good back-story, and good acting

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

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.

Copyright 7 September 1938 by Loew's Inc. Presented by Metro- Goldwyn-Mayer. Dedicated to Father Edward J. Flanagan. New York opening at the Capitol, 8 September 1938. U.S. release: 9 September 1938. Australian release: 22 December 1938. 9 reels. 96 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Father Edward J. Flanagan founds a home for abandoned boys on a large tract of rural land near Omaha, Nebraska.NOTES: Nominated for Academy Awards for Best Picture (won by You Can't Take It With You), Best Actor, Spencer Tracy (won!), Best Director (won by Frank Capra for You Can't Take It With You), Best Original Story (won!), Best Screenplay (won by George Bernard Shaw for Pygmalion). Mickey Rooney received a Special Award for his "significant contribution in bringing to the screen the spirit and personification of youth" and as a juvenile player "setting a high standard of ability and achievement"."Boys Town" rated 4th on The Film Daily annual poll of film critics. Tracy was also cited for Best Acting (along with twenty-one other players) by the National Board of Review.Donald "Red" Barry was originally cast as Joe Marsh. His scenes were re-shot with Edward Norris.A sequel, "Men of Boys Town" was released in 1941.Boys Town was originally released in sepia. A print screened on TV recently is an odd combination. The first half of the film is in black-and-white, switching to sepia right in the middle of an office scene between Tracy and Rooney.COMMENT: Did Tracy deserve his Academy Award — his second, having won the previous year for Captains Courageous — for his performance in Boys Town? He was certainly up against some formidable competition: Charles Boyer (Algiers), James Cagney (Angels With Dirty Faces), Robert Donat (The Citadel), and Leslie Howard (Pygmalion).Did Griffin and Schary deserve their Academy Award for Best Original Screen Story? They were up against Irving Berlin for Alexander's Ragtime Band, Rowland Brown's Angels With Dirty Faces (strikingly similar in many aspects of its story), Frank Wead's Test Pilot, John Howard Lawson's Blockade and Marcella Burke and Frederick Kohner's Mad About Music.I would have thought Angels with Dirty Faces a clear winner. Boys Town is as corny as a barrel of mush, as gooey as a load of molasses. It smothers the viewer in a contrived bathos and melodrama. Admittedly, Tracy plays with admirable restraint, but Rooney's embarrassingly hammy torrents of tears emphasize every maudlin cliché of an ineptly artificial script. Although the film benefits from location filming in Boys Town itself and has the further advantage of Sidney Wagner's atmospheric photography, it is something of a chore for a current audience to sit through. Aside from the impossible script and the lack of interesting players or performances (apart from Tracy's), it is further burdened by Taurog's deadly dull, heavily elephantine direction. (Originally, J. Walter Ruben was set to direct but was hospitalized with a heart attack.)I could say a lot about the morality of interpolating a real-life story with fictional hogwash. I could also comment on the way the priest is portrayed as a Hollywood humanitarian instead of as a keen adherent of Catholicism. But rather than prolong this debate, I will merely observe that despite a few genuinely moving moments, taking it all in all, "Boys Town" does not impress. It is neither honestly factual nor believably entertaining.

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

Wonderful movie based on a real man named Father Flanagan, played by Spencer Tracy, who works to help keep troubled boys from a life of crime. He establishes a place called Boys Town in rural Nebraska as an alternative to reformatories. One boy in particular, played by Mickey Rooney, is a little hooligan and Father Flanagan has to fight hard to save him.Tracy gives a wonderfully understated and likable performance. Rooney is excellent as well, though I see his more emotional scenes divide modern audiences. I thought he was great though. Henry Hull is good as Tracy's friend and Boys Town's primary benefactor. Leslie Fenton has a small but important part at the beginning of the film as a convict on death row. Probably the best performance I've ever seen from him. Bobs Watson will give you diabetes with his turn as little Pee Wee. It's a great film. The kind they don't make anymore, obviously. Inspirational, wholesome, and heartwarming.

A success in its day, "Boys Town" is the story of how a Priest saves his "Home for Juvenile Delinquent Boys". He takes in boys that society can't manage, and operates under the motto: "There is No Bad Boy." Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney star as Priest and head Bad Boy.I was interested in seeing two great stars, Mr. Tracy and Mr. Rooney, work together. They don't. Norman Taurog directs. Rooney fails from going over-the-top, and Tracy sometimes look bored. They each have some moments. You can't fault Rooney for playing a part with the enthusiasm of "Strike Up the Band!" when they give him scenes like the "black face" bit in "Boys Town". Tracy doesn't get to wear any "black face", so he comes off better. It looks like the only Black face in "Boys Town" is the one painted on "Whitey".I like the "candy scenes" scenes. I liked the tribute to FDR by Tracy and Gene Reynolds (as "Tony"). I didn't think the film was as good as its "message"; the ingredients put in to the film do not mix well. It doesn't have to be, but it isn't very realistic, either. A too sentimental presentation (of a worthy message) with some famous performances. ***** Boys Town (9/8/38) Norman Taurog ~ Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Gene Reynolds