Headin' Home (1920)

The "true story" of baseball great Babe Ruth; Ruth plays himself.

Director:

Lawrence C. Windom (as Lawrence Windom)

Writers:

Arthur 'Bugs' Baer (titles), Earle Browne (story)

Stars:

Babe Ruth, Ruth Taylor, William Sheer

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Babe Ruth	...	Babe (as George Herman 'Babe' Ruth)
Ruth Taylor	...	Mildred Tobin
William Sheer	...	Harry Knight
Margaret Seddon	...	Babe's Mother
Frances Victory	...	Pigtails
James A. Marcus	...	Simon Tobin
Ralf Harolde	...	John Tobin (as Ralph Harolds)
Charles Byer	...	David Talmadge (as Charles Burt)
George Halpin	...	Doc Hedges / The Constable / Dog Catcher
William J. Gross	...	Eliar Lott
Walter Lawrence	...	Tony Marino
Ann Brody	...	Mrs. Tony Marino (as Anne Brodie)
Ricca Allen	...	Almira Worters
Sammy Blum	...	Jimbo Jones (as Sam Blum)
Ethel Kerwin	...	Kitty Wilson

Storyline

Fictional story of a country boy who can't get the hang of playing baseball and is the butt of jokes in his small town. But one day he gets mad and knocks a towering home run. Suddenly he is off and running to fame in the big leagues. When he returns to his home town, everyone sees that he is the same loveable fellow he was before.

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Plot Keywords:

baseball | actor playing himself | 

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Genres:

Biography | Comedy | Drama | Sport

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 September 1920 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Haverstraw, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Kessel & Baumann, Yankee Photo Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

71 min

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Babe Ruth received $25,000 for this, his first film. The sum was a large amount for the time, and Ruth refused to cash his paycheck and carried it around to show to friends. By the time Ruth had decided to cash his check for the film, the check bounced because of the film's poor box office results. Ruth shrugged off his loss and kept the check as a memento.

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Connections

Featured in Sports on the Silver Screen (1997)

User Reviews

Stupid

Never mind that this supposed biography of professional baseball player Babe Ruth is entirely fiction (a brief search of his biographical information reveals a rougher upbringing); the more aggravating problem is how it is so stupid. The film-making is visually incompetent, as is the acting, but the worst aspects are the scenario and titles. The picture is stuffed with title cards, especially for exposition at the beginning—introducing handfuls of characters we're barely going to hear from again or whom we'd be better off not having seen. Episodes such as the dogcatcher and block of ice bits entirely fail at humor. Babe carving baseball bats and the indications of romance at the town's social go nowhere. Even worse is the irritating title cards, which mimic being folksy, with their stupid slang, bad jokes and intentionally misspelled words, which I guess were supposed to be remembered narration by one of Ruth's townsmen who's seen at his game in the beginning—otherwise, I don't see why there are quotation marks around every title card. I only counted three dialogue intertitles (that is, title cards stating what the seen characters say), and they occur near the end of the movie.

Some brief footage of Ruth playing baseball might be of some documentary interest.