The Kid from Cleveland

Although a dreadful film, The Kid from Cleveland should be of more than routine interest to the baseball fan with a sense of history. Small cameo speaking appearances are made throughout by such baseball greats as Hank Greenberg, Bob Feller, Tris Speaker, Bill Veeck, Satchel Paige, Larry Doby -- well, just look at the cast. The players do more than just bat and pitch, the difference between this and most baseball movies.

Cleveland Indians radio color commentator George Brent discovers Russ Tamblyn (in his first movie role) hiding out in the stadium. He says he's an orphan from Chicago who wants to see the game, so the team members agree he can come ack, and Brent takes him home to wife Lynn Bari and their two daughters. It comes out that Tamblyn isn't from Chicago, but Cleveland, and his mother Ann Doran and stepfather, Louis Jean Heydt.

Looking at the 1948 World Champion Indians is a bonus here, and enough to extend the movie into first-feature length. It's a story about a troubled boy, and well-meaning adults who are at the end of their tethers. For the era, it's quite frank, with Miss Bari mentioning casually that she cannot have any more children, and Heydt getting to show some range. Amidst this story, you get shots of the 1949 Indians on the field and off.

... as a troubled teen baseball fan who hates his stepfather (Louis Jean Heydt), sneaks into the baseball stadium and claims he's an orphan, befriending the Cleveland Indians sportscaster (George Brent) and the whole team (playing themselves) but still getting in trouble with the law because of his home life and hanging around with a local hoodlum. The kindly sportscaster had been an orphan himself so he takes the boy under his wing and tries to find a way to reform him and keep him off the streets, and even convinces his wife (Lynn Bari) they should adopt him.

Of course, various complications intervene so we can have a wholesome portrait of the juvenile justice system bringing families together. The scenes using actual newsreel footage from the 1948 World Series are obviously grainier, but the newly shot 1949 baseball footage is all pristine in the copy I saw. The story is pretty much standard formula with little in the way of surprise twists, but it's all nicely done, beautifully shot (again with several noir-like sequences), and certainly a must for baseball fans and fans of delinquent-teen dramas.

This is a great movie for old time baseball fans as we get to see a dozen or so famous baseball players from the 1920s, 30s and 40s. Nice to find out how successful the Cleveland Indians were in 1948 when they won the World Series and broke attendance records.

However the movie also tries to be a hard edge social drama dealing with juvenile criminality. Here the light-hearted baseball story breaks up and presents us with a seriously disturbed teenage criminal in Rusty Tamblyn ("Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," 1954, "West Side Story," 1961). He loves baseball, but he's attracted to the criminal life for the freedom and easy money. Unfortunately Tamblyn always looks like a sweet and innocent kid even when he's robbing people and threatening their lives.

He was 15 years old when he filmed the movie, but he looks younger, maybe 13 years old.

Again, I gave it 5 stars because the delightful baseball story and the serious juvenile delinquency story undercut each other. However baseball fans can add 2 stars and Russ Tamblyn fans can add 2 stars. Its a must see if you're a baseball and Russ Tamblyn fan.

Little Johnny Barrows Jr is a kid from Cleveland, who lives with his loving Mom and Stepfather, but who is heading down the wrong path in life.

He doesn't get along with his Stepdad too well, so he's fallen in with a young hoodlum named Daniel, who idealizes a gang leader named Mac...who runs a crime syndicate of child thieves.

One day, Johnny runs away from home and uses his abilities as a con man to sneak in to the Cleveland Indians stadium, where he convinces the brass that he's an orphan.

They take pity on him and give him an oppourtunity to meet the players and take in a World Series game against the Boston Braves.

The team loses the game, but goes on to win the World Series. And this encourages Johnny to keep visiting the man who helped him that day...Mike Jackson, the teams radio announcer.

Despite conning Mike and even stealing from him, he never gives up on the boy...and goes on to become Johnny's mentor.

Johhny's real father died in World War II, and this new relationship with all his childhood heroes only makes him more antagonistic towards his stepfather, who is just a baker, and can't offer him that same sort of lifestyle.

So, when Johnny runs away for a second time to visit Mike, earning himself a job as a junior sportswriter and batboy for the Indians during spring training in Arizona...he feels that all his dreams are destroyed when his stepfather shows up to bring him back to Cleveland.

This leads Johnny to fall back in with Daniel, and a life of crime...landing him in detention at the Juvenile Court.

That is, until one day the Indians come to visit, reuniting him with all his old friends from the team...including Mike.

Mike is driven to help the boy- never having had a son of his own- and tries to help get him out of this seemingly hopeless situation...even going as far as offering to adopt him.

Johnny wants to be adopted by the well-to-do family...but his Mother and Stepfather are not willing to just give him out without a fight.

So the matter goes to court, where the Truth about the whole situation really comes out.

The court rules in his Mother's favour, but this does not mean that Mike, his wife, and his "30 Godfathers" from the team are just going to throw him away...so they promise to retain their friendship and relationship with him as the team's batsboy.

So Johnny ends up with 2 families, one that keeps him in touch with his heroes, and the other who help him work toward achieving his goal of becoming an architect.

Now, a boy who might have ended up in San Quentin, like his friend, has been directed down a more positive path in life.

This is a great story, that offers hope to kids who dream, but may not have been given all the prospects that life has to offer.

The acting and direction is solid, and the film features a whole load of real ball players from the Indians...including the now infamous Satchel Page.

It is certainly one of the best- and most inspiring- baseball films to have ever been made in the history of American Cinema.

All around, it's an entertaining and enjoyable film with a positive message, that will have you clapping at the end.

7.5 out of 10.