Trailer
Plot summary
After visiting a condemned man in prison, Father Flanagan hears an account of a childhood spent homeless and friendless as a ward of the state. In Omaha, Nebraska, he runs a home for indigent men and sets out to build Boys Town, a sanctuary where the boys govern themselves, make their own rules and carry out their own punishments. He holds that no boy is beyond helping, and battles indifference and the legal system to prove it. Joe Marsh, in prison for murder, asks Flanagan to take in his younger brother Whitey, a tough-talking poolroom shark. Whitey arrives at Boys Town and campaigns for mayor.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Boys Town (1938)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Spencer Tracy's Best Actor Oscar for Boys Town nearly went to Father Flanagan: an MGM publicist wrongly announced Tracy was donating it, Tracy insisted he had earned it, so the Academy struck a second statuette inscribed to Flanagan.
- The film's story is largely fictional, but it is based on a real man and a real place: Boys Town, a community outside Omaha, Nebraska.
