Kill the Umpire (1950)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Lloyd Bacon

Writer:

Frank Tashlin (writer)

Release Date:

27 April 1950 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Sport

Tagline:

what a guy! what a lug! what a hero! what a bum!

Plot:

Ex-baseball player Bill Johnson, failing at many jobs when his ball-playing days are over, reluctantly takes the advice of his father-in-law...

Plot Keywords:

Baseball | Baseball Umpire

Cast

William Bendix	...	Bill 'Two Call' Johnson
Una Merkel	...	Betty Johnson
Ray Collins	...	Jonah Evans
Gloria Henry	...	Lucy Johnson
Jeff Richards	...	Bob Landon (as Richard Taylor)
Connie Marshall	...	Suzie Johnson
William Frawley	...	Jimmy O'Brien
Tom D'Andrea	...	Roscoe Snooker

Runtime:

78 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Filming Locations:

Wrigley Field - 42nd Place & Avalon Blvd., Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When Bill Johnson (William Bendix) is bouncing around in the locker room of the umpire school, support wires are clearly visible during the final bounce.

For the Love of the Game

Kill the Umpire had to be a success because it appealed to the fantasy of every baseball fan in the world, the idea that he can be a better umpire than the guys out there doing it. It's kind of like folks singing in the shower and imagining their Crosby or Sinatra.

You can tell the love that went into this comedy because players Bill Bendix and Bill Frawley were both noted baseball fans. The laughs are there, but so is the reverence for the American national pastime.

Poor Bill Bendix, a former ballplayer who can't make a go of it after his playing days are over. Of course this was in the day of the reserve clause with the low salaries. Father-in-law Ray Collins tells Bendix to get back in the game in a way. Become an umpire.

This is heresy of the worst kind. Imagine John McEnroe being told to become a tennis referee. But he makes a go of it.

The scenes in umpire training school are funny enough, but what a reality check poor Bendix gets when he umpires his first game. A man used to hearing the cheers of the crowd for his exploits on the diamond. And he's assigned to the Texas League. Texas baseball fans were legendary in their treatment of umpires. Made old Brooklyn Dodger fans like Bendix himself, look like those attending the races in My Fair Lady.

Bendix and Frawley as the head of the umpire training school are reteamed after both of them were in The Babe Ruth Story. This one works far better.

It's so funny I don't even think you need to be a baseball fan to watch this and enjoy it. But it sure helps.