The Boys – 1962 | 117 mins | Drama | B&W

Plot Synopsis

Director Sidney J. Furie’s innovatively flashback structured courtroom drama from the kitchen-sink era, starring Richard Todd and Robert Morley as the legal eagles that go head to head. Felix Aylmer, Dudley Sutton, Roy Kinnear, Wilfrid Brambell and Tony Garnett also feature among the familiar British faces. This gripping period piece centres around the media controversy that engulfed capital punishment at that time, and was one of the first British social melodrama’s to acknowledge the rise of teenage gangs and the juvenile delinquency resulting from them.

Four teenager teddy boys are tried in the Old Bailey on charges of theft and the murder of a garage night watchman during an evening out in London. However, although initial evidence from the prosecuting counsel (Richard Todd) seems damning for the youthful gang, their unorthodox defence lawyer’s (Robert Morley) skilful arguments soon throw the jury into confusion and disarray.