El malhechor

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

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.

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.)

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.

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.