Heaven Help Us (also known as Catholic Boys) is a 1985 American comedy-drama film directed by Michael Dinner.

It stars Andrew McCarthy, Mary Stuart Masterson, Kevin Dillon, Malcolm Danare, Patrick Dempsey, in his film debut, and Stephen Geoffreys as a group of Brooklyn teenagers, with Jay Patterson, Wallace Shawn, John Heard, and Donald Sutherland as the teachers and administrators at the private Catholic school the boys attend in the 1960s.

In 1965, Boston teenager Michael Dunn and his young sister Boo have been sent to Brooklyn to live with their Irish-Catholic grandparents following the deaths of their parents.

Dunn befriends Caesar, an overweight, bespectacled student who enjoys reading and excels academically.

Dunn also befriends Danni, a teenaged girl who runs the soda fountain across from the school and cares for her mentally infirm father.

A few days later, Dunn and his friends see police cars and a few of the Brothers surrounding the soda fountain door as Danni's father is led out in handcuffs.

An angry Rooney develops another prank with the help of Caesar, Williams and Corbett to get back at the Brothers for having Danni taken away.

Dunn then retaliates by delivering an uppercut to Constance, knocking him to the floor and causing pandemonium as the student body rises to its feet and cheers.

He then presents Constance, who he claims started the altercation, with an order that he be transferred to another assignment where he will not work with children.

The story was originally written in 1978 as a masters thesis by Charles Purpura, a student at NYU, who had attended Catholic boys' schools.

An NYU teacher showed the script, then titled Catholic Boys, to producer Dan Wigutow, who tried unsuccessfully to interest production companies in it.

He was denied unemployment benefits because his nighttime screenwriting was considered potentially lucrative employment, so he filed for bankruptcy, borrowed money and headed for India.

Carliner gave Dinner $10,000 to enable him to travel with Miss Lonelyhearts to the Cannes Film Festival, figuring it was "bread cast upon the water".

On the plane to Cannes, Dinner met Maurice Singer, chief of the new theatrical film division of Home Box Office.

"[4] He spent four months looking for actors around the country, including Boston and Philadelphia, but ended up casting them all out of New York via their agents.

I leaned over and I said, “I don't understand: Why in the world would they get a Jew to direct a Catholic boys movie?” And the director—Michael Dinner... —was sitting right behind me.

[6]The film was originally shot as Catholic Boys, but due to HBO and Tri-Star's fears of alienating viewers, the title was changed to Heaven Help Us.

[7] To make the film more upbeat, there were changes made to a plot involving a disenchanted teacher, and the addition of a spoken epilogue.

)[8] FilmInk called the film "part of Andrew McCarthy's ‘soulful teens’ trilogy (along with Pretty in Pink and Class).