One of the best-known of the era's working class "kitchen sink" dramas (think A TASTE OF HONEY or SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING, and a personal favorite, the genuinely sleazy BEAT GIRL), THE LEATHER BOYS (1964) focuses on the marriage of Reggie (Colin Campbell) and Dot (Rita Tushingham), who get married very young. (Rita is sixteen.) Reggie is fond enough of Dot, but it's pretty clear that his true interest in her revolves around her being sexually available. All he wanted to do with her is have sex, but the self-absorbed and immature Dot 's interest in perpetually having fun begins to grate on Reggie's nerves, as well as her incompetence as the housewife she's expected to be during that era, and the marriage begins to sour while the pair are on their honeymoon at a holiday facility in Bognor.
The pair regularly fight and soon Reggie loses interest in physical intimacy with Dot, instead preferring to spend as much time as possible with his biker pals. He soon begins a friendship with blonde leather-clad "certified nutcase" Pete (Dudley Sutton), a happy-go-lucky sort with whom Reggie finally finds a legit human connection.
The only other person Reggie gets on with is his grandmother, and when his grandfather dies, he moves Pete into his grandmother's house so she'll have some company, which works out just great for everyone. Unfortunately, Reggie moves out on Dot after less than a year of marriage and begins boarding at his grandmother's with Pete, the two even sharing a bed. Reggie's relationship with Pete deepens as the two become inseparable, and Reggie finds it easy to communicate and express himself with the ebullient Pete. As the pair become closer, it becomes clear to the audience that Pete is gay, though at no point is he portrayed as in any way a stereotype of a homosexual man, while Reggie remains oblivious.
Dot takes up with another of Reggie's biker crew in an attempt to make Reg jealous, even going so far as to claim that she's pregnant with Reggie's child (a strategy suggested by her mother), but Reggie immediately scoffs at this, noting that there's no way it could be his kid because he hasn't touched Dot in ages. Dot notes how Reggie and Pete seem attached at the hip, even going so far as to bitterly state "You two look like a couple of queers." (She's not wrong. They could be a butch couple that Tom of Finland would have illustrated, what with the biker culture and leather fetishism, though considerably less cartoonishly buff.) Reggie and Pete even go on holiday together and have a blast, though when Reg tries to pull two girls, Pete's lack of interest is barely hidden behind a polite facade, and of course Reggie does not pick up on what is blatantly obvious: Pete is clearly in love with Reg, and he even suggests that the pair leave England for New York City.
During a multi-person motorcycle race to Edinburgh, with Dot riding bitch with her new beau, Reggie and Dot begin to reconnect, much to the consternation of Pete, and the two decide to reconnect. I won't outline how, so you can see it for yourself, but the story's conclusion leaves the lives of our three main characters shattered.
So, after sleeping overnight and ruminating on the events in THE LEATHER BOYS, I enjoyed the film but am disappointed that it didn't do more with examining the relationship between Cockney mechanic/biker Reggie and fellow biker Pete. After decades of hearing about how the film was tarred for "promoting moral turpitude" and banned in some areas, I came to it expecting something as off-putting as the infamous CRUISING (1980), but even for its time I found nothing particularly offensive or salacious about it, unless the mere hints of the existence of homosexuality or a positive same sex relationship were enough to send the critics and the greater British public into paroxysms of wailing and hand-wringing. (Which, let's face it, was pretty much the case. Homosexuality was not decriminalized in England until 1967.)
Reggie's a typical Cockney from the British dramas of the pre/early Beatles era and is serviceable enough as a protagonist, but he's kind of bland. Dot is immature and quite selfish, and definitely not yet ready for the responsibilities of a British housewife in 1964. The one truly likeable character in the triangle is Pete, who is sensitive, caring, kind, down-to-earth, and just plain fun, the kind of person anyone would be glad to associate with. It's pretty obvious from the get-go that he's gay and has feelings for Reggie, but he is at no point played as a stereotypical mincing sissy. Pete's just a nice guy with a taste for high-octane motorcycles and black leather, and he came from out of nowhere to become my favorite queer character in cinema. His utter lack of stereotyping is refreshing, especially when considering when the film was made, and sheer normal human decency of such a character must have been quite unsettling for the average British moviegoer in the early 1960's. Pete was far from the first gay character in UK cinema, but he was easily the most human. He reminded me of some of my friends, people the likes of which I never see properly depicted onscreen. I would have loved to see a film that continues Pete's story from the point where we left him, but alas. Anyway, check out THE LEATHER BOYS. Low-key but very good stuff indeed.
