Boys in Brown

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.

Boys in Brown is a British juvenile delinquency film from 1949, courtesy of Gainsborough and directed by Montgomery Tully.

Dirk Bogarde had made maybe 10 films - he would become noticed in his next film, The Blue Lamp.

At any rate, the star is Dickie Attenborough, with Jack Warner running the Borstal Institution, where boys who commit crimes are sent. As shown in another film, Good-Time Girl from 1948, these places apparently were under heavy criticism in England.

It's post-war. Jackie Knowles (Attenborough) is on probation for committing petty crimes. Needing money, he agrees to be the getaway driver for a jewel robbery. He's arrested and sentenced to three years in a Borstal Institution, which has the goal of rehabilitation.

Jackie has the best of intentions but is led astray by some boys planning an escape, including the manipulative Alfie (Bogarde). Knowing Jackie has a girlfriend, Kitty, he tells him that Kitty has forgotten about him and is seeing someone else. Jackie agrees to go along with the group. Trouble ensues.

Like Good-Time Girl, these kids haven't been reformed sufficiently. It was fun to see these young actors, who would come up through Rank Studios, particularly Attenborough, Bogarde, Alfie Bass, Michael Medwin, Robert Desmond, and Jimmy Hanley.

Someone pointed out that although there were appropriately aged actors for these roles, Rank used their actors who were too old for the roles, i.e., well into their twenties. They were still being trained for the most part.

Nice to hear Bogarde doing Julius Cesar.

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.

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.

In this well-intentioned movie, Richard Attenborough gets slung into a Borstal with Jack Warner as the warden and Derek Bogarde as the rather creepy guy who rules the cell blocks. Although the Borstal system -- which I know as turning out junior-grade spivs -- was for those youths who were less than 24 when they went in, the actors playing the boys ranged in ages from 29 through their early thirties. In their shorts, they put me in mind of 1950s Bowery Boys.

Still, the actors are good, Jack Warner utters some platitudes and the result remains watchable. With Jimmy Hanley, Barbara Murray, Patrick Holt, and the mighty Thora Hird.