Movie Type: Psychological Drama, Gay & Lesbian Films
Themes: Questioning Sexuality, Crumbling Marriages, Unrequited Love
Main Cast: Rita Tushingham, Colin Campbell, Dudley Sutton, Gladys Henson, Avice Landone
Release Year: 1963
Country: UK
Run Time: 103 minutes
Plot
Dot (Rita Tushingham) is a girl who marries motorcycle maven Reggie (Colin Campbell) to escape her parents' influence. The marriage gets off to a rocky start and completely slides downhill after the honeymoon is plagued by bad weather. Dot refuses to have anything to do with household responsibilities and cooks only canned beans. Reggie loses interest in sex with Dot because of her actions, and after moving in with his grandmother, he begins to hang around Pete (Dudley Sutton). The two friends ride their motorcycles and begin to spend even more time together, and eventually Reggie realizes that Pete is a homosexual. Dot tells Reggie she is pregnant in an attempt to get him back -- with no result, but when Reggie comes home to find his wife in bed with another man, he decides to go off to sea with Pete. Pete leaves Reggie shaken and alone when he goes off with a group of sailors out to satisfy their same-sex lust. The film was controversial at the time of its initial release. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
Review
Perhaps more fascinating as a time capsule than as a cinematic drama, The Leather Boys nevertheless deserves attention for daring to treat homosexuality "fairly" in 1963. Leather isn't about homosexuality: it's about friendship, relationships and maturity. But the fact that the film acknowledged one of the characters was gay and was interested in another of the leading characters is very progressive for the time. Granted, modern audiences will find the portrayal of subsidiary gay characters stereotyped and offensive; but the main gay character, Pete, is arguably the most well-formed of the trio of leads, which helps to counterbalance the later lisping. Leather also deserves credit for its "realist" aspirations and for its willingness to look at the bleak options available to many British youth of the period. What keeps Leather from being more effective as drama is a tendency to go overboard in its treatment of the material: a little more subtlety and nuance would have been most welcome. If director Sidney J. Furie can't correct this flaw in the writing, he does give the film an atmospheric look and presents the actors to good advantage. Rita Tushingham and Colin Campbell both do very well as the young marrieds, and Dudley Sutton is even better as the "third wheel." ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
The Leather Boys is a 1964 Britishdrama film showing a biker gang with a gay member. This film is notable as an early example of a film that violated the Hollywoodproduction code, yet was still shown in the United States, as well as an important film in the genre of queer cinema.
A hybrid of British kitchen sink realism and American biker film, it was considered daring in 1964 as it touched upon homosexuality, however obliquely. Some reviewers have noted that it contains naturalistic photography and [1] period locations[2].
The film is based on a novel commissioned by the London literary agent and publisher Anthony Blond.[3] He suggested that Gillian Freeman write about a "Romeo and Romeo in the South London suburbs".[4]
The film plot was changed considerably, presumably to make it more palatable to 1964 movie-goers. Only one of the main male characters is gay in the film (with Reggie leaving Pete upon finding out his sexuality at the film's end) but, while neither has a happy ending, in the novel there is no ambiguity whatsoever regarding the love between Pete and Reggie.
The book was published in 1961 under the pseudonym Eliot George[3]--an inversion of the famous 19th century female author, Mary Ann Evans, who published as George Eliot. Freeman is credited in the film as the author of the screenplay based on the novel of Eliot George.
