Best movies like Boys Town

"No boy is bad, if given a chance!"

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Boys Town Starring Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Henry Hull, Leslie Fenton, and more. If you liked Boys Town then you may also like: Violent Playground, Nebraska, The Reformer and the Redhead, The Reluctant Saint, Rudy and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

movie

Devout but iron-willed Father Flanagan leads a community called Boys Town, a different sort of juvenile detention facility where, instead of being treated as underage criminals, the boys are shepherded into making themselves better people. But hard-nosed petty thief and pool shark Whitey Marsh, the impulsive and violent younger brother of an imprisoned murderer, might be too much for the good father's tough-love system.

selected filters: Sort: Default

You may filter the list of movies on this page for a more refined, personalized selection of movies.

Still not sure what to watch click the recommend buttun below to get a movie recommendation selected from all the movies on this list

Know any good movies to watch like Boys Town 1938. With a similar plot or stoyline. Suggest it.

Violent Playground

A Liverpool juvenile liaison officer struggles with a young and dangerous pyromaniac.

Nebraska

An aging, booze-addled father takes a trip from Montana to Nebraska with his estranged son in order to claim what he believes to be a million-dollar sweepstakes prize.

The Reluctant Saint

Cupertino, Italy, 1623: A simple-minded and clumsy young man joins a Franciscan order as a hired hand, overcoming his intellectual and social challenges with a pure heart and a simple faith. God performs a miracle through him, quite literally raising him to sainthood.

Rudy

Rudy grew up in a steel mill town where most people ended up working, but wanted to play football at Notre Dame instead. There were only a couple of problems. His grades were a little low, his athletic skills were poor, and he was only half the size of the other players. But he had the drive and the spirit of 5 people and has set his sights upon joining the team.

Johnny Holiday

A guard (William Bendix) befriends a wayward youth (Allen Martin Jr.) sent to the Indiana Boys School.

Juvenile Court

Public Defender Gary Franklin, frustrated by being unable to save criminal Dutch Adams from a death sentence by blaming the slums environment as the cause of Dutch's crimes, enlists the aid of Dutch's sister, Marcia Adams, to get the slum dwellers at appeal for public monies to provide recreational places for the slum kids.

Angels with Dirty Faces

Childhood chums Rocky Sullivan and Jerry Connelly grow up on opposite sides of the fence: Rocky matures into a prominent gangster, while Jerry becomes a priest, tending to the needs of his old tenement neighborhood.

Bad Boys

Mick O'Brien is a young Chicago street thug torn between a life of petty crime and the love of his girlfriend. But when the heist of a local drug dealer goes tragically wrong Mick is sentenced to a brutal juvenile prison where violence is a rite of passage and respect is measured in vengeance.

Blossoms in the Dust

Edna marries Texan Sam Gladney, operator of a wheat mill. They have a son, who is killed when very young. Edna discovers by chance how the law treats children who are without parents and decides to do something about it. She opens a home for foundlings and orphans and begins to place children in good homes, despite the opposition of "conservative" citizens, who would condemn illegitimate children for being born out of wedlock. Eventually Edna leads a fight in the Texas legislature to remove the stigma of illegitimacy from birth records in that state, while continuing to be an advocate for homeless children.

The Cheaters

An eccentric wealthy family facing bankruptcy schemes to steal an inheritance, but an alcoholic ex-actor they take in for Christmas charity complicates their plan.

So Young, So Bad

Idealistic and naive Dr. Jason arrives at a school for delinquent girls and immediately begins to try to make a difference in the lives of some of the inmates. Oblivious to the sadistic treatment of the girls by the matrons, it takes a rebellious girl named Loretta to open his eyes. Assisted by a female staff member, Jason finally gets proof of the abuse and threatens the head of the school with exposure unless he is given full rein to run things.

Fun

Hillary and Bonnie meet one morning by the side of the road. They become fast friends, share their secrets, and, on a rising wave of frenzy, later that afternoon, murder an old woman. They did it, they say later, for fun.

Crime School

In the slums, teenager Frankie Warren hangs out with a rowdy gang who one day knock him out in a fight. In court, the boys refuse to reveal who struck the knockout blow, and all are subsequently sentenced to a reformatory, cruelly run by two corrupt guards. New deputy commissioner Mark Braden arrives determined to change things, but despite the help of Frankie's sister, Mark's reform plans -- and Frankie's future -- may be sabotaged from within.

Detention

A heroic high school teacher leads a band of students trapped in school by violent drug-runners.

Dog Pound

Three juvenile delinquents arrive at a correctional center and are put under the care of an experienced guard.

Father Brown

Works of art are disappearing, stolen by a master thief, a master of disguise. Father Brown has two goals: to catch the thief and to save his soul.

Going My Way

Youthful Father Chuck O'Malley led a colorful life of sports, song, and romance before joining the Roman Catholic clergy. After being appointed to a run-down New York parish, O'Malley's worldly knowledge helps him connect with a gang of boys looking for direction, eventually winning over the aging, conventional Parish priest.

Gummo

Solomon and Tummler are two teenagers killing time in Xenia, Ohio, a small town that has never recovered from the tornado that ravaged the community in the 1970s.

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints

Dito Montiel, a successful author, receives a call from his long-suffering mother, asking him to return home and visit his ailing father. Dito recalls his childhood growing up in a violent neighborhood in Queens, N.Y., with friends Antonio, Giuseppe, Nerf and Mike.

The Young Offenders

Two teenage boys from inner-city Cork steal bicycles and ride off on a 160km quest to find an unrecovered bale of cocaine worth 7,000,000 euros.

Hot Water

The Jones family is in an uproar when Dad's campaign for mayor appears sabotaged by an anonymous newspaper article.

Penny Serenade

While listening to a recording of Penny Serenade, Julie Gardiner Adams begins reflecting on her past. She recalls her impulsive marriage to newspaper reporter Roger Adams, which begins on a deliriously happy note but turns out to be fraught with tragedy. Other songs remind her of their courtship, their marriage, their desire for a child, and the joys and sorrows they have shared. A flood of memories come back to her as she ponders on their present problems and how they arose.

Politics

A widow's decision to run for mayor kicks off a battle of the sexes in a small town.

The Scoundrel's Wife

Already an outcast for crimes she did not commit, a woman struggling to raise her two children in a small village during World War II is suspected of being a saboteur.

Say One for Me

Father Conroy has a parish which serves the acting and performance community. When one of his parishioners gets too sick to work, his daughter Holly finds a job working for a dance club of questionable character, which is run by Tony Vincent. Vincent never made the big time, and Father Conroy tries to look after Holly.

Good-Time Girl

Good Time Girl stars Jean Kent as incipient juvenile delinquent Gwen Rawlings. Sent to a home for "problem" girls, Gwen receives a crash course in petty crime. Back on the outside, she falls in with the usual bad crowd, and suffers spectacularly as a result.

Young and Wild

Three juvenile-delinquents launch a reign of terror upon those who witnessed a deadly auto accident in this exploitation drama.

The Power of God

As the elderly man visiting his wife's grave remembers how a renewed faith in Christianity help a shady businessman, a juvenile delinquent a young couple and a shiftless man find the way to righteousness.

Hellion

When motocross and heavy metal obsessed, 13-year-old Jacob's delinquent behavior forces CPS to place his little brother Wes with his aunt, Jacob and his emotionally absent father must finally take responsibility for their actions and each other in order to bring Wes home.

Rumble on the Docks

A Brooklyn-born 17-year-old's loyalty is torn between his parents' old-fashion values and a local gangster's flashy lifestyle.

Coldwater

A teenage boy is sent to a juvenile reform facility in the wilderness. As we learn about the tragic events that sent him there, his struggle becomes one for survival with the inmates, counselors, and the retired war colonel in charge.

The Boys of St. Vincent

The true story of boys being sexually abused at their orphanage, run by a religious community in Newfoundland.

The Boys of St. Vincent: 15 Years Later

Fifteen years after the events of The Boys of St. Vincent took place, the various boys involved are brought in to testify against the brothers, now finally standing trial, who assaulted them when they were children.

Heart Full of Rain

A young man returns to the family farm after being gone for six years. But it is not until he fights shoulder to shoulder with his father to save the farm from a flood that his father finally forgives him for leaving.

Heaven Sent

Eddie, a fourteen-year-old juvenile delinquent of sorts, collides with a car during a petty theft and dies in the hospital. Due to some confusion in heaven, however, he is given three days to clean up his life with the help of a beginner angel - and save his mom.

A Holiday for Love

A man is sent to a small town to assess which of the workers in the local factory that supplies the town with jobs should get the boot when the downsizing begins. He gets sidetracked when he falls in love with a local, a cute single mom.

Stealing Christmas

Tony Danza stars as a thief named Jack Clayton. When Jack is about to be caught at the mall, he dresses up as Santa Claus and hops on the bus to Evergreen. He is mistaken for the new Santa at Sarah Gibson's tree store. He is very reluctant at first, but after becoming a part of the town, and falls in love with Sarah, he begins to have second thoughts on robbing Evergreen's bank.

The Young Stranger

The lack of communication between a wealthy film producer and his troubled teenage son after the boy is involved in an altercation at a movie theater leads to even more trouble.

Young Tom Edison

Inventor Thomas Edison's boyhood is chronicled and shows him as a lad whose early inventions and scientific experiments usually end up causing disastrous results. As a result, the towns folk all think Tom is crazy, and creating a strained relationship between Tom and his father. Tom's only solace is his understanding mother who believes he's headed to do great things.

Dollar for the Dead

In this tribute to the old time spaghetti westerns with a liberal dose of modern Hong Kong film-making thrown in, Emilio Estevez assumes Clint Eastwood's "man with no name" role. Estevez plays a super-quick gunman on the run from a rancher (Long) and his men out to kill him for killing his son. The gunman gets mixed up with a former Confederate soldier (William Forsythe) who has knowledge of hidden gold. The only trouble is he is also pursued by Union soldiers. When they free a man (Ed Lauter) with part of the map to the gold, they then are also pursued by Spanish soldiers. It all leads to a small Mexican town terrorized by soldiers and led a by a good priest (Joaquim De Almeida) who also has knowledge of the gold.

Men of Boys Town

Father Flanagan raises funds, helps a disabled boy, and saves an older boy from reform school.

Silent Night

In 1818, when Joseph Mohr is assigned to be the new assistant priest in Oberndorf, a small Austrian town near Salzburg, the young man is full of ideas and ideals. His passion to bring the church closer to the common people sets him on a collision course with his new superior, Father Nostler. When Mohr organizes a church choir that includes outcasts from the local tavern and performs in German instead of Latin, Nostler threatens him with disciplinary action. Their relationship further deteriorates when Maria a regular tavern patron, surprisingly joins the performance of the all-male church choir. As Mohr's initial successes start to crumble and his efforts backfire on him, he loses all hope and faces a trial of faith. The night before Christmas, Mohr has to decide if he will accept defeat and leave Oberndorf or embrace the true significance of the Holy Night.

The Mayor of Hell

Members of a teenage gang are sent to the State Reformatory, presided over by the callous Thompson. Soon Patsy Gargan, a former gangster appointed Deputy Commissioner, arrives and takes over the administration to run the place on radical principles. Thompson needs a quick way to discredit him.

All Summers End

A teenager tries to deal with his guilty conscience after his role in a prank that causes the death of his girlfriend's older brother.

Faith

A devout Evangelical Christian struggles with his faith and against the insistent pressures from his family and community after a sudden and unexpected tragedy.

Youth Runs Wild

The teens of a defense-plant town hop on the road to juvenile delinquency while their parents are busy with the war.

Brothers' Destiny

Threatened with separation, two young brothers escape from an orphanage and make a perilous journey from New York to Boys' Town in Nebraska.

Hell's Heroes

Three bank robbers on the run happen across a woman about to give birth in an abandoned covered wagon. Before she dies, she names the three bandits as her newborn son's godfathers.

Christmas in Homestead

Jessica is one of the most famous actresses in the world, leading a glamorous – if tabloid worthy – life. But all that is thrown for a loop when she goes on location to shoot a holiday themed film in the Christmas-obsessed town of Homestead, Iowa. While a romance brews between her and Matt, a local inn keeper who is a single dad, she also gets a taste of small-town life and rediscovers the true meaning of Christmas.

More related lists

Sort results by:

X close
Default
Clear filters
...