Figure 1.--A prank gone terribly wrong ends the childhood of these New York City boys in the late 1960s when they are arrested and sent to a sadistic reformatory. Notice the American clothing styles popular in the late 1960s such as stripped "T"-shirts, jeans, and shirts worn hanging out.

Quite a number of films have dealt with the suject of juvenile delinquency and reformatories. This seems to have been a subject of considerable interest to Americans. It has not been extensively dealt with by British films, however, we believe that there are a number of foreign films on this subject. Boys often did not wear uniforms in American reformatories, but were commonly required in British borstals and other foreign reformatories.

Borstal Boy - (Ireland, 2002)

The film was directed by Peter Sheridan. It is a good adaptation of Irish writer Brendan Behan's autobiographical tale of a young Irish boy imprisoned in a British borstal during World War II. He is a staunch republican on a bombing mission. The young Brendan (Shawn Hatosy) initially rejects all attempts to reach him by the relatively benign borstal Governor (Michael York) and especially a British sailor convicted of theft (Danny Dyer). As the film develops, Behan comes to see the world as a more complex place than he preceived as a boy. As his relationships with other inmates begin to grow and he is exposed to a world he has literally never known, he eventually comes to realise the ambiguity of personal and political beliefs. He also finds himself entranced by the Governor's daughter (Eva Birthistle), a free-thinking artist who encourages him to explore his creative side, something which will eventually result in a short but brilliant career as an author and playwright (though this is not part of the actual film). Borstal Boy does not aspire to be a great film, but is well crafted. It is capably performed by a sincere cast, solidly written by Nye Heron and director Peter Sheridan 'inspired by' the original novel, lushly scored by Stephen McKeon, crisply photographed by Ciarán Tanham, and nicely decked out by production designer Crispian Sallis, art director Michael Higgins, and costume designer Marie Tierney. It is a solid piece of cinematic storytelling which makes good use of all of the materials at its disposal. It is not especially visually exciting, but it escapes the trap of being stagebound or excessively TV movie-ish as so many Irish films are largely because of its pace and variety of action. There are many familiar prison-camp scenes, including the usual personal, political, and sexual power struggles between inmates, escape attempts, and even some "unity through sports" action (when the prisoners take on the local army in a rugby match). There are also many references to the context of the action set by the war itself, embodied in the Canadian and Jewish boys among the population, and the uneasy truce struck between Brendan and the authorities at the end of the film, so it is not without a sense of politics or precedent.

Boy Slaves (U.S., 1939)

The United Artists film "Boy Slaves" raises the issue of the exploitation of boys in reform school by using their labor. (The populastiion of reform schools in the 1930s was mosdtly boys. Girls rarely got into serious trouble. A gang of homeless boys including 12-year old Jesse Thompson steal food, hop the rails, and drift through train yards. They are caught by authorities and eventually sentenced to reform school. They are offered an opportunity to work on a turpentine farm run by the seemingly benign employer--Charles Lane. The prospect of getting out of a jail-like confinement and early release is dangled before them. Once at the turpentine farm they find it is a strictly run work camp and that they are essentially slaves. They work long hours without compensation at dangerous jobs. Not only are they not paid, but they pile up debts at a country store. When one of the boys dies as a result of the conditions, the boys riot and breaks out of what is really a prison camp. They are hunted down with more tragic results. The boys are finally able to relay the facts to the outside world, and Lane is brought to justice. The film is based on several actual incidents at Southern work farms. A black boy is included in the roupo of boys, but in the South they would have been separated. Roger Daniel, James McCallon, Alan Baxter

Boys in Brown - (England, 1949)

"Boys in Brown" is a movie depicting an English borstal or boys' reformatory. From memory it was filmed in the 1940s or 50s. All boys sent to this institution were dressed in corduroy short trouser outfits. The film had an impresive cast and attempted to depict the borstal in realistic terms. Jackie (Richard Attenborough) is being raised by asingle mother. They are quite poor. He is smitten by the girl across the street--Kitty. To get out of poverty, he gets involved in a robbery. He is caught and sentenced to 3 years in a Borstal. Once he is in the Borstal he and his new friends plot to escape. There he meets various characters who are planning an escape. Alfie (Dirk Bogarde) persuades Jackie to join them.

Crime School - (US, 1938)

Another reformatory film starred Humphrey Bogart in a role very much like Jimmy Cagney's in Mayor. The boys were played by members of the Dead End Kids. I remember Bobby Jordan played one of the inmates. He was issued a uniform with trousers too big for him in the waist; they kept falling down to his ankles if he didn't hold his pants up. In one scene during morning roll call on the assembly grounds of the reform school, the warden (played by a rather stout actor) notices Bobby's trousers sinking to the shoes during calisthenics. The warden summons him, front and center, and demands to know what the big idea is. Bobby expalins that his trousers are too big in the waist, and the warden's solution is to send him to the cook to be fattened until the trousers fit! Fortunately for Bobby, Humphrey Bogart is listening to all this, and tells the warden to "make the pants fit the boy, not the boy fit the pants."

Dead End Kids Series (US, 1934-58)

The Dead End and related productions are probably the best known films based on the subject of juvenile delenquency. The films were based on a play written Sidney Kingsley (1934). The play "Dead End" was produced on Broadway (1935-37). For the production the producers chose kids off the streets of New York rather than actors. Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn and famed director William Wyler saw the play decided to make a film version (1937). Apprently the Hollywood kids under contract were to clean cut for the role. So Goldwyn brought six of the boys (Halop, Jordan, Hall, Punsly, Dell, and Leo Gorcey) to Hollywood and made the only United Artist's film in the series--"Dead End" (1937). The boys apparently en riot during the shoot, running a truck into a sound studio. The film was a hit, but Goldwyn washed his hands of the boys and sold the film rights to Warner Brothers. As a result the other five films were Warner Brother films. And after the main films there were other reincarnations into te 1950s: The East Side Kids, The Little Tough Guys, and The Bowery Boys.

Johnny Holiday - (US, 1949)

A film in which a reform schoolboy has to choose between his buddies who are more interested in living outside the law and those who want him to live within it. Through careful tutelage of his reformatory drill sergeant who becomes a father figure to the boy, he eventually learns that life is far sweeter on the good side than the bad. Stars William Bendix as Sgt Walker and Alan Martin Jr. in the role of Johnny Holiday, with Stanley Clements as Eddie Duggan and a cameo performance from Hoagy Carmichael as himself.

(The) Mayor of Hell - (US, 1933)

A political racketeer has a change of heart when he observes the cruel conditions at a state reform school. Jimmy Cagney portrays the racketeer who becomes a reform school commissioner. He is sympathetic to the boys confined to a brutal reform school ruled by a wicked warden. In one scene, a boy who disrespects the warden is quickly warned to answer, "Yes, sir", or else. When this boy tries to escape, he's caught and given an horrendous whipping on the spot by the warden. The commissioner forces the warden to provide the boys with decent food and to limit his severe punishments. When one of the boys dies due to the warden's neglect, however, it's more than the inmates will stand. They converge on the terrified warden's office and chase him up to the roof of a barn in the reformatory, where he slips, falls on to electrified barbed wire, and lands in a hog pen, dead! This film is one of a long line of Warner Brothers' "social conscience films" from the Depression.

Scum - (England, 1979)

Originally made for TV this film exposed a ‘warts and all’ image of Borstal life. It showed the brutality that went on not only between the inmates and staff, but the inmates themselves. The brutality is very graphic and because of this, its television showing was banned. The staff show no real interest in the boys’ and no attempt is made to reform their characters. Even the Governor is cast as a hypocritical religious bigot. Ray Winston as Carlin gave a splendid performance as the ‘tough’ new inmate who has the sense to know what he has got himself into. Immediately the doors are closed behind him he begins and eventually wins a power struggle over those inmates who have already spent some time in custody. Another inmate who entered the Borstal with Carlin is less fortunate and toward the end of the film he takes his own life. Fortunately, the brutality and regime portrayed in this film is very much a thing of the past.

Sleepers - (US, 2001)

A HBC readers tells us that American boys' clothing in the late 1960s and early 70s is illustrated in Sleepers. American clothing styles popular in the late 1960s such as black sneakers, stripped "T"-shirts and jeans, along with vintage cars featuring tail fins, are show cased. The fashion of never tucking in shirts and shirts made withoutvtails are also prominent. This provocative, rather unselling film is written and directed by Barry Levinson and set in New York. It is based on the best-selling book by Lorenzo Carcaterra. It tells the story of events which abruptly terminated the not to innocent, but certainly not terrible childhood of four boys, friends, wise mouths, and altar boys. The film plot describes the dreadful experiences of the boys after they run off with a hot dog venders cart. Of course many will see this as a a mischevious prank, for the vendor working hard to support his family it was no small matter. The boys are arrested and sentenced to a juvenile detention hall where they are terribly mistreated, beaten and assaulted by some of the guards. The film then flashes forward to their revenge which they reak on their abusers several years after their are released. The film is not very effectively narrated by one of the boys, Shakes (Jason Patric).

(The) Young Don't Cry - (US, 1957)

The 'Young don't cry' was one of several fimms shot about juveile delonquets. This was a film written as a vehicle for Sal Mineo who was a rising star at the time. Teenage Leslie Henderson (Sal Mineo) struggles against brutal bigger boys at a orphanage. He becomes assoiciated with a convict (James Witmore) trying to escape from a prison located close to the orphanage. The convict had been unjustly sentenced, but is using Leslie to further his escape. The association with the convict helps Leslie learn to stand up to those abusing their power. We note that Georgia prisons were terrible places. The chsin gangs were infamous. We are not sure, however, about the orphanages in the state. Typically state facilities were not well fubded. The movie was shoty on location at the Bethesda Home for Boys in Savannah, Georgia. Given the depiction, one wonders why they would cooperate with the prioduction. Presumably there was healthy fee involved. A notable feature of the film was the positive roles ofvtwo blacks. Holly was at the gime just beginning gto change hoe blacks were depicted in its films. The orpohanage like schools and other sttes facilities were strictly seggregted.

Created: June 14, 2001
Last updated: 10:27 AM 6/21/2012