The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner Billy Liar

Two classics about England's troubled youth starring Tom Courtenay.

Tom Courtenay stars as the working-class Borstal reform school inmate at the center of Tony Richardson's The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, based on a story by Alan Sillitoe. (1962; 103 mins.)

Courtenay also headlines in John Schlesinger's Billy Liar, a poignant and bittersweet portrait of a young man whose fantasies (sometimes involving a dreamy Julie Christie) overtake the dullness of his surroundings. (1963; 98 mins.)