6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
An immature teenager marries a young biker but becomes disenchanted with the realities of working class marriage and her husband's relationship with his best friend.
Starring: Rita Tushingham, Colin Campbell (XI), Dudley Sutton, Gladys Henson, Avice LandoneDrama | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
There's a slightly awkward if also maybe just a little hilarious moment (at least for those with un-PC senses of humor) in The Leather Boys where one character asks another if they want a cigarette, using the typical three letter euphemism for a smoke that is popular in Britain. That term unfortunately is also the same three letter pejorative that used to be bandied about quite a bit in pre-PC culture to dismissively describe someone who's gay. Somewhat ironically, that same three letter epithet and/or description is included in AGFA's own acronym, albeit scrambled a bit (and with one extra vowel), and the reason this term may strike some as inadvertently more "meaningful" courtesy of hindsight is because The Leather Boys, which caused quite a stir in the sixties when it was released (after languishing "on the shelf" for a year, as director Sidney J. Furie gets into in the commentary included on this disc as a supplemental feature), does indeed at least hint at a gay subculture flourishing in England, at a time (as the commentary also mentions) when the United Kingdom still had some of the same draconian "sodomy" laws that had wreaked havoc with such notables as Alan Turing, as was so memorably depicted in The Imitation Game.
The Leather Boys is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of the American Genre Film Archive and Shout! Factory with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. This release breaks ranks with previous AGFA outings for a third reason, namely that many AGFA releases are "preservation" scans from the only surviving element of any given title, which is often a pretty ragged and dilapidated print. While Furie mentions a "print" as the source in his commentary, the back cover of this release states that this is a "new restoration from the 35mm negative", and it certainly leaps to the front of the pack in terms of overall appearance of any AGFA release that I've personally reviewed. Detail levels are excellent across the board, and aside from just a few anomalies, mostly in some of the location outdoor scenes, grain is beautifully resolved. Contrast is secure throughout, and gray scale very nicely modulated. There are a few "mump" like issues that crop up, kind of oddly often more toward the middle of the frame than the edges. Hats off to AGFA and Shout! Factory for providing such a commendable transfer.
The Leather Boys features a nicely robust DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track that may admittedly sound just slightly boxy at times, especially with regard to some of the effects work, but which provides a solid accounting of the film's dialogue and Bill McGuffie's era appropriate score. There are some very slight amplitude variances that I'm chalking up at least in part to some of the location work, but all dialogue is delivered cleanly and clearly. Optional English subtitles are available.
I guess I'm going to have the check my weather app to see if hell has indeed frozen over, because I frankly never thought I'd see a release like this from the American Genre Film Archive, especially one with such great looking video. The film itself can't quite escape its production era and the content limitations that were no doubt forced on it, but in a way that makes it all the more provocative. The commentary, interviews, and the almost mindboggling documentary included just make this all the more interesting in my estimation. Technical merits are solid, and (no one is more shocked than I am that I'm saying this), this AGFA release of The Leather Boys comes Highly recommended.
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