Alibi Ike

This movie is a nice, enjoyable way to spend a weekend afternoon. Nothing heavy or terribly dramatic, just the very comical and entertaining Joe E. Brown, backed by an able supporting cast.

Brown is perfect as Alibi Ike, a baseball player who is a chronic liar but somehow manages to be likable despite this rather serious fault. Olivia de Havilland is young, very pretty, and engaging as Brown's somewhat frustrated but ultimately successful fiancé. And it's a treat to see William Frawley -- crusty old Fred Mertz himself -- as the baseball manager. Frawley was a real-life baseball fanatic, so he probably really enjoyed making this movie.

I loved Brown's crazy unique wind-up before pitching the baseball. He seems to be great with physical comedy. I think I read somewhere (can't remember where, so consider this unverified) that in real life Brown was very athletic, and the reason he wore full business suits, long sleeved shirts, and loose fitting baseball uniforms throughout this movie was that his rock hard abs and well-defined biceps conflicted with the loose and easy-going character he portrayed on the screen.

Got a free afternoon or evening? I'd recommend giving this film a try. And thanks to Turner Classic Movies for broadcasting the "uncensored" version of Alibi Ike! (See the Trivia section of the IMDb Alibi Ike site for more information.)

Alibi Ike is a mildly amusing baseball comedy based on Ring Lardner's character of a pitcher with an excuse for everything. It's a pretty good example of Joe E. Brown's hayseed type character at the height of his popularity. And of course because A Midsummer Night's Dream was held up in release, Alibi Ike marks the debut of Olivia DeHavilland on the silver screen.

Although Olivia has little enough to do in this film which is strictly a Joe E. Brown show, she's one pretty thing here. She was only 19 when she made this film and would have to wait through another film besides this one and the Max Reinhardt extravaganza before settling into her Warner Brothers niche as crinolined heroine, yearning for Errol Flynn to win her as he did in Captain Blood.

Joe E. Brown took naturally to this role, possibly because he was known as a very big baseball fan in real life. Playing his ever harried manager in Alibi Ike is William Frawley who in real life was also known as a baseball aficionado. Brown's son, Joe L. Brown didn't follow his father into show business, he became a well respected baseball executive best known as general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates world championship team of 1960.

It's worth seeing the film alone to see how Joe E. Brown does that exaggerated windmill windup when he pitches. Funny as all get out, but in real life, a runner with the speed of Ernie Lombardi would have stolen two bases on him. Who's Ernie Lombardi, a Hall of Fame catcher with the Cincinnati Reds during this same period who was a legend for his lack of speed.

For baseball fans, and baseball film fans, make sure you don't miss this.

The Chicago Cubs finally win the pennant! And it takes Joe E. Brown's immortal character Alibi Ike to do it. William Frawley once again is superb in the supporting role, as the manager. Olivia De Havilland shines as the love interest. The rest of the supporting cast which includes Ruth Donnelly and Roscoe Karns are excellent. Director Raymond Enright keeps the film moving along in good fashion. The movie is predictable but it's a lot of fun getting to the end. The ending puts a lasting smile on one's face reminiscent of the movie "Some Like It Hot". This feel good movie hits a home run with this viewer. Take yourself out to the ballgame and enjoy!

The character of Alibi Ike was well known to the American public. There was not only Ring Lardner's short novel but a comic strip for a couple of years, with Ring Lardner as one of the strip's writers.

Lardner's prose was funny, but it was also an incisive exposure of the ignorance and bigotry of middle America of the 1920s. He was inditing a culture which was smug in its ignorance and prejudices. There is, of course, none of this in this Joe E. Brown comedy, designed mainly for Brown to do his familiar shtick while cruising along with a well used plot.

Warner Brothers was willing to bring social criticism into their films at this period (unlike the other studios), but they knew that it wouldn't work in a Joe E. Brown comedy. Brown's movies were designed for rural America (and were very successful), and rural America could laugh as Brown made fun of "citified ways", but they wouldn't have appreciated cogent criticism aimed at them. At least, they wouldn't have laughed.

So this is a fast comedy, pretty funny, especially for baseball fans and baseball historians.

While A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM was really Olivia de Havilland's first film, the studio in the meantime put her in ALIBI IKE which was released first--so this gave the public their first view of her.

She's a pretty ingenue here with just a hint of stardom about her. Joe E. Brown was very popular at the time and had already done a couple of baseball comedies. Apparently, his fans considered this Ring Lardner tale one of his best.

I couldn't work up much enthusiasm for it, although I did find several scenes rather amusing. However, unless you're a die-hard fan of Joe E. Brown with an addiction for baseball, ALIBI IKE comes across more as a curiosity piece than anything else. The night baseball scenes came as a surprise to me. Brown does his usual genial job in the title role and obviously relishes the limelight.

William Frawley plays a baseball manager and Ruth Donnelly has a brief role as Olivia's sister.

Trivia note: Ruth Donnelly would join Olivia thirteen years later for 1948's THE SNAKE PIT, as a fellow inmate.