Review of Boys Town (1938) by Edith N — 17 Feb 2011

It Only Takes Six Months to Rehabilitate a Boy.

Charles Manson spent time in the real Boys Town. It's true! Somehow, someone got the impression that he was Catholic, according to Vince Bugliosi, and he was sent there instead of to reform school for like the third time. As I recall, he escaped. I'll note that Boys Town in the movie--and apparently in real life--is determinedly nondenominational. There's a Protestant chapel on the grounds of the main facility, and the movie even gives us a boy putting on a yarmulke and reciting prayers in Hebrew. At any rate, this does go to show that the boys really sent there were a little more than the charming imps portrayed here. It also shows that not all boys respond to kindness and not all boys can follow the honour system. The truly sad thing is that Charlie doubtless took the spot of a boy who actually would have. Not all boys will respond, but there are plenty who would.

Father Flanagan (Spencer Tracy) is a man who believes he can rescue boys from the horrors of the System. He agrees to take responsibility for a group of boys accused of vandalism and theft, promising that he will keep them from harming anyone else. Slowly but surely, he builds from a handful of boys to a a hundred or better, taking them out of reform school and orphanages and caring for them. He promises that they will be good, and they are. One day, he receives a message from Joe Marsh (Edward Norris), a prisoner in the penitentiary. Joe has a brother, Whitey (Mickey Rooney). Joe's afraid Whitey will Go To the Bad, and he believes going to Boys Town will save Whitey from a Life of Crime. Father Flanagan essentially kidnaps him and hauls him off. At Boys Town, we meet the usual cast of characters, including mascot Pee Wee (Bobs Watson), a cheery waif who hits up Father Flanagan for candy every afternoon. Whitey starts out as tough-as-nails, only to discover that none of the boys are impressed.

I don't dispute that Father Flanagan and Boys Town saved lives. Apparently, the people who run the place are hoping to reform the whole of the System now, and more power to them. Yes, Charlie deserved to be locked up. No, getting to him sooner probably wouldn't have changed that. However, it's true that kids in the System tend to end up having kids who end up in the System. People who spent time in prison once generally end up in prison again. It isn't designed to teach people how to live in our society, and so they make the same mistakes over and over again. Father Flanagan's goal was to stop the cycle. Hence, one assumes, things like the barbershop and elections for Mayor of Boys Town. It's certainly a worthy goal, though I do note there's no real talk of getting an education, one of the single best ways out of poverty and out of the cycle. Then again, an algebra test is not as cinematic as an election. Teachers frown on brass bands in class.

However, for example, there's that band. Whitey manages to procure a string of mules upon which to paint campaign slogans. He marches into the campaign speech meeting as a drum major. He wants to be mayor because he thinks he's a big shot, and no one else seems to see it. But if he just makes a big enough fuss about things, they'll see that he's the most important person there. Of course, he's still a buffoon, the flashy kind of petty thug who was the only kind to appear in the average movie. The boys see right through him. But of course he's able to overcome his failings and Clean Up His Act by the next mayoral election. In fact, he's so humble and unassuming that he doesn't even stand for election and has to be elected by popular acclaim. It's the story you'd expect, because this is a feel-good movie under the Code. Now, naturally, Father Flanagan did build Boys Town, and having him lose his funding wouldn't work as a plot device. It would still be nice if the story were a little less blatant.

Spencer Tracy won an Oscar for the role. He'd won the previous year for [i]Captains Courageous[/i]. An overenthusiastic MGM publicity man, without a word to Tracy himself, declared that Tracy would be donating his Oscar to Boys Town. Tracy reacted about as you'd expect. As it was, he wanted a replacement, as the one he'd been given was labeled for "Dick Tracy," and amusing as that was, Dick Tracy hadn't won it. An arrangement was actually made so that he could get a new inscription and Boys Town could get one specially made and inscribed for Father Flanagan himself. Various other winners over the years have donated theirs to one organization or another; Jimmy Stewart let his father display his in the window of said father's hardware store. Shelley Winters gave hers for [i]The Diary of Anne Frank[/i] to the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam. But you know, the two of them both made their own choice to do it, and it's certainly not as though Jimmy Stewart couldn't have gotten his back.