| The Brylcreem Boys | |
| Director: | Terence Ryan |
| Producer: | Gabriel Byrne, Jamie Brown |
| Starring: | Billy Campbell Angus Macfadyen Jean Butler Gabriel Byrne Joe McGann John Gordon Sinclair |
| Music: | Richard Hartley |
| Cinematography: | Gerry Lively |
| Editing: | Emma E. Hickox |
| Distributor: | Guerilla Films |
| Runtime: | 124 min. |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $6 million |
The Brylcreem Boys is a 1998 romantic comedy film set in Ireland during the Second World War. The film, which stars Billy Campbell, Angus Macfadyen, Jean Butler and Gabriel Byrne, was directed and co written by Terence Ryan. The story is set against the extraordinary neutrality arrangements in Ireland during World War II.
The title comes from a popular nickname for the RAF personnel during the period.[1] Not to be confused with the identically titled 1979 BBC2 TV play about RAF Bomber Command.[2]
During World War II, all Allied and Axis service personnel that end up in Ireland are to be interned for the duration of the conflict. Two pilots, one from the Royal Canadian Air Force, Miles Keogh, portrayed by Campbell and one from the Luftwaffe, Rudolph von Stengenbek, portrayed by Macfadyen, both fall in love with a local Irish girl, Mattie Guerin played by Butler. The relationship is further complicated by Byrne, who plays the unceasingly vigilant internment camp commander, Commandant O'Brien.
Although set in Ireland, the film was made on location in the Isle of Man. It was the first major production to use the island since George Formby's No Limit in 1935. The film established the Isle of Man Film Commission.[3]
Casting was by Jo Gilbert.