The Happy Years *** (1950, Dean Stockwell, Darryl Hickman, Scotty Beckett, Leon Ames, Margalo Gillmore, Leo G Carroll) – Classic Movie Review 10,808

Director William A Wellman’s 1950 MGM Technicolor comedy The Happy Years stars Dean Stockwell, Darryl Hickman, Scotty Beckett, Leon Ames, Margalo Gillmore and Leo G Carroll.

Craggy, crusty but essentially nice fuddy-duddy old Englishman called The Old Roman (Leo G Carroll) teaches naughty Dink Stover (Dean Stockwell, aged 12), in a sweet nostalgic school yarn of the 1890s, based on Owen Johnson’s The Lawrenceville School Stories.

The Happy Years did not do anything for careers or the box-office, but it is a happy experience anyway, with a loving production and charismatic acting.

It is Robert Wagner’s début, aged 20, as Adams – Cleaves Catcher, a school games catcher. Wagner made his uncredited film debut in The Happy Years (1950), was signed by agent Henry Willson and put under contract with 20th Century-Fox. Wagner recalled: ‘I started off as an ingenue. I was 19 years old. I was the boy next door. But you always felt you could work your way up, that you could have a better part in the next picture.’

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,808

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