Boys' Reformatory (1939)

Boys' Reformatory is a 1939 American crime film directed by Howard Bretherton and produced by Lindsley Parsons for Monogram Pictures. The screenplay was written by Wellyn Totman and Ray Trampe after a story by Ray Trampe and Norman S. Hall.

The film is about Tommy Ryan (Frankie Darro), a good natured teenager who takes the rap for a burglary committed by his foster brother (Frank Coghlan, Jr.), and his life in to a boys' reformatory where a morally upright staff physician, Dr. Owens (Grant Withers), takes an interest in his welfare.

Synopsis

Seventeen-year-old Tommy Ryan lives with Mrs. O‘Meara, a seamstress, and her teenage son Eddie. Tommy’s exact status is unclear; Mrs. O’Meara’s says he is a friend of her son Eddie and “stays here with us and a finer lad never trod the green earth.” Tommy works in a grocery store and more than pulls his weight around the O’Meara home, but his foster brother Eddie is unemployed and hanging around a pool hall with a gang of teenage thieves led by Mike Hearn, the pool hall owner.

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