Spencer Tracy_ A Biography - James C. Curtis [208]
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When Dore Schary began work on the script of Boys Town in December 1937, it was at the behest of John Considine, who had landed at M-G-M after his brief tenure at Fox. Considine, a lifelong Catholic, was struggling with the story of Father Edward J. Flanagan and his home for orphan boys, a project that seemed a natural for Spencer Tracy. Metro’s story editor, Kate Corbaley, had been looking for another “priest role” for Tracy since the release of San Francisco, and, in the case of Boys Town, parts could be arranged for both Freddie Bartholomew and Mickey Rooney.
Or so they thought. Considine had just pulled the plug on an unfinished screenplay by Bradbury Foote, having previously nixed treatments from Eleanore Griffin and the writing team of Walter Wise and Hugo Butler. Griffin, in fact, had traveled to Nebraska to meet the Reverend Flanagan, and her twenty-six-page story formed the basis of everything to come. All Considine knew of Boys Town, at least initially, was the material contained in a magazine article titled “The Boy Who Shot His Father,” and, at first, Flanagan feared he would make another orphanage picture “after the pattern of Oliver Twist.” Said Schary: “After reading what had been written and studying the history of Father Flanagan’s unique institution, I told Considine that the error holding up the project was casting Freddie Bartholomew in an atmosphere where he clearly didn’t belong. My suggestion was to do away with the character completely and concentrate on the relationship between Tracy as Father Flanagan and Rooney as the rough, unmanageable new recruit into Boys Town.”
Within days, the author of Ladies in Distress found himself aboard a train bound for Omaha. Being an Orthodox Jew, Schary had never before entered a priest’s home, and he wasn’t sure how to behave when Flanagan came ambling down the stairs. “I expected robes or something, but he came down in a coat and tie and said, ‘How are you doing?’ I said, ‘Very cold.’ He said, ‘A little scotch will take care of that.’ We had a couple of drinks and I fell in love with him. He was a darling fellow.”
Flanagan was tall, bespectacled, spoke with a slight brogue. “He didn’t look a bit like Tracy, but he had Tracy’s charm, his smile and twinkle.” The priest told his visitor that he had specifically asked Considine to send him a Jew: “I kept saying to M-G-M, ‘Don’t send me any Catholics. Why don’t you get hold of a young Jewish kid? He’ll know what I’m talking about.’ ”
“Now what would make you say a thing like that?” asked Schary.
“How do you think I got into this business? How do you think this place was built? Because a Jewish man understood what I was doing and gave me money.”
Schary had brought the outline of a new story, and Flanagan was pleased with what he saw. Over the next few days, story elements “flowed quickly and surely,” and a new treatment was on Considine’s desk by Christmas. Tracy, however, resisted all efforts to get him on board. (“I’m just a straight man,” he complained to Louise after reading the thing.) In January Dore Schary returned to Boys Town in the company of J. Walter Ruben, who was now assigned to direct the picture. Even with Jack Ruben attached—he had directed Riffraff—Tracy balked, unwilling to play another guy “with a collar turned backwards.”
As the pressure on the actor built, Yvonne Beaudry became increasingly conscious of his moodiness, his unpredictable funks. “Some days he sat grimly alone, his broad shoulders hunched, his face stony. Then, I hated to approach him with matters requiring his attention: letters and checks to sign, appointments to keep, telegrams and flowers to send … In some ways, Tracy reminded me of my father—a look in his eyes, a mocking expression on his ruddy face, which lit right up when he grinned. I responded to him with respect and a little awe. He was a lot bigger than I as well as older, though I deemed myself a buffer between him and the encroaching world.”
In the end, he was persuaded to take the part of Father Flanagan by Eddie Mannix.