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damm tried to get a clip of cosh boy.. oh man i near peed my kniackers at this ,when i saw it..
Courtesy of Granada International
Main image of Cosh Boy (1953)35mm, black and white, 73 mins
Directed by Lewis Gilbert
Production Company Daniel Angel Films
Produced by Daniel M. Angel
Screenplay by Lewis Gilbert, Vernon Harris
Original play Bruce Walker
Photography Jack Asher
Music Lambert WilliamsonCast: James Kenney (Roy Walsh); Joan Collins (Rene Collins); Hermione Baddeley (Mrs Collins); Hermione Gingold (Queenie); Betty Ann Davies (Elsie Walsh); Robert Ayres (Bob Stevens)
Show full cast and creditsThe brutal exploits of a delinquent youth and his gang, coshing and robbing women and finally nearly committing murder.
Show full synopsisCosh Boy (d. Lewis Gilbert, 1953) takes an honest, unselfconscious look at the recently identified problem of ‘juvenile delinquency’, blaming it on a lack of parental control and discipline.
Roy (James Kenney) is a convincingly nasty, cigarette-smoking 16 year old: vicious, hyperactive and insecure – bullying anyone weaker than himself, particularly the slow-witted Alfie (Ian Whittaker) and the naive Rene (a young Joan Collins). The parallels with the case of Derek Bentley – the young, backward boy controversially hanged in January 1953 for the murder of a policeman, partly because his accomplice, Christopher Craig, was too young to hang – were not lost on the audience, or on the censor.
The film captures the remains of old London, before it made way for tower blocks and walkway estates. The stark and moving shots of London’s bombed-out ruins show the influence of Italian neo-realist films such as Bicycle Thieves (d. Vittorio de Sica, 1948).
The film is well ahead of its time in its frank depiction of unmarried teenage sex, pregnancy and abortion: all deeply shocking in the repressive early 1950s. But it is badly spoilt by its ending, which suggests that all a boy needs is a damn good thrashing by his father and he will turn out all right. The moralising texts at beginning and end, though we might not agree with them today, are fascinating for the way they record the social attitudes of their time.
By the time of Tony Richardson’s The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) the rebellious youth had become working-class hero rather than menace, at least in cinema. The first British film to receive the new X certificate, Cosh Boy might be compared with Alan Clarke’s masterpieces Scum (1979) and Made in Britain (ITV, tx. 10/7/1983).
@sharongooner wrote:
Rubes Captain Birdseye beats a Wimpey any day of the week!
Now Im hungry :twisted:
oh hell aye shazza.. especially with 2 fried onions each and tomato sauce that would shame a hammer house o horror !
one of the best films ever made !!
a taste of honey, from the Sheila Delaney book of same name..
I had a look for Cosh Boy, and thought I found it on a German site, but it was just a description. :?
Sian Ive been searching for a clip from On the Buses of Olive in the side car and havent been successful there either so if you find it before me do please post it, its my all time favorite clip. 8)
do you realise that “Olive” is now Aunt Sal on eastenders ? she was damm funny on sunday night project the other week..
ya might not realise that.
Dave spotted her on her first ever episode a few years ago, but it took me a while to see it.
Whats funnier is if we’ve been watching On the Buses and then watch Enders and she pops up… I cant take her seriously, I want her to winge “Arthuuuuuur” :lol:
oh Richard Burton…
played Jimmy porter damm well..
Look back in anger.
My best friend and I went to see John Schlesinger’s directorial masterpiece (imo) FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD in Orpington High st. cinema, when we were giggling young schoolgirls. I had a pash for Alan Bates’s Gabriel Oak and she, for Terence Stamp’s Sergeant Troy.
I’ve watched this Hardy adaptation a dozen times or more, in the intervening years since girlhood, and I still cry at F.anny Robbins demise...but not as much as I slaver like a rabid vixen, over Alan Bates.. :P
@rubyred wrote:
one of the best films ever made !!
a taste of honey, from the Sheila Delaney book of same name..
Loved that film and the book … had to read that in english at school but read it again years later brilliant!!
So many films to choose :? The Battle of Britain was great. they didn’t have enough spitfires for the film so they got some hurricanes and chopped the tips of the wings off so they looked like spitfires. Prob was they were a nightmare to fly without the whole wing. Took something like 36 days to film 3 mins of dog fight because by the time everyone got into formation they run out of fuel. Although i aint googled the facts so prob got some numbers wrong lol
Loved “The Plank” with Eric Sykes. Silent comedy has to be so hard to make.
Another one i love is “The Barge” with Ronnie Barker about a bloke who works on the barges and gets some woman up the duff and the lock keeper is the Father of the woman.
“The lady killers” with Peter Sellers and Alec Guinness or “Passport to Plimlico” about a london borough that wants independance during the war.
It’s hard to get british comedy films on DVD for some reason.
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