Description

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 into a boys’ reformatory where a morally upright staff physician, Dr. Owens (Grant Withers), takes an interest in his welfare.

Cast

• Frankie Darro as Tommy Ryan, a seventeen-year-old good-natured, hard working boy, and foster son of Mrs. O’Meara and foster brother of Eddie O’Meara
• Lillian Elliott as Mrs. O’Meara, a seamstress, and mother of Eddie and foster mother of Tommy
• Frank Coghlan, Jr. as Eddie O’Meara, an unemployed teenage boy and a member of a gang of teenage thieves
• Ben Welden as Mike Hearn, the owner of a pool hall and the ringleader of a gang of teenage thieves
• David Durand as ‘Knuckles’ Malone, a hardened teenage criminal and a member of Hearn’s gang
• William P. Carleton as Superior Judge Robert A. Scott
• Grant Withers as Dr. Owens, a physician at the State Industrial School
• John St. Polis as Superintendent Keene of the State Industrial School
• Pat Flaherty (actor) as Barnes, a guard at the State Industrial School
• George Offerman, Jr. as Joey, an inmate at the State Industrial School