Boys Town

Boys Town is a 1938 film directed by Norman Taurog, written by John Meehan and Dore Schary and starring Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Henry Hull and Gene Reynolds. It was nominated for five Oscars, of which it won two. The film tells the story of Father Flanagan, who starts a community called "Boys Town" for convicted youngsters.

Father Flanagan (Spencer Tracy) has a firm belief: "No boy will grow up bad if given a chance in life." He puts this into practice by opening "Boys Town" - a community focused on giving young boys convicted of crimes a place to better develop their characters. Flanagan's plan doesn't get much support from officials and as a result he has trouble raising funding for Boys Town. Eventually, Flanagan resorts to less 'clean' sources of funding, and finds support among the least expected—and least respected—people.

• Spencer Tracy as Father Flanagan

• Mickey Rooney as Whitey Marsh

• Henry Hull as Dave Morris

• Leslie Fenton as Dan Farrow

• Gene Reynolds as Tony Ponessa

• Edward Norris as Joe Marsh

• Addison Richards as The Judge

• Minor Watson as The Bishop

• Jonathan Hale as John Hargraves

• Bobs Watson as Pee Wee

• Martin Spellman as Skinny

• Mickey Rentschler as Tommy Anderson

• Frankie Thomas as Freddie Fuller

• Jimmy Butler as Paul Ferguson

• Sidney Mille as Mo Kahn

"At the time, the real-life Flanagan complained that MGM made Boys Town look so neat, clean, and well managed that he had trouble raising money for the center."—Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.comhttp://www.emanuellevy.com/search/details.cfm?id=470

"Tracy is always good -- was he ever bad in a film in his entire career?"—Michael W. Phillips, Jr., Goatdog's Movieshttp://goatdog.com/moviePage.php?movieID=661