Happened upon the classic black-and-white movie “Boys Town”
at the library and enjoyed watching it. Spencer Tracy did an excellent job
portraying the real-life Father Edward
J. Flanagan, who made it his life’s mission to rescue troubled youths, going so
far as to building a city-within-a-city for them in Omaha, Nebraska. Mickey Rooney turned in a comical performance
as a hard-to-reach teen who, of course, comes around by the end.
The DVD also had the sequel, “Men of Boys Town,” on the flip
side. Like a lot of sequels, this one tried a little too hard to capture the magic of
the original. For example, the scene with a little boy going in Father Flanagan’s
office to hunt for candy was cute in the original but became a bit of a tired
gag by the second movie.
Father Flanagan’s trademark philosophy that “there is no bad
boy” was truly ahead of its time.
I hate to admit that I've never seen Boys Town despite the fact that it's been around maybe as long as my daddy. Just to see Mickey Rooney as a teenager again would be worth the price of admission. Thanks for the push to see it, Chris! -Michael Lee
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