Kill the Umpire

This is one of (if not the) best baseball movies ever made. I remember watching it every spring as I grew up, and never tired of it. I can't understand why it has never been released to video, or why it never is played on the classic movie channels.

If you can find it, buy it (or record it), you won't be sorry.

Bill Johnson loves baseball, so much that his following causes him to be fired from many jobs and starts to drive his wife, Betty, nuts. Bill's father in law, a former big league umpire, enrolls him in an umpire school, but Bill's main pastime at ball games is to yell at umpires so he doesn't embrace the idea. Bill does his best to get the coach at the school to send him home, but does later see the importance of umpires in the game and starts taking the game seriously. He graduates and is assigned, with his friend Roscoe Snooker, to the Texas League, where he painfully finds out how seriously Texans take their baseball. Bill calls a close play at the plate in a championship game and the home team fans want his head and Bill has to find a way to umpire the next game without getting killed beforehand. This was a very enjoyable movie with a fun and pleasant script. Bendix and D'Andrea having the same chemistry and performances from their Life of Riley days, while Merkel, Collins, and Frawley are fine support. Decent special effects camera-work with Bendix having to see double at times. A real treat. Rating, 8.

Rambunctious little comedy proving that Bendix could mug it up with the best of them. Baseball nut Johnson (Bendix) keeps losing jobs because of his baseball mania. So ex-umpire and Grandad (Ray Collins) pulls strings to get Johnson into ump's school. After graduation, the new ump is assigned to extra-tough Texas League, where he gets a big un-welcome, to say the least. Meanwhile, the gags and schticks fly fast and furious. That's no surprise, since the writer is cult favorite Frank Tashlin in one of his early outings. Note the number of sight gags, a Tashlin specialty. Also, veteran director Lloyd Bacon really knows how to keep a comedy from dragging, so there's never the proverbial dull moment. Keep your ears open because Tashlin and Bacon sneak in a couple of very un-1950's innuendos-- one with the crossed telephone wires, and the other which flies by quickly with the Indian pulling his fat wife on a travois. I had to re-run the tape twice to be sure I'd put that gag together correctly-- apparently it was fleeting enough to get by the censors. Anyway, the movie's related to the spate of occupation comedies of the period, all of which end in whirlwind madcap. I recall enjoying the film as a boy (even if I missed the innuendos) and am glad to discover that I enjoyed it as least as much as an oldster. Recommended.

This is one of the great early movies about baseball. William Bendix is the perfect "Two Call Johnson" and William Frawley is outstanding as the owner of the umpire school. While it has several slapstick-style sight gags, it captures a man's love for the game. There's nothing brilliant about the storyline, but it rates as the Swiss chocolate of mind candy.

I only wish it were available on DVD.

I like many others, first saw this on TV literally decades ago. I loved it. It made such an impression on me that I have looked for it off and on over the years but I haven't found it. Well wouldn't you know, I try a short cat nap late in the evening before I get a midnight snack, I wake up and page thru the listings on the channel guide. There is the title I haven't seen in 40 years. "Kill The Umpire". However, I notice that it started about 15-20 minutes ago so I didn't get to see the beginning. Then a little while later the dog wanted out, so I've got to mess with him. Long story short... I caught what I could of the movie. I've told so many people about how great it was. This was from an era of hope that swept across America after WW 2. We still had sandlot baseball, people still got dressed up to go to the ball games, we still had dinner with the family all at the same time, and people still offered second chances. This film was filled with Americana. I really miss the America it portrays even though I wasn't born until the year after this was released. I'm glad I got to watch it again. I hope someone makes a DVD of this.