The Leather Boys

A newlywed biker becomes disenchanted with married life after joining a motorcycle gang, in one of British cinema's earliest sympathetic depictions of a gay working class man.

Based on Gillian Freeman's novel of the same name, The Leather Boys is notable for one of the earliest sympathetic depictions of a gay working class man. Rita Tushingham stars as Dot, the childhood sweetheart of young Reg (Colin Campbell). Sometimes he seems to want to pay more attention to his leather clad biker friends than his girl. This is a fine British drama which went beyond the conventional values of the day. The book refers to a 'strange, twisted love' although the poster screamed more coyly of three lives torn savagely apart. Excerpts of the film were edited together for the music video for The Smiths' 1987 single 'Girlfriend in a Coma'.