This is How Movies Should Be Made

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The Dink Stover stories like the Frank Merriwell ones were most popular back at the turn of the last century. This particular one concerns the young man even before he's at Yale as a rebellious youth going to Lawrenceville Prep back in 1896.Dean Stockwell who was at the height of his juvenile popularity in 1950 plays young Stover and in the fashion of those days was given the nickname 'Dink' as it was thought his full moniker was a bit high falutin'. He's a rebellious one and makes an enemy in upper classman Darryl Hickman who he fights once and swears to fight and win. As they said back in those days, the kid has Moxie.I'm surprised that these stories and the Dink Stover character was never given to Mickey Rooney a decade earlier when he was at MGM. It seemed a natural for the Mick in his salad days. Stockwell good actor that he was and the rest of the cast were not box office. The film lost money for MGM.Leo G. Carroll was the Latin teacher and head of Stockwell's house at the prep school recognizes leadership potential. But it takes a lot to get it out of him, especially with his feud with Hickman dominating all his thoughts.Sad this film didn't do better for MGM. It's a nice nostalgia filled film of those halcyon days before World War I.

Never heard of this little gem until tripping over it on TCM.A jolly good story about growing up the hard way.And making one's way in the formative years of a young man's life in the late 19th c.Dean Stockwell and Leo G. Carroll make this film tick.This film shows why Stockwell was a worthwhile commodity in Hollywood.Carroll was one of the best character actors in the business.Great performances.You will laugh and never want it to end.Highly recommended.The "final exam" is a surprise.

This is my first time watching this movie, which captures the Victorian era, privileged boys of the higher class, their education in reform school because of their bullish personalities. I have to plow snow from our driveway, and once I turned on this movie, I'm still sitting. I encourage anyone to try this movie out today. It should return as a re-write for current year 2011, for American society still deals with bullish type children, and cleary shows, their personalities deserve one another, and shouldn't have these children mixed in with other non-bullish type children. I think this movie if re-written for today, it can benefit society, educating the world, what to do with prank, bullish type children Although, The Happy Years Movie is not entirely about a bull-head punky boy, and his school mates, it's also about how a wonderful teacher gives him and the other boys the proper direction they need in life to grow up into a responsible human being. Please see this movie. You won't be disappointed.

Dean Stockwell was never better, and the supporting cast is uniformly excellent in this classic comedy. Leo G. Carroll is impeccable as the crusty, but caring, turn-of-the-century headmaster. Darryl Hickman is marvelous as Tuff McCarty, Stockwell's nemesis. This is definitely a family movie that can be enjoyed, appreciated, and laughed at, by all ages.