Safe at Home!

Safe at Home! (1962)

** (out of 4)

A young boy (Bryan Russell) moves to a new town where he doesn't have many friends so to try and fit in he makes the claim that he knows Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle. When no one will believe him, the young boy heads off to the Yankees spring training camp to try and meet the legends. This film works best as a curio if you want to see the two legends trying to act. It was fun seeing these two men back in their prime and it was also funny that Mantle got top billing even though Maris had just broken Babe Ruth's home run record. There are a few good parts here and there but overall the film is pretty lame. The young Russell gives a good performance and his relationship with his single father are nice but the film is too uneven to hammer home any of the side subjects brought up in the screenplay. Whitey Ford also has a small part.