Bad Boy (1949)

THIS SUMMARY CONTAINS SPOILERS! Danny is a juvenile delinquent sentenced to Variety Club Ranch in lieu of jail. He charms the headmistress and goads everyone else. The marshal sets out to ... See full summary »

Director:

Kurt Neumann

Writers:

Robert Hardy Andrews (screenplay) (as Robert D. Andrews), Robert Hardy Andrews (story) (as Robert D. Andrews)

Stars:

Audie Murphy, Lloyd Nolan, Jane Wyatt

Cast

Credited cast:
Audie Murphy	...	Danny Lester
Lloyd Nolan	...	Marshall Brown
Jane Wyatt	...	Mrs. Maud Brown
James Gleason	...	Chief
Stanley Clements	...	Bitsy Johnson
Martha Vickers	...	Lila Strawn
Rhys Williams	...	Arnold Strawn
Selena Royle	...	Judge Florence Prentiss
Jimmy Lydon	...	Ted Hendry (as James Lydon)
Dickie Moore	...	Charlie
Tommy Cook	...	Floyd
William F. Leicester	...	Joe Shields (as William Lester)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Richard Gorelick	...	Juvenile Delinquent #1

Storyline

THIS SUMMARY CONTAINS SPOILERS! Danny is a juvenile delinquent sentenced to Variety Club Ranch in lieu of jail. He charms the headmistress and goads everyone else. The marshal sets out to find source of Danny's rage, and learns he mistakenly believes he is responsible for his mother's death. After a final crime spree and escape attempt, Danny learns he's not to blame. Court return him to Ranch on the marshal's conviction that he's redeemed from life of crime. Danny goes on to graduate from Texas A&M's ROTC program.

---

Plot Keywords:

juvenile delinquent | marshal | crime spree | 

---

Taglines:

Danny is going straight--straight to the electric chair!

---

Genres:

Drama

---

Certificate:

Passed

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Texas City explosion occurred April 16, 1947.

---

Crazy Credits

opening credits state: and in his first starring roll AUDIE MURPHY

---

Connections

Featured in Biography: Audie Murphy: Great American Hero (1996)

User Reviews

Audie Murphy Introduces His Movie Persona

Audie Murphy, a BAD BOY on his way to career in the pen, is sent to Lloyd Nolan's ranch for delinquents in a last effort to straighten him out. Can Nolan find out what makes Murphy act so mean before he becomes a lifer at San Q?

Audie Murphy gets a bit of a bad rap as a movie star, because his movie star career, sometimes, felt like the reward of a grateful nation for his extraordinary war heroism. It's not fair. Audie can be very good -- as he demonstrates here, in his first starring role. In this movie, Murphy personifies a nice, polite, southern boy with a dangerous streak. This is the sort of kid who, one minute, can charm (in a mother/son kind of way) Lloyd Nolan's wife with good manners and genuine sweetness, and in the next, pound the smithereens out of one of his colleagues at the ranch for no good reason. Of course -- this being the 40s -- there is a very Freudian reason for this -- but until we get the psychotherapeutic ending, Murphy plays a kid on the knife's edge of good and rotten exceptionally well. What's interesting is that there is none of the acting awkwardness found in some of his early Westerns. One wonders if Murphy's directors didn't know what they had.

All the character actors give the performances you expect (Nolan is quite good here), the story moves along crisply, and one is left wondering why this one isn't better known. And, also, why Murphy didn't get to do more crime movies -- he has the acting chops for it.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 February 1949 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Story of Danny Lester

Filming Locations:

Janss Conejo Ranch, Thousand Oaks, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paul Short Productions, Variety Clubs International

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1