"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.
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.