Rhubarb (1951)

Director:

Arthur Lubin

Writers:

Francis M. Cockrell (writer)
Dorothy Davenport (writer)

Release Date:

8 February 1952 (France)

Genre:

Comedy | Family | Sport

Tagline:

It's the Funniest Picture in Nine Lifetimes!

Plot:

Rich, eccentric T.J. Banner adopts a feral cat who becomes an affectionate pet. Then T.J. dies, leaving...

Plot Keywords:

Baseball | Cat | Feral | Feral Cat | Brooklyn Dodgers

Cast

Ray Milland	...	Eric Yeager
Jan Sterling	...	Polly Sickles
Gene Lockhart	...	Thaddeus J. Banner
William Frawley	...	Len Sickles
Elsie Holmes	...	Myra Banner
Taylor Holmes	...	P. Duncan Munk
Willard Waterman	...	Orlando Dill
Henry Slate	...	Dud Logan
James Griffith	...	Ogelthorpe 'Oggie' Meadows (as James W. Griffith)
Jim Hayward	...	Doom
Donald MacBride	...	Pheeny
Hal K. Dawson	...	Mr. Fisher
Orangey	...	Rhubarb

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

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

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

At the end of the movie Paul Douglas has a cameo appearance with the line: "A litter from three wives.." In reference to the movie A Letter to Three Wives (1949).

Quotes:

Ball Player: A Rhubarb. It's a donnybrook... a dust-up...
Eric Yeager: [takes phone] Lady, you know what happens at a sale, when two women get hold of the same dress? THAT's a Rhubarb!
[slams phone down]

Soundtrack:

FRIENDLY FINANCE COMPANY

It seemed like a great movie in 1951

I saw this movie as the second feature with "The day the Earth Stood Still" in 1951. It was an enjoyable tale about a feisty cat that inherited a sub-par baseball team and proved unstoppable when it came to leading them to the winners circle. The movie opens with the owner of a baseball team playing golf. The owner, Thaddeus J. Banner (Gene Lockhart) discovers that on one of the holes there is a cat that feels it is his duty to retrieve any ball in sight and disappear with it. T.J. then tries every trick he can think of to discourage the cat. Fierce dogs are run off with their tails tucked between their legs, and the cat even dismantles a cat trap. When Lockhart finally trails him back to his lair he discovers the cat sitting on a pile of golf balls that would make any duffer cry. He looks like he is trying to hatch several thousand of them.

Eventually the crusty ball club owner manages to catch the cat but he becomes curious about his feistiness and names him Rhubarb, baseball slang for a brawl. When T.J. dies, he leaves the cat the baseball team. Baseball players being what they are didn't take kindly to their new owner, but one by one they were won over. When one of the players decides to try to pet Rhubarb he is rewarded with a slash on the hand from the cat. He is also rewarded with a bonus from the front office that had been spying on the scene. It seems that they had overlooked a small clause in his contract and was to receive a pay increase. Another player makes an overture to Rhubarb, and lo and behold, he also receives a bonus. Well… baseball players being what they are, or at least what they used to be, decide that the cat is a good luck charm. They become involved in a self-fulfilling prophecy and end up in the championship series. The plot thickens when, late in the series, Rhubarb is kidnapped by the other team. The cat escapes leaving his captors in worse shape then if they had tangled with Jackie Chan. He manages to make his way across town and the team is inspired to a come-from-behind situation to win the last game of the series.

I don't know how it would play to most 12 year old children today, but in the days of innocence it was a fun movie.