Hoosier Schoolboy (1937) User Reviews

A Monogram for Mickey

[wes-connors · 5/10 · 11 April 2010]

"This easygoing rural drama stars Mickey Rooney as a young boy who idolizes his father, a shell-shocked alcoholic war veteran. The boy must protect his dad against the recriminations of the townsfolk," according to the DVD sleeve, "An understanding schoolteacher comes along to rescue Rooney and his father from a life of poverty." She arrives in the Indiana town in the middle of a milk farmer's strike.

In his last really low-budget (ie Monogram) feature before super-stardom, Mr. Rooney is refreshingly natural and scrappy as the typical "bad boy" saved by a good-natured soul. That role is supplied by sweet, pretty history teacher Anne Nagel (as Mary Evans). Her tentative romance with handsome Frank Shields (Brooke Shield's tennis pro grandfather) and the strikers' subplot tie the storyline together neatly.

***** Hoosier Schoolboy (7/7/37) William Nigh ~ Mickey Rooney, Anne Nagel, Frank Shields, Edward Pawley

Lots of plot in a neat little B feature.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 1 April 2014]

Mickey Rooney took a break from his rising career at the golden studio of all Hollywood filmmakers and headed from Culver City to the Western Avenue studio of Monogram where an "A" feature wasn't even equivalent to the MGM "B's". This is a Monogram "B" feature where Mickey plays a troubled kid whose shell-shocked father (a touching Edward Pawley) is considered the town drunk and has given Mickey a reputation for being no good. The new teacher in town (the pretty Anne Nagel) takes a liking to Mickey and tries to help him find his way in a community where the other-side-of-the-tracks kids taunt him. Meanwhile, a ruthless milk manufacturer (William Gould) refuses to settle a strike with the local dairy farmers who won't kow-tow to his lower prices. His son (Frank Shields) falls for the pretty teacher and tries to help out Mickey and his dad while trying to get his father to see the light. This leads to a show-down between the milk company and the locals and a shocking tragedy.

There's a great plot inside this hour long drama where a big city slicker shows the small community she moves to that she's got what it takes to match them every step of the way. The fellow school teachers in the boarding house she lives in gossip about her high-fallutin' Columbia education, and she shows them what big city girls are made of. While the plot of the milk strike seems wrapped up a bit too neatly, the details which go into the feud between the company and the farmers seems straight out of a Warner Brothers racketeer drama. Mickey gets to do a neat tap dance and shows that he can cross the tracks from the glossy MGM films he was doing and literally make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Nagel, who never rose above the status of poverty row movie ingénue, is both feisty and likable, while Pawley adds much humanity to his seemingly drunken character who shows that there's more to him than just being the town drunk.

Hoosier Schoolboy

[StevenKeys · 7/10 · 21 March 2023]

Mickey Rooney headlines this Monogram quickie (62m) made just months after filming the first of his wildly successful Andy Hardy series (A-Family-Affair), a role that shot him to fame and Hollywood's #1 box office draw. Don't be fooled by its low-budget feel as Hoosier is a pleaser, the Mick playing what'd become his trademark troubled teen (Shockey) who, if he can catch a break, will turn a new leaf. The divine Anne Nagel whose passing star should've risen as high as Rooney's, impresses as the town's new teacher, arriving during a labor dispute and maybe a template for Tracy's Father Flanagan, while her romantic interest is played adroitly by tennis star, Frank Shields. The film is noteworthy for 1) how love inspires, and 2) an early treatment of PTSD in Shockey's Dad (Pawley), showing ill-effects of shell-shock from heroics earning him the Congressional Medal of Honor. Short, engaging, sensitive yet mostly forgotten (3/4).

Decent Drama With Some Interesting Themes

[Snow Leopard · 6 September 2005]

This is a decent low-budget drama with some interesting themes, and it also includes solid performances by Anne Nagel and a young Mickey Rooney. It ties together several plot lines in a way that works rather well, and although most of the characters remain one-dimensional, the overall situation is interesting enough to hold your attention.

Nagel plays a strong but sensitive schoolteacher who arrives in a new town just as feelings are running high due to a strike by the local dairy farmers, who aren't getting the price they want for their cows' milk. Rooney plays one of the students, a cynical outcast with a father who is a shell-shocked former war hero. These issues would probably have struck a chord in a 1930s audience, and to some degree the ideas are still of some relevance now.

The story that develops moves a little unevenly, and eventually it gets a little predictable, which keeps it from being a better movie overall. But it never loses your interest, and it's not bad at all for such an inexpensively-made feature.

No Booth Tarkington nostalgia this film

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 7 April 2014]

Hoosier Schoolboy was obviously a title that Monogram Pictures dreamed up to get people into the movie theater thinking they were seeing some Booth Tarkington piece of nostalgia. What the film is about is a paralyzing milk strike that's affecting a small Indiana town. William Gould is the owner of a dairy that's the chief employer in the town and he's squeezing the dairy farmers. They in turn have unionized.

That's the background for the story involving Mickey Rooney as a kid from the wrong side of the tracks who lives with his shell shocked father from the First World War, Edward Pawley. He's constantly picked on because of his father until newly assigned teacher Anne Nagel takes an interest in him. She also has an interest in Gould's son Frank Shields.

It's not Tarkington flavored Hoosier nostalgia, but Hoosier Schoolboy is the kind of working class drama done far better at Warner Brothers. No reflection on Mickey Rooney who just left us and gives a fine performance. But I'm sure he missed the trappings of MGM.

Intelligent and thoughtful little movie

[opsbooks · 7/10 · 22 November 2021]

This popped up on Youtube, a movie I'd never heard of. I hadn't watched a Mickey Rooney movie in years, back in the days when I was addicted to his Andy Hardy series. The sad story of his shell-shocked father during a time before PTSD was discussed was probably a brave move on the part of the production company. There are several other stories in this short film that have been covered by other reviewers, so do yourself a favour and watch it.

Not terrible but it is just too short and needed to be fleshed out more.

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 22 July 2014]

"Hoosier Schoolboy" is a film most notable because it stars Mickey Rooney. Although he would soon gain great fame with MGM, this was made for the ultra-low budget studio Monogram--and it shows. While the film has some very nice elements, it also seems incredibly rushed and falls a bit flat. Even for a B-movie, it's a bit underwhelming--though some of the acting is nice.

The film has several different plots--and they all center on some crappy little town. One plot involves the owner of the dairy. He's a real jerk and has decided to put the local dairy farmers out of business-- even if it costs him a fortune. Eventually his son joins forces with the farmers, as he's come to realize that his father is a jerk. There's also the new school teacher who has taken a real liking to a kid that others on the faculty think is bad news (Rooney) and she reforms him. And, then there's the father of the boy--a drunk who won the Medal of Honor. And, there's the bratty son of the dairy owner...in fact, there are SO many plots that they never really seem resolved when the movie very abruptly ends. It's a shame, as if the film was about 30 minutes longer, this all could have worked out well--as is, the film, at the end, was frustrating despite having a lot of good story elements and acting.

Shockey, school bad boy

[jcholguin · 3/10 · 9 June 2001]

Shockey Carter "Mickey Rooney" is the school bad boy. He fights with everyone and even knocks the books out of the hands of girls. His teacher wants to save him. Problem, Carter's father is a drunk. Teacher first must save the father. Mission to achieving this is a job for the dad. This film should have kept the plot of bad boy vs caring teacher. Half way thru the film a total new direction. Evil businessman vs the striking workers of his business. Two plots in one movie with the second one sinking the film the drain.

Monogram's Best Movie!

[JohnHowardReid · 8/10 · 29 June 2016]

Although this movie is included in the "Hollywood Comedy Legends" DVD, it is most certainly not a comedy. Nevertheless, I regard it as one of Monogram's best films – and one of Mickey's best also. Obviously director William Nigh who made some marvelous films in the late silent and early sound period, including Mr Wu, Across to Singapore and Desert Nights, saw this one as an opportunity to show what he could still do if he tried. Or maybe he found the scenario challenging, and rose to the occasion. Whatever transpired to bring about this miracle – perhaps the hard-hitting script just appealed to him – Hoosier Schoolboy is a movie that belongs in everyone's library of Hollywood classics. Although it's most definitely not a comedy, it's available in Mill Creek's "Hollywood Comedy Legends" collection. Rooney delivers an outstanding performance in a difficult part and gets excellent support all the way down the cast list, but particularly from Anne Nagel. As IMDb comments, she had a distinctive, low-pitched voice which fits this role to a "T". I could go through the cast and the production credits, handing out praise, right, left and center, but I'll content myself by drawing attention to Paul Ivano's fine cinematography, although this was just one of seven movies he photographed in 1937.

Wonderful restrained performance by the great Mick

[morrisonhimself · 9/10 · 15 December 2018]

Mickey Rooney was one of the most capable actors Hollywood was lucky enough to have. Ever. But he too often needed a stronger director to hold him back.

Some of his best performances were given during his younger years. He could just walk into a scene and, even without saying a word, steal it all.

Unfortunately, too often he was over the top, as in "Boys Town," where his character's little shadow has been struck by a car on the highway. Mick's character picks up the injured boy and very dramatically shakes the youngster.

Well, if the boy had managed to survive the auto's strike, being handled like that would have killed him.

Bad moves by the director and by Rooney.

In "Hoosier Schoolboy," however, he and director William Nigh create a perfect picture of a strong character thwarted and defensive because of a drunken father who is constantly derided by the rest of the town.

The script is slightly flawed in that certain characters change too quickly. Maybe the barely one-hour running time didn't give the company enough time for all characters to become fully fleshed out.

"Jack," played by the unknown-to-me Frank Shields, of a marvelous voice, seems believable, as written and as played, the spoiled rich kid who grows and matures because of his interest in the new teacher.

Anne Nagel plays the teacher as a strong and caring person and she too is quite believable. (She was always so completely in control of her character, so perfectly at ease in front of a camera, I wonder why she is not better known today.)

In fact, all the performances are as close to perfect as one could want or expect, and the directing, photography, and editing are too. Only that small script problem mars this excellent movie.

These stories of economic conflict coupled with a veteran's mental problems from the war are still relevant. Unfortunately, as long as we have governments and their component politicians and bureaucrats, these kinds of conflicts and problems will probably always be with us. Needlessly.

I foolishly think mostly of Westerns when I think of Monogram, but "Hoosier Schoolboy," other than its pointless generic title, is a superlative example of small-budget drama,

I can't recommend it strongly enough. And it's available for viewing at YouTube. I hope you go watch.

HIGHLY EXPERT

[brucewhain · 9/10 · 3 August 2019]

Highly Expert. (Five years could make a lot of difference back then!) Not a speck or instant of misplaced egg. Hokeyness is strictly avoided in spite of the emotional content - the kind of role, I assume, that made Rooney famous. The action moves smoothly, seamlessly, generating tension and resolution along realistic lines. Protagonist Shocky's school oppressors are ra-THER politically IN-correct. That would never go over today.