Jack Hagen Movies

Boys' Prison is a reissue title for 1949's Johnny Holiday--and a curious one indeed, since it is made clear throughout that the institution so prominently featured is not a prison. The Indiana Boys' School is a home for "wayward youths", endeavoring to imbue its juvenile charges with responsibility and self-esteem. Arrested in a robbery masterminded by hardcase juvenile delinquent Stanley Clements, surly young Johnny Holiday (Allen Martin Jr.) is put in charge of the school's tough-but-lovable guard William Bendix. The two become good friends through a mutual interest in horses, but Johnny's reformation is threatened when Clements arrives at the school to stir up more trouble. Songwriter Hoagy Carmichael and Indiana governor Henry F. Schicker appear as themselves in Johnny Holiday. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi