The Brylcreem Boys

{{Infobox film

| name = The Brylcreem Boys

| caption =

| image = The Brylcreem Boys FilmPoster.jpeg

| director = Terence Ryan

| producer = Gabriel Byrne, Jamie Brown

| writer = Jamie Brown, Terence Ryan

| 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

| released = {{Film date|1998}}

| 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.{{cite book|last=Room|first=Adrian|title=Dictionary of trade name origins|year=1983|publisher=Routledge|isbn= 978-0-7102-0174-4|page=47|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qdw9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA47}} Not to be confused with the identically titled 1979 BBC2 TV play about RAF Bomber Command.{{Cite web|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6bbc4da9|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170824051356/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6bbc4da9|url-status=dead|archive-date=24 August 2017|title = The Brylcreem Boys (1979)}}

Plot

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.

Cast

Billy Campbell (credited as Bill Campbell) as Miles Keogh
Jean Butler as Mattie Guerin
Gabriel Byrne as Commandant O'Brien
Hal Fowler as Bunty Winthrop
Joe McGann as Captain Deegan
Angus Macfadyen as Rudolph von Stegenbek
William McNamara as Sam Gunn
Jérôme Pradon (credited as Jerome Pradon) as Ricard
John Gordon Sinclair as Richard Lewis
Marc Sinden as Senior Allied Officer White
Oliver Tobias as Hans Jorg Wolff
Peter Woodward as Ernst Stossel

Production

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.{{cite web |url=http://www.gov.im/dti/iomfilm/ |title=Isle of Man Government DTI – - Isle of Man Film Commission Welcome |accessdate=2003-12-10 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20031210085714/http://www.gov.im/dti/iomfilm/ |archivedate=10 December 2003 }}

Casting was by Jo Gilbert.