Safe at Home! (1962)

There were a number of sweet family films made in the early 1960s and Safe at Home! is one of them. It was released by Columbia Pictures in 1962. The film was publicized as a light-hearted comedy but there really is very little comedy about it, it is just a simple story of a little boy who wants to see his heroes Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris so he can ask them to visit his little league baseball team. This little boy "Hutch" was admirably played by Bryan Russell (the Bye,Bye, Birdie boy) who was making his film debut. 

Hutch's father (Don Collier) runs a charter boat business in Florida and has very little time to watch his son play baseball. When another boy teases Hutch that his father knows nothing at all about baseball, Hutch tells a whopper of a lie: that his father knows everything about baseball and his best friends are Yankees players Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris. The entire little league and their coach hear about this and ask Hutch to bring the all-stars to see one of their games. Hutch could have easily told them that Mantle and Maris were too busy with spring training to come but then there wouldn't be much of a film. So instead, he runs away from home and hides out at the Yankee's training camp in Fort Lauderdale where he gets to meet his heroes and their coach Bill Turner (William Frawley in his last feature film role).

Hutch is a loveable youngster and he has a number of allies "in his corner" including Mike, his best friend (played by Scott Lane); Joanna, whom he hopes will become his mother (played by the lovely Patricia Barry); and a cute orange tabby cat. 

Safe at Home! meanders along at a gentle pace and never picks up speed but, nevertheless, it never gets tiresome. It plays like a good family soap opera and keeps its audience interested - especially if the viewer is a baseball fan. Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris were obviously no great actors, but they read their lines with conviction and had tremendous support from William Frawley who could put the most inexperienced actor at ease. 

If you want to enjoy an evening of baseball films, then check out the DVD release of Safe at Home! where it is double-featured with the William Bendix comedy Kill the Umpire!.