Roller A-Z: Blue Boy Films

I discovered the label Blue Boy Films after Under the Counter had gone into production, which meant that it was excluded from the labelography at the end of the book. Only two titles on this label have been identified, the first – Dr No – appearing in a private collection. A John Lindsay production, Dr No was also issued on the labels Phoenix International and Taboo & Phoenix. Therefore, Blue Boy Films is either yet another collaboration between Lindsay and distributor John Darby, or it is a bootleg outfit. The basic Soho-style roller box is possibly indicative of this. Another title Womb to Let was also discovered late last year; I am not sure if it is a John Lindsay production. The 3M Safety film stock suggests that both titles are likely from 1971-72, as this was the dominant stock used for rollers in the early 1970s.

Since publishing this post, I can now confirm my suspicions that Blue Boy Films is a John Darby label, re-releasing films made by John Lindsay and Anthony Collingbourne. A large collection of Blue Boy Films titles suddenly appeared last year on eBay, and were quickly picked up by private collectors. Thankfully, two of these collectors – Ronnie X and ‘vintage collector’ – kindly contacted me and offered box image scans. John Darby’s typical ‘Black and White’ sticker features on a number of the boxes, confirming his involvement. It again highlights how distributors ran a number of labels and re-released titles across them in order to generate sales.