
The Happy Years
Based on a collection of stories with the focus on young John Humperkink "Dink" Stover, a student at the Lawrenceville Prepatory School, in 1896, whose family, in Eastcester, New York, have just about given up on his education because he is an incorrigible student. He gets into one situation after another and incurs the dislike of his classmates, who think he is cowardly but he changes their opinion when he challenges several of them to a fight. When he returns home for the summer, he meets Miss Dolly Travers and increases his 'hatred of women' because she does not accept his schoolboy pranks. Back at school, in the fall, he is more difficult than ever until his philosophy is changed by a teacher.
Director William A. Wellman
Trailer
Cast

Dean Stockwell
John Humperdink 'Dink' Stover

Donn Gift
Joshua Montgomery Smead

Robert Wagner
Student

Peter M. Thompson
Sambo

Leon Ames
Sr. Samuel H. Stover

Margalo Gillmore
Maude Stover

Leo G. Carroll
Mr. Hopkins

Arthur Space
Al

Leon Tyler
Edward "Puffy" Ellis

Darryl Hickman
George 'Tough' McCarty

Irving Bacon
Mr. Conover

Claudia Barrett
Dolly Travers

Jacqueline deWit
Mrs. Cameron

Mason Alan Dinehart
Coffee Colored Angel

Scotty Beckett
'Tennessee' Shad

Elinor Donahue
Connie Brown

George Chandler
Johnny

Charles Smith
Student