously camp, and yet we notice a difference between him and Reggie and the other bikers, if only in that he does not display the exaggerated machismo, which seems to have been a prominent part of the Rocker identity. (They often taunted the Mods for allegedly being lacking in manliness). There is another good performance from Colin Campbell as Reggie, torn between his feelings for Dot and his loyalty to his friend. Dot is played by Rita Tushingham, who also appeared in "A Taste of Honey"; in the early part of her film career she specialised in "kitchen sinks".

The film is less well-known today than the others I mention in my opening paragraph, possibly because Freeman's novel is today largely forgotten, whereas the works of John Osborne, Stan Barstow, Alan Sillitoe and Shelagh Delaney which inspired the other films are now regarded as classics of the period. Yet it is a fine piece of work, partly for its acting and partly for the view it affords us of contemporary youth culture. The mainstream British press at the time could be very negative about the Rockers, whom it tended to depict as violent hooligans. (The Mods, for some reason, were not normally criticised so severely except in the aftermath of those Bank Holiday battles). The film shows us that there was another side to them and that they were more about having fun and about comradeship than they were about violence. 7/10.

Watch the last few minutes

[whisperingtree · 9/10 · 14 June 2000]

An interesting kitchen sink film that alludes too, rather than tackling homosexuality. Worth watching for the location shots and the fine performance of Dudley Sutton. The final quarter of an hour is really quite poignant and there is an excellent final scene.

And So They Were Married

[boblipton · 7/10 · 23 July 2020]

Rita Tushingham and Colin Campbell get married. Things don't work out. He expects sex , a clean home and meals on time. She...seems vaguer on what's entailed. They quarrel constantly and he walks out to live in his grandmother's house with his motorcycle buddy, Dudley Sutton.

There's a lot of gay subtext in this movie, what with the leather motorcycle togs, the men sharing a bed in Gladys Henson's house. Both of the principals seem lost and clueless as to what marriage entails, and fall into old habits. It's one of those kitchen-sink dramas that were popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the performances under under-rated director Sidney Furie are terrific, but it's a movie in which there is no one to root for. The camerawork by Gerald Gibbs seems purposefully gray and gloomy, with a constantly foggy outdoors.

The blueprint for Quadrophenia

[goldgreen · 8/10 · 26 October 2010]

A fascinating film which shows you just how fast the 1960s was waking up in 1964. Some say the homosexuality in the film is referred to obliquely. I disagree. Unless you are 13 years old, it should be very obvious that Reggie's mate is gay about half way through the film. Other than that it is fascinating to see how the film was used as a template for Quadrophenia (1979). I can think of at least 10 similarities. 1) Our hero is working class teenager with a broad cockney accent. 2) All his mates ride motorbikes. 3) The main character takes a road trip to Brighton 4) The argument in the café in Brighton between the two key male characters. 5) The same shot of the massed bikes facing the camera as they head off down a London road. 6) Jimmy in Quadrophenia has a close mate who works as a car engineer. Reggie works as a car/ bike engineer. 7) One of the main characters (Chalkie?) stands out by wearing a traditional tweed hat with a feather in it - the character who calls the start of the endurance race in Leather Boys wears one too. 8) Jimmy encounters his old biker school mate (played by Ray Winstone) when both are stark naked in the baths...need I say more. 9) Reggie/ Jimmy are unable to sustain a relationship with their girlfriends. 10) ..and this is the clincher. The final scene has Jimmy/Reggie walking towards the camera after their whole world has fallen apart, with the audience left guessing what will become of them. Especially liked Rita Tushingham's performance in Leather Boys, she does angry much better than Lesley Ash in Quadrophenia.

Not Really The Film You've Read About

[Theo Robertson · 6/10 · 18 November 2007]

This is a rather obscure film that is rarely shown on television . Interestingly if THE LEATHER BOYS does turn up on television it usually is described as " A newly married bridegroom becomes besotted with a charismatic homosexual " which isn't really explaining the plot properly and also misses out on an important subtext . The subtext is that people we bond with aren't the people we think they really are

The story revolves around recently married Reggie who has a 16 year old bride called Dot and unfortunately Reggie is starting to realise that married life isn't as he expected it and starts to hang around with a young free and single biker called Pete . It's this young free and single attitude that attracts Colin to Pete . Throughout the running time the narrative hints subtly that Pete may be gay - Dudley Sutton doesn't play Pete in a camp way either - but it's only revealed for certain that he is when Reggie waits for Pete in a closet gay bar with the optimism that they're both going to emigrate to America . As it turns out via Pete's gay associates in the bar that the boat they're supposed to be catching is bound to Liverpool , not America as Pete had promised . Cut to a devastated , disillusioned and depressed Reggie walking off into the sunset , still young enough to start a new life but with no one to start a new life with

THE LEATHER BOYS is one of those films that may have seemed controversial at the time but probably wasn't . There's no overt sexuality on screen and you do notice in the final scenes how homosexuals are portrayed in a camp stereotypical manner so it's maybe a film that gays won't like due to dated stereotypes and many straights won't like because they're misled as to it being a gay love story ala BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN . It's the sort of British kitchen sink storyline that would be better suited to something like CORONATION STREET

Can you see the real me, can you?

[Quinoa1984 · 9/10 · 23 March 2017]

I think The Leather Boys can be engaging and awfully dramatic for audiences on the merits of simply its acting and direction, which is handled with a great deal of sensitivity, but a way into this film that makes it even more of a satisfying and heartbreaking experience is looking beyond the lines (and in-between as well of the text). This is the story that on the surface is fairly basic - a young biker named Reggie (Colin Campbell) gets married to a woman about his age and from the same town and school and all that (Rita Rushingham), simply because it's... what people did back then when they wanted to get out of their respective environments (or with a 'Shotgun' marriage approach, which this isn't, at least not exactly). But he's not attracted to her really, though she's endearing, and instead he focuses on his bike and his mate Pete (Dudley Sutton). And... there may be feelings there, just under the surface.

When I say 'beyond' the lines, think about how England was at the time, as much of America was and other places in the Western world: if you were gay, for the most part, if it wasn't a crime outright (in England it wasn't until 1967 by the way, which some may not know to today, so the context helps with a quick Google search of the info), then it was certainly looked at as abhorrent and ridiculous. The word 'Queer' is only used perhaps once in this film - from Tushingham's Dot to the two guys Reggie and Pete at a moment when she's just about had it - but it hangs over so much even before this, that those repressed feelings are there, as if it could be heard in a whisper, but if it ever goes above that it can be really dangerous (with the exception of one place near the end).

This is Sidney Furie dealing with this tale of closeted, gay love with tenderness but also a sense of full realism that is made interesting because of how he works with the actors - especially, throughout, Tushingham, who practically steals away much of the performance of Campbell, who is more subdued when he's not yelling at her in a "row", but he's good too, and eventually Sutton reveals a lot without even having to look at his actor (there's one really heartbreaking scene where it's clear Reggie has to move on from his time away from Dot at his grandmother's place, where Pete's been lodging, and how they talk to one another without looking is note perfect). But it's also Furie, from a book/script by Gillian Freeman, taking a look at how class has to do with it too; this was a hallmark of these "Kitchen Sink" dramas - and indeed there are at least a couple of scenes where Tushingham is acting in hysterics right next to a sink - and that all of the realism heightens the stakes for these characters.

There's work concerns that the characters deal with - Dot just stays in all day after they make their vows, and this also builds resentment from Reggie - but it's also the institution of marriage itself, what expectations come from that. This is a world that certainly would judge someone to hell if it came out that person was gay (who knows if women also were then, that subject's never broached here), but there's the part of it that... men got married to women because that's what they were told they HAD to do. A holdover from decades, centuries really, of men getting married and women getting married because it was what was required. The difference here is Reggie and Dot are working class, so the resentment increases aside from the attraction and lack of chemistry factor - she wants it, she can't read the signals, and, as we see in one key moment as Reggie watches her dancing with others as he sits and stews, he knows he doesn't but goes through the motions. At absolute best he can get a chuckle out of being tickled, or once in a while a moment sticks out as them being friendly.

Near the end it becomes clearer how conflicted Reggie is, that he has such a good, tight friendship with Pete, and probably (definitely?) knows there's more there. A key scene happens at what is clearly a gay bar - who knew they were there back in England, shows my ignorance I guess - and it makes him increasingly uncomfortable. A big decision about where the men will go is hanging in the air, but this scene is interesting in that a) I actually didn't understand all of the slang or accents, but it didn't matter, the body language and attitudes of the actors communicated all, and b) the moment right after this bar scene makes the tragedy complete while keeping open more ambiguity. I dare not reveal what it is, but it's shot by Furie and his cameraman, as with much of the film, with a directness that favors a wide view and yet so much emotion conveyed in the frame.

The Leather Boys is a look at a period of time that is probably gone now, and good riddance, but that doesn't mean people aren't still made to feel, whether from external or internal forces, like they can't come out and be who they are and love who they want to love, and that societies institutions contribute a lot to feeling alienated. There's a lot of alienation to this film, not to mention, lastly, some fun/exciting biker-riding footage. It's a really good film.

An important film should be widely known.

[stewartb-21209 · 7/10 · 2 April 2023]

.The Leather Boys is a 1950s British film that explores themes of youth rebellion, homosexuality, and class struggle. It follows the story of a young couple, Reggie and Dot, as their relationship is put to the test when Reggie becomes involved with the gay subculture. The film's portrayal of homosexuality was groundbreaking for its time, and its examination of working-class culture and gender roles is notable. Despite its flaws, The Leather Boys is a powerful and important work of cinema. Another notable aspect of The Leather Boys is its depiction of gender roles and expectations. The film challenges traditional notions of masculinity and femininity, showing men who are sensitive and emotional, and women who are strong and independent. Through Reggie and Dot's relationship, the film shows the importance of mutual respect and understanding in a healthy relationship, regardless of gender.

The film's portrayal of gender roles and expectations is not without its flaws, however. Some have criticized the film's depiction of women as secondary characters, with Dot's role in the film limited to that of a supportive girlfriend. Others have argued that the film's exploration of masculinity and femininity is limited to a narrow range of gender identities and expressions.

Badly-written melodrama with dislikeable characters

[rick_7 · 10 June 2010]

The Leather Boys (Sidney J. Furie, 1964) is a moderately-interesting period piece notable in its day for the atypically frank treatment of homosexuality, which means a lot of innuendo, one spat epithet and a strange scene in a bar with two overbearing sailors. The film combines elements of Victim (it's not afraid to just about mention gays), The Wild One (it's not afraid to overtly mention bikers) and A Taste of Honey (it's not afraid to feature Rita Tushingham as a schoolgirl claiming to be up the duff), but it's nowhere near as good as those films. Colin Campbell is the bike-crazy young man who weds the 16-year-old Tushingham, then realises that probably wasn't wise.

The film has a decent sense of the unexpected, with Campbell being the compassionate, thoughtful one and Tushingham's fictional pregnancy backfiring terribly, but it's badly-written and inconsistent in both tone and quality. Added to which, Tushingham is incredibly irritating, save for during a brief reconciliation with Campbell in the final 30 that's appealing and extremely well-acted. Goodness knows what direction she was getting from Furie the rest of the time. The second half is dominated by Dudley Sutton, giving a formidably peculiar performance as Campbell's gay mate. He has screen presence and produces several moving moments, but consistently undermines himself through whatever-that-voice-is-that-he's-doing. If you do decide to check out the film, stay with it till the end: the climax is surprisingly strong.

Not My Cup of Tea

[Uriah43 · 3/10 · 10 August 2015]

Let me just start off by saying that this movie was nothing like what I thought it would be. I had expected to see a film primarily featuring motorcycle clubs competing against one another (or each other) with an emphasis on action. What I saw, on the other hand, was a romantic drama in which the lead character named "Reggie" (Colin Campbell) gets married to his sweetheart named "Dot" (Rita Tushingham) but after a series of quarrels becomes somewhat involved with a friend by the name of "Pete" (Dudley Sutton) who turns out to be gay. Again, this was not what I expected. Adding to my disappointment was the fact that the movie started off extremely slow and only got interesting during the motorcycle scenes which were few and far between. In any case, while other viewers might enjoy a film of this sort it simply wasn't my cup of tea and as a result I have rated it accordingly. Below average.

Running to a safe and presumed heterosexuality

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 27 November 2012]

The Leather Boys is a film that was groundbreaking in its time, but now has become somewhat dated. It concerns a bunch of rocker type boys from Sixties swinging London who work blue collar jobs and head to the open road on the weekends. Their women go with them and this film concerns two of them, Colin Campbell and Rita Tushingham who fall in love and get married. The two seem made for each other.

Then the bloom goes off the rose after the honeymoon and these two are fighting all the time. The usual problems are there for newlyweds and an additional problem. Campbell's best mate Dudley Sutton is forever hanging around and Tushingham picks up on the fact that Sutton is gay and crushing out big time on Campbell. Until the very end Campbell doesn't have a clue. He's good looking enough, but not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

The Leather Boys was part and parcel of the British new wave cinema from the Sixties. As such in 1964 the climax set in a gay bar was certainly groundbreaking enough. Sutton as it turns out is trade for the older gay gentlemen hanging around the place. His Gaydar was out of focus though in thinking that Campbell could be brought into the fold personally by him.

Today Campbell would probably have accepted Sutton as his gay friend making it clear he didn't want that kind of relationship. But running off in horror from the bar and from Sutton would not happen today. The film would probably be picketed.

In any event the final shot sees him running off, presumably to the arms of the waiting Tushingham and a safe and accepted heterosexuality. We've certainly come a long way since The Leather Boys.

location

[harrgate · 8/10 · 22 September 2007]

I caught this film on TV earlier this summer after having first seen it 30 years ago and it was every bit as good as I remembered it.

It gains a great deal by not being overt about its gay subtext. This does a lot to increase its poignancy. Beautifully shot and edited ,it also fascinating for the various location shots around south west London. It also to my mind has a undermining sniggering tone to the fairly wooden dialogue amongst the family in the first part of the film..very reminiscent of a Mike Leigh film. Did anyone out there ever remember seeing it in the cinema, as I imagine people would have got more of the references and picked up its satirical tone more acutely then.

Music by BillMcGuffie.He also did some arrangements for Sinatra.

Check out Dudley Sutton on you-tube

Wonderful to see Britain as it was

[lucyrf · 7/10 · 24 May 2020]

... shabby, grimy and smoky. And gran's house is full of relics from the Edwardian era. Her son tries to persuade her that it is a "dump" and she should go into an old people's home. Typical kitchen sink drama in that the working classes are portrayed as constantly shrieking and flying off the handle - especially Rita Tushingham. Oh, I'd forgotten those "bouffant" hairstyles that took such a lot of work. I'd forgotten "ton-up" boys too.

Nice period piece with a twist!

[rxelex · 9/10 · 31 July 2023]

Just watched this today 31 July 2023 on a rainy afternoon.

I remember bits of it from some long ago viewing but probably never watched it through before.

Now it was a nostalgic journey through my youth: lovely British motorbikes, trolley buses, grim black streets of grim black houses and steam trains - and the coffee bars with juke boxes that stayed open till late and were gathering places for the bikers.

Lead pair spoke in the awful Cockney Sarf London speech that really grates on my Yorkshire ears!

Freeview tv channel has kowtowed to the WOKISTs who had the soundtrack cut when Rita said 'puffters' as the two men hugged each other.

Boy meets boy

[ianlouisiana · 8/10 · 19 January 2008]

Not exactly a hit on its release,"The Leather Boys"was generally thought to be an addendum to the body of work collectively known as "British Neo-Realist Cinema - a New Frankness".Miss Rita Tushingham was known for her performances in earlier examples of the genre where she displayed her artful artlessness to good advantage.Here she plays a young girl who is little more than a child rushing headlong into a plainly doomed marriage with Mr Colin Campbell,a guileless boy who would have been better off staying at home with his copies of "Spick","Span" or "Harrison Marks Presents..." A marriage that soon enough would have settled into an arena of simmering hatred and resentment is challenged from without by Mr Dudley Sutton,one of British theatre's hidden heroes.Able to play anything from roue to raging queen with equal conviction,Mr Sutton has been quietly stealing movies,plays and TV series for 50 years.He gradually insinuates his way into the young couple's life,eventually attempting to persuade Mr Campbell to bat for the other side. Close friendship between men had generally been portrayed on the screen as the gruff,back - slapping,fiercely non - sexual kind.For "The Leather Boys",over forty years ago,to suggest that homosexual love might just have for some men the the legitimacy of the more orthodox variety,was at the very least avant garde. At the end,confronted with some of Mr Sutton's less modest and retiring friends,Mr Campbell decides to join the "Don't knows" which some of the audience might have seen as a bit of a fudge on the part of the film -makers. To most people in the early sixties,"Gay Movies" meant Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers waltzing their way through Central Park at night with silk scarves and big hats much in evidence.In recent parlance of course it has come to refer to something rather different.In those terms,"The Leather Boys" might be considered by some to be a "Gay Movie",but I prefer to see it now as I did then,an exposition of the old proverb about books and covers.Or - as Mrs Gump was to say many years later, "Life is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're going to get".

Interesting film!

[fatbob-1 · 10/10 · 20 June 2002]

This film just touches on homosexuality. Dudley Sutton's character is not obviously gay.

The ending of the film is slightly ambiguous, in that although he walks away from his gay friend, the truth of the main character's homosexuality is never truly revealed.

A great kitchen sink drama.

[plan99 · 8/10 · 8 May 2023]

Kitchen sink dramas were all the rage in the 1950s and 60s and Rita was in a lot of them. This is a good one nice and gritty with the compulsory falling out between family members and other characters. Great to see the UK as it was back then with many probably dangerous old cars on the roads with the MOT being required for ten year old cars. The homosexual undertone was very well done although it was obvious early on that, you know who, was a homosexual character, this was very daring for 1964. These types of dramas are better not in colour as this one was. Well worth watching as it's different from many of this type.

Trouble in Paradise

[akoaytao1234 · 8/10 · 29 March 2024]

When a young biker discovers that adulthood is more than what his small viewpoint knows, he reckoned his current relationship as a failure and developed a budding friendship with a fellow biker with a glaring secret.

Particularly known for its depiction of queerness during the 60's, it still kind of confounds me.

I remember trying to really watch this way back from a dingy copy off youtube, and I personally still think the plot of deconstructing his ideas of marriage is the film's biggest strength. Its probably the most alive and 'kitchen-sink' portion of the film. It was quite refreshing to see coming-of-age films covering this portion of adulthood when our beliefs and the life's truths just contrast. The young couple discovers that there is more in marriage than love. Rita Tushingham was marvelous as the abrasive yet naive girlfriend of the Colin Campbell, the film's lead.

Though, I still do not know how I feel about the film's ending *Spoiler's ahead* - after he tries to win back his wife, he ends up seeing her in bed with someone causing him to plan with his friend to go to America. His friend arranges work that can bring them there and while waiting in the pub nearby, he discovers that this friend is indeed queer - to his dismay. And decided to walk off.

I do not know.

I think that it was nice that it did not need to go to hysterics to say that he does not like him in THAT way BUT I felt that this ending made their friendship to be looked on a different perspective.

Did he also like his friend in a queer way and was upset that he can be reciprocated? Or does he feel betrayed that the friendship might be false - seemingly using his troubling marriage as an entry to him? The ending does not portray him particularly homophobic at all but homosexuality is yet to be decriminalized then. It would not be shocking for men of the era to be less in tune befriending gay men still. Or was it both? He fears his feelings for him AND felt that his friendship, now that he knows, might be self-serving.

The ending definitely made their friendship a piece to be dissected to be honest.

Overall recommended, an interesting film.

Ahead of its time

[Leofwine_draca · 8/10 · 29 June 2023]

THE LEATHER BOYS is one of the most heartfelt kitchen sink dramas of the era. It's ostensibly a relationship drama charting the marriage between a young woman (Rita Tushingham) and her biker boyfriend Colin Campbell. The main story in itself is engaging, but what makes this really special is the homosexual subtext, very unusual for its era. Of course, nothing could be explicitly shown or even referenced in the script, so if you were a kid watching this you wouldn't even pick it up. But as an adult it has a kind of raw empathy that really enthralls. The leads are very good but Dudley Sutton steals the show with an incredibly sympathetic supporting role, and the ending is magnificent.

Very British and Very Entertaining

[NoDakTatum · 8/10 · 1 November 2023]

This British film, released in the mid 1960's, addresses the then taboo subject of homosexuality- sort of. Sixteen year old Dot (Rita Tushingham) loves her motorcycle-riding boyfriend Reggie (Colin Campbell). The two are engaged, spend most of their time together having clandestine sex, and it soon becomes obvious that they are not ready for marriage. They marry anyway, honeymooning at a resort where things go awry- Dot changes her hair color to platinum blonde, and likes to go out and dance. Reggie would rather stay in with his new wife. The two stumble through the honeymoon. Six months later, Reggie is a mechanic in a garage and Dot spends her time spending his money. The two fight when together, Reggie wants a proper wife who has food on the table when he gets home, and Dot wants a husband to provide for her every financial whim. Reggie begins rejecting Dot in bed, and he also befriends fellow cycle enthusiast Pete (Dudley Sutton). Reggie's grandfather dies, and Pete rents a room from the grandmother. Reggie wants to move in with his grandmother as well, but Dot will have nothing to do with it and the two seperate. Reggie and Pete share the same room, and the same large bed, upstairs, but nothing sexual occurs. They ride to the coast, and Reggie makes a play for a couple of girls there. Pete is downright rude in his rejection of them, and Reggie does not understand why. Dot and her scheming mother hatch a plan to get Reggie back. Dot will lie about being pregnant, then pretend to miscarry when Reggie returns to her. The plan is set, and backfires. Reggie accuses Dot of sleeping with her new boyfriend (Johnny Briggs) since they have not had sex in forever, so the baby could not be his. During another fight before a big endurance motorcycle race from London to Edinburgh and back, Dot finally calls Pete and Reggie a derogatory name. Dot rides with her new boyfriend, and Pete and Reggie team up for the race. After a breakdown, Dot finds herself on Reggie's bike, and the two flirt and grow closer. The final scenes involve Reggie's decision to go back to Dot, and Pete's plan to move to New York. In the end, Reggie must choose between the two most important people in his life.

Furie, who went on to direct unwatchable dreck like the "Iron Eagle" series and "Superman IV," shows such a good eye here. There are no motorcycle accidents, but his scenes on the open road are still impressive. Everything is shot on location, it is nice to see a cast actually suffer through a freezing endurance race complete with mussed hair, foggy breath, and dirty faces. Furie leads the young cast and turns them into totally believable characters. Tushingham, Campbell, and Sutton never appear to be acting, they become these characters so well. The film is very British and shot in black and white, reminding me of the Beatles in "A Hard Day's Night." My one problem with the film is its treatment of homosexuality compared with other major plot points. The film makers do not shy away from homosexuality, but do succumb to stereotypes in the final minutes. The crew of the boat Pete wants to take to New York are all lisping and degenerate. Pete himself is probably the most sympathetic character in the film. The problem is the homosexual angle is treated so delicately, other character traits are cranked up in order to make up for this absence in the film. So, Dot turns from shy schoolgirl to awful shrew in a matter of moments. Reggie comes off as so naive, his behavior borders on stupid. Pete is too anti-woman, it comes as a shock that no one sees he is gay until Dot gets a dig in by calling him and Reg out. I am not saying that all homosexual men are anti-woman, but this one character trait overrides any other behavior that might give us some insight into Pete. He is only nice to Reggie's grandmother because she is not a threat to his relationship with Reggie. Of course, in 1964, how many films were dealing with homosexuality without resorting to cringe stereotypes? Despite the unintentionally salacious title, "The Leather Boys" is a very interesting look into English life in the '60's. The homosexual angle is important to the film, but it does not overwhelm it with preachiness. It does the exact opposite, taking its time to incorporate it into otherwise over-the-top characteristics.