Boys Beware

Boys Beware
Title card
Directed bySid Davis
Produced bySid Davis
Narrated byTimothy Farrell
Distributed bySidney Davis Productions
Release date
  • 1961 (1961)
Running time
10 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1,000

Boys Beware is a 1961 short social guidance film released through Sid Davis Productions. It portrays and attempts to educate about an alleged danger to young boys from predatory homosexuals.[1] The film was released under the copyright laws in the United States at the time of its release, but has lapsed into the public domain and is available from the Prelinger Archives.

With a budget of $1,000 (equivalent to $10,196 in 2023), the film was shot partially in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, California, and produced with the cooperation of the city's police department and the Inglewood Unified School District.[2][3][4][5] Boys Beware was narrated by a police detective on his way to a school meeting to discuss the issue of sexual predators who attempt to lure adolescent males.[6]

The film equates homosexuals with child molesters and hebephiles, repeatedly describing homosexuality as a mental illness. True to the stereotypes of its time, the gay men in the film have mustaches, sunglasses and/or bow ties.[7]

Davis was friendly with the police in Southern California and would accept their suggestions of topics to make films about, allowing them to guide the films' message and development.

  1. ^ "BOYS BEWARE BEWARE". US Department of Justice. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
  2. ^ "Boys Beware". Retrieved 14 November 2024.
  3. ^ "Boys Beware". PBS. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
  4. ^ "Boys Beware | American Experience".
  5. ^ "American Experience". PBS. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
  6. ^ The Teenage Terror in the Schools - J Garrison - American Educational History Journal Volume 36, 2009
  7. ^ "Film Threat - the Bootleg Files: Boys Beware". Archived from the original on 2014-12-26. Retrieved 2014-12-26.