Boys in Brown *** (1949, Jack Warner, Richard Attenborough, Dirk Bogarde, Jimmy Hanley, Barbara Murray, Michael Medwin, Alfie Bass, Thora Hird, Patrick Holt) – Classic Movie Review 7783

Writer-director Montgomery Tully’s 1949 British drama Boys in Brown is a sincere though none too realistic British Borstal reform-school melodrama, with gem-shop raider Jackie Knowles (Richard Attenborough), Bill Foster (Jimmy Hanley), Alf ‘Sparrow’ Thompson (Michael Medwin) and troublemaker Alfie Rawlins (Dirk Bogarde) among the inmates, while the caring staff include the good-hearted governor (Jack Warner) and warder Tigson (Patrick Holt).

[Spoiler alert] Alfie Rawlins (Bogarde)’s bid for freedom goes wrong, and Jackie Knowles (Attenborough) nearly kills someone, before the film’s inevitable happy ending. How different from Scum, or Warner Bros’ Thirties social crusading movies, or from real life for that matter!

Based on a well-meaning play by the actor Reginald Beckwith, Boys in Brown does provide some genuine entertainment, however, if only from watching the British thespians, some of them looking a bit long in the tooth as Borstal boys, doing their stalwart things.

Also in the cast are Alfie Bass, Thora Hird, Andrew Crawford, Barbara Murray, Graham Payn, John Blythe, Cyril Chamberlain, Stanley Escane, Robert Desmond, Marten Tiffen, Philip Stainton, Tony Quinn, Elspeth March, Frederick Leister, Edward Judd, Clive Dunn, Charles Farrell, Ronald Adam and Robert Moore.

Boys in Brown is directed by Montgomery Tully, runs 84 minutes, is made by Gainsborough Pictures, is released by General Film Distributors, is written by Montgomery Tully, is shot in black and white by Gordon Lang and Cyril Bristow, is produced by Antony Darnborough, is scored by Doreen Carwithen and is designed by Douglas Daniels.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7783

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