The main reason to watch Lewis Gilbert’s Cosh Boy (US: The Slasher) is the scrumptious visual style captured by cinematographer Jack Asher and production designer Bernard Robinson, the shadowy “ruins” of postwar London at night serving as the constant backdrop for an unruly group of young punks, their frequent escaping through underground tunnels and dark, empty lots like rats taking cover. Based on a stage play by Bruce Walker, the story isn’t particularly original or deep, but the sheer cruelty and brutality of 16-year-old gang leader Roy Walsh (James Kenney) will pull viewers in; in fact, Walsh is so abominable and repellent that viewers are excused for wishing for his death. Like a younger, dumber version of Pinkie Brown in John Boulting’s Brighton Rock (1947), Walsh is an early depiction of the more random, restless violence that would come to feature in much of 1950’s noir, leading his sidekick Alfie (Ian Whittaker) and others through muggings, robberies, and a heist of the Palidrome Dancehall that turns unexpectedly violent. A fresh-faced Joan Collins plays Alfie’s sister Rene, who’s dating the goodnatured Brian (Michael McKeag), but when Walsh decides he wants Rene, the gang beats Brian to a pulp, then Walsh rapes and impregnates Rene only to abandon her immediately (“I don’t want nothing more to do with you”). What a charmer. Betty Ann Davies plays Walsh’s mother Else, whose fiancé Bob (Robert Ayres), tired of the anguish Walsh is causing, makes it his business to discipline the little punk (a final whipping session is a treat to watch). Trivia note: Cosh Boy was one of the earliest British films to receive an X rating, and was banned in Sweden, Australia, and several cities for its brutality and adult subject matter.