Flipside 040: Cosh Boy

[Calvin]

Cosh Boy (DVD + Blu-ray) Flipside No: 40
Directed by Lewis Gilbert

A gang of juvenile delinquents tear up post-war London in Lewis Gilbert's (The Spy Who Loved Me, Alfie) shocking and energetic X-rated drama.

Roy (James Kenney) is a brash, chain-smoking thug who bullies his friends (including Rene, played by a young Joan Collins) into subservience. He and his gang assault and rob people on the street, but things get increasingly dangerous when their behaviour escalates to murderous consequences.

Unafraid to tackle a host of taboo subjects, Cosh Boy is a penetrating portrait of 1950s Britain and its simmering social tensions. One, if not the first British film to receive an X certificate, this landmark classic is available on Blu-ray for the first time and is the 40th entry to the longstanding BFI Flipside catalogue

Special features

Presented in High Definition and Standard Definition
Stranger in the City (1961, 22 mins): short film by Robert Hartford-Davis
**FIRST PRESSING ONLY** Fully illustrated booklet with new writing on the film and full film credits
Other extras TBC

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Release Date: 20th January 2020

[colinr0380]

I'll copy this over from the Kino thread:

As a minor historical footnote, this was the first British film to get a then-new X certificate from the BBFC, and was presumably made with that aim in mind.

Interestingly I just re-watched one of the BBC's "Talking X's" programmes from 1995, which suggested that Women of Twilight/Twilight Women was the first British X film. I never knew there was competition for that honour!

I guess there is some debate about it still, or this was discovered to have been X-rated first in the decades since that BBC piece was filmed. At the very least Cosh Boy features Joan Collins two years before she played the scheming ill-fated Princess who is not up on her Egyptian burial lore in Howard Hawks' Land of the Pharaohs! (Which got there before Cleopatra in making Cinemascope literally only good for snakes and funerals!)

[GaryC]

I'll copy this over from the Kino thread:

As a minor historical footnote, this was the first British film to get a then-new X certificate from the BBFC, and was presumably made with that aim in mind.

Interestingly I just re-watched one of the BBC's "Talking X's" programmes from 1995, which suggested that Women of Twilight/Twilight Women was the first British X film. I never knew there was competition for that honour!

As per the BBFC site, Women of Twilight was certified on 10 September 1952 (cut) and Cosh Boy on 12 November (uncut) the same year. To put that in perspective, there were over forty Xs before then, beginning with La Vie commence demain, which opened at the Cameo-Poly (now the Regent Street Cinema), having been classified on 15 Janaury 1951 (uncut).

[colinr0380]

Thanks GaryC. So while not technically the first British-made X film by only a matter of a couple of months, they could perhaps lay claim to Cosh Boy (aka The Slasher) being the first British made X-film to have been released uncut through the BBFC!

[MichaelB]

Full specs announced:

BFI Flipside presents release No. 040
Cosh Boy
Directed by Lewis Gilbert

James Kenney, Joan Collins

Dual Format Edition (Blu-ray/DVD), release on 20 January 2020, with simultaneous BFI Player, iTunes and Amazon Prime release

A gang of juvenile delinquents tear up post-war London in Cosh Boy, Lewis Gilbert’s (Alfie and The Spy Who Loved Me) energetic X-rated drama, which provides a penetrating portrait of 1950s Britain and its simmering social tensions. On 20 January 2020, Cosh Boy will become the 40th release in the BFI Flipside series, released in a Dual Format Edition with extras including short films by Lewis Gilbert and more. It will be launched with a special screening event and discussion with Flipside founders at BFI Southbank – details below.

Roy (James Kenney) is a brash, chain-smoking thug who bullies his friends (including Rene, played by a young Joan Collins) into subservience. He and his gang assault and rob people on the street, but things get increasingly dangerous when their behaviour escalates, with tragic consequences.

Special features
• Presented in High Definition and Standard Definition
• US title sequence: The Slasher (1953, 3 mins): extended title sequence from the renamed US release
• The Ten Year Plan (1945, 17 mins): film by Lewis Gilbert featuring Charles Hawtrey
• Johnny on the Run (1953, 68 mins): Lewis Gilbert’s production for the Children’s Film Foundation starring Sydney Tafler (Carve Her Name with Pride) and featuring an appearance by Dad’s Army actor John Laurie
• Harmony Lane (1954, 24 mins): musical comedy directed by Lewis Gilbert
• Teddy Boys (1956, 8 mins): rare television footage of a London Teddy boy out on the town
• Stranger in the City (1961, 22 mins): short film by Robert Hartford-Davis about Soho in the 1960s
• Ian Whittaker: From Master Crook to Cosh Boy (2019, 9 mins): short interview with one of the stars of Cosh Boy
• Image gallery
• Illustrated booklet (***first pressing only***) with new essays by Matthew Coniam, Jenny Hammerton, Richard Falcon and Tony Kinsey; notes on the special features and full film credits

Product details
RRP: £19.99 / Cat. no. BFIB1357 / BFI Flipside No. 040 / Cert 12
UK / 1953 / black and white / 75 mins / English language, with optional hard-of-hearing subtitles / original aspect ratio 1.37:1 // BD50: 1080p, 24fps, PCM 1.0 mono audio (48kHz/24-bit) / DVD9: PAL, 25fps, Dolby Digital 1.0 mono audio (192kbps)

And for details of the Flipside at 40 event, go here.

[tenia]

It's both a fascinating and an eye-rolling movie. It's very silly in many of the characters' behavior (especially Rene, the girl our protagonist lusts after, who goes from basically being raped - we clearly hear her saying "No !" - to being steady with the guy for 2 months in litterally the very next shot), but it's probably because the whole script looks like it was written by a bunch of old people for whom the explanation to juvenile delinquency is young people not getting beaten enough by their parents or tutors. The ending is an absolute laugh in this regard, but the movie, to its credit, tries hard to make the protagonist totally unlikeable in order to ensure the viewers do feel that ending is thoroughly deserved.

[Orlac]

It is an extremely entertaining and hilarious movie, it must be said.

The extra The Ten Year Plan is even more hilarious, with Charles Hawtry somehow making a building project sound delightfully naughty.

[DeprongMori]

I only wish that the original 3-D version of Harmony Lane had been included. ;^)

Though, for completists, it turns out…

In August 2014, we discovered the lost 3-D film HARMONY LANE buried deep in the vaults of the British Film Institute. Directed by Lewis Gilbert (as Byron Gill) and photographed by A.E. Jeakins in March 1953, it sat on the shelf until the end of 1954 when it was finally released flat.
This delightful 27 minute short is like spending a night at the Palladium with several variety acts. They include dancing by the Jack Billings Trio; a song by the Beverley Sisters; "Swan Lake" by Svetlana Beriosova and David Paltenghi of the Sadler's Wells Ballet; precision dancing by The Television Toppers and a comedy routine with Dora Bryan and Max Bygraves. The orchestra was directed by future Hammer Studios composer, Philip Martell.

Art direction was by future Oscar and Emmy nominee Michael Stringer and the excellent stereo cinematography was the work of Brian Smith. In 1951, Smith had directed the first British 3-D short in Technicolor, DISTANT THAMES/ROYAL RIVER which was a tremendous success at the Festival of Britain and the Edinburgh Film Festival.

HARMONY LANE has never been seen in 3-D and we are thrilled to announce its stereoscopic debut on our upcoming Blu-ray release of SEPTEMBER STORM!

The 3-D September Storm, including the 3-D Harmony Lane, was released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber.