1949's "Bad Boy" was distinguished (and duly advertised) as the first starring role for decorated war hero Audie Murphy, earning 33 medals of valor for dispatching 240 Germans before the age of 20. After a couple of bit parts it looked like Murphy had no future in front of the camera, but this role was tailor-made for the 24 year old newcomer (certain aspects of his own background built into the script), selected for his Texas heritage as the lead in this grim melodrama produced by the Variety Boys' Club in Copperas Cove, TX, though filming took place at California's Conejo-Janss Ranch north of Los Angeles as "The Story of Danny Lester." Producer Paul Short was guaranteed financing only through Murphy's casting, and judging by the results those who scoffed at his inexperience must have been dazzled by his performance. His Danny Lester is the 'Bad Boy' of the title, a huge rap sheet by age 17, whose most recent scrape, an attempted robbery in a Dallas hotel, results in his being transferred to a ranch for juvenile delinquents run by Lloyd Nolan's Marshall Brown. Eager to throw a punch at the smallest provocation, Danny remains tight lipped and unapologetic toward the other youths, but at least shows a softer side toward Marshall's pretty wife Maud (Jane Wyatt), assigned chores working for her in the kitchen and around the yard. Old habits die hard though, sneaking off into town to steal a cash payment cleverly mailed to himself at the ranch while Marshall calls on Danny's tyrannical stepfather (Rhys Williams) and stepsister (Martha Vickers), who relate an awful story of how the boy killed his own mother and struck his stepfather before setting fire to their home. Digging deeper into the tragedy, he finds out that Danny's former employer (Francis Pierlot) was coerced into blaming Danny for slipping two sleeping pills into his ailing mother's drink by his bible thumping stepfather, whose refusal to allow her any treatment (blaming her illness on the devil) resulted in her death from natural causes. By now it may be too late to save the boy, having stolen a gun and ammunition before driving off in a stolen car for the inevitable showdown with police, then another from his hospital bed with a former partner in crime. The script carefully keeps the odds in Murphy's favor by not allowing his character to sink low enough to kill, and his remarkable performance belies his own low assessment of any acting talent in keeping the viewer off guard as to how dangerous he can be. Jane Wyatt would become typecast as the perfect mother opposite Robert Young on FATHER KNOWS BEST, but for STAR TREK fans she is forever beloved as Spock's Earth mother Amanda in "Journey to Babel."
Review of Bad Boy
