Boys' Ranch

Ex-ball player (Craig) starts up a ranch for troubled boys, which includes the incorrigible Skippy (Homeier) and his more likable buddy Hank (Hickman). Based on a true story.

The movie's just the kind of wholesome family entertainment MGM specialized in. Sure, it's a long way from Oscar bait, while Maltin's movie guide doesn't even bother including it. Yet the admittedly minor film has a number of low-key attractions. I especially like the movie's refusal to get smarmy with material that invites it. Even little Butch Jenkins, with an irresistible mug right out of Mark Twain, is kept from getting cutesy. Plus, his frustrated efforts at riding the crafty mule Jasper are a real hoot. That's also a well-modulated scene on the Harpers' front porch where both Butch and the older couple discover "shirt tails to hang onto".

Still, there are several drawbacks- the movie's longer than it should be; the climax is exciting but also too stagy for what's gone before; and Skippy's sudden turn-around is unconvincing, as another reviewer points out. Nonetheless, the boys look like real boys, while MGM wisely resists its usual impulse to over-glamorize. The material may indeed be derivative, but it's also generally well handled, with a good positive message. One thing for sure--- they don't make 'em like this any more. Too bad.

James Craig gives over a ranch for boys ( although some look well over eighteen, and most are near to sixteen or over, so I think in today's terms this title is misleading, ) who are close to the wire of becoming criminals, or simply unwanted in ' society. ' The UK was clearly wary of the film as they gave it an ' A ' certificate aiming the film at adults and children under sixteen only seeing it with an adult. The craziness of this needs I think to be pointed out. Butch Jenkins is one of them, but he is not quite given enough to warrant the lead part on posters. It should have been given to Skip Homeier and Darryl Hickman as their close relationship is at the heart of the film. There is a strong platonic love between them, and Hickman spends a lot of his screen time on getting his friend Homeier out of trouble, and the chemistry between them is electric. James Craig has a wife in the film, but she has few scenes and this is almost entirely a male film. Without giving away spoilers Hickman gets very near to death due to his friend Skippy ( Homeier ) and it is Skippy who wakes up to the fact that he has to rescue his friend. How this happens is deeply moving and shows a great deal of love, and perhaps viewers could be uncomfortable at naming it as love. Directed by the talented Roy Rowland all the emotional stops are pulled out to make this a very fine film on male love and deep friendship. Beautifully filmed it deserves a ten.

The parallels between 'Boys' Ranch' and 'Boys Town' are certainly far more than coincidental. Both the Ranch and the Town start out as a new way to take care of the flotsam and jetsam of boys who need guidance and a place to live. Both are riding on the success of the place to secure funding for their continued existence. Both have a strong male authority figure who cares about kids, a bad kid who nearly spoils everything for everyone else, a cute little kid who is supposed to tug at our heartstrings, and in both films the bad kid redeems himself at the end for a happy conclusion to the story.

TCM showed this film and the on-screen rating (with Dish network) gave it only one star out of four. Okay, this is not a great movie, but really - I think 'one star' should be reserved for badly dubbed low budget import films, or the worst of the last of the Bowery Boys, trash like that. This film while far from a masterpiece at least deserves two stars for making an honest effort of it. The parts are played in earnest, the scenes are decently set; it is better than a one-star film.

A few of the young actors stand out for one reason or another. The youngest of these, Butch Jenkins, was a fairly popular child star. Well he sure didn't get that way from his performance in 'Boys Ranch'... you can almost see him reading his lines, his performance is so wooden. Far from 'cute', here he is annoying and nothing else. Darryl Hickman as one of the better boys gave his usual workmanlike performance. The real standout of the cast is Skippy Homeier who went on to a long career playing supporting characters, mostly as bad guys in Westerns. Here he's a rather nasty and cynical kid, the approximate equivalent of Mickey Rooney's "Whitey Marsh" in 'Boys Town'. Near the end of the movie he has a change of heart and soon all ends well. With as large a role in the film as anyone, Homeier takes the prize for best actor. His best moment may be another take on Whitey Marsh, when Skippy (and that is also his name in the film) breaks down and cries when it seems his actions are going to spell an end to the Boys Ranch. He does a good job of that scene and quite to the opposite end of the scale from the "Butch Jenkins" I-am-reading-my-lines performance given by the younger boy who got higher billing. Homeier was the star of this film - period. Was that ad line about a "lovable, thrillable star" referring to Butch Jenkins? They had to be kidding!

In all, this is a wholesome late-40's family movie, admittedly a little duller than it could have been, but still worthy of more than just one star. You could do a hundred times worse by leaving on Sponge Bob.

I have never understood MGM's push in the 1940s to make Butch Jenkins their next big child star. While the studio was very successful with Margaret O'Brien and a few other child stars, Jenkins never gained the same sort of favor with the public. I honestly think it was for two big reasons. First, he was a homely child and not freakin' adorable like Natalie Wood or other big child stars. Second, I really don't think he was a very good actor and much of the time on screen he just looked dull and lost. Why MGM put him in so many films (some of which were BIG productions, like "Our Vines Have Tender Grapes"), I have no idea....but as you can see for the poster on IMDB for the film, the studio pushed hard to make the boy a star. Oddly, however, he doesn't appear in "Boy's Ranch" for the first half hour! And, while not being top billed, Skip Homeier was the actual star of the film.

Considering the great success the studio had with "Boys Town" back in 1938, it's not all that surprising that they'd later try to duplicate this success. Both stories are nearly identical in many ways but the setting and stars were different. So, instead of Spencer Tracy as a kind priest who runs a Catholic orphanage, James Craig plays a pro baseball player who starts a ranch for homeless boys. Both have the punk who refuses to be rehabilitated who is the star (Mickey Rooney in the former and Skip Homeier in the latter) and a 'cute kid' (Bobs Watson in the former and Butch Jenkins in the latter). So, don't expect a lot of originality or surprises in "Boys' Ranch"....though it is pleasant and entertaining.

When the story begins, Don Walker (Craig) is taking a break from baseball and ends up becoming involved with a couple troubled homeless teens (Skip Homeier and Darryl Hickman). After Walker convinces locals to provide land and funds for a home for boys, he makes his first two residents these boys. Hank (Hickman) buys into the ranch life, Skip (Homeier) is a cynical jerk....just looking for a chance to take off. Soon more boys are welcomed to the ranch and things appear to be going well....but what about evil Skip, the school bully, thief and all-around jerk?

This is a modestly entertaining film. Homeier and Hickman were very good and the story kept my interest. But on the other hand, it was too much like "Boys Town" to make it a must-see film and Jenkins was, once again, not particularly good or even necessary.

I want to rush to the defense of Butch Jenkins, railed at by another reviewer who found his performance to be "wooden." Perhaps he wasn't paying attention, but "wooden" was what his character was supposed to be. He played a boy who had been raised by an old grandfather with very little understanding of childhood, leaving Jenkins' character an emotionally distant little adult, with very little experience or understanding of child-like pleasures. I caught this movie about a month ago and Jenkins was the best thing about this movie. It was nice to see Skip Homier in another youthful role after "Tomorrow the World," though I wasn't terribly impressed with his performance. A major plot devices was rather simplistic and contrived: A rich man will give the land for the ranch if it does well, but after one of the lamest thefts in movie history, he may reconsider and the whole future of the ranch is threatened.