Reviews & Ratings for
Boys in Brown More at IMDbPro »

3 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Kind men and misguided boys - working together for a better society, 15 July 2003
Author: SteveThomp from Victoria, Australia

Of more interest than the average vapid 1940s British drama because it features so many prominent actors of the future, particularly Richard Attenborough. It is occasionally interesting, although unsubtle and fairly unsatisfying. Attenborough's early performing skills showed promise, although he also showed a tendency to overact. The script is dry, lame and unintelligent in most parts, and the direction isn't brilliant either. The characters are simplistic and don't get a chance to develop, while the plotlines have good intentions but are often ham-fisted - for example Bill is released from the borstal and gets work, but others are watchful and paranoid towards him because of his background; he therefore ends back inside, loses all hope and becomes involved in a break-out. It's hardly original or inspiring writing, is it?

Boys in Brown overall has the appearance of a cheap, production-line drama that was quickly made and probably more quickly forgotten. As a story it is sadly lacking. At times it seems as though this film was created merely as some kind of crude justification for borstals (reform schools-cum-prisons for teenage boys with criminal proclivities), to persuade a sceptical public that they were serving a useful function. I doubt any borstal would have been much like this one, however - the governor particularly is a progressive and benevolent liberal, while the boys themselves are victims of circumstance rather than aggressive social miscreants. When they plan a mass break-out from the borstal during a dramatic performance, a warder is assaulted and critically injured - however while the boys are overwhelmed with guilt and regret, the governor himself doesn't get overly concerned. Call me cynical but I doubt any borstal or its inmates would've been this warm and fuzzy.

A precursor of American Juvenile Delinquent stories, 3 June 2011

Author: Jason VanMason from usa

Amazon notwithstanding, a DVD of this is available and I recently ran across it. The story is pretty basic and not very believable but you do learn quite a bit about the time in which it happens. Unlike the US where kids were already defining their own style of dress, their own music and gathering places devoid of adults, the British kids dress like miniature adults with clean white shirt, tie and dark sport coat....even when robbing stores! You get the feeling that success for them means getting what the adults already have rather than renouncing the world of their elders. And they are comfortable hitting a pub for a drink. It's no big deal. I guess the British drinking age is a bit lower than that in the US. But while the British world might have welcomed the youngsters into the fold, the British film industry took things to a ridiculous extreme; all the borstal "kids" are old enough to be guards themselves. Check the biogs of the actors. Several of them are in their 30's, playing teens. Hanley, playing the part of Bill Foster, is 32 and sports an enormous belly. He is almost old enough to have a son of his own in a borstal. Attenborough and Bogard are a little less obvious, but not much. Apparently Rank, like American International and Roger Corman, had difficulty finding suitable juvenile actors and simply used adults dressed as kids. After a while you get used to it since the teens act like little adults anyway. Actually a rather interesting picture from a historical aspect. If you can find it.

3 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Star-studded cast but dated story., 31 January 2002

Author: Neil-117 from Melbourne, Australia

Some great British actors were building their career foundations in this drama about the pressures of life both inside and outside a Borstal reform institution. In particular, Dirk Bogarde makes an excellent scheming manipulator of his fellow inmates while Richard Attenborough is his naive prey.

The Borstal governor and his staff lament that the young men in their charge won't try harder to become good citizens, while the young inmates themselves can't see beyond peer pressure and adolescent rebellion - that much at least hasn't changed since 1949.

But the passage of time has not served this movie well. Its main interest now is historical, in the very early performances of future superstars and in documenting a vanished way of British life and values. We've all seen a multitude of tough prison movies made in later years and in their light this one seems rather pale.

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