MovieChat Forums > Men of Boys Town (1941) Discussion > Did I Miss Something?

Did I Miss Something?

posted 13 years ago by jdsuggs
6 replies | jump to latest

I was a little distracted during part of this one- wrapping some gifts. Help me out here.

O.K.: Mickey Rooney and Daryl Hickman were in the corrupt and abusive reform school getting smacked around because they had discovered a brutal murder committed by the guards with the warden's knowledge. "You won't shut me up!", says Mickey, or words to that effect.

Then Spencer Tracy comes to see Mickey and gets in with some difficulty- understandable because the warden is still trying to cover up a child murder in which he's complicit. Then, astonishingly, Mickey says nothing to Spencer Tracy about the murder. Then the guards get Rooney and Hickman alone for a minute, which we don't see. Then Tracy, Rooney, and Hickman are all allowed to leave despite the convictions of Rooney and Hickman and the warden's considerable motive for keeping them on ice.

Thus the Mick returns to Boys Town from the reform school, where he doesn't tell the crippled boy that the friend he (Rooney) had been asked to go see as a visitor, in which he was unsuccessful, had been murdered just before his (Rooney's) arrival instead as an inmate.

If anyone was able to follow all that and is still with me: did I miss something? No pay-off for the child-killers? Did they really leave this murder unpunished, because of the apparent loss of interest in it by the two young witnesses? Was the Maryville reform school allowed to continue abusing and murdering children? Or did I nod off and miss something?

[–] Sproketer 13 years ago

I thought of the same thing; the only consulation is Tracy telling the crippled kid in the hospital that he was sorry he was away because he was helping other boys, meaning the boys in the reform school. Still, the bad guys weren't hauled off and punished in front of the camera, which would have made it more satisfying. Bad writing, altogether. We knew from the start the dog's days were numbered, right? So predictable. The only bright light is Tracy's solid performance, Hickman's spirited and cute performance.

[–] OccasionalPoster 12 years ago

Yeah, I sort of agree with you. Having seen the first "Boys Town," I was fortunate to watch the sequel, which I liked. Although, I thought that the fake boxing scene to be hokey and somewhat over the top. While I did find some of the scenes in the movie quite hysterical such as the feud between the tuba and the trumpet, the boxing scene I found to be extremely unnecessary.

I thought the guard at the reform school was a mega D-I-C-K. Can I say that online? He should have gone to prison along with the president for the abuse that went on that they overlooked and didn’t bat an eyelash about.

I'm with you in terms of the bad guys, Sproketer. I think it would have been nice had they showed 2-3 minutes where they showed the guard and those responsible for not saying anything about the reprehensible abuse who knew about it to be sent to prison. The writing part, which I'll agree, was kind of bad on that part, which gives me no choice but to give it 8 out of 10.

Regardless of the plot hole revolving the reform school, I still think it was a pretty decent sequel overall.

[–] roncerabona 10 years ago

It was odd they spent so much time on that subplot and it was just thrown away. Maybe it was because the movie was already getting longish (for the time) and there was a lot to juggle. But it was a rare moment of understatement in the film, which had somewhat grating performances from the 2 young kids and some rather overly sentimental scenes and music. One bit that struck me as a bit odd was the scene where the reform school head dismissed Whitey and puts his arm around the kid and starts acting chummy as the scene ends: to modern eyes, that could have a more unsavoury implication that what was presumably intended (we do know it's a pretty rough place).

[–] drippan-1 10 years ago

The important thing was transforming reform school into a refuge for boys. The warden and guards were just products of a society that looked down on these delinquent boys and treated them as such. By the reaction of Father Flanagan and the mother, it seemed like a death of a boy was not uncommon in these type of places. Even Flip stated that if you aren't tough that you can get killed in that place.

"The Men of Boys Town" was a movie about these men. Father Flanagan was the one with the faith and ideas, Dave Morris tried desperately to keep it open and Whitey Marsh's growth from childhood into manhood. Another lesser example was a former resident of Boys Town who was a football star who then became a doctor who helped a Boy Town kid to walk again.

I'm not saying the warden or guards shouldn't be punished or weren't punished but the movie was not about the fate of these people. I'm okay not finding out what happened to them.

IMO, the biggest mistake was not mentioning the years 'Boys Town' came into existence. The first house was started in 1917 (WWI) with Boys Town built in 1921. 'The Men of Boys Town' time frame was during the Great Depression because of the mention of Pretty Boy Floyd (started robbing in the 1930's). Leaving these facts out doesn't deplict what society, as a whole, was going through at that time. No work, a lot of homeless people, increase in crime and mob activities. Young boys everywhere were left to defend for themselves which caused an influx of juvenile delinquints and overcrowded reform schools.

[–] sandra-holman 9 years ago

Following along the lines of Father Flanagan being nonjudgemental......
The Warden and the guard may have been left to do the honorable thing on their own. Though he never judged anyone he was able to make a person feal guilty if they did the wrong thing.

[–] mdonln 9 years ago

It's been a while since I saw the movie but I'm pretty sure the culprits were removed. It wouldn't make any sense for them to stay. You have to toss the bad apples so they don't spoil the rest. They didn't have any scenes necessarily that addressed this but it was mentioned in passing; probably because the audience would not be very interested in seeing too much of that part of the movie.

The reason Fr. Flanagan stayed behind and missed the operation is because he was reforming the reform school. There's no way he would have allowed the people who had practically crippled one kid and killed another to stay on. The boys who remained would never have trusted him or their new school; and rightly so. We're talking about a complete overhaul; it wasn't just the warden and guide that were corrupt and evil.

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