Don't look for Elton John or Kim Jong-Un

A new-to-me movie started showing up in the FXM rotation a month or two back: The Rocket Man. I see that it's going to be on FXM again tomorrow at 11:55 AM, so I watched it to do a post on here.

Timmy (George "Foghorn" Winslow) is a boy living at an orphanage that apparently has a TV that put all the boys in front of, because TV character Captain Talray shows up to do an appearance and everybody wants to see him. Timmy is last in line to receive one of the free gifts, but somehow a space gun that wasn't in the bin of gifts before magically shows up and Timmy is about to get what he's always wanted.

Timmy is about to get something else, which is a chance at a home. Local Justice of the Peace Amelia Brown (Spring Byington) is a widow living with her adult unmarried daughter June (Anne Francis) and is looking for a child to foster, eventually picking Timmy. Brown also tries to rehabilitate non-violent criminals by giving them a home during the beginning of their parole, and is also being pursued romantically by the town's mayor, Ed Johnson (Charles Coburn).

Meanwhile, local political fixer Big Bill Watkins (Emory Parnell) is about to come to town in advance of the upcoming election. He picks up a DWI, but a judge lets him off lightly because of his political clout. One of his underlings, Tom Baxter (John Agar) shows up at the bus station, and June, who is there to pick up the parolee, thinks that this is the parolee. Tom goes along with it because of June's good looks. Mayor Johnson picks up the real guy who is only a plot device to introduce the mix-up involvoing Tom.

Tom is actually there to put in a bid on the property on which the orphanage sits, because the lease is up and oil has been discovered there. This would send all the kids to the state orphanage, which would be a disaster, and Amelia tries to raise the money to outbid Tom.

As for Timmy, that space gun he got actually has magical powers, which makes those shot with its rays tell the truth, as he learns in a dream in which he sees Talray again. But he's only supposed to use this power for good. Amazingly, he does, and you can probably figure out where here's going to use it.

The Rocket Man is a decided B movie, as you can tell right from the beginning and the "Panoramic Productions" title card. The material is silly and the ending is abrupt, but despite all the problems it has, this one is ultimately watchable thanks to the presence of Coburn and Byington. That, and the fact you know that it's a B movie going in, unlike Never Say Goodbye, so one goes in with lower expectations. Id you want something with a predictably happy ending, you could do worse than The Rocket Man; it's no worse than episodic TV of the era.