Boys in Brown

Amazon notwithstanding, a DVD of this is available and I recently ran across it. The story is pretty basic and not very believable but you do learn quite a bit about the time in which it happens. Unlike the US where kids were already defining their own style of dress, their own music and gathering places devoid of adults, the British kids dress like miniature adults with clean white shirt, tie and dark sport coat....even when robbing stores! You get the feeling that success for them means getting what the adults already have rather than renouncing the world of their elders. And they are comfortable hitting a pub for a drink. It's no big deal. I guess the British drinking age is a bit lower than that in the US. But while the British world might have welcomed the youngsters into the fold, the British film industry took things to a ridiculous extreme; all the borstal "kids" are old enough to be guards themselves. Check the biogs of the actors. Several of them are in their 30's, playing teens. Hanley, playing the part of Bill Foster, is 32 and sports an enormous belly. He is almost old enough to have a son of his own in a borstal. Attenborough and Bogard are a little less obvious, but not much. Apparently Rank, like American International and Roger Corman, had difficulty finding suitable juvenile actors and simply used adults dressed as kids. After a while you get used to it since the teens act like little adults anyway. Actually a rather interesting picture from a historical aspect. If you can find it.

At the time of making this film Borstals had inmates up to the age of 23, so the actors look right for the parts they play. One of the inmates in the film is married and has 2 children so the critics who say the actors are too old are wrong.

Richard Attenborough is the naive young "Jackie", in love with his girl "Kitty" (Barbara Murray) but prone to getting into bad company. It is after one such escapade that he finds himself sentenced to three years in borstal. Fortunately for him, the governor (Jack Warden) believes firmly that the purpose of these institutions is to rehabilitate and so he is inclined to try and help the man; unfortunately his habit of falling for the wrong 'uns continues as he soon becomes the quarry of the duplicitous "Rawlins" (Dirk Bogarde) and his gang of would-be escapees. The film follows the path he takes to try and escape, not just from his incarceration, but from the self-perpetuating cycle of scenarios that make it impossible for him to break free and make a clean start with his life and his love. It sags a bit, this, but overall the performances are convincing and it does evoke a sense of just how despairing times must have been for many in the immediate aftermath of WWII. Jimmy Handley chips in well as another of "Rawlins" pawns, also do Thora Hird, Alfie Bass and Michael Medwin, too. There is a little too much dialogue but it is still worth a watch.

This was one of the last films from Gainsborough before the studio was shut down as a Rank economy measure.It is actually quite a good and effective film reflecting the mood of the time.The biggest problem being the shoehorning into the boys roles of Rank contract actors.This despite the fact that there were some good teenage actors such as Harry Fowler and Anthony Newley.Bogarde is seen here just before the Blue Lamp which would propelled him to screen stardom and Jack Warner to TV stardom .This film though is far removed from Scum.

Some great British actors were building their career foundations in this drama about the pressures of life both inside and outside a Borstal reform institution. In particular, Dirk Bogarde makes an excellent scheming manipulator of his fellow inmates while Richard Attenborough is his naive prey.

The Borstal governor and his staff lament that the young men in their charge won't try harder to become good citizens, while the young inmates themselves can't see beyond peer pressure and adolescent rebellion - that much at least hasn't changed since 1949.

But the passage of time has not served this movie well. Its main interest now is historical, in the very early performances of future superstars and in documenting a vanished way of British life and values. We've all seen a multitude of tough prison movies made in later years and in their light this one seems rather pale.