The Rocket Man 1954

Director: Oscar Rudolph

Starring:
Charles Coburn, Spring Byington, John Agar, Anne Francis, George Winslow, Emory Parnell, Beverly Garland

There is an orphanage in the lovely little town of Carlisle that contains Timmy, one of the goofiest kids to ever walk the face of this planet. The local TV station is handing out toys to the kids one day and poor little Timmy is last in line. When it's his turn all that's left in the box is a couple of model planes. Now Timmy don't want no model plane, no sir. He wants a spaceman's ray gun. Suddenly there's a toy ray gun in the box thanks to this geeky space guy that pops up every now and then in the movie. I guess he's The Rocket Man. Timmy puts the grabs on the toy and wanders off happy.

Now we see a cop on a motorcycle chasing some drunken bozo in a sports car. Meanwhile, young Timmy and his buddies are playing spaceman games when one kid falls flat on his face in the middle of the road. He just sort of lies there waiting for the speeding car to arrive and squish him. Timmy aims his ray gun and fires stopping the car within inches of the flopped kid. Hey, maybe this ray gun ain't no toy. The kids take off and the cop hauls the guy off for drunk driving.

Amelia Brown, who's not only the nicest little old lady you'd ever want to meet but also the town's Justice Of The Peace, takes Timmy home with her. When they arrive the cop and the drunk are waiting for her. The drunk turns out to be Big Bill Watkins, a big shot politician who figures this should get him off the hook. It doesn't, Amelia gives him ten days in the slammer. Big Bill swears revenge and tries to run out the door. Timmy aims that magical ray gun and stops Bill in his tracks. We start to believe that Big Bill's attempt to buy the orphanage and evict the kids is part of his revenge plot on Amelia, but it ain't.

Now Amelia tries to round up the money to outbid Big Bill for the orphanage. Ed Johnson, the town's plumber and mayor, tries to help by getting into a poker game but is losing badly. One shot from Timmy's ray gun and bingo, he wins fifteen hundred dollars. Now Amelia has enough coin to put in a bid but Big Bill blocks her from doing so.

Next day Big Bill is holding a pep rally cause he wants to get re-ellected. Timmy zaps him with the ray gun as he's talking and he begins to spill the beans about how crooked he is. Not only that but he admits that the real reason he wanted to buy the orphanage is because there's oil on the land. I guess you can figure out the rest.

This is definitely a kids movie and it really shows it's age. I hate to admit it but I kinda liked it. It's got great veteran actors.