The Littlest Hobo

Before the "Littlest Hobo" (aka. London) became a "dog hero" character in the 1960s TV series - He had first starred in this 77-minute feature film back in 1958.

IMO - London's talents (as a super-clever canine doing good deeds) were completely wasted in this unimaginative tale where dry, monotonous storytelling and, yes, irritating human characters prevailed.

Set in Los Angeles - The most ridiculous moments in "The Littlest Hobo" were, of course, during the police pursuit. Believe me - This whole business got completely dragged out beyond the point of common-sense thinking. It really did.

Buddy Hart, who plays the role of "Tommy" in this film version of the popular Canadian, syndicated TV series, "The Littlest Hobo," also played the role of "Chester Anderson" on the first few seasons of "Leave It To Beaver."

Hart's "Chester" was the best-looking of "Wally Cleaver's" entourage of friends, which included the notorious weasel, "Eddie Haskell," the obese bully, "Clarence 'Lumpy' Rutherford," & nerdy "Tooey Brown."

In real life, Hart is also the son of actor John Hart, the second actor to portray "The Lone Ranger," in between the stints of Clayton Moore, who originated the role on TV and in films.

The younger Hart continued to play supporting roles in films, his last (of any notoriety, at least) being 1969's musical "Sweet Charity," which starred Shirley MacLaine, directed by Bob Fosse. His show business resume mysteriously ends with that project--now almost 40 years ago--and he was never in the casts of either the "Leave It To Beaver" TV reunion film, "Still The Beaver," nor of its spin-off series'--"Still The Beaver" and "The New Leave It To Beaver," which aired on The Disney Channel and SuperStation TBS, respectively.

My name is Billy Walker and my father was a set designer for this film. I saw the film in Dallas Texas in 1958 shortly after my fathers funeral. AS a boy of eleven years I was totally consumed watching this movie. I had a black lab puppy at the time and this film opened a fascinating door for the imagination. I had not seen my father for three years, with the exception of at his funeral service as he had been in the L.A. area working on various movie sets. I am hoping that some one can steer me in the right direction to obtain a copy of this film. My father was the man sitting at a corner coffee stand who shared his food with London. Help in this endeavor,from anyone, will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you, Billy

I saw this movie in a theater in Nebraska when I was a child. Don't recall much about the movie itself this many years later, but I've never forgotten that day. It was my first brush with celebrity. The dog star of the movie (we were told it was THE dog) made a personal appearance at the theater. The dog performed a number of tricks on stage, even typing on a typewriter. I came away with a paw-printed glossy photo of the dog, which I kept for years. I wonder if anybody else out there got to meet The Littlest Hobo in "person." I've never seen the film since, and didn't know till I looked it up on IMDb that there had been a television version. It remains among the most lively of my black and white memories.

Back in the 1970s a local TV station used to broadcast obscure little b&w movies (like this) as filler during the afternoon. (Another one was "Carnival of Souls" which is now regarded as a classic.) I caught this when I was about 10 or so and loved it. The story was silly and the acting was really pretty awful (even for a kids movie) but it moved fairly quickly and the dog himself was just great! I also found the idea of this dog traveling from town to town by train and helping people kind of interesting and it seems it was actually a TV series for a while! I don't really want to see it again because I'm positive I'd find it hysterically bad now but it does bring back some good childhood memories. Kids are the best audience for this--especially ones who love dogs. A 7.