Boy in court

Boy in court is a short film from 1940 released on 16mm. It is held by at least two archives, including IUL Moving Image Archive and Prelinger Archives.

Shows how intelligent probation can change a boy's attitude and conduct. In company with his gang, Johnny steals a car, which is wrecked during the excitement of their get-away. What might have happen...

Boy in court
Produced by	Willard Pictures, Inc.
Production companies	Willard Pictures, Inc.
Distributed by	Willard Pictures, Inc.
Release date	1940
Running time	10:15
Language	English

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Summary

Shows how intelligent probation can change a boy's attitude and conduct. In company with his gang, Johnny steals a car, which is wrecked during the excitement of their get-away. What might have happened to the boy is realistically portrayed in a sequence of vivid police and prison scenes. What actually happens to him in a good juvenile court with well-organized probation service provides a stirring contrast. A plea for youth and justice.

Shows in detail the workings of the juvenile court when a boy is brought before it. Begins with the snatching of a car by young delinquents & follows them to the release of one of the boys, after a year's probation.

"What road lies ahead for this sullen, misguided 15-year-old? Can't something be done to help these twisted lives and set them straight?"

When Johnny Marvin gets collared for auto theft, his future is up for grabs. Boy in Court shows how his case is treated in a progressive city where juvenile courts and a probation service have been established.

Very much a product of the New Deal ethos, Boy in Court depicts civil authority through the social services that it supplies, delivered by compassionate, well-trained professionals. As in other films of this period like The City, it pits the future (as represented by aviation, the sky and technology) against the present, typified by slum housing, crowded rooms and crime.

At least in the unidentified city where Johnny resides, there are progressive alternatives to juvenile incarceration. But there's more than a hint of class condescension in the behavior and tone of the judge (who, until the film's end, is the only character that gets to speak in sync sound), welfare workers and probation officer. Their intervention in Johnny's life involves his whole family. People are brought in to fix up his home, and Johnny's P.O. even gets him to attend church again. The task of bridging the distance between the world of the Marvins and the middle-class professionals who are there to help them seems pretty easy.

Thanks to all the help he receives, Johnny makes good and is taken off probation. Speaking in sync for the first time, he sums up his past behavior: "Gee, that was really dumb, wasn't it?"

Physical Format

1 Film (0:10:38);16mm

IUL Genres

Educational;Social guidance;Drama

IUL Subject

Juvenile courts;Juvenile delinquency;Youth -- Conduct of life.

Full Title (usually this is the same as above)

Boy in court

People

Director

David H. Lion