The Slasher (1953) User Reviews

Coshing the Cosh Boy

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 16 April 2012]

Although the play Cosh Boy never made it to Broadway, probably too British in its subject matter, the original actor who played the lead on the London stage got to recreate his role for the screen. In the tradition of Richard Attenborough in Brighton Rock, James Kenney is mesmerizing and unforgettable as the dirty little punk who with his gang robs little old ladies of their monies.

If anything Kenney is far more loathsome than Attenborough, not even a hint of surface charm. In fact the hardest part of the film to take seriously is having young Joan Collins surrender herself and her virginity to this creep. Still his love 'em and leave 'em attitude is just one more reason to hate this kid. I've seen very few leading villains so lacking in any redeeming qualities. Possibly Lee Marvin in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is one.

For those of us Yanks for who the film was retitled The Slasher for release by Lippert Pictures here, a Cosh is a kind of truncheon used to whack someone into unconsciousness or beat them severely. That's what he and his gang use. He's the bane of the existence of his poor mother Betty Ann Davies who agonizes over what she did wrong in raising him. She has a new man in her life, American Robert Ayres playing a Canadian, who thinks the kid just needed a good attitude adjustment that was never given him by a father who is not in the picture. In the end Kenney has to account for all his many sins.

Besides a very young Joan Collins viewers should take note of the two Hermiones in the film, Hermione Baddely as the mother of Collins who wants to Cosh the Cosh Boy after she finds out what Kenney has done and Hermione Gingold playing a not disguised at all prostitute who is a friend of the Davies/Kenney family. It's a poor section of London these folks live in with evidence all around of the recent war. Kenney's gang hides out in the bombed out buildings still not repaired by 1953.

Cosh Boy is still quite a riveting piece of film making and Kenney is unforgettably evil.

Hits you over the head and you'll like it

[FilmFlaneur · 7/10 · 26 September 2010]

Don't miss this, now available as THE SLASHER as part of a Kit Parker Films DVD double bill under the moniker British Film Noir (along with TWILIGHT WOMEN). Strictly speaking I would class neither of these two productions as 'film noir' - more social problem and crime films. THE SLASHER is actually the American renaming of good old COSH BOY, a title which has occasionally surfaced on UK's C4. It's the main reason why I, and I suspect others, will want this disc - a minor cult item featuring a memorable central turn for James Kenney - who also appears, to less effect in another recent release (from the UK this time) GELIGNITE GANG. Kenney plays Roy, the anti-social, selfish, cunning and manipulative thug, about whose short career as a petty criminal the film is about. Highlight of the film is the corporal punishment meted out to Roy by his new stepfather in the final scenes - something strikingly and splendidly un-PC: much more more intense and yes, satisfying in effect than any amount of more establishment-accommodating endings familiar from other films of this ilk. I'm no supporter of the belt, but by God you will be crying out for Roy, who has betrayed his girlfriend (a very young Joan Collins) his mother, his grandmother and almost everyone else, to get the taste of it by time of the end! THE SLASHER may have its weaknesses, including an obvious black-and-white view of behaviour, but with such a powerful ending, together with Kenney's memorable performance it is a must-see. Those who criticise some of the acting (viz: one of Roy's stooges, a particularly whining individual) miss the point - this is British exploitation at its best. The DVD quality is excellent btw except for one or soundtrack drop outs with the present release.

Yes, but...

[mikepetty · 7/10 · 25 September 2003]

Just seen this on TV. Watched the whole thing (not just the last 15 minutes), and agree with most of what's been said - the dodgy accents, the usual brace of Hermiones, Sid James doing his avuncular desk sergeant bit, etc etc. And as the stepfather Robert Ayres gives the best performance as a piece of wood I've seen since the log in Twin Peaks. Don't think I've ever seen a film before where the fuzz make themselves scarce for ten minutes so stepfather can give his stepson a bloody good thrashing! But...making allowances for the conventions of the time, you can tell it was made by someone who knew what he was doing, and several things kept me watching: the location shots of blitzed London; Joan Collins, who was rather affecting given the limitations of her role; and James Kenney as Roy the hoodlum was really good - overwrought, sure, but convincing nevertheless. I was reminded of Gary Oldman at his most psychotic.

See below

[allankelb · 7/10 · 6 February 2013]

this film screened in the early am last night on abc1 in Australia. I note that some reviewers thought the acting was poor however I found that the actor who played the lead role was brilliant, I grew up on the wrong side of town so I am familiar with what these creatures are like, these types are universal regardless of time and place.That actor really nailed the archetype snivelling, gutless psychopath, I am surprised that this actor did not goonto bigger and better roles. I wonder if Peter Sellers saw this film as one of the thugs has a comical high pitched voice identical to one of Sellers many voices! And the young Joan Collins, what a beauty!

Profiling the cowards who beat up and rob little old ladies.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 12 June 2018]

I don't know what's odder about this expose on British juvenile delinquency issues in the 1950's: the strange helium voice of James Kenney as the lead delinquent, or the fact that Joan Collins' mother here is played by the cockney Hermione Baddeley. It's still a well made film, superbly photographed in what appears to be the oldest parts of London (remnants of Fagin's hideaway in "Oliver Twist") and crisply paced. It's obvious from the start that Kenney and his cohorts are up to no good when they stalk a drunk little old lady staggering home from a pub. They appear to have a knife, but no evidence of using it is ever given other than to threaten life or limb to get ahold of these poor old women's few valuables. For a Yank like me to get into this, it took many years of film research understanding various British dialects and catching onto little bits of British culture. But in my years of film study, I have realized one thing: British filmmakers seemed to take more chances from an early age and thus, many of their films seem far advanced over American movies of the same period.

Joining Miss Baddley here (but unfortunately not in any scenes together) is the nearly unrecognizable Hermione Gingold, with platinum blonde hair and excessive jewelry, only identifiable when she speaks. Her characterization of a seemingly over the hill party girl is hysterical, but unfortunately other than become a victim of Keenan's mugging and later a witness, has little to do. Baddeley is more ferocious, confronting Keeney's parents when she finds out "scandalous" news about her precious daughter. Collins, very soft and feminine here, comes off closer to a young Jean Simmons or Audrey Hepburn rather than the vixens she played a few years later in biblical era epics like "Land of the Pharaohs" and "Esther and the King", and certainly as far from her "Dynasty" character of Alexis Carrington as you can imagine. This has some very tense moments, particularly Keeney's dealings with future stepfather Robert Ayres who has no hesitation of slapping him when Keeney sasses his mother (Betty Ann Davies). The final scene is a true shocker, showing the horrific truth in what lies beneath the surface of thugs like Keeney as they are brought down to their knees and forced to pay for their sins.

British juvenile delinquency drama

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 23 May 2017]

COSH BOY is an intriguing mix of social drama and crime thriller, released in Britain in 1953. It deserves credit for tackling the subject matter of juvenile crime and delinquency in a stark and realistic way, avoiding sensation for the most part in its depiction of unpleasant events that spiral out of control and affect the lives of those involved. The film was shot by future Bond director Lewis Gilbert, who exhibits a good control of his medium even at this early stage of his career.

James Kenney gives a thoroughly believable turn as the film's protagonist, one of the most unpleasant in all of 1950s cinema. Through him, the viewer gets into the mind of the thug and sees just what makes him tick. The exasperated family members are all well and good, but it's the youthful figures who stand out: an impossibly young Joan Collins as the naive girlfriend and Johnny Briggs as a callow gang member. Even Sid James and Laurence Naismith show up as coppers. There aren't many laughs here, but the oddly gripping nature of the material will see you through right till the end.

British juvenile delinquency

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 5 October 2023]

This was known in England as "Cosh Boy."

A cosh is a blackjack or bludgeon and cosh means mugging someone.

Nice performance by James Kenney as a juvenile delinquent who runs a gang that beats up little old ladies and steals their money. Kenney played the lead on the London stage and does an excellent job.

He becomes involved with one of the gang members' sister (Joan Collins) with disastrous results.

Both of the Hermoines are in this film. Gingold looked like a drag queen.

Post-war juvenile delinquency was going on everywhere, including Britain.

Amazing to see 20-year-old Joan Collins, who as of this writing is still with us 70 years later. The film is worth it just for that.

My Mum was in this (possibly)

[hildagrenshaw · 5/10 · 23 July 2014]

Interesting film. It was filmed in Leamore Street in Hammersmith. My Mum lived there. The film crew gave them ice creams and skipping ropes to play in the background of some scenes (though on a quick look through the film, I didn't see much of this). The beginning shows them running down a high street and I suspect this was the main street in Hammersmith.I have just bought it for my Mum's 70th birthday as she had never seen the film due to it being an X and of course, there were no DVD/Video recorders in those days!Feels a bit over acted in places, but an interesting historical document of life in the 1950s. Joan Collins is impressive though.

It's ALL the coddling mothers' fault....spare the rod, spoil the Empire I say!

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 10 August 2016]

"Cosh Boy" (also known as "The Slasher") is an incredibly Oedipal picture that takes advantage of post-war worries that the youth were running amok. It begins with Roy Walsh and a friend committing a mugging (a 'cosh') and soon getting caught. They are placed on probation and Roy acts very contrite and decent in court...and almost immediately after, he's planning his next crimes! His idea is to use the Youth Club his probation officer wants him to attend. He and his gang will go there...and use it as a cover for their criminal activities. In the process, Roy discovers a pretty young lady (Joan Collins)...who he treats like dirt.

Through the course of the film, Roy continually ups the ante--with his criminal behaviors getting worse and worse. He clearly is without a redeeming quality...though his co-dependent mother makes excuses for him. The only one who sees right through the punk is his mother's boyfriend...he knows that Roy needs a very firm hand. But here is where it gets rather Freudian...as Roy throws a weird temper tantrum and swears no one will have his mother as she is HIS! What's next? See this weird little film.

James Kenney is quite good as Roy--snarling, nasty and incredibly two- faced..as well as hopelessly in love with his mother..though he and his mum don't seem to realize it. My biggest complaint, however, is that the film tries to say that who Roy is turns out to be because he has a super-permissive mother. In fact, the preachy prologue says exactly that! Oversimplified to say the least! Overall, it's not a great film at all...but it IS entertaining and worth seeing!

By the way, although the film seems very tame by modern standards, it received the brand new X-rating--which was very unusual for the 1950s. Perhaps this was because the film talks about teenage pregnancy and is a tad violent...all of which would lead to a PG or PG-13 rating today.

"Get up you little rat...you're making me sick!!!"--best line in the film.

Hysterical and terrible!

[Andy-140 · 1/10 · 2 October 1998]

'Cosh Boy' was made at a time when society was preoccupied with youth. Many men died in the war leaving widows on their own to cope with family life. The fear of crime in the early post-war period was blown out of proportion. 'Cosh Boy' is a reflection of this moral panic and many newspapers carried stories about 'cosh boys' going out mugging old ladies.

Lewis Gilbert's film follows the rise and fall of Roy Walsh a young thug from Battersea. The acting is dire. Ian Whitaker who plays Roy's educationally backward sidekick Alfie collins is staggeringly bad. The film follows the struggles of Roy's widowed mother Elsie who is unable to control her son supposedly because of the absence of a man in the house. The grandmother also lives with Elsie and knows that Roy is no good, she represents the older wiser generation that believed in discipline and family life with two parents. The film has a soapbox message in advocating law and order. It starts from an irrational premise, i.e. the country risks being over-run by youthful barbarians. It advocates that women should follow their prescribed gender roles as housewives and mothers, leave the hard stuff like discipline to men. The most nauseating line in the film comes from Grandma Walsh 'They don't know what hard work is these days. Eight hours a day, five days a week, makes me laugh'. So the working classes should be grateful for less exploitative working hours and conditions. Reactionary trash but a laugh a minute none the less.

Well worth a look.

[angryangus · 8/10 · 2 May 2010]

After reading some of the extremely negative reviews I feel I have to add my tuppence worth. I watched this film recently and I can't believe some of the reviewers watched the same movie. Bad acting? I couldn't see any. All the actors were stage-trained and while I could see some of that reflected in several of the performances it didn't detract from, but rather added to, the underlying documentary approach to a subject that was much in the public and political mind at that time (and still is today).

James Kenney, who I've seen in several movies, gives an outstanding performance of this young undisciplined hoodlum whose hysterical vileness and strutting arrogance propped up with a false bravado that finally cracks like a mirror at the end of the film....well, crime couldn't be shown to pay, could it? And yes, the police of that time were quite willing to let parents or guardians punish their young 'uns if they thought it would do any good. Parents would insist to the policeman, "Leave him to me!" if he brought shame on the house...I know! Alternatively the policemen themselves would give you a clip on the back of the head with their hand (painful) or flick you with a rolled up cape on the bum (very painful). You wouldn't go running to your Dad crying about it for he'd give you another clip saying you must have deserved it.

Social history tells us of how Britain, with four million men in uniform during the war years saw a generation of youth largely grow up without the guidance of fathers or older brothers. Juvenile delinquency figures during and after the war went through the roof and with many de-mobbed soldiers bringing looted pistols and revolvers home with them there was a steady supply of weapons filtering down to the criminally-inclined classes, and resulting in a massive increase in crimes of robbery, assault and murder by those who were 'tooled-up' and who were quite willing to kill their victims rather than let them live to identify their attacker and possibly end up making the acquaintance of Mr Pierrepoint and his neck-adjusting service (which he performed...on a career-best 405 occasions!).

For the time, and of the time, Lewis Gilbert's film stands up well in my eyes compared to the rose-tinted comedic films depicting similar disenfranchised youth such as the funny 'Hue and Cry'…which I also enjoyed enormously.

Taking a film out of its time-period to deliver judgement can't be right.

There were many films made back then (and even now) that are shoddily made with poor acting, dire scripts and non-existent production values that deserve all the brickbats they get, but 'Cosh Boy' isn't one of them....in my humble opinion.

Hangin's too good for 'em if you ask me...........................

[ianlouisiana · 6/10 · 31 August 2009]

It's easy to laugh at this rather smugly here in the 21st century when it's so safe to walk the streets and drunken yobs don't blight our town centres every weekend and our youths are not indiscriminately killing each other,and we can leave our doors open all night and hug a hoodie...yeah,right. Like the infinitely better "The Blue Lamp","Cosh Boy" is an Issue Picture.There the resemblance ends.Whilst the former was a noir masterpiece,one of the most seminal of all 50s British pictures,the latter is a catchpenny bandwagon-jumping appallingly made load of tosh made to cash in a genuine fear of "Teddy Boys","Cosh Boys" and the like that held the post-war public in its sway. Because the fact that the movie is awful should not be a reason to dismiss the fears of the audience who went to see it.My father who'd fought the Italians and Germans in the African desert was a firm believer in corporal and capital punishment,as were many of his generation.No amount of sophistry will deny the fact that now our country is a far more dangerous place than in 1953 when he could happily walk the dog to the newsagents with a better than average chance of getting home unscathed. The movie "Cosh Boy",terrible as it was,brought the issue of violent youth out into the open,much the same as "Cathy come home" did for the disenfranchised 15 years later and the masterly "Scum" raised the profile of the treatment of young offenders. All these movies caught the public's attention and - ultimately - Parliament's. At a time when the Authorities were more prepared to deal robustly with bad behaviour,exemplary sentencing paved the way for the decline of the feral youths of the day.It may have all been appallingly judgemental but it worked. So..."Cosh Boy" is a lousy movie with dreadful acting and all put together for what it would cost nowadays for a haircut at Trumpers...... but it served a purpose.Lewis Gilbert may well have intended to make a piece of sensationalist dross,pure and simple,but he ended up with a movie that changed things for the better for ordinary working-class Brits.Our present bunch of Arts Council subsidised Armchair Socialists would do well to note that.According to his diaries,Kenneth Williams auditioned for a part in this movie.Tragically he didn't get it - he might have lifted it to a whole new level.

An amusing cod thriller.

[andy67uk · 2/10 · 3 April 2001]

'Cosh Boy' has dreadful scripts and abysmal acting. The only attractive feature of the film is the pretty 18 year old actress Joan Collins (whatever became of her?). The storyline is condescending and moralistic. It suggests that manly discipline is needed to help in the rebuilding of the post-war family, otherwise working-class youths will turn into vicious, nasty 'cosh boys' or poor hapless single mothers. Crime had actually fallen after the war. Black market crime, and other offences, was rife in wartime Britain

What makes this film funny, apart from the atrocious acting, is that in hindsight we can see how ridiculous some 'moral panics' are. The people that might laugh at the caricatures in this film might still go along with existing panics in Britain today - such as 'mad cow' disease, 'road rage', chlamydia teenage alcoholism etc. The total ridiculousness of this film is clear because it is so dated. However panics still grip the popular imagination today, only that they are filtered through far more sophisticated channels such as so-called public health campaigns and the media.

Returning to the film. The characters are one-dimensional, it is purely an exercise in moral tub-thumping concerned with the reconsolidation of law and order in post-war society. The acting is so bad it is hilarious and I'm sure this is one film that Lewis Gilbert would not want to be reminded of.

Joan Collins - the one bright spot in this dreary drama!!

[kidboots · 6/10 · 6 October 2009]

After the war Britain went through a J.D. crisis and some fine films tried to give understanding to the problem ("The Blue Lamp" (1950), "Violent Playground" (1957), "Beat Girl" (1959)). While "Cosh Boy" was a bit heavy handed (literally) at laying the blame on absentee fathers - at least it tried to find a solution. It was also the first British film to receive an X certificate.

Two young chaps follow an inebriated granny onto a vacant lot, "cosh" her and take her purse. So begins "Cosh Boy", a rather wooden film that attempts to explain the rise of juvenile delinquency that happened everywhere, after World War 11. The boys, Roy (James Kenny) and Alfie (Ian Whittaker) are caught and sentenced to one year's probation. Roy manages to put on a good performance for the magistrate but he is the brains behind the gang and has no intention of stopping his unlawful activities. His mother announces her intention of marrying Bob Stevens and Roy goes crazy - says if she marries Bob, he will kill him!!!

Roy goes to a local dance and meets Rene (beautiful Joan Collins). She is not impressed with his caveman tactics and continues to see dependable Brian. Roy arranges to have Brian beaten up and when Brian is discharged from hospital Roy and Rene are a couple. Roy may have his mother hoodwinked - but not his gran, who has her own ideas about how he should be bought up. When Roy's mother and Bob come back from a date, Gran is distraught - her life savings (which she kept under her bed) are gone, and she knows who is responsible. Bob waits until Roy comes home and gives him a sample of what life will be like when he marries Roy's mum. Rene is having her own problems - she is having a baby and Roy, being the gentleman that he is, refuses to have anything to do with her. She then tries to kill herself by jumping into the river but, fortunately, is saved, a sadder but wiser girl.

Things start to unravel for Roy - he has got hold of a gun, which he uses with disastrous results in a bungled robbery. Even though he will spend a long time in jail, police turn a blind eye when his step father gives him a well deserved thrashing!! Comparing this film to "The Blue Lamp" is silly. "The Blue Lamp" is a classic British noir, this is just a programmer. I wouldn't describe the acting as amateurish and the film is not as bad as some reviewers make out.

Recommended.

A comedy for sure

[mcjules · 7/10 · 20 March 2011]

This movie made when Western civilisation was going to be torn down by the outbreak of Juvenile Delinquents, and the pimply youth were building forces in the US as well, so follow Cosh Boy with "When Youth Runs Wild" (1945). The US film is not as funny as the UK one but still has all the traditional delinquent-syndrome markers.

Cosh Boy is a real hoot, especially the strange pitch of their voices or, perhaps this is the what delinquency does to the vocal cords. Making their coshes in trade classes at school was a goody, what or where was the teacher while these illegal instruments were being turned out. Suppose the old prostitutes were lucky that the boys weren't doing metal work at school or they would have been done over with knuckle dusters. Loved the 50/50 split: ten bob for you and fifteen bob for me, and the cosh wielding drongo didn't notice the shortchange.

Loved the fashion. The best was the bloke in the two-toned car coat with tied waist topped off with a Homberg hat. Sooo hip.

Risible

[Bernie-56 · 27 September 2000]

Couldn't agree more with the previous review. I caught the last 15 minutes on cable. I have yet to see more wooden acting -- just standing there and saying the lines!

If I had been the Cosh Boy I would have just slugged my stepfather on the jaw and run away. Or, if American, shot him with my handy revolver.

much moralising

[christopher-underwood · 6/10 · 10 November 2020]

Well intentioned, I am sure, but this early effort from director Lewis Gilbert, best known for Alfie (1966) and a trio of Bond films, is perhaps too loyal to the original stage play by Bruce Walker. The dialogue is strong but the film seems hampered by lack of location shooting and much moralising. It has a certain charm but the preaching about parental guidance, the value of youth clubs and teenage pregnancies make this a rather difficult watch today. The only real surprise here in this tale of young boys going wrong is the ending, which comes as a real surprise. Especially mind boggling at a time when the Scottish authorities have just outlawed the physical chastising of children, we see the measure suggested as the answer to the universe.

thoughts

[marktayloruk · 4/10 · 6 January 2018]

Found Roy a thoroughly vile human being but didn't like Bob either. "For his own good"-merely an excuse from someone who'd always hated him,with or without good reason. Was rather hoping that the battered Roy would seize his gun, wound Bob,and do a runner-the cops' explanations to their superiors would have been good for a laugh! Oh-Joan Collins as teenage virgin.VERY old film!

Juvenile version of No Orchids For Miss Blandish

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 25 September 2015]

Difficult to realise that this was amongst the first films released with an X certificate.It was probably to ensure that impressionable teenagers did not have the opportunity to copy the antics of the characters in this film.Joan Collins shines amongst the dross.Having seen her boyfriend is beaten up by a gang.She then goes with the leader of the gang who treats her roughly.He also has a huge Oedipus complex,and almost seems to be doing a rather poor impersonation of James Cagney in White Heat.There are also parts of this film which are reminiscent of Brighton Rock and The Blue Lamp.The gang stages a raid on a wrestling arena which goes wrong.The leader shoots a member of staff.Subsequently they have a discussion about who would go down for the crime which clearly reflects the Derek Bentley case.The climax is so overblown it is quite laughable.

Cheap and nasty and GREAT!!

[mauriceyoung-49925 · 10/10 · 24 March 2020]

Because of the title I expected to see a silly embarrassing film costing about £50 to make. However I should have known better as it was directed by one of the most professional men in the business, Lewis Gilbert, who amongst other wonderful films directed two James Bond movies starring Sean Connery. I enjoyed it as it portrayed the black & white times of the early 1950's excellently. The only embarrassment was the miscasting of Joan Collins. For Joan Collins is a woman and has always been a woman probably since she was about twelve and cannot disguise it. So why would a woman of her obvious mature endowment have a relationship with a spoilt little juvenile brat? The outside scenes were enjoyable and the acting was very good. The end was very disappointing. You can't beat love and understanding into someone. You only make them more resentful and hateful.

Roll up! Roll up! See the Gang that Contains the Oldest Juvenile Delinquent

[loza-1 · 1/10 · 16 December 2016]

Roy Walsh is a young delinquent, who makes a pound or two out of coshing old ladies and stealing their handbags. He has a gang with him who cycle to their scenes-of-crime. They include a simpleton; there's a character played by a young Johnny Briggs, and a strange character who looks and talks like a forty-year-old.

Walsh is a nasty character, who displays no remorse. He treats his gangsters badly, especially the simpleton. He has an affair with the simpleton's sister (Joan Collins), whose accent slips like a 4-man bobsleigh. Their short, loveless affair results in her getting pregnant. Walsh is not impressed, tells her to clear off. We are told that Joan Collins has "done herself in". In fact she is lying alive in a hospital bed, although she has lost her baby.

The screenplay has all the features of having been jotted down on the back of a cigarette packet at the last minute. There is no layering in this production. There is no explanation why Walsh is like this.

Walsh's gang upgrade from coshing old ladies to using a revolver to rob the takings at a wrestling match. The gun goes off, wounding a staff member.

The police catch up with Walsh. But first Walsh is caught by his brand new Canadian stepfather. The police stand aside, while Walsh's stepfather does what everyone thought he should have done ages ago. He takes off his belt and starts whacking Walsh.

This is one of several films that looked at post WW2 juvenile crime. "The Blue Lamp" was the best of these, in my opinion. But "Cosh Boy" is one of the worst films I have seen. It is badly scripted, badly acted. It is ridiculous that eight years after one of the biggest incidents of violence and vandalism known to humankind, all this film could offer as a remedy for youth crime is walloping a kid with a belt. How pathetic.

Watch out for Sid James playing a station officer in a short scene.

'Lewis Gilbert's abrasive, hard-hitting 'Cosh Boy' has lost little of its impact!'

[Weirdling_Wolf · 8/10 · 10 April 2022]

'Cosh Boy' (1953) - Lewis Gilbert.

Highly regarded writer/director Lewis Gilbert's gloomy, surprisingly gritty expose of violent opportunist street crime is certainly no less hard-hitting an experience today than upon its initial somewhat more controversial theatrical release in 1953. Due to Gilbert's tough-edged feature's rather blunt, relatively unfiltered examination of criminality it was granted an 'X' certificate, its abrasive depictions of anti-social teenage delinquency, petty larceny, violent street crime, and the increasingly criminal machinations of the gang's milk-faced, gimlet-eyed, plainly sociopathic gang leader Roy Walsh (John Kenney) and his greasily subservient entourage of shiftless, pallid-looking hoodlums were, perhaps, a little too vividly rendered for the time!

The existentially bleak 50s melodrama 'Cosh Boy' is a consistently fascinating thriller, being a remarkably grim, wholly unsympathetic view of teenage terror-twerp 'Walshie's' extraordinarily callous crime spree, his ill temper and frequent immorality seemingly boundless, robbing his own family, dispassionately getting his innocent girl (Joan Collins) in the family way, and fatefully shifting from a leather-bound cosh to a deadly firearm in the film's frantic, razor-edged, nerve-strafing climax! There are especially frank moments in the punchy narrative when it is almost as though Gilbert is foreshadowing the socially conscious, agitprop cinema of Alan Clarke and Ken Loach, since his intense young protagonist Kenney roils with the similarly splenetic rage of a young Gary Oldman! 'Cosh Boy' is far more than a nostalgic cinematic curiosity, aggressively maintaining a dark febrile energy undiminished by time with the breathtakingly beautiful Joan Collins expressing a heart-wrenching fragility as the naïve Rene Collins.

A Queer look at a once notorios film

[jromanbaker · 9/10 · 20 March 2020]

I bought the BFI Blu-ray and DVD combined. I found the DVD to be much better to watch. It really did not need Blu-ray and I personally found the DVD better on the eye with less flashing. I do not think it was my player. Anyway to the film. My own interpretation of the film may offend, but it seems to me to portray a disturbed, repressed homosexual who loves and hates his mother, and tries to prove his ' Manhood ' with Joan Collins. Some with a Queer eye for film will probably see this, and James Kenney is prettier than Joan Collins. Bad casting ? It depends how you interpret the film, and the ending in its ' Shocking ' way is somehow more laughable than anything else in the scenario. These are not criticisms as I thoroughly enjoyed the film, and PC it may not be but the Freudian analysis of the film was immensely enjoyable. And watch out for Hermione Gingold who looks like a an ugly man in drag, and she is sadly not seen enough of. It may well be a ' bad ' film, and really quite funny in all the wrong places. Worth buying, and please Americans calling it ' The Slasher ' is even more inappropriately funny.

Cosh Boy (The Slasher)

[StevenKeys · 8/10 · 7 July 2021]

Part of the Tough Years of Our Lives genre (peace noir), expanding on the troubles that befell returning servicemen (The-Breaking-Point Stray-Dog I-Became-a-Criminal Where-the-Sidewalk-Ends) and families of those heroes who did not. Such is the story in Cosh-Boy, so titled because the fatherless male lead, played memorably by James Kenney as a juvenile delinquent and major headache to his doting mother (Davies), has a flair for fashion as was the trend among spiffier ruffians in 1950s England, cosh itself, slang for the pocket-club 'Master Crooks' use on victims to quickly cough up their possessions.

Born a gangster (Little-Caesar The-Public-Enemy), the JD boomed post-War, discovered drugs in the 60s and is now mired in hip hop for what seems an eternity. The film's purpose was always the same: expose the problems and depict the punishment. Rebel-Without-A-Cause (55) would change all of that. On a big Warner Bros' budget (Cinema-scope), the tone turned more sympathetic as parents bore the blame ("This is Judy, she's my friend") on beveled themes where the bad boy (Dean) is a drama major ("You're tearing me apart!") but possessing of a sarcastic wit ("I love you, too {Judy}"), plenty o' pluck (knife fight) and a big heart (Pluto), more likeable than twisted Roy who, as the period still dictated, devolves into pathetic. Most notable for being an early Joan Collins vehicle, looking as comely as young Elizabeth Taylor had ten years prior, and for its exploration of risqué themes that include gang violence, suggestions of mother-son incest, self-induced abortion, discipline and underage sex. It is that terror coupling where a girl is scared because she is trapped, then, le voilà, discovers her feelings of passion, that likely earned the film its X-rating from British Board of Censors and an outright ban in Sweden. It's not Rebel, but as JD noirs go, Cosh-Boy is a good one (3/4).

Excuse Me While I Take A Slash

[cutterccbaxter · 1 February 2024]

I've taken my share of slashes when I have visited England but I've never coshed. That's because my mom deployed the wooden spoon at critical moments when was misbehaving as a lad. The wooden spoon whacked away any inclination I might have had in pursuing a career as a juvenile delinquent. Obviously this film understood that if post war England were to eradicate juvenile delinquency, the most effective method would be to give all the young trouble makers a good ten minute beating (by a Canadian) with a belt. Hopefully parents who saw Cosh Boys back in the day went home and gave their children a good licking.

Anyway, the lead delinquent (James Kenney) was sure a little weasel. He was such a creep that he had others beat up old ladies instead of doing the task himself. But I will say I was impressed with his dart throwing. I didn't understand why he gave Joan Collins the brush off. He did it even before she told him she was pregnant. Did he really think he could do better than Joan Collins? He truly had a disturbed mind. I hope after he was sent to gaol they threw away the key.