The Boys

[LONGPLAYER09]

Recorded & have just watched the old b/w film "The Boys" for which the Shads are credited to the music. Don't think I've seen the film before (albeit is quite good). However the only time i heard the title tune was once - quietly in the background!!

[Tone]

There was a thread about this quite some time ago and, from my memory of that, the absence of the Shads is down to film editing. Apparently, the film version that is usually shown on TV is the shortened version which omits (I think) 'Sweet Dreams' and 'The Girls.'

I believe it may have been Jim Nugent who gave this information.

[JimN]

I first saw "The Boys" in 1967, some five years later than its original release. This was on Granada TV one summer evening. I can still remember my late grandmother anticipating the main flaw in the account of the incident as given by Dudley Sutton's character at the climax of the trial.

The point is that the film runs for two hours and three minutes in total (including front and end credits). Given space for the then-customary two commercial breaks per hour (plus the intermediate one at the top of the hour and the break before the next programme), that would require the film to be shown in a two and a half hour slot if uncut. And there was no way that this could be done on weekday evening ITV in 1967, with a firmly fixed slot for ITN News at 21:00 ("News At Ten" didn't start until later that year). It would mean the film starting at 18:30 (a definite no-no) or starting at 21:30 and running until midnight. Just as if...

So that first showing, like subsequent showings on ITV whilst they had the rights from ABPC, was cut to a total length, including commercial breaks, of no more than two hours (19:00 - 21:00 max), meaning that at least twenty minutes - maybe more - were cut simply for timing reasons.

I never saw the entire 123 minutes until it was shown on BBC4 a few years ago, including a few sequences I had not seen before. All the music was now there - especially Sweet Dreams / September.

[JimN]

I ought to add that the ITV network frequently showed cinema films in shortened versions, simply to fit into particular time-slots. The BBC, however, never made cuts for that reason and was always keen to point that out.

Both networks, of course, made occasional cuts for taste reasons, whether due to overtly sexual or violent scenes (and still do). Tonight, Talking Pictures TV will show the 1973 film "That'll Be The Day". In the uncut release version, one of Ringo Starr's lines is the immortal "You'll like Bath... a better class of fuck there...". The Beeb showed that movie for the first time in 1979. I recorded it whilst I was out on my new VCR and watched it later. The line about Bath was left intact. I still have the E180 tape, somewhere. But all subsequent showings have had the audio track amended to just "You'll like Bath... better class there...". I'm waiting to see, or rather, hear, what TPTV does...

[JimN]

Well, that scene in "That'll Be The Day" was unedited and left the F-word in (a bit of a surprise, but TPTV does give a warning in front of almost every programme they transmit).

[LONGPLAYER09]

I see it's The Frightened City on this afternoon - on Talking pictures.

[Fenderman]

I like Talking Pictures as they tend to show long forgotten or hard to find films that you don't see anywhere else. I recently saw Expresso Bongo on it, not really a big CR fan but enjoyed it although it was quite dated looking now. The Shadows appeared briefly as a club band!

[GoldenStreet]

The Shadows appeared briefly as a club band!

... with Hank playing/miming with the newly acquired #34346 and Bruce with black Vega archtop!

Bill

[Fenderman]

I might watch Serious Charge which has Cliff in it (for historical reasons). Do The Shadows appear in that?

[JimN]

I might watch Serious Charge which has Cliff in it (for historical reasons). Do The Shadows appear in that?

No.