Moment of Movie Wisdom: No Bad Boys in ‘Boys Town’ (1938)

Cropped lobby card from the film “Boys Town” (1938) starring Spencer Tracy (L) and Mickey Rooney. MovieStillsDB

Commentary

Where are young people to find good influences these days? It seems everywhere one looks, there are corrupting forces at work. Even places that are supposed to be safe havens, like schools, religious organizations, libraries, and youth groups, can be corrupted by individuals’ bad behavior or overrun with dangerous ideology. One resource to which I turn, both for inspiration and a good influence, is uplifting movies from the Golden Era of Hollywood.

Today’s moment of movie wisdom is from “Boys Town” (1938). It takes place only four minutes into the film, but it sets the tone for the rest of the 92-minute runtime. A priest (Spencer Tracy) visits a convicted murderer (Leslie Fenton) less than an hour before his execution to hear his confession. Angered when one of the officers says he is about to pay his “debt to the state,” the condemned man passionately demands to know where the state was when poverty and the reformatory turned a lonely, hungry orphan into a hardened criminal. The priest is deeply affected by his statement that one friend could have kept him from that life.

The Story

Father Edward J. Flanagan (Tracy) goes to hear Dan Farrow’s (Fenton) confession before execution for murder, and he is strongly moved by the realization that reformatories are schools for criminals. Father Flanagan runs a refuge for indigent men in Omaha, Nebraska, but this experience inspires him to help poor, homeless, and wayward boys become good men instead of wards of the state. When a group of local boys is caught committing a petty crime, Father Flanagan takes responsibility for them. With help from a generous pawnbroker, Dave Morris (Henry Hull), he starts his first home for boys in a rented house. He faces a lot of hardship, challenges, and prejudice, but he won’t give up his belief that “there’s no such thing as a bad boy.”

Years later, his small home has grown into Boys Town, a huge farm complex where boys can learn, work, and govern themselves. A murderer, Joe Marsh (Edward Norris), asks Father Flanagan to take his younger brother, Whitey (Mickey Rooney), to Boys Town. Although Joe is a hardened criminal, he wants his little brother to have a chance at a better life. Whitey has other ideas, and he is extremely rude, disagreeable, and downright rebellious toward Father Flanagan, the other boys, and the whole idea of Boys Town. The only student who likes Whitey is a much younger boy, Pee Wee (Bobs Watson). Either Boys Town will save Whitey, or he’ll take the whole school down with him.

Lobby card from the film “Boys Town” (1938). MovieStillsDB

The Scene

The movie opens in prison, around the year 1917. The warden goes to visit Dan Farrow, having heard he wants to confess. Dan agrees to let the judge who sentenced him and a couple of newspapermen join them, explaining that he only wants to confess because he’s scared about facing death and thinks it might soften the blow of execution. Father Flanagan appears outside the cell, and Dan confirms he sent for the priest because “he knew me when.” Flanagan dissuades Dan from calming his nerves with a drink, and he kindly puts his arms around the distraught man’s shoulders. He gently answers his questions about what’s going to happen to him, first in the electric chair and then in the afterlife.

Then, the warden returns with the judge and two newspapermen, introducing one as a journalist who fought for his innocence in his column. When the reporter quips he could have kept him alive for years if he’d stuck to his guns, the warden cautions against trying to be funny, adding, “This man wants to admit his debt to the state.” Taken aback by his words, Dan repeats, “My debt to the state?” The judge coldly comments, “If you’d done this sooner, the debt wouldn’t be so big.” Incredulous, Dan stands up and demands, “Is that what this is all about? You’re going to take my life because I owe the state something?”

Dan continues to the warden, “When I was a kid, 12 years old, my mother died. Did I go on the cuff to the state for the gutters I slept in? Is that it?” The judge emotionlessly replies, “That’s just sniveling. The state reached its arms out for three years.” Walking over to the judge, Dan says, “In the reformatory. Huh! When I went in, copping a loaf of bread was a job. When I come out, I could rob a bank.” As the newspapermen murmur to themselves, Dan tells them, “Get this, big shots. I’m going out that way in a few minutes, so you’re getting the lowdown.” Walking over to the warden with tears filling his eyes, he asks, “Where was the state when a lonely, starving kid cried himself to sleep in a flophouse, with a bunch of drunks, tramps, and hobos? Is that when this debt started? The only pals I had a chance at were the kids in the alley. I had to be tough to string along. Just before we got out of the state’s arms, the reformatory, we made up a gang, six of us, and pals. ... But get this. One friend, one friend when I’m 12 years old, and I don’t stand here like this.”

Its Significance

As Dan delivers his impassioned speech about his troubled childhood, the camera closes up on Father Flanagan’s face. While the judge and warden are judgmental and the reporters are shocked, the priest feels great sorrow and shame that such tragedies take place every day in the United States. As the other men leave, Dan tearfully tells Father Flanagan he is sorry for what he did, and they embrace as brothers. On the train back to Omaha, Father Flanagan is haunted by the experience in jail, hearing phrases over and over in his head in rhythm with the train: “Twelve years old, twelve years old, one friend, one friend, starving kid, starving kid, never had a chance, never had a chance, reformatory, reformatory, reformatory.” He couldn’t save Dan from committing the robberies and murder that sent him to the electric chair, but he realizes thousands of boys are facing the same dilemma which started Dan in a life of crime.

Back in Omaha, Father Flanagan sees a bunch of boys robbing a local grocer. He tries to break it up, catch the boys, and prevent the crime, but it ends with the lads scattering, leaving a broken window at the pawn shop. In the background, a newsboy’s voice can be heard announcing Dan Farrow’s execution. Pawnbroker Dave Morris complains about the broken $80 window, declaring that Father Flanagan’s Refuge draws undesirable characters to the area. The priest sadly agrees and saunters over to his refuge. There, he finds the hobos he’s trying to help laughing at a mock sermon one of them is giving as they all drink coffee. The smart aleck apologizes when he sees the priest, but they quickly realize Father Flanagan is very serious.

He says, “I didn’t start this place to give you men a laugh; I really didn’t. I thought I could help you.” They apologize, thank him for the coffee, and declare that they love his mission. He tells them someone else will soon be taking over the refuge, and they rebuke the man giving the mocking sermon. Father Flanagan assures them he had already decided. He explains, “I spent last night, or rather, this morning, with Dan Farrow, just before he. ... It was too late to do very much for him, and I guess it’s too late to do very much for you. I’m afraid you’re satisfied with something to eat and a place to sleep.” Just then, one of the younger boys from the gang comes running in, crying as he implores Father Flanagan to help his brother and the other boys, who were caught by the police. When he realizes the five boys are all homeless orphans who were just hungry, he defends them in court, persuading the judge to give them into his custody and care. Father Edward J. Flanagan has found his life’s work, and he builds his orphan’s home and eventually Boys Town on the foundation he begins with these five boys.

Lobby card from the film “Boys Town” (1938). MovieStillsDB

A Fighting Chance

Throughout the movie, Father Flanagan encounters many doubters, who think him a fool for declaring, “There’s no such thing as a bad boy.” They cite examples of juvenile delinquents who seem like brutes from young ages, insisting some youngsters are just bad seeds. One could argue his stance goes against the Catholic faith to which he is pledged through his priesthood. After all, the faith holds that every human being is fallen in nature, born in sin until redeemed. However, Flanagan’s detractors miss the point of his stance.

By the same token that there is no such thing as an inherently bad child, there is also no such thing as an inherently good child. All human beings live in a fallen, flawed world. It is only by the grace of God that people are lifted above it to pursue a higher way of life and a better way of behaving. Those who are not blessed with good parents, guardians, or caregivers to raise, nurture, and train them are off to a very bad start. How good would you be if you’d grown up on the street or in a prison-like reform school, where your only companions were unfeeling guards or more experienced delinquent youths? It would take an amazingly strong will to resist the temptation of crime under these circumstances, one which few people possess without the help of good influences.

“Boys Town” reminds us children need strong positive influences of traditional values, morality, and the right way of behaving. Without these, boys and girls who could be fine members of society can easily become criminals and lost souls, morally destitute because no one helped them on the right path. I encourage you to watch “Boys Town,” an inspiring film based on an amazing true story. How can you be that one friend to a lonely young person or lost soul of any age?