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.

Another Lloyd Bacon Winner With An Early Look At Bendix As "Riley"-type Character

This is a really a funny movie, something Director Lloyd Bacon produced by the carload back in "the classic era." Bacon's movies were fast-moving and entertaining, and this was no exception. If you liked William Bendix in his mid-1950s TV show, "Life Of Riley," you'll like this film.

Bacon had an especially good year in comedies in 1950 with this movie, "The Fuller Brush Girl" with Lucille Ball, and "The Good Humor Man" with Jack Carson. The director must have been a baseball fan because the year before (1949), he directed Ray Milland in another absurd-but-hilarious movie called "It Happens Every Spring." Whether you enjoy baseball or, you'll get a lot of laughs out of it, too. It's just simply a goofy and likable comedy, filled with the kind of characters you'd see in a late '40s/early '50s comedy. What's nice about the older films, too, is that you actually see whole families: dad, mom and a couple of kids.

Actually, you more you know about baseball, the more you'll just shake your in disbelief at some of the things you'll see in this story because they could never happen today, or even back in 1950. (i.e. a fan coming out of the stands and punching an umpire several times over the course of a minute, and then ump slugging him....and nobody arrested?) Anyway, Bendix is very good and the supporting case, led by underrated actor Tom D'Andrea, is fun to watch, too. D'Andrea and Bendix reminded me almost of Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in "Some Like It Hot." They worked well as a team and must have known that because they paired up in the aforementioned TV series, too, later in the decade.

This film also will remind older film buffs of silent movie comedies with a wild scene at the end you have to see to believe. (Hint: Bendix winds up "water skiing down city streets, being pulled by an ambulance).

It's sheer lunacy.