oscaralbert Review of Kill the Umpire

Kill the Umpire (1950)

This movie from 1950 is so full of controversial lines of dialog . . .

[8/10 · 22 February 2018]

. . . that even if you play KILL THE UMPIRE with English subtitles and copy the pertinent parts of the script down verbatim, they're too sizzling to be allowed to appear on the internet. Unfortunately, if you pick up the DVD of KILL THE UMPIRE from the 25-cent table at a yard sale and slap it into a machine for your kids to watch while you're doing something else, you may be leaving yourself in for a world of hurt. What if one of your little tykes is overheard by the playground recess monitor quoting a character from KILL THE UMPIRE? They'll surely be suspended for three days (if not permanently expelled), and you'll be on the hook for unbudgeted child care fees (not to mention the hassle of finding junior a new school to attend). American Business is based upon a Latin phrase I cannot quite remember (since I never got better than a C-plus in that language), but I think the translation is something like "Buyer beware!" Certainly, this should be the case for any responsible parent regarding KILL THE UMPIRE, regardless of whether you're buying (or getting it for free) in a DVD, streaming, or live broadcast format. At the risk of being persecuted by the Politically Correctness Cops, I owe it to those who have read this far to provide an example of the egregious nature of KILL THE UMPIRE's subversive script. Main character "Bill Johnson" tells a sandlot second baseman tyke who's just moved the bag in order to tag a runner out, "There's no place in baseball for people who aren't honest."