Safe at Home!

Nice little nostalgia/baseball film that has to do with owning up to one's tall tales and later being greatly rewarded for doing just that. Little Hutch Lawton, Bryan Russell, feeling that his widowed and hard pressed, for cash to pay his bills, dad Dan Lawton,Don Collier, is being put down by the team and school bully Henry, Flip Mark, makes up a story that his dad as well as himself are very close, in fact the best of, friends of New York Yankee superstars Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris.

It doesn't take long for a depressed Henry, feeling he's been shown up, to challenge Hutch to put his money, or his friends Mantle & Maris, where his mouth is and produce the two superstars to show that he's not making that far flung and incredible story up. Hutch realizing that he put his foot in his mouth and is facing the outrage and disdain of his fellow classmates and Little League ball players if he can't produce Mantle & Maris, like Henry demanded him to, hitches a ride to Ft. Lauderdale where the Yankee spring training camp is. Hutch is determined to not only meet his heroes but get them to come back to his home the coastal and fishing town of Palms and show Henry & Co. that he's not lying about his, and his dad's, friendship with them.

Smelling like he just got off from work at the Fulton Fish Market, the ride that Hutch hitched was on the back of his friends dad fish truck, Hutch attracts this cute tabby who follows him throughout the movie thinking that he's a Frisky's seafood treat. Hutch at first gets to meet old and grumpy Yankee trainer, the guy who taught both Mantle and Maris how to hit, Bill Turner, William Frawly, in the Yankee clubhouse that Hutch snuck into as he smelled up, from the fish that he was with on the truck, the whole place.

Finding out from an unusually kind and attentive, he didn't at first look or act the part, Bill Turner that his heroes are staying at the local Yankee Clipper Hotel Hutch again sneaks into their hotel room and later, by again Turner smelling him out, is discovered by the two ballplayers and their trainer hiding under one of the beds in the room.

Surprisingly to Hutch the Yankee players, besides Mantle and Maris, were very considerate and understanding towards him and the mess he got himself into but decided not to go along with him back home in pulling his chestnuts out of the fire. Mickey and Roger tell the star-struck little boy that he has to face his friends back in Palm and tell them the truth about his fibbing, lying in adult talk, to them about being a friend, which in fact Hutch now is, of the two Yankee ballplayers in order to square things with them.

Touching but really not that much of a surprise ending with both Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris coming through in the clutch and hitting a grand slam home run for Hutch in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs with him behind by three runs. Hutch learned a big lesson in life in that telling the truth is far better them making things up by trying to impress both your friends like Mike, Scott Lane, as well as enemies like Henry. It's a lesson that sadly today most of our elected leaders and aspiring politicians have yet to have mastered.

P.S There's also Yankee southpaw and the teams top pitching ace Whitey Ford, known a the Chairman of the Board, in the movie in a more or less cameo role as well as Yankee manager Captain, or is it Major, Ralph Houk. Houk in fact is so good and convincing at saying his lines in the film that for a moment I didn't think that it was him at all but some actor playing the Yankee manager. There's also Mickey Mantle's real life seven year old son David in the movie playing one of Hutch's fellow little league teammates.

Youngster living with his single dad down in South Florida gets into trouble when he convinces the kids on his Little League team that he knows Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris from the New York Yankees; turns out the Yankees are practicing in Fort Lauderdale, so the lad hitches a ride to the stadium to plead for their help. Co-feature from Columbia was probably produced solely as a showcase for the Yankees stars--but if so, they aren't around nearly enough. The boyhood woes of little Bryan Russell are capably captured, and all the children do fine work, but the story is too simple (and too silly) to merit much interest. Nice cinematography from Irving Lippman, whose camera transforms Mantle and Maris into two handsome giants on the big screen. ** from ****

I've just finished reading the reviews... and people are actually panning this movie! It's a kids movie, for god's sake. Give it a rest already.

This movie was released at a time when Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris were the best baseball players that nearly anyone at that time had ever seen.... especially kids. And that is what this movie is about... and is for... kids.

It's not a bad film. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and one can truly sense the inner-desire that this young boy has to get 'close' to his baseball heroes. I think the people who have deeply criticized this film were probably never a true baseball fan as a kid... and cannot grasp what goes through a child's mind when he/she gets the opportunity to meet their living idol in person. I remember as a boy getting the opportunity to meet my favorite baseball player, Kent Hrbek of the Minnesota Twins, and it was a day that I cherish in my childhood.

And in this film, for a little boy to have the adventure that he had with the real life New York Yankees.... the Bronx Bombers.... the dream of a g'zillion little boys across our great land in 1961.... this is not a film to be panned. No, it's not a masterpiece, but as children's movies go.... I'd take this one over the majority of so-called kids films we see today.

I think too many of us tend to forget what childhood and those little pre-teen dreams were like..... but this movie will certainly bring them to remembrance.

"Miami" Joe Morrison was Miami's number 1 leading man during the 1960s. Sadly, "Miami" Joe starred in one stinker after another. Amazingly this film, which I only rate a 5, was Joe's best. Of course, he had an uncredited role as Hank, so maybe that's why this film was his best.

The movie really is a stinker, but it is kind of neat to see a legend like Micky Mantell. The movie is just a mindless and enjoyable trip down memory lane, capturing a more innocent time for the sport of baseball as well as the local Miami, Florida landscape.

Safe at home is a safe bet for some minor entertainment and a chance to see "Miami" Joe Morrison in his best movie.

If a viewer can't have a little fun watching this movie, the viewer misses the point.