A lot of especially younger people today are going to despise 'Boys Town' for its unashamed sentimentality, and the objection is hard to contradict. Even the director Lasse Hallström who doesn't shy away from overt emotion in his movies would, I hope, steer away from some of the grosser clichés of this picture.
Having said that, I found 'Boys Town' truly engrossing. It is, of course, about Father Flanagan (Spencer Tracy) who sets up a self-governed community for wayward, homeless boys in Nebraska, a sort of humanitarian answer to the often brutal and authoritarian reformatories. Flanagan's biggest challenge proves to be Whitey (Mickey Rooney), tough and self-serving kid brother of a convicted felon. Though Flanagan repeatedly claims 'I only know one thing, There's no such thing as a bad boy", Whitey's surely testing his patience and ends up endangering the whole future of the enterprise.
Actually, and that came as a shock to me, Rooney's Whitey was the surprise of the movie. Whereas Tracy is going through the motions as the archetypal priest with a heart of gold, and whereas too many of the boys are acted with the sort of saccharine sweetness that must have been grating even in the mid- or late 1930s, Rooney is perfect. I myself never gave him credit for his versatility, his instinct and his willingness to take risks. From his initial streetwise swagger (when told that "On a clear day you can see all the way to Omaha", he retorts, "Yeah? THEN whadda ya got?") he gradually, so gradually as to be believable, evolves into a decent young chap. The scene in which he falls apart, because he believes he has caused the death of a hero-worshiping little boy, rings very true in its sobbing and crying earnestness. The director, alas, ends up destroying the honesty of the scene by applying scores of boys kneeling in fervent prayer, with a soprano soaring above them all.
All in all, 'Boys Town' ought to have been a whole lot better. Another director would have helped. It's a nice touch, though, to have the scrawny destitute kid hitch for a week to get to Boys Town only the night before it is destined to foreclose.
So, watch it for Rooney and the occasional touching ensemble scene.
Having said that, I found 'Boys Town' truly engrossing. It is, of course, about Father Flanagan (Spencer Tracy) who sets up a self-governed community for wayward, homeless boys in Nebraska, a sort of humanitarian answer to the often brutal and authoritarian reformatories. Flanagan's biggest challenge proves to be Whitey (Mickey Rooney), tough and self-serving kid brother of a convicted felon. Though Flanagan repeatedly claims 'I only know one thing, There's no such thing as a bad boy", Whitey's surely testing his patience and ends up endangering the whole future of the enterprise.
Actually, and that came as a shock to me, Rooney's Whitey was the surprise of the movie. Whereas Tracy is going through the motions as the archetypal priest with a heart of gold, and whereas too many of the boys are acted with the sort of saccharine sweetness that must have been grating even in the mid- or late 1930s, Rooney is perfect. I myself never gave him credit for his versatility, his instinct and his willingness to take risks. From his initial streetwise swagger (when told that "On a clear day you can see all the way to Omaha", he retorts, "Yeah? THEN whadda ya got?") he gradually, so gradually as to be believable, evolves into a decent young chap. The scene in which he falls apart, because he believes he has caused the death of a hero-worshiping little boy, rings very true in its sobbing and crying earnestness. The director, alas, ends up destroying the honesty of the scene by applying scores of boys kneeling in fervent prayer, with a soprano soaring above them all.
All in all, 'Boys Town' ought to have been a whole lot better. Another director would have helped. It's a nice touch, though, to have the scrawny destitute kid hitch for a week to get to Boys Town only the night before it is destined to foreclose.
So, watch it for Rooney and the occasional touching ensemble scene.