Canadian film director Sidney J Furie is likely best known for 1965's The Ipcress film, but on his journey from his home country to Hollywood, via the UK, Furie also made a number of British films examining the developing youth culture of which 1962's The Boys (after Teddy Boys) is one. Furie's 1964 film The Leather Boys was controversial for its take on homosexuality, and even if The Boys may be rather more 'conventional', Furie, with the help of Stuart Douglass' screenplay, gives us an absorbing (riveting, even, for this viewer) courtroom drama, full of narrative twists and turns, making some perceptive points around youth stereotyping, social conditioning and the justice system, as well as featuring a stellar cast of lead roles and supporting cameos. With the film's courtroom set-up, we may initially reach for comparisons with the finest of all such films, 1957's Twelve Angry Men, but whilst we do get comparable plot twists to the earlier film, Furie's film is (arguably) most focused on the social issues explored by 'kitchen sink drama' films like Saturday Night And Sunday Morning and The Loneliness Of The Long-Distance Runner.
Furie's cast is outstanding throughout, from his accused quartet - Dudley Sutton and Tony Garnett's 'ne'er do wells', Stan and Ginger, Jess Conrad's smooth looker, Barney, and Ronald Lacey's immature misfit, Billy - to prosecuting and defending counsels, Richard Todd's stern Webster and (in a film-stealing performance) Robert Morley's witty and verbally dextrous, Montgomery. Care is also taken to paint believable and (generally) disadvantaged, but sympathetic, East End backstories for each of the four on trial - Patrick Magee, David Lodge and Betty Marsden all impressing as parents - whilst Furie secures great cameos form the likes of Roy Kinnear, Wilfred Bramble, Allen Cuthbertson and Colin Gordon as witnesses to the maligned characters of the quartet and their alleged roles in the murder of a garage nightwatchman. The narrative proceeds using flashback and Furie (and Douglass) skilfully give us different points-of-view depending on who is giving evidence, playing up to engaging effect the underlying social stereotyping and the subjective influence on the justice system and, in effect, posing the question: does the quartet just represent boisterous youth or something far more troubling?
To be honest, I was surprised by just how good Furie's film is - my attention did not waver a jot during the two-hour running time. Even so, I was homing in on a (say) 7/10 rating until the film-makers' final, dumbfounding, twist, which prompted an immediate - if perhaps rather kneejerk - re-evaluation!
Furie's cast is outstanding throughout, from his accused quartet - Dudley Sutton and Tony Garnett's 'ne'er do wells', Stan and Ginger, Jess Conrad's smooth looker, Barney, and Ronald Lacey's immature misfit, Billy - to prosecuting and defending counsels, Richard Todd's stern Webster and (in a film-stealing performance) Robert Morley's witty and verbally dextrous, Montgomery. Care is also taken to paint believable and (generally) disadvantaged, but sympathetic, East End backstories for each of the four on trial - Patrick Magee, David Lodge and Betty Marsden all impressing as parents - whilst Furie secures great cameos form the likes of Roy Kinnear, Wilfred Bramble, Allen Cuthbertson and Colin Gordon as witnesses to the maligned characters of the quartet and their alleged roles in the murder of a garage nightwatchman. The narrative proceeds using flashback and Furie (and Douglass) skilfully give us different points-of-view depending on who is giving evidence, playing up to engaging effect the underlying social stereotyping and the subjective influence on the justice system and, in effect, posing the question: does the quartet just represent boisterous youth or something far more troubling?
To be honest, I was surprised by just how good Furie's film is - my attention did not waver a jot during the two-hour running time. Even so, I was homing in on a (say) 7/10 rating until the film-makers' final, dumbfounding, twist, which prompted an immediate - if perhaps rather kneejerk - re-evaluation!