{"id":43518,"date":"2019-04-23T22:34:04","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T05:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=43518"},"modified":"2021-01-04T00:41:14","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T07:41:14","slug":"boys-town-1938","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=43518","title":{"rendered":"Boys Town (1938)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;There is no bad boy.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Boys-Town-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Boys-Town-Poster-194x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"194\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-43519\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Boys-Town-Poster-194x300.jpg 194w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Boys-Town-Poster-83x128.jpg 83w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Boys-Town-Poster.jpg 580w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 194px) 100vw, 194px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nAn idealistic but fiscally irresponsible priest (Spencer Tracy) opens a home for delinquent boys named Boys Town, but meets his match when an unruly youngster (Mickey Rooney) refuses to fall in line with the community&#8217;s principles.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Do-Gooders<\/li>\n<li>Juvenile Delinquents<\/li>\n<li>Mickey Rooney Films<\/li>\n<li>Orphans<\/li>\n<li>Priests and Ministers<\/li>\n<li>Spencer Tracy Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nSpencer Tracy won his second Best Actor award in a row for his portrayal as the real-life <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Edward_J._Flanagan\">Father Flanagan<\/a>, a saintly and sympathetic father figure renowned for his pioneering efforts in providing a meaningful, respectful alternative to reform school. Unfortunately, MGM&#8217;s fictional accounting of Flanagan&#8217;s work comes across as hopelessly simplistic and unrealistic. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s1814town.html\">DVD Savant, not a fan of this film, writes that<\/a> &#8220;<em>Boys Town<\/em> now seems painfully dated, wrong-headed and, worst of all, smugly insincere&#8221;. While I don&#8217;t agree it&#8217;s wrong-headed, it&#8217;s certainly whitewashed beyond belief &#8212; starting from the near total lack of diversity despite the proclamation that all races and creeds are welcome. The plot twists are all cliched heart-wrenchers, and the final narrative turn &#8212; with Rooney running into his criminal brother (Edward Norris) at just the wrong moment &#8212; beggars belief. With that said, Tracy does turn in a respectable and respectful performance; one can see why he and the film were popular with audiences of the day. Meanwhile, Rooney is full of energy and can&#8217;t be faulted for his efforts, either. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Spencer Tracy as Father Flanagan<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Boys-Town-Tracy.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Boys-Town-Tracy.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-43520\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Boys-Town-Tracy.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Boys-Town-Tracy-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Boys-Town-Tracy-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though it&#8217;s worth a look for Tracy&#8217;s Oscar-winning performance and for its erstwhile popularity. Listed as a film with Historical Importance in the back of Peary&#8217;s book. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0029942\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/69546\/boys-town#articles-reviews?articleId=21796\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s1814town.html\">DVD Savant Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;There is no bad boy.&#8221; Synopsis: An idealistic but fiscally irresponsible priest (Spencer Tracy) opens a home for delinquent boys named Boys Town, but meets his match when an unruly youngster (Mickey Rooney) refuses to fall in line with the community&#8217;s principles. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Do-Gooders Juvenile Delinquents Mickey Rooney Films Orphans Priests and Ministers Spencer Tracy Films Review: Spencer Tracy won his second Best Actor award in a row for his portrayal as the real-life Father Flanagan,&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=43518\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43518"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61475,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43518\/revisions\/61475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}