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.
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.