Boys Town (1938)

Thanks for the memories!

Admirable film.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Spencer Tracy became the first male actor to win back-to-back Oscars when he won the Best Actor award for "Boys Town" in 1938. He had won the previous year for "Captains Courageous." His win was the primary reason I wanted to watch this film, because otherwise I assumed it would be a sentimental, boring, religious-themed movie. I was pretty much correct.Tracy plays Father Flanagan, a real-life priest who started a community for wayward boys. The role calls for a sort of steely calm, a description that could define Tracy's entire career. He's fine, but I'm starting to think Tracy didn't really have much range as an actor, and his performance here isn't vastly different from any number of other performances he gave over the course of his career. Mickey Rooney, who plays the film's most troubled youth who sees the error of his ways and gradually embraces the wholesome allure of Boys Town, is unwatchable. Rooney was a huge star at the time, but it is nearly inconceivable to me that his exaggerated-to-the-point-of-being-grotesque characterizations could have been popular with anyone. I don't know why on earth directors didn't reign him in more. Or maybe they did, and what we see is the subdued version of Rooney, which is a frightening thought.In any case, Norman Taurog, who directed this film, is not the person to reign in anything. He ratchets up the sentimental, feel-good pap so high that you'll be reaching for your barf bucket.In addition to the Best Actor Oscar, "Boys Town" brought Dore Schary and Eleanor Griffith the Academy Award for Best Original Story. It was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay, which Schary co-wrote with John Meehan.Grade: C

Father Flannigan is tired of going to hear the confessions of young men about to be executed or sent away for long prison sentences. They all have similar stories - no or negligent parents, no work, and falling into crime as a result of it all. During the Depression, this was especially true. So Flannigan decides to start a community for homeless boys that will be self governed, giving the kids an education, a home, and responsibilities at the same time. It is great watching Tracy play it pious and fatherly as a priest, but he can still be the hard relentless salesman when dealing with the money men that finance his home or with the local newspaper editor that thinks his philosophy is so much rubbish.Then along comes an odd request. A young man in for a long stretch in prison wants his kid brother taken off the road he is on and to go straight. He even has money put away for the brother's support. Of course the brother, Whitey Marsh, is played by dynamo Mickey Rooney. Whitey makes the mistake from their first meeting that because Flannigan is a priest that he thinks he can pull the wool over his eyes. So he is dragged away from a poker game literally kicking and screaming by Flannigan and into Boy's Town. It's very much an MGM film in the MGM tradition, but Tracy and Rooney make it special. Mickey Rooney drew me into the heart of this story, revealing enough about his character a little bit at a time that you gradually see what makes him tick. He carries himself boldly in his energetic physical presence while delivering a confident even aggressive performance and showing a wide range of emotion in his voice. He is already a mature actor at age 17, with an impressive talent level for that age. This whole film had me wondering - did we really go forward when we dropped the old orphanage system for foster parenting? The idea was that kids would be part of a family when so many of them actually are shuffled from home to home and thus don't get any stability. At least in the old orphanage system there was consistency of companionship - the other kids - and a consistency of routine. At any rate, highly recommended. MGM was still rich enough at the time that they could even fill up the supporting roles with fine actors, right down to Bob Watson, who played the little moppet Pee Wee who manages to soften even Whitey's heart.

Against all odds Father Flanagan (Spencer Tracy) starts "Boys' Town" after hearing a convict's story. Whitey Marsh (Mickey Rooney) comes there, but frequently tries to run away.Although the story is largely fictional, it is based upon a real man and a real place. Boys Town is a community outside of Omaha, Nebraska that was really founded by Father Flanagan. The film was a commercial success, and won Spencer Tracy an Oscar.I think the movie in general is good, and I'm glad it earned Tracy an award and brought more attention to the real Boys Town. However, I feel that Mickey Rooney was just awful in this film and overly exaggerated and hammy. He comes across more like a cheap James Cagney knockoff.

Spencer Tracy won his second consecutive Academy Award for this turn as Father Flanaghan, the architect and operator of Boys Town.Following up 'Captains Courageous', Tracy cemented himself as an actor's actor.Surrounded by an outstanding supporting cast, and pitching a great script, this film definitely makes the 'Best' list and with little question.Well paced and with excellent delivery, 'Boys Town' is definitely one to watch if you really consider yourself a film buff.Bring popcorn.