The Happy Years (1950) User Reviews

Life Imitates Art

[arieliondotcom · 7/10 · 20 December 2007]

When I first started watching this film, I found it slow going. I couldn't get into it and couldn't understand how it could have gotten such rave reviews from others. And then something happened. It "grew on me." The excellent acting, the classic story (think of a pre-teen Paper Chase with Leo G. Carroll being the dreaded professor), the quaintness of the 1800s setting...I don't know, it just got to me.

And then I realized that life imitated art. Because that's the whole theme of the film, that this boy who goes off to school and hates it eventually grows to not just fit in but flourish (but as I say, that's a classic story). And much of the success of the movie is due to that boy (Dean Stockwell) and his winning ways, as an actor and in character.

Leo G. Carroll deserves a special tip of the hat, too. He will always be Topper to me from the old TV show. But he brings just the right amount of bassett hound looks and solid good nature yet strictness to the role.

The Happy Years may not be the best movie ever, but it is a happy few hours of entertainment.

It's hard to imagine that this film lost so much money.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 25 March 2019]

"The Happy Years" is a very good film from start to finish. Despite this, it apparently lost a lot of money...which is pretty sad since it was so good.

The story is about a very obnoxious child who grew up during the late 1800s. Dink Stover (Dean Stockwell) is thoroughly unlikable when the story begins. He's gotten himself thrown out of several very good prep schools and was sent away to them due to his god-awful behaviors at home. When he's ultimately sent to Lawrenceville (a real school), he's told that if he fails there, his next step is reform school.

As soon as Dink arrives at Lawrenceville, it's obvious what the problems are with the boy....he has a chip on his shoulder the size of Iowa and is also very angry. Not surprisingly, his first year at the school is a tough one...and he's thoroughly unlikable.

At this point in the film, you might be inclined to turn off the movie. After all, the boy is impossible to like. However, things do eventually improve and the overall product is very nice. Well worth seeing and with some lovely child acting as well as a nice performance by Leo G. Carroll.

John Humperdink Stover, the early years

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 6 March 2018]

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.

Excellent and fun

[romukaj · 31 May 2003]

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?

Gerund or Gerundive?

[tyler-jones-216-700701 · 7/10 · 20 January 2015]

What a wonderful thing for this movie finally to be released on DVD! I haven't seen it in over 30 years, but I treasured my memories of it. It was a real treat to see it again. I got to relive adventures with Tough McCarty, Tennessee Shad, Hungry Smead and the White Mountain Canary.

This is an excellent family movie, and a great view of Americana at the turn of the century. The cast was very good, and while this will never be a mega-classic like Gone with the Wind, it's worth watching and re-watching.

As others have said, the linchpin of the movie is Dink's final conversation with the Old Roman, and it's a great scene.

Leo G. Carroll as the crusty Old Roman (aka Latin teacher, also football coach) and a young Dean Stockwell deliver solid performances that make this as lovable classic.

***** a funny minor spoiler ****** When I was watching this with my wife, she couldn't figure out why Dink and Tough were going over game plays on the football field at night with nobody else around. I told her, male bonding, it's a guy thing. True in 1896, and true today. ***** end of spoiler *****

Episodic stories from "The Good Ole Days"

[twhiteson · 6/10 · 8 March 2018]

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.

Super cast and story - a classic slice of teen Americana

[lorenzo212 · 10/10 · 26 August 2001]

Great Dean Stockwell coming of age, and this is one of his best roles.

Stockwell plays a rebellious, wisecracking schoolboy at odds with the world. The film captures a slice of early 20th century Americana through precocious teens at prep school discovering sports, academia, and of course, girls. Funny and touching, with a great cast and story that even connects today. Leo G. Carroll as a nemesis teacher is excellent, and the antics of the "Tennessee Shad" are still being copied in similar themed films.

Coming of age comedy drama from William Wellman featuring Dean Stockwell

[jacobs-greenwood · 7/10 · 20 December 2016]

Directed by William A. Wellman, and based on Owen Johnson's "Lawrenceville School" stories, this "coming of age" comedy drama stars 14 year old Dean Stockwell as an incorrigible young lad who eventually learns to fit in at a prep school, after having been thrown out of at least two others. A rivalry with a "tough" older boy, a friendship with a nerdy underage one, and gentle guidance provided by an Instructor who becomes his dormitory "house master" all lead to his maturation. Though not exceptional, this pre-"turn of the century" period piece does provide adequate entertainment and positive messages, after its slow start.

Set in 1896 somewhere near New Jersey, unkempt John Humperdink Stover (Stockwell) was thrown out of his older brother's prep school for blowing up the chemistry lab, he wanted to prove that one could make dynamite without using gunpowder. While home, he paints the neighbor's horse green to help it hide from mosquitoes. His father Samuel Stover Sr. (Leon Ames) & mother Maude (Margalo Gillmore) are at their wits end, wishing their youngest was more like his model older brother Samuel Jr. (Peter M. Thompson) or proper sister 'Tootsie' (Jeralyn Alton, uncredited). They decide to give him one more chance, before reform school, by sending him to the Lawrenceville School, where 'Sambo' (what John calls his older brother), now at Yale, spent some time.

On the horse & buggy ride from the train station to the school, Stover takes the reigns from the driver that wasn't going fast enough to suit him, upsetting an older passenger (Leo G. Carroll) also along for the ride. Upon arrival at the school, he is dropped off in front of the Green house, the off-campus dormitory for what looks like the roughest of the students. After introducing himself to the head boy, 'Tough' McCarty (Darryl Hickman), Stover is made to bow & introduce himself to the other boys seated on the front steps. Each has a unique nickname: 'Cheyenne' Baxter (Jerry Mickelsen), Coffee Colored Angel (Alan Dinehart III), White Mountain Canary (Dave Bair), and so forth. Stover is given the nickname 'Dink'.

Venturing into town, while skipping classes his first day (a right of passage), Dink meets Tennessee Shad (Scotty Beckett), who fills him in on some of the folklore before scamming the greenhorn into purchasing a decorative toiletry set. Back at Green house, Dink's roommate Butsey White (Danny Mummert) mocks him for being taken. Later, as the ninth member of the house, Dink is made to play baseball, a sport he clearly doesn't play. Robert Wagner is uncredited as the opposing catcher, but is unrecognizable through the face mask. After helping his team lose the game, Dink is chased over a period of days by White Mountain Canary, until he's finally caught and must defend himself. When Dink comes out on top, he figures he can take on Tough for the head boy. He learns otherwise, though he vows revenge. He also learns that the older passenger from that first buggy ride is Mr. Hopkins (Carroll), the school's Latin teacher.

The next thing you know the semester is over and Dink returns home having failed to make any friends. His family, which summers at the beach, seems to have heard about his rough time, and treats him with kid gloves throughout the season. During his vacation break, Dink teaches the local gang of ruffians some new tricks he'd learned while at school. While spoiling all the little girls' enjoyment during the summer with one particular ruse, Dink finally meets his match in Dolly Travers (Claudia Barrett), who also happens to be enamored with Tough McCarty.

When Dink returns to school, he finds himself reassigned to Kennedy house, whose house master is Mr. Hopkins, dubbed 'The Old Roman'. He also meets the 'Great Big Man' (Donn Gift), who's anything but, in fact he's technically underage but smart enough to be one of the school's best students. He's staying at Kennedy house because his father is friends with 'The Old Roman', who's also the football coach. Because of his tenacity, and despite his size, the coach allows Dink to play on the scrubs (second, practice team), which gives him an opportunity to regularly tangle with the team's captain, Tough. Struggling with his Latin, Dink makes a deal with the 'Great Big Man' - he'll help the little guy live up to his name if the little genius will help Dink pass an oral Latin test to keep from flunking out of playing on the football team. The 'Great Big Man' uses two different unique physical talents to do both - an ability to wiggle his ears to help Dink answer some binary questions accurately, and his enormous appetite to earn a replacement nickname 'Hungry Smeed', and free pancakes for everyone on campus. Irving Bacon appears, uncredited, as the pancake establishment's owner, who'd "bet" that no one could eat more than twenty-six.

Eventually, of course, even Tough and Dink become friends, when an injured player during a football game enables Dink to play side-by- side his rival. Additionally, Dink learns that 'The Old Roman' is not the ogre he thinks he is. There's also a cute little wrap up when the school year ends and Stover returns "home" to the beach.

Great Child Ensemble

[JKearse · 10/10 · 10 October 2006]

I attended the Lawrenceville School in the 1970's and 80's. The school had changed in many ways, but there were many things that were still true about the school. The film itself was well done. The Cinematography, acting, and screenplay were especially memorable. In fact, the child actors created one of the best ensembles I have ever seen in a movie about children. I wasn't impressed with the adults except Leo G. Carroll who as always did an exceptional job in the role of 'The Old Roman'. The 40's Technicolor made every frame look like a postcard. Unfortunately, the film was lost for many years, thought to be destroyed in the MGM fire, but it was rediscovered while I attended Lawrenceville. The film is rarely seen on television and has never appeared on video as far as I know. By the way, Gerunds and Gerundives in Latin are not as difficult to distinguish as the screenplay makes out, but it made for some great scenes.

A tedious, humorless, and dull film that bombed in its day

[SimonJack · 4/10 · 26 April 2024]

"The Happy Years" is a coming of age film - at the earliest stages, of a young boy from a very wealthy family in the northeastern USA of 1896. It is billed as a comedy, romance and family film. But this is an utterly humorless film. There are no funny or clever lines of dialog, there are no humorous antics, and there's not a single comical situation. Perhaps the movie moguls at MGM in 1950 saw a smart-alecky, disrespectful kid and his mean-spirited prank of scaring and humiliating one girl after another as comedy. Well, audiences of 1950 didn't see it that way, and neither do I these many years later.

Before just watching this film on DVD, I wondered why I hadn't seen it before. In my growing up years of the mid-20th century, and young to middle-aged adult years, we watched many nighttime movies and late night movies on TV. But I hadn't even heard of this film before. And, having seen some good to very good films about growing up and coming of age during the late 19th and earth 20th centuries, I thought I might enjoy this one. But after watching it, I can understand why it probably never made the late night movie schedules anywhere.

This movie is dull. There is no comedy. And I can't imagine what the studio saw as romance in it. The family aspect was mostly of a super rich couple with three kids, one of whom was a renegade and apparently not at all or ever disciplined by his parents. The plot has the family sending the rebel son, John Humperdink Stover, off to another private school after he was dismissed from the last one he attended. The film is very slow and mostly tedious. There are just a couple of breaks with any kind of life - one is on a gridiron when the Kennedy house team plays against another house team in an intramural rivalry. This did provide a little interest in showing a football game being played that ended in a 4-4 tie. It didn't show any scoring, but evidently each team scored one, two or four touchdowns, which each counted for 1, 2 or 4 points. But, that aside, there is hardly anything else of interest in this film. Even the transformation of Stover toward the end isn't satisfactory. It happens rather fast and unconvincingly.

This film did have some actors of note. Dean Stockwell was 14 years old when he played Dink Stover in this film. He was at the height of his popularity as a child star then, and he would go on to have a long career, mostly in TV and in supporting roles. Another up-and-coming young actor in the film is Darryl Hickman who would have a long career, again in supporting roles and much on TV. And one of Dink's schoolmates in the film, Tennessee Shad, was played by Scotty Beckett. He was one of the biggest child stars of Hollywood's Golden Era, who also had promise going into adulthood. But Becket's life would turn sour with alcohol, drugs, and crime, and he died of an overdose of barbiturates in a third suicide attempt in 1968, at age 38.

In the better known category of adult actors are Leon Ames as the senior Stover and father, Samuel. And, Leo G. Carroll has the meatiest role as The Old Roman, a teacher, house master and coach at Lawrenceville School. His is the only role of substance that is performed very well. It is for Carroll's role mostly, that I give this film even four stars.

I am surprised to see revews by so many who think this is a very good film -- even with just 760 ratings as of the time of my writing here. It's overall rating of 6.8 in April 2024 is much higher than audiences of the day would have given it. The film bombed at the box office and lost MGM over half a million dollars. It finished the year 147th in ticket sales at the box office. I doubt that many movie buffs today would find this film entertaining or enjoyable.

Marvelous adaptation of The Lawrenceville Stories

[the_old_roman · 10/10 · 24 August 2001]

The entire cast is marvelous in nostalgic homage to a boys' school around the turn of the century. Dean Stockwell stars in the lead role of "Dink" Stover, an adolescent terror who is sent to the school as a last resort in trying to rein in his turbulent behavior. The laughs are fast and furious. The memories are many. I watch this comedy any time I get the chance.

My favorite childhood movie

[robmohar · 30 October 2004]

I remember, as a little guy, stumbling across this movie one summer afternoon on the local TV channel. I then waited for it to show up again, which it did a couple more times. It never came out on VHS or DVD, but I was lucky enough to buy the 16mm MGM reels at an estate sale. I hadn't seen the movie for 35 years, and had a great time showing it to my children. The movie has many small, seemingly insignificant moments that together create characters we can't help but care about: the wash basin, the toothpick, "Follow the Esplanade", gerund vs. gerundive, the ear, "Maude Adams", the goal posts (before and after), the pancakes. When Dink has his last talk with The Old Roman, the story's true meaning hits us like a McCarty tackle. This is a wonderful movie.

most entertaining!

[blitzebill · 10/10 · 7 November 2013]

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.

Great family entertainment!

[async · 10/10 · 23 June 2000]

Dean Stockwell is superb as "Dink" who comes to a new school and doesn't get along with his classmates. The setting takes place in an era long past, but for many never forgotten. The film teaches us a lesson which can be learned no matter what the age or gender. I enjoyed this movie more than I can say.

Coming of Age at the Turn of the Century

[wes-connors · 9/10 · 23 September 2011]

In 1896 New Jersey, wealthy small city editor Leon Ames (as Samuel H. Stover) learns delinquent Dean Stockwell (as John Humperdink Stover) has just been "fired" (expelled) from school, for blowing up the chemistry lab. At home, young teenage Stockwell paints a snooty neighbor's prize horse green (don't adjust your color, it does look blue). Described as both a "heathen" and an "anarchist," Stockwell is sent to picturesque "Lawrenceville School" where he plans to "own" the school. After a stimulating buggy ride, the binding around Stockwell's suitcase magically disappears - causing his belongings to spill out in front of six house-mates, posed by director William A. Wellman to block his entrance to "Green House"...

All bigger than Stockwell, the laughing delinquents are led by bully Darryl Hickman (as George "Tough" McCarty), who is caressing a pussycat. In all likelihood, director Wellman is having some fun with this assignment. Also note Stockwell's roommate Danny Mummert (as "Butsey" White) is quite logically introduced from their bedroom window, rather than on the stoop. The four other lads are Alan Dinehart III (as "The Coffee Colored Angel"), David Bair (as "The White Mountain Canary"), Jerry Mickelsen (as "Cheyenne" Baxter), Eddie LeRoy (as "Polar" Beckstein) - they don't have a lot to do, but the nicknames are great. Determining Stockwell is not there to sell "removable underwear," Mr. Hickman dubs him "Dink"...

Stockwell has a rough year, but does receive some sympathy from roommate Mummert. Another friendship is formed when Stockwell meets school-skipping Scotty Beckett (as "The Tennessee Shad"). Playing his entire part with a toothpick in his mouth, Mr. Beckett looks like his just walked out of a Norman Rockwell painting. After a bizarre summer vacation - wherein Stockwell and his rich friends play a surreal joke on young Elinor Donahue (as Connie Brown) and some other girls while the black-eyed director's son Tim tolls church bells - Stockwell will join Beckett at "Kennedy House" and finally resolve his Hickman problem. And in 1897's class, we meet hungry Little "Big Man" Donn Gift (as Joshua Montgomery Sneed)...

Wise Leo G. Carroll teaches us all a lesson as house-master Hopkins ("The Old Roman"), and Wellman maneuvers the young actors exceptionally well. Working with his award-winning "Battleground" photographer Paul C. Vogel and the MGM team, Wellman handles "The Happy Years" like he's bringing a turn of the century painting to life. It exudes a Norman Rockwell quality, shot in beautiful Technicolor - without looking real, it appears authentic. Drawing from his youthful experiences and adult directorial skills, Wellman stages scenes with skillful simplicity. Never given the power and glory of 1890s peers like John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock, director Wellman could make classics out of arguably unlikely assignments, like this...

********* The Happy Years (7/7/50) William A. Wellman ~ Dean Stockwell, Darryl Hickman, Scotty Beckett, Leo G. Carroll

Great innocent fun

[aussie-20 · 11 March 2002]

I love this movie - but then I loved the book "The Lawrenceville Stories" that it was based on. The scene when Dink falls in love is graven on my memory forever. Lively school tales of boys plotting, fighting, and finally making friends of enemies. Leo G. Carroll very good as "The Old Roman".

Timeless turn-of-the-century coming-of-age comedy

[sultana-1 · 10/10 · 26 May 2001]

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.

Great Overlooked Family Movie

[marbleann · 10/10 · 20 December 2007]

This is one of my favorite movies. Dean Stockwell is great as the main character. This is not your run of the mill story about sweet little boys at some boy school. They all are characters, The main character (Humperdink)Dink is a feisty kid who doesn't take any mess from anyone. He is not annoying or disrespectful. He just feels very strongly about certain things and will let you know. He is a little guy among older boys, But they soon find out he is not a pushover. The supporting characters are great.

And I love the message the schoolmaster had. Dinks grades are not the best, and he almost gets expelled. But the school master, played by Leo G Carroll says that even though he may not have good grades his character offers so much more then that and people could learn from people like him too. I adhere to that. I have seen so many A students with nothing to offer but a good grades. I feel grades are important, but they should not count for every thing and at times should not be the most important factor to judge if one is a success. This movies picked up on that Dink was a leader who had roadblocks but he tackled them and that was what was the most important.

There is a subplot about him playing football which is also very good. His classmates fall in love with him eventually, like you will.

I think this was a part that could of been easily played two different ways. One is the smart azz, disrespectful way that we see so many child stars act today, The parts where the kids are smarter then the adults and go around the whole movie calling adults by their first name. The movie would of failed if it went in that direction. Or the way Dean Stockwell played it. This part has to work for the movie to work.

I just got to see this movie by mistake for the second time in my life this morning on TCM. I didn't even know its name until today. But I never forgot the movie and was elated to see it on the TV when I woke up this morning. I am just mad I did not DVR it because it is not on video. Something I found out when went to buy it online. Check this movie out if you can catch it on TV.

Great entertainment for any generation

[JBThackery · 10/10 · 24 July 2007]

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."

A young boy learns how to grow into a young man and change his life path for the better

[Ed-Shullivan · 8/10 · 15 December 2018]

Who would have thought or recognized that the lead actor Dean Stockwell, would be playing a 14 year old dissilusioned boy named John Humperdink 'Dink' Stover. Young John was not in the least happy about going away to a private boarding school since he believed the world was all against him. John or Dink as he was called was picked on and bullied at school so he developed a thick skin and a hard right cross punch.

Through time, which took John a few years to come to terms with, there were people in young John's corner, one key person being the school master named The Old Roman (Leo G. Carroll). It's a film in which you both dislike the bad attitude of young John as well as I felt bad for him and his unhappy childhood.

It's a story about more than one young man struggling to be accepted by his peers, and how the school master wins them over. I give the film a praiseworthy 8 out of 10 rating.

The Happy Years Movie - 1950 - Excellence in Entertainment - Your Mind Remains Engaged

[brenda-reed · 10/10 · 27 January 2011]

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.

Wonderful fun!

[aromatic · 10/10 · 21 August 1998]

A perfect movie for the entire family.

Looking for "The Happy Years"

[jonesalex · 12 September 2007]

I saw "The Happy Years" when I was in high school in the early 1960s and have long wanted to see it again. Does anyone know whether there is a video or DVD of it and how one might get a copy? I can't find it on Netflix or Ebay.

Strangely, I remember it as a black and white film, though it obviously is not. I also recall seeing an English film of a similar sort with Margaret Rutherford which was about a boy's school and a girl's school unhappily forced to share the same quarters. Can anyone identify that film for me?

Finally, as a new member here, I am perplexed by the requirement that comments be a minimum of ten lines. I thought that this was not just for giving one's opinion about films, but also for posing questions and hoping for response from others. That doesn't necessarily require ten lines. But I shall rattle on until the ten-line requirement is met.

Ender Wiggin

[Kev11sky · 9/10 · 7 November 2013]

Just in case anyone has seen the movie "Enders Game" without reading the book, and/or feels rushed or confused by the psychology and fast growth of young "Ender" as characterized in the movie...

Well, this old film from 1950 is excellent.

It tells a very similar story about a young man's experiences as a youth in a prep school, in fighting and sports and knowledge.

I wonder if Orson Scott Card ever saw this movie.

The minimum length for my review is 10 lines of text... working on that. Do I have 10 lines yet? I do believe that brevity is the soul of

wit.

Remember it

[marktayloruk · 9/10 · 28 December 2020]

As one of those films that makes one.suspect that life.just might be worth living. I would really like.to read the.original stories and believe that Lawrenceville was infinitely nicer than English public schools of the time- the Old Roman seemed quite reasonable to me, especially the way he tested Dink in an "unofficial " way! Would I have liked Maude Adams?