Boys Town (1938)

Directed by Norman Taurog. Starring Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Henry Hull, Gene Reynolds, Bobs Watson, Leslie Fenton, Edward Norris, Frankie Thomas, Addison Richards, Minor Watson, Jonathan Hale.

Uninspired and ingratiating based-in-truth drama about the founding of “Boys Town,” an organization rooted in Catholic beliefs dedicated to caring for abandoned young boys (boy, that didn’t age well…). Tracy is as pious as he is banal playing founder Father Flanagan, but even more hapless is Rooney playing a smart-mouthed punk who quickly converts to a blubbering reformer (at least in Tracy’s case, you can believe the actor inhabiting the persona, but Rooney as a tough street kid?). Good intentions can’t negate such a blinkered and manipulative emotional core—the repeated assurance that, “There is no [such thing as a] bad boy,” quickly goes from comical to effusive—and the plot detours into do-gooder crime melodrama in the last act. Some viewers, however, will no doubt shut down all skepticism and embrace the message; among them, plenty of Academy voters, who awarded the movie statuettes for Best Original Screenplay (Eleanore Griffin and Dore Schary) and Best Actor.

39/100