I hated everybody...
I hated everybody in this movie except Pee Wee, Whitey, and Whitey's brother.
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MovieChat Forums > Boys Town (1938) Discussion > I hated everybody...
I like Fr Flanagan most. Pee Wee's a bit annoying
shareWell I think we are not suppose to like the guys too much, which made the character Pee Wee even more sympathetic. These kids were hoodlums and tough guys. I screamed when Pee Wee got hit and that made me hate Whitey more.. And Whitey we really are suppose to not like because we have to see his transformation. You liking him is a testament to Rooney's good acting.
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I still haven't seen it all the way through and this morning it was on TCM again, and again I was pulled away from it mid-run.
Imagine the feat of audacity it would take today, post-Boston-2002, to make a movie about a priest who builds a home in the middle of nowhere-Iowa for 'wayward' teenage boys! I doubt such a thing as NAMBLA was organized in those times, but those types have always existed. This film had to be beloved to them in the 30s: no women around, just Tracy and his gang of obedient squires, most of them hitting that hormone-bursting stage. The movie has a couple of shameless Jewish stereotypes too: an adult bean-counter with little glasses whose always reminding Tracy's Father Flanagan of money woes, and one of the kids complete with curly black hair and a pronounced and un-straight proboscis.
Also, I couldn't watch it without being reminded that Mickey Rooney, by the end of that same year, 1938, and by his own admission, was sleeping with Irving Thalberg's 36-year-old widow. (Source: "Norma Shearer, A Life," Gavin Lambert, Knopf, June 1990, page 273.)
I didn’t hate anybody in it, but I’m plenty convinced they’d never get away with it today!
Thanks You for ruining my vision of Norma Shearer!
Seriously, I had never heard that.
but back to your post, I couldn't help but think the same thing about this movie today. I've bet they've spent more on law suits (for other diocese discretions) than the whole budget of that program since then. I'm just guessing, someone else can refute that with facts.
Mickey Rooney has been married 8 times and he was without a doubt a hound dog!! Why was he irresistable to women? I don't see it!!
In regards to Norma Shearer she was buried in the same crypt as Irving Thalberg so at least she believed she did nothing wrong
By 1940 Norma Shearer's career was basically over 1938's Marie Antoinette and 1939's The Women were her last great films.
Let's face it folks life goes on; was it Mickey's fault for going after Irving Thalberg's widow? or was it Norma Shearer's fault for getting on with her life? and did Louis B. Mayer end her career because he felt that she was disrespectful to Irving Thalberg's memory?
We may never know!!
>> Mickey Rooney has been married 8 times and he was without a doubt a hound dog!! Why was he irresistable to women? I don't see it!! >>
LOL! I was thinking the same thing.
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"Love means never having to say you're ugly." - the Abominable Dr. Phibes
Ava Gardner married him. I don't get it!
shareWell, Rooney confirmed it to Gavin Lambert for Lambert's 1990 biography of Norma, but before his death, Rooney has since rescinded himself on the point, so now we'll never know. But there it reads in Lambert's book for as long as copies exist.
If it was true, I do not whitewash Norma of her share responsibility about it, even as I stand behind no one as a fan of hers. Regardless of the gender combination, no 'seduction' occurs between a 16- and a 36-year-old without the 36-year-old's willing compliance. If true, it would certainly be the most alarming example of bad judgment on Norma's part.
If it was always a lie, it was the cruelest thing Rooney could do to a woman no longer around to defend herself. (Shearer died in June 1983.)
That leaves us having to draw our own conclusions, factoring in Norma's innate class, her otherwise meticulous management of her public image, Rooney's irrepressible randiness, and the fact that Hollywood folks have never held themselves to the same rules as we mere mortals.
?
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Truth is a hard master, and costly to serve, but it simplifies every problem.
Lucky.Mickey! Who'd turn down the chance to.sleep with a beautiful woman?
share"Imagine the feat of audacity it would take today, post-Boston-2002, to make a movie about a priest who builds a home in the middle of nowhere-Iowa for 'wayward' teenage boys!"
Especially after that Father Bruce Ritter thing. The guy who founded Covenant House for sexually exploited boys, and did a fair amount of exploiting himself. Like to see'em make a movie out of that.
I'm all right, I'm alllll right!
All stereotypes are founded in reality.What I didn't like was Flanagan's knocking Whitey's legs from under him when they met -and I read the real Boys' Town read their mail,which is unforgivable.
shareI didn't like Freddy or Pee Wee. Pee
wee was a major pain n the ass and not a bit cute, either.
why? When there's no more room in hell, The dead will walk the earth...
I hated everybody who began this useless thread. There are no exceptions.
shareI don't feel your vehemence, but I do feel sympathy for the creator of the thread. I hope his emotions about this movie don't carry over into all aspects of his life. Hate is a mighty potent word. Anyway, this is one of my favorite films. I guess I am lucky. Other people's religions and appearance are pretty irrelevant to me. If I looked on the surface of someone, I might miss out on a really cool person by not getting to know him or her.
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