Cosh Boy

The first British-made picture to be awarded an 'X' certificate, and much reviled at the time for its sensationalism, Lewis Gilbert's homegrown crime picture looks pretty tame more than 40 years on. Youthful Kenney, who played the role in Bruce Walker's play Master Crook, from which the film was adapted, is the kind of hoodlum who steals granny's savings and bashes old ladies over the head, while Collins is the girl he gets pregnant then callously rejects. In fact, it's a reasonably worthy social-conscience effort in the British manner. The resemblance to the Craig/Bentley case (see Let Him Have It) didn't go unnoticed, and the BBFC softened some scenes where Kenney wields cosh and razor before letting it pass.