It is a performances centric movie

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Period pieces set in the 1890's or at the turn of the century were a popular genre in the 1940's. They were often sweet, nostalgic tales that both reminded elderly audience members of their youths and appealed to younger ones with a rose-tinted view of supposedly simpler and more gracious times. Vincente Minnelli's "Meet Me in St. Louis" (1944) and Raoul Walsh's "The Strawberry Blonde" (1941) are the best known of these films, but there were many others including this one.William Wellman's "The Happy Years" is an episodic film based on the works of early 20th century novelist Owen Johnson. Between 1909-1922, Johnson wrote a number of novellas about the humorist adventures of students at both New Jersey's preparatory Lawrenceville School and Yale University which were Johnson's own alma maters."The Happy Years" is about "John Humperdink 'Dink' Stover" (Dean Stockwell), a young New Jersey teenage terror, and his first experiences as a Lawrenceville student in 1896. We are first introduced to Dink through the eyes of his exasperated parents (Leon Ames and Margolo Gillmore). They are at wits end at how to deal with this incorrigible troublemaker. The solutions: let him be sent to a reformatory or pack him off to his Dad's and older brother's prep alma mater: Lawrenceville School. So, he goes to Lawrenceville.Why Lawrenceville is treated as a "last resort" is not exactly explained. It has a beautiful, bucolic campus and an all-male student body of well-heeled toffs. It looks more like a reward than a punishment. Anyway, as a new boy, he is immediately nicknamed "Dink" and subjugated to the ritual hazing that all new kids receive from older classmates among whom are the dapper "Tennessee Shad" (Scotty Beckett) and big-man-on-campus, "Tough McCarty" (Darryl Hickman). Dink doesn't take the hazing in good nature which violates an unspoken code of student conduct. His refusal to be a "good sport" about it leads to him being a pariah. With his lousy attitude, it appears Dink won't be long for Lawrenceville. Tough guy director William Wellman often specialized in male-bonding films which is probably why he got this film despite it being a frothy nostalgia piece. The film's emphasis is on a boy proving himself to other boys by taking and accepting his "lumps." There are several fights and a violent football game. The few female characters are mostly just marks for various boyish pranks. It's "boys will be boys.""The Happy Years" starts strong, but then bogs down as it bounces from one lengthy episodic scene after the next. By the time it reached that football game I was about to check-out. It just doesn't feel coherent which is probably a result of its screenplay being cobbled together from chapters of Johnson's various books. Plus, the sight of little Dean Stockwell fighting much larger boys and winning was eye-roll inducing. (The scenes of 14 yr old Stockwell tangling with strapping 19 yr old Hickman are particularly silly.)"The Happy Years" was a dud at the box-office. It appears post-war 1950 film audiences were no longer interested in nostalgia pieces about "the good ole days." Dean Stockwell was near the end of his days as a child star. As were both Darryl Hickman and Scotty Beckett. "The Happy Years" being a box-office bomb appears to have convinced Hollywood that they were no longer viable stars and moved on. Stockwell smartly would step away from Hollywood for a few years before returning to have a very long career as a character actor in both film and TV. Hickman would work fairly steadily as a TV and voice actor. However, Scotty Beckett became one of the more notorious former child actors whose career and life spun completely out-of-control leading to an early demise.

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.

The setting may be 1896, but the plot and action are appealing to all ages. Add to this a fun set of characters and charming script, coupled with a superb job of color motion photography that looks as good as if it were filmed today, and you have a perpetual classic.The story eventuates in a wonderful social redemption of a supposedly hopeless boy, though this is by no means done in a maudlin or polly-annish fashion. Rather, care is taken to have the boy go through all manner of personal and social struggles, and the only reason that propriety wins out over social failure is because older characters respect the little trouble-maker's spunk just enough, that he eventually emulates their higher social qualities. Then, these people all find within themselves a degree of improvement as well, for having been part of all this cycle.But I have never seen this done in a more realistic, and at the same time funny and entertaining, manner.The story must have been at least partly garnered from the authors' personal experiences, because the real-life appeal is perfect.Enjoyable also are the beautiful high-society homes, lush countryside, and classic private boarding school campus; the photography, color balance, cinematography are consistent and beautiful throughout. Despite the affluent setting, the characters are real and likable, and face everyday situations with everyday humanity, just like the rest of us.The main character, Dean Stockwell, is brilliant in his performance. Though only 13 or 14 at the time, his acting skill is as fine as any of the great actors through the decades. This professionalism, partly inherited from his superbly skilled actor-parents, propelled him to an enviable lifetime of roles. Watch for Darryl Hickman as the character "Tough" McCarty. Darryl is a vastly accomplished actor of movies and TV, and is the elder brother of actor Dwayne Hickman, (remembered best for his TV role of "Dobie Gillis."

This film is vintage Dean Stockwell as a child actor and is certainly representative of the outstanding performance he invariably produced. The supporting cast is equally as strong. Leon Ames, Leo G. Carroll and Dwayne Hickman are pure delight, and Wellman's direction is spot on as always. The plot is rather rambling, but that really seems only to add to its charm. These are the adventures (and mis-adventures) of some turn-of-the-century prep school boys as remembered by Owen Johnson in his novel THE LAWRENCEVILLE STORIES. The movie is as warm-hearted, funny, and thoroughly engaging as the original book. About 1988 this film was remade as a TV mini-series, using the same title as the book. The complete mini-series was made available about 1992 as a double-cassette VHS recording. But, alas, it seems no one wants to resurrect THE HAPPY YEARS, more's the pity. I, for one, would snap up a copy on either VHS or DVD instantly. Any takers out there, video producers?