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Audie Murphy, a BAD BOY on his way to career in the pen, is sent to Lloyd Nolan's ranch for delinquents in a last effort to straighten him out. Can Nolan find out what makes Murphy act so mean before he becomes a lifer at San Q?

Audie Murphy gets a bit of a bad rap as a movie star, because his movie star career, sometimes, felt like the reward of a grateful nation for his extraordinary war heroism. It's not fair. Audie can be very good -- as he demonstrates here, in his first starring role. In this movie, Murphy personifies a nice, polite, southern boy with a dangerous streak. This is the sort of kid who, one minute, can charm (in a mother/son kind of way) Lloyd Nolan's wife with good manners and genuine sweetness, and in the next, pound the smithereens out of one of his colleagues at the ranch for no good reason. Of course -- this being the 40s -- there is a very Freudian reason for this -- but until we get the psychotherapeutic ending, Murphy plays a kid on the knife's edge of good and rotten exceptionally well. What's interesting is that there is none of the acting awkwardness found in some of his early Westerns. One wonders if Murphy's directors didn't know what they had.

All the character actors give the performances you expect (Nolan is quite good here), the story moves along crisply, and one is left wondering why this one isn't better known. And, also, why Murphy didn't get to do more crime movies -- he has the acting chops for it.

After two bit parts in other films Audie Murphy got his first starring role in Bad Boy, an Allied Artists film where the 24 year old Murphy plays a teenage kid going down the wrong path in life. It was the beginning of a film career where Audie Murphy traded in on his youthful appearance for years, mostly in westerns.

After attempting to pull off a holdup of some high rollers at a swank Dallas hotel where his partner William Leicester shot and wounded one of them, Murphy is given a break and sent to the Variety Club Boys Ranch run by Lloyd Nolan and his wife Jane Wyatt. They are assisted by the cynical James Gleason, but Nolan subscribes to the Father Flanagan philosophy that their ain't no such thing as a Bad Boy.

At the ranch Murphy's got the same problems as Mickey Rooney at Boys Town and doesn't interact well with other Hollywood juveniles like Stanley Clements, Jimmy Lydon and Tommy Cook. In fact the only one who Murphy warms up to is Wyatt.

Nolan does some digging to find the root causes of Murphy's anti-social behavior. The story line has it can he discover them and redeem Murphy before he does something that puts him way out beyond deserving to be redeemed?

Two people I wish had gotten more screen time were Murphy's stepfather and stepsister Rhys Williams and Martha Vickers. Williams is what you would now call a motivational speaker and quack psychologist and his attitudes are the root causes of Murphy's problems. Also Selena Royle who would shortly have blacklisting problems plays a sympathetic judge who goes way out on a limb for Audie.

Given that this is a cheap B film from Allied Artists, Bad Boy is surprisingly good. Murphy shows what a natural he is before the camera and the rest of the cast supports him well.

Looks like this movie was piggy-backing on the similar "troubled boy" film of a year earlier, Boys' Ranch (1946). This version, however, is more melodramatic than the sometimes humorous Boys' Ranch.

Here, troubled boy Danny (Murphy) is remanded to the head of Variety Ranch (Nolan) after conviction of armed robbery. At the ranch he causes trouble by refusing to reform, to the point where even the patient head, Mr. Brown, is about to turn him over to the state reform school. Just what is Danny's problem, we wonder.

Considering how quickly farm boy, war hero Murphy was thrust into the national spotlight and then onto Hollywood, he does pretty well in this his first starring role. Oddly, he seems to have the most difficulty projecting the occasional meanness his role calls for. Anyone familiar with his later cowboy roles knows how he can snarl with the best of them. Here, I gather, he is still learning, and more than anything else, comes across as a nice boy. Only the script tells us otherwise.

It's a well-meaning little film, with that fine actor Lloyd Nolan in the lead and everybody's favorite mom of the 1950's Jane Wyatt as his understanding wife. Then there's a 60-year old James Gleason as a surprisingly effective ranch enforcer. But it's the irrepressible Stanley Clements who steals the film as the goofy Bitsy—I really liked his plowboy-cowboy song and the scene that went with it.

All in all, it's an entertaining little programmer with a good positive message that you just don't see anymore. (In passing—I note that the Variety Clubs of the show- biz world produced the movie and apparently helped sponsor the real Texas boys' ranch. I wonder if they still do.)

There is a reason Audie could play a troubled, haunted young man so convincingly: as a WWII veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, he suffered from headaches, nightmares and vomiting ever since leaving the service. Thus he perhaps had a chance to play himself here as he really was, more than he ever did in any Western, more than anyone really wanted to realize. Was he troubled and haunted in real life? He slept with a loaded gun under his pillow till the end of his life.

Only 24 when he made Bad Boy, Audie fools us for a bit into thinking he is just a wooden young actor: he fails to connect emotionally with anyone in the film, or with the viewer, for quite a long time; we think, is this going to work? But, stunningly, the boyish charm appears out of nowhere when he meets and interacts with Jane Wyatt. The sudden reversal is surprising, and pleasant, if too brief. But it demonstrates that he was a little more talented than many gave him credit for.

James Gleason is hilarious as the strong-arm of the boy's camp; weighing in at what I imagine to be no more than a painfully thin 110 pounds, he dominated by sheer personality. Lloyd Nolan is quite good, if a bit one-dimensional.

Finally, I have to wonder if those kids working with Audie must have been in terrified awe of this troubled young veteran; after all, he killed at least 240 Germans, confirmed, in the war; and had earned the right to wear every medal the Allies had to offer. And here he was, trading fake stage punches with teenagers. Amazing.

Just caught this movie after watching virtually all his other movies - the most amazing part is he was just out of the service and had received the MOH , it must have been strange for these adult actors , Loyld Nolan , Jane Wyatt etc to treat him as a teenager in the movie story after all he had been through and done in WW2 . It was an early effort and the 25 year old Murphy gamely played the troubled teenage delinquent. At he end the rehabilitated "Danny" is marching with Texas AM military candidates, touch of irony there , Audie Murphy made many good and enjoyable westerns to follow , A genuine hero who we now know suffered the effects of his combat experiences and loss of good friends . RIP.

1949's "Bad Boy" was distinguished (and duly advertised) as the first starring role for decorated war hero Audie Murphy, earning 33 medals of valor for dispatching 240 Germans before the age of 20. After a couple of bit parts it looked like Murphy had no future in front of the camera, but this role was tailor-made for the 24 year old newcomer (certain aspects of his own background built into the script), selected for his Texas heritage as the lead in this grim melodrama produced by the Variety Boys' Club in Copperas Cove, TX, though filming took place at California's Conejo-Janss Ranch north of Los Angeles as "The Story of Danny Lester." Producer Paul Short was guaranteed financing only through Murphy's casting, and judging by the results those who scoffed at his inexperience must have been dazzled by his performance. His Danny Lester is the 'Bad Boy' of the title, a huge rap sheet by age 17, whose most recent scrape, an attempted robbery in a Dallas hotel, results in his being transferred to a ranch for juvenile delinquents run by Lloyd Nolan's Marshall Brown. Eager to throw a punch at the smallest provocation, Danny remains tight lipped and unapologetic toward the other youths, but at least shows a softer side toward Marshall's pretty wife Maud (Jane Wyatt), assigned chores working for her in the kitchen and around the yard. Old habits die hard though, sneaking off into town to steal a cash payment cleverly mailed to himself at the ranch while Marshall calls on Danny's tyrannical stepfather (Rhys Williams) and stepsister (Martha Vickers), who relate an awful story of how the boy killed his own mother and struck his stepfather before setting fire to their home. Digging deeper into the tragedy, he finds out that Danny's former employer (Francis Pierlot) was coerced into blaming Danny for slipping two sleeping pills into his ailing mother's drink by his bible thumping stepfather, whose refusal to allow her any treatment (blaming her illness on the devil) resulted in her death from natural causes. By now it may be too late to save the boy, having stolen a gun and ammunition before driving off in a stolen car for the inevitable showdown with police, then another from his hospital bed with a former partner in crime. The script carefully keeps the odds in Murphy's favor by not allowing his character to sink low enough to kill, and his remarkable performance belies his own low assessment of any acting talent in keeping the viewer off guard as to how dangerous he can be. Jane Wyatt would become typecast as the perfect mother opposite Robert Young on FATHER KNOWS BEST, but for STAR TREK fans she is forever beloved as Spock's Earth mother Amanda in "Journey to Babel."

Introducing Audie Murphy as the wayward seventeen year old "Danny", we find that he has luckily found himself being taken under the wing of the kindly "Brown" (Lloyd Nolan) and his wife "Maud" (Jane Wyatt) who run a Variety Club ranch for other young men who have strayed to the wrong side of the tracks. Now the stroppy adolescent in this case is proving quite recalcitrant and resistant to their charms; is perfectly happy to remain obnoxious and to talk with his fists at the drop of an hat. The army-trained enforcer (James Gleason) is inclined to consign him to the compost heap, but "Brown" is determined to get to the bottom of his new charge's behaviour and quickly discovers a family history that goes some way to explaining just why "Danny" is the pain in the neck that he is. Question is, though, can "Brown" manage to rein in the man before he falls back into his naughty ways and this time finds the judge (Selena Royle) inclined to reinstate her original sentence of 20 years in chokey? This has something of the Good Samaritan about it extolling the virtues of a scenario when the system co-operates with some good will to save a man from himself, and along those lines we safely travel with little jeopardy for ninety minutes. Murphy is handsome enough - in a central casting sort of fashion - and he does enough, but he doesn't really impose himself in any way that might make you think a star is born here. Nolan hasn't really enough to work with from the script to enable his normally quite pithy and characterful delivery and some of the sub-plots seem designed to drip roast facts for us in all too convenient a fashion. It's all watchable enough but it's not really anything special.

Juvenile delinquency was a popular Hollywood genre in the 1950s, offering star turns to many young actors, e.g. James Dean, Marlon Brando, Lee Marvin, Montgomery Clift, and, here, in his first lead, Audie Murphy. War hero Murphy, at 24, plays a 17 year old violent psychopath, who is facing a 20 year sentence, until Lloyd Nolan convinces the Judge to send him to Nolan's camp for "underprivileged" boys, where he's certain that he can turn him around, especially with help from his wife, Jane Wyatt, and his associate, James Gleason. Murphy, despite very limited acting experience, is believable and unpretentious; Wyatt plays her usual goody two-shoes role and Nolan conveys the liberal message again and again. But 86 minutes is not too big of an imposition.

In Texas, baby-faced bellboy Audie Murphy (as Danny Lester) is caught in the opening act beating up his co-worker and stuffing him in a locker. The narrator informs us that Mr. Murphy is 17-years-old, and WANTED by the police. There are 62 different charges against him. He is taken to Dallas county juvenile court and receives a "pass" from the reformatory. A very handsome young man, Murphy strokes his wavy hair for the female judge, but she sees through his act. Due to his numerous crimes, the court thinks Murphy is too dangerous for leniency. However, they let him go to "Varsity Clubs Boy's Ranch" under the care of kindly Lloyd Nolan (as Marshall "Coach" Brown) for a trial run...

Murphy continues to cause trouble, getting into a fight with Mr. Nolan's Navy veteran assistant James Gleason (as "Chief"). Murphy mixes poorly with the other "boys" in the bunkhouse. These include singer-guitarist Stanley Clements (as Bitsy Johnson), college-bound boxer Jimmy Lydon (as Ted Hendry), and likewise good-looking Dickie Moore (as Charlie). Nolan thinks there is no such thing as a "Bad Boy" so we need to figure out if this is correct and look for evidence. Murphy calls out for his mother at night and is very nice to Nolan's mothering wife Jane Wyatt. A flashback reveals much; in it, Murphy plays himself as a 12-year-old. There is so much else unconvincing in the story, you hardly notice.

***** Bad Boy (2/22/49) Kurt Neumann ~ Audie Murphy, Lloyd Nolan, Stanley Clements, Jane Wyatt

Best line in this predictable flick starring Audie Murphy. The cast is pretty good, except Stanley Clements as the unfunny "comic" relief.

Hollywood was in the midst of solving all problems with one good psych session, so you could tell where this one was headed early on.

Despite the limited script, it's not that bad.

Danny Lester (Audie Murphy) is 17 and has been on the run for the last 4 years. He gets caught during an armed robbery. The judge is at the end of her ropes. Variety Club's Marshall Brown insists on reforming the boy. He and his wife run a ranch for wayward boys.

Audie is in his mid-20's although his baby face still looks young. This starts with the violent armed robbery. I can't buy that he doesn't go to prison automatically. I guess times were different and he is white. I would like for the crime to be less violent and done without a gun. The movie is supported by Variety Clubs International and the movie is very sincere. I have no problem with any of that. I just can't buy the armed robbery premise. It may have inadvertently revealed some racial bias.

That depends of which point of view, but considering the history of Audie Murphy's life, the latest was not the common law abiding citizen. Not far from the end, his character says he is not afraid to kill; if you know the true life of Audie Murphy before he became an actor, this sentence seems so accurate and true. And this role was the best opportunity for him to begin in the business, and in a lead role; unlike his two first pictures that he made before. The relation between young Audie Murphy and the already vet Lloyd Nolan is interesting. And as the first film sentence says, the main character, this young delinquent, is not a Dead End Kid. No cliché here, but it's not LES HAUTS MURS either. It could have been more gritty, poignant, brutal too. Because young delinquents world is sometimes very tough, violent. This looks like a propaganda and cheesy film, but it is still interesting to see Audie Murphy between his true life war hero character and his westerns one, that will follow very soon after this movie.