1962 British film by Sidney J. Furie
The Boys is a 1962 British courtroom drama film, directed by Sidney J. Furie and starring Richard Todd, Robert Morley and Felix Aylmer.The screenplay was by Stuart Douglass.[1]
Plot
Four young Teddy boys are on trial for the murder of a garage night watchman in the course of a burglary on the night of 15 January.
Witnesses and the accused give differing accounts of the lead-up to the crime during a dispiriting and frustrating evening out in London. Flashbacks of the teenagers' insecure and sometimes alienated lives contrast strongly with the austere legality of the courtroom as, by degrees, the truth emerges.
The first part of the film is structured as a series of vignettes relating to the evidence of each witness who saw the boys on the evening in question. Each story helps to build an overall picture of their character. The overall message is that adults have presumed that they were bad without basing this presumption on any actual observation. Most of the witnesses admit that they prejudged the boys on the basis of their appearance. The boys admit to their defence counsel that they are hooligans and behave badly, but they deny murder.
Next we are given insights into the boys' home lives. Stan's mother is very ill and they are trying to get rehoused. Stan has a habit of constantly cleaning his fingernails with a flick-knife that is identical to the murder weapon. Barney is the most clean-cut of the group. Ginger has a job on a building site, and has the most money, but he is also the most reserved. Much of the storyline revolves around the Three Aces, a pub opposite the Lantern Garage where the murder occurred.
The prosecution spots a flaw in the overall logic of the boys' stories: Stan says that he bought a packet of cigarettes for his mother at a time when he did not even have the bus fare home. The truth is revealed: Stan instigates the robbery and was joined by Billy and Barney, but Ginger was unaware of any of this.
Ginger is acquitted; Billy and Barney, being under 18, are sentenced to be held indefinitely ("at Her Majesty's pleasure") while Stan, being 18, is sentenced to death.
Cast
Soundtrack
The Shadows composed four songs for the film that were released in 1962 as a 7" EP The Boys (Columbia SEG 8193).
Reception
Box office
According to Kinematograph Weekly the film was considered a "money maker" at the British box office in 1962.[2]
Critical reception
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Furie's direction, good as it is, cannot maintain interest for two hours in a script that is both repetitive and inadequately motivated, and he is too obsessed with courtroom detail to cut as often as he should. He is also hampered by the ill-advised casting of Richard Todd and Robert Morley (as counsels for the prosecution and defence). Todd is adequate; Morley plays shamelessly for laughs; neither is sufficiently self-effacing to avoid ruining the authentic anonymity that Furie might otherwise have achieved with his courtroom setting. As a film on the routine theme of teenagers, condemned before they are tried by society, this is, however, much above average."[3]
The BBC calls the film an "innovative kitchen-sink drama charting the rise of teenage gang culture."[4]
TV Guide states that, while there are "good performances all around, the effect is muddled by a complicated flashback structure".[5]
According to website AllMovie, "The Boys benefits from Furie's dextrous use of flashbacks during the testimony scenes."[6]
The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "This badly dated courtroom drama from Sidney J Furie proves that some things never change Jess Conrad, Dudley Sutton and their pals are suspected of murder simply because they're young and rebellious. The film becomes both patronising and predictable as canny lawyer Richard Todd champions the lads' cause, but the strong cast redeems the movie."[7]
Legacy
On 17 September 2017, the 55th anniversary of the film's release, the three surviving "boys", Conrad, Garnett and Sutton, met for a reunion showing of the film at Elstree Studios, where the courtroom scenes were filmed. It was explained at the Q&A section of the event that this was the first time any of the four had met since the film was made.[8]
References
External links
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