Safe at Home!

Safe at Home! is a baseball-themed family movie released in 1962 that was mainly famous for featuring New York Yankees stars Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris.

The movie was directed by Walter Doniger and stars Bryan Russell as a young boy, Hutch Lawton, who brags to his little league teammates that his dad knows Maris and Mantle. While this makes him the talk of the team, it's a complete fabrication, but when he goes to spring training to try to prove he was right, he is told by his dad that he should confess to his friends that he made the whole thing up... but instead manages to sneak into the players' hotel, after which hijinks ensue.

The studio, Columbia Pictures, made a big deal about signing the two stars to an acting contract at the time, calling a press conference on January 26th and announcing that filming would take place on location during spring training in Fort Lauderdale, FL (additional scenes were shot in Pompano Beach, FL. This was right after the famous home run race between the two players, and even though it was Maris who broke Babe Ruth's long-standing record by hitting 61 homers in 1961, Mantle was the one who received top billing. The two actually got to act in the film, which is probably its most interesting feature. Manager Ralph Houk and pitcher Whitey Ford also got bit parts. As mentioned, filming took place in the spring of 1962 and the movie's release came shortly afterwards, in mid-April.

Related Sites

• IMDB page