Boys Town (film)

Boys Town is a 1938 film about a priest's work with a group of disadvantaged and delinquent boys in a home that he founded.

Spencer Tracy as Father Flanagan.

Directed by Norman Taurog. Written by John Meehan and Dore Schary.

Greater than the imagination of the best writers! taglines

Father Flanagan

• I know that a mother can take a whip to the toughest boy in the world, and he forgets it because he knows that she loves him.
• There is no such thing as a bad boy.

Dialogue

Freddie Fuller: There's our baseball field... last year one of our players was drafted by the St. Louis Browns.

Whitey Marsh: Well, I like the Yankees.

Freddie Fuller: You would!

---

Tony Ponessa: If you're a Catholic or a Protestant, you can go right on being one.

Whitey Marsh: Well, I'm nothin'.

Tony Ponessa: Then, you can go right on being nothin', and nobody cares.

---

Dan Farrow: [panicky, about to die in the electric chair] How much time have I got, Father?

Father Flanagan: Eternity begins in forty-five minutes, Dan.

Dan Farrow: What happens then?

Father Flanagan: Oh, a bad minute or two.

Dan Farrow: And after that?

Father Flanagan: Well, Dan, that's a question that scientists and philosophers have been asking for a million years.

Taglines

• Greater than the imagination of the best writers!
• The life story of a boy who was "born to be hung"!
• The greatest heart drama of the year.

Cast

• Spencer Tracy - Father Flanagan
• Mickey Rooney - Whitey Marsh
• Henry Hull - Dave Morris
• Leslie Fenton - Dan Farrow
• Gene Reynolds - Tony Ponessa
• Edward Norris - Joe Marsh
• Addison Richards - The Judge
• Minor Watson - The Bishop

External links

• Boys Town quotes at the Internet Movie Database
• Boys Town at Rotten Tomatoes