Diagonaldi Very well executed

GazerRise Fantastic!

Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Hitchcoc I always get caught up in this film. I've probably seen it fifteen times and it still gets me. It has two of my favorite people: Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney. Of course, Tracy would fit on many people's top ten actors list. Rooney was more of a comic actor, but very good at what he did. He and Judy Garland teamed up for those Andy Hardy movies when he was a child actor, and then he had numerous other roles that pushed him farther. In this he plays a punk who arrives at Boys Town, near Omaha, Nebraska. The priest who runs the place, Father Flanagan, became inspired by a death-row inmate who told him what it was like to grow up friendless. So Flanagan created Boys Town and took those that society rejected and provided love and care for them. It was often at great risk because they were always under close observation from an unconvinced population. This is really a story about Flanagan's relationship with Whitey Marsh (Rooney) who tests his patience to the limit. Flanagan knows that if he fails with this boy, it could all go down. The other boys resent Whitey because they have their own government and are experience worth for the first time in their lives. Tracy won the Oscar for this performance.

hannahma57 One point for Spencer Tracy doing what he can with a bum script. But Mickey Rooney's toweringly awful ham performance sinks the movie. Even in the thirties people must have been exchanging uncomfortable glances or staring up at the ceiling during Rooney's multiple scenes of yelling, outrageously bogus sobbing, defiant bullying and generally chewing the rug. Bar none, the worst acting ever to hit the screen.It would be nice to have a real movie about Boys Town with some other adults besides Flanagan in it, some details about the misery of street kids in those days, and perhaps a word or two about the total lack of any Girls Town back in the day, though the fate of female street kids has always been grim.

vincentlynch-moonoi The strength of this film is the not story itself, because at least the last fourth of the picture -- when Whitey (Mickey Rooney) leads all the boys of Boys Town to confront hardened criminals at an abandoned inn is total fiction in a movie that purports itself to be the story of the real Boys Town and Father Flanagan (which is not to say that it isn't great movie making!).No, the strength of this film is the performance by Spencer Tracy as Father Flanagan. And of course, it won him an Academy Award. Highly fictionalized or not, his portrayal made him the real Father Flanagan to many people. It is a remarkable performance, in part because as usual, he plays his roles in somewhat of an understated way, which makes them seem all the more realistic. There's quite a bit about the making of this film in the new Tracy biography, and it's interesting to compare the confidence of the character he was playing here with his insecurity in playing a priest.The other star of the pic was Mickey Rooney. Interestingly, this film was made the same year he began making the Andy Hardy films. What a cocky character, and in some ways (ala the Tracy biography) he may have been pretty much the same in real life. But, despite some overacting, he plays this part memorably.Most of the other supporting actors do very nicely, but special mention should be made of Henry Hull, who does an especially nice job as Tracy's/Flanigan's crusty friend with a soft heart. And, it is a hoot watching Bobs Watson cry! Some of the scenes in the picture were filmed at Boys Town, and overall it's a nice production. While the aura of Boys Town and the basic history isn't far from the truth, the actual plot of the movie is a little far-fetched. Would the iconic Father Flanigan really lead his boys to overtaking and capturing a trio of bank robbers and murderers? But, it makes a swell story and is very entertaining. This film was interesting enough -- and over the years I've probably watched it half a dozen times -- that since I now live in Colorado, I just might make a trip out in Nebraska to visit the real Boys Town.This is one for your DVD shelf!

dbdumonteil It's been some years since the story about the Catholic Church sheltering pedophile priests came to light.I do hope it's only a minority.But it's comforting to watch a movie based on this wonderful priest ,Father Flanagan (brillantly portrayed by the great Tracy)If there are saints in the universe,he must be one of them.After listening to the story of a prisoner about to be executed -a victim of fate more than a criminal-,the man of God decides he would take in all the boys standing in great danger of going to the dogs in a town he would build for them.One of Flanagan's most salutary qualities is his superb tolerance :before lunch,every boy prays his own God ,not only Jesus (they are even allowed to have no God),which was revolutionary!thirty years later,when I was in a catholic holiday camp,we had to pray and thank OUR Lord before we ate.Many viewers will praise Mickey Rooney and he is impressive as a "gangster in miniature" ,but my favorite is the adorable Pee Wee!