It Happened in Flatbush

Enjoyable movie. Years back they would have called this a B film. Today, it would rate A+.

Lloyd Nolan provides just the right touch as the baseball manager. His speech intonation reflects a wonderful Brooklyn accent. We bums in Brooklyn would appreciate every minute of it.

Brought back to manage a baseball team by the owner, (Sara Allgood in an all too brief performance) the film depicts the trials and tribulations of managing a last place team to pennant contention.

Romance is in the air as Nolan tries to woo the snooty niece of the recently deceased owner. Carol Landis does well as the niece.

We see Brooklyn at its best here as the faithful root for the Bums of yesteryear.

Wonderful nostalgia.

Although in 1942 Brooklyn was only one of the five boroughs of Greater New York when it was a city by itself it had a ballclub in the National League that eventually became known as the Dodgers. That club helped Brooklyn keep its individuality and was what made Brooklyn as Lloyd Nolan put it, "the greatest baseball town in the world".

Although you can see a lot more of old Ebbetts Field in the Red Skelton film Whistling In Brooklyn, you get enough of it here in a film about the Dodgers and their run for the pennant. In fact It Happened In Flatbush celebrated what happened in real life, the Dodgers winning their first pennant in 21 years in 1941.

But they lost the World Series in five games to the Yankees, a pattern that would repeat itself until 1955. That series is best remembered for passed ball by Dodger catcher Mickey Owen in game four on what would have been the last out of the game and the Dodgers winning and evening the series up at two games to two. But the Yankee right fielder Tommy Henrich ran to first safely and then the Yankees opened up and won the game. The heart was cut out of the Dodgers with that play.

Something similar has happened to Lloyd Nolan in It Happened In Flatbush. He was a promising shortstop who made an error and cost the Dodgers the pennant back in the day. In fact he was tagged "Butterfingers" and literally run out of the Big Leagues. More modern fans would call this the Bill Buckner syndrome.

Anyway Dodger owner Sara Allgood hires Nolan as manager and then she promptly dies leaving the biggest share to her niece Carole Landis who is a Park Avenue débutante with not much interest in the game. General Manager William Frawley is in Nolan's corner however and to keep his job he puts the moves on Landis.

Let's say she develops an interest in her Brooklyn roots and in baseball and Nolan with the inevitable results.

Watching that I couldn't help thinking of the real Dodger manager at the time, one Leo Durocher who had an eye for the ladies and would soon take as a third wife, movie star Laraine Day. If Durocher had a pretty owner like Carole Landis to deal with instead of the mercurial Larry MacPhail at the time, he would have been in their pitching with Carole.

Baseball players all over organized baseball would have voted Lloyd Nolan an Oscar if they had a vote for punching out the character that Robert Armstrong plays. Armstrong is one of those grudge bearing sportswriters who will pick on a target of some athlete and just always tear him down for whatever the reason. Ted Williams had one such individual in Boston, a guy named Dave Egan and if the Splendid Splinter ever saw It Happened In Flatbush he would have stood and applauded Nolan for doing what he would like to have done. In real life that would probably get you banned, fortunately Armstrong and Nolan had no witnesses.

The misanthropic William Frawley who was in real life a very lonely alcoholic has an unusual number of baseball films in his film credits. That's because he was a huge fan and probably would have paid 20th Century Fox to be in It Happened In Flatbush.

It Happened In Flatbush celebrates the place of my birth and the unique place in American culture it has. Its fans made it the greatest baseball town in the world.

This film is about a new manager for the Brooklyn Dodgers and how he was able to somehow energize the team enough to make them contenders--though the film didn't seem to indicate exactly why this was the case other than they bought a few hot prospects. In fact, up until the end of the film, it was very odd for a baseball film because it showed so little on-field action. Because of this, some of the actors playing the ball players didn't have to have any skills for the game and several looked nothing like athletes. Or perhaps this COULD just be a comment about the Dodgers of 1942--as most of their stars were fighting in the war! However, this is a rather mild complaint--more of an observation, as I was hoping for more on-field action.

Despite this, it was a moderately enjoyable B-movie starring Lloyd Nolan and Carole Landis (in a less recognizable dark hairdo). The story was entertaining and the acting competent. However, because there have been so many baseball films over the years and because this one isn't particularly outstanding in any way, then it's quite easy to skip and falls into the "time-passer" category. Now this isn't saying it's a bad film or that you should skip it, but there are simply better baseball movies out there as well as many that are of about equal entertainment value.

Following their first National League Pennant win since 1920, The Brooklyn Dodgers team players, though losing the 1941 World Series, went to Hollywood to appear as themselves in this film's field and locker room scenes. Though uncredited on screen, they included Mickey Owen, Dolf Camilli, Billy Herman, Pewee Reese, Arky Vaughan, Dixie Walker, Cookie Lavagetto, Peter Reiser, and pitchers Hugh Casey, Whitlow Wyatt, and Freddie Fitzimmons. However, Lloyd Nolan played the team manager instead of Leo Durocher and Red Barber's substitute was KMPC radio Broadcaster Hal Berger whose 1941 in-studio game recreations fostered the birth of L.A.'s Dodger fan clubs.

It Happened In Flatbush is a very fun and very entertaining baseball comedy from 1942. The beautiful Carole Landis stars as Kathryn Baker, a socialite who inherits a baseball team but knows nothing about sports. Lloyd Nolan, a washed up baseball player, returns to Brooklyn to manage the team. At first he clashes with Landis but eventually (of course ;-) he falls in love with her. Can they work together to save the team and win the big game? Although this is a movie about baseball I thought the personal scenes between Carole and Lloyd were the best. Miss Landis gives an excellent performance and gets to wear some really beautiful gowns. She was one of Fox's most promised starlets but sadly she took her own life in 1948. She appeared in more than forty films during her career and It Happened In Flatbush is one of her better roles. The movie got very good reviews and was a modest hit when it came out in 1942. The talented cast also includes William Frawley, Scotty Beckett, and Sara Allgood. It was directed by Ray McCarey who also worked with Carole on 1941s Cadet Girl. If you're a fan of fun baseball movies or just want to see the lovely Carole Landis you'll enjoy this film.

In 2015 Fox finally released It Happened In Flatbush on DVD.