User reviews

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

This is one of those movies that's really bad but worth watching if you happen to be watching a movie channel on TV on opening day of the baseball season. The acting is mediocre (even William Frawley), the story is thin, and the moral at the end is sappy. But the picture does manage to catch something true and real about boys and their fascination with heroes. It has some interesting shots of spring training circa 1962. It features the glorious beauty of Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris (they are resolutely boring; this is worth knowing). And it gives a bit of the feeling of Florida before the big boom times of the '60s.

"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.

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 ****

What a stinker! I called this turkey out before it reached first base. Ok, it was one of those cutsey films for the whole family with a message at the end, but.... What about the M&M boys, you ask? Don't, please. I've seen more animation from a corpse. A cigar store indian has more life to it. Even a diehard yankee follower would heave his guts up watching this bilge. Want a more entertaining hour and a half? Go watch paint dry. Gad!

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.

I don't mean to speak ill of the departed... but Mickey, Roger, & Whitey - YIKES!!!! And all the kids in this movie... could they possibly over-act any more??? And then there's William Frawley... is there any role that he did where he wasn't a crotchety old man? For that matter, was he ever anything but a crotchety old man? He must have been old when he was born!!! Stay away from this one at all costs... unless you're having a bad case of insomnia and its on the AMC Cable network.

I first saw this movie in The Bronx as a nine-year old Yankees fan. I loved it then, and still enjoyed seeing it much more recently. Sure the acting was bad (after seeing it one of his teammates advised Roger Maris to end his 1962 holdout and sign his Yankees contract fast), and the script was lame (but with its simple plot and moral not really much worse than the typical Disney or other kid fare of the time), but that was always beside the point. It was and is a chance to see our heroes on the big screen in their prime rather than on a small-screen TV or from the bleachers. We watch 1950s teen movies with their lip-synced performances for the same reason. The game now is to try to identify the players in the background.

That Hutch Lawson character reminded me of a pathological liar I attended summer day camp with in 1957. The lad would tell us that Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle were his best friends and would get extremely belligerent/angry when we told him we didn't believe him. One day when we were on a camp-out in the woods he brought a fishing pole and told us he caught a fish. He insisted a stone in his pocket was a fish. The lad just never knew when to quit. I wonder if he grew up to be a lawyer/politician.

When I was 10 years old, the same age in real life as Bryan Russell(Hutch), my father took my brother and I on a field trip. We lived in Miami and we headed north on a sunny morning. Dad did not tell us where we were going. We ended up at a baseball stadium. When we walked in and got to where we could see the field, there on the pitcher's mound stood 3 men in baseball uniforms. Immediately I recognized the one portly figure from episodes of 'I Love Lucy', none other than Fred Mertz. That is William Frawley, and he is standing with two younger men. I then realize the other men are Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris! As I look around the field I see people milling about. I see big lights and reflectors, movie cameras, and other movie making equipment. My dad brought us to watch a movie being made. That was the most incredible feeling ever! We sit in the stands, about 2 rows up from the bottom. The stands were not crowded at all, maybe a hundred people or so. I watched in pure amazement, even though there was not a lot of action going on. For anyone who has visited a movie set, you know there are hours of setting up and tedium, followed by a few moments of action and filming.

Before the day was over, the director called out to all of the kids in the park. He needed our help in this next scene. Would we all gather over at the spot in the bleachers just above the dugout? My brother and I took off like a flash! There were probably about 25-30 kids total that convened at that spot. Wow! What were we going to be doing? The director started talking and we all were giving him our full attention. He said that for this shot, Mickey and Roger would come out of the dugout and all of us were to start shouting "Mickey, Roger, Mickey, Roger" - trying to get their attention. Well, next thing I heard was "Action!" and out come Mickey and Roger just a dugout width away. We all started into a shouting chorus of "Mickey, Roger, Mickey, Roger". It was music to my young ears. Sure enough, our heroes heard us and turned our way. They waved and smiled for what felt like an eternity. I then heard a voice yell "Cut!". Wow! We are all actors, or extras, or whatever. We may be in a movie! I am sure my feet were not touching the ground as we walked out to the car, headed back home late that afternoon.

As a child, I never got to see that movie. Never saw it advertised or listed. In those days, of course, we didn't have the internet or the other entertainment resources.

Fast forward 43 years. I am an adult, 2 children of my own. I am thinking about this movie, as I often have over the years. So I decide to try to find some information about it online. Much to my surprise, I find a source for a VHS copy, so I order and purchase it. When the movie arrived, as I opened that package, I swear I could visualize my Keds sneakers and ratty jeans on me. I had just traveled back in time. With a whole lot of anticipation and joy, I sat there and watched this movie with my own children. I had told them the full story. And now, they were going to actually see a poignant memory of their father's past.

As it turned out, my brother and I were not in the movie. The scene with the hollering kids behind the dugout was there, for a brief moment. But we were just outside of the final shot. Just one kid too far away. Oh well, who cares? The bottom line and the moral of the story? Yes, this movie was innocent, naive, simple and pure. Like what I seem to remember most of my childhood. And, I was able to share that innocence in a tangible way with my children. That...makes me feel safe, at home.

Sure, it's corny, the acting is uninspired but acceptable, and the screenplay appears to have been written in one morning before breakfast. But I loved the spring training setting in coastal south Florida and the opportunity to see my old childhood favorites do a movie together with a bit of a message (about lying). I identify with the child who longs to connect with his heroes, and I have my heroes humanized in the process. Furthermore Mantle and Maris deliver several lengthy lines very acceptably. I wish there was more of them and less of Frawley.

The movie is a simple, superficial sally through an age of innocence that brought me back to my youth. Frankly, I enjoyed it, and I say this without guilt.

Mark

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.

It was an extended sitcom right down to the sixties sitcom music and acting. It could have been an episode of "Leave it to Beaver" and the Brady Bunch pretty much did this as 2 separate episodes.

It was funny stuff and very campy. I am sure it played well to kids in its day. But, for today's audience, it is pretty bad.

I enjoyed seeing the Mick and Maris in their prime and it was cool to see the old Fort Lauderdale stadium.

As far as William Frawley, he was already an old Curmudgeon in Miracle on 34th Street. That was in 1947. He was born in 1887, so I never saw him young.BY all reports he was a Curmudgeon in real life.

This was one of many cheesy grade B movies capitalizing on the popularity of Major League Baseball in that era when it was America's past time in those pre-NFL Superbowl days. Yet I find humor in it because as a boy I attended summer camp with a pathological liar who insisted that Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle were his best friends.

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.

This movie was about entertainment....not "the art of acting"...for that you need to see a movie in the style of Felini.

But it is great for kids and shows a lot of respect for feelings. We really enjoyed it and showed a lot of old Fort Lauderdale scenes that were reminiscent of the Beach Blanket Bingo days.

Loved the scene where Bill Massey was at the door of the Yankee Clipper, trying to get past the doorman Woody Woodbury. Those two should have had their own show.

What a Hoot!....did someone say Hoot!, just saw that movie also...great as well.

I came upon this movie last night while channel surfing and I was sicked see this movie. Set in the spring of 1962. A young kid promises his friends that he and his father know Mickey Mantle, and Roger Maris. To talk to the two players the young fan sneaks into Florida. While there he takes in practice and autograph singings. He also gets into the locker room. Sounds like a fan's dream don't it.

At the time Mickey was baseball's biggest star (and in my opinion the best ever despite the fact I am a Red Sox fan.) It's 1962 to me this movie was a non Billy Crystal sequel to his hit 61* except for the fact that this movie features the real "M&m Boys" and their not really acting there's no need they are just being themselves. starting fresh after their home run race. This film also features my pitching hero Whitey Ford and manager Ralph hulk This kid literally lives an young baseball fan's dream meting your heroes.

This movie is good for baseball fans, yankee fans, fans of The Mick and Rog or for those who enjoy the old time black and white films trust me

Okay, the plot is lame and the acting two dimensional. But forty-three years after the making I look back on this film with great fondness.

"Micky Mantle ----- Roger Maris!" Yankees spring training is back in Fort Lauderdale. A young boy runs off to chase his dream. There are the obligatory lessons in life. But wait! This is the New York Yankees at the height of their glory in the early 60's. Roger Maris is the home run king. Mickey Mantle draws electricity every time he steps to the plate. There are no steroids, strikes and lockouts, arrests and other distractions. This was back when baseball was the national pastime and fun!

You cannot take this movie seriously and pan it as bad as some I've seen. Seems like they don't have any fun in their lives. I was a huge M & M fan and saw Roger's 61st on TV. Saw this movie the following year and loved it. I was 14 and when I saw them on the big screen I was in total awe. 2 Greek gods come alive. Now, at 73, I just saw it on TV and knowing the history of Roger and Mickey and the pure greed of today's players, I appreciate the film even more. Pure fantasy entertainment from a kid's viewpoint. Lot of humor and plain fun. I wish I loved the sport as much as I did back then, but greed, politics, cheating and money have ruined the sport for me.