Dotsthavesp I wanted to but couldn't!

Usamah Harvey The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

dweilermg-1 * 2 True Stories ~ 1 When Newt Gingrich said that orphanages need to be reopened as safe havens for troubled children Hillary Clinton responded that they're horrible places like in Oliver Twist. Gingrich said he meant places like Boys Town and Hillary then said "That's just a Mickey Rooney movie." Fact is Boys Town movie based on a real place while Oliver Twist is Dickens fiction. 2 A troubled youth who was sent to the real Boys Town ran away without taking advantage of what could have been a wonderful experience for him. That lad was Charles Manson.

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.

edwagreen While Spencer Tracy won the coveted best actor Oscar here, the real acting kudos should have easily gone to Mickey Rooney, as the product of a bad environment, a potential gangster-to-be who has a heart.The picture shows the effects of the poor downtrodden youth with nothing to live for as they descend into a life of crime.Flanagan tried to put an end to this never ending misery by creating a haven for such abandoned, troubled boys.There is plenty of action, near-tragedy and redemption. This was a superior film in every respect.Rooney was never better. His defiance,and yet final redemption were both masterfully done.