Kill the Umpire

Kill the Umpire had to be a success because it appealed to the fantasy of every baseball fan in the world, the idea that he can be a better umpire than the guys out there doing it. It's kind of like folks singing in the shower and imagining their Crosby or Sinatra.

You can tell the love that went into this comedy because players Bill Bendix and Bill Frawley were both noted baseball fans. The laughs are there, but so is the reverence for the American national pastime.

Poor Bill Bendix, a former ballplayer who can't make a go of it after his playing days are over. Of course this was in the day of the reserve clause with the low salaries. Father-in-law Ray Collins tells Bendix to get back in the game in a way. Become an umpire.

This is heresy of the worst kind. Imagine John McEnroe being told to become a tennis referee. But he makes a go of it.

The scenes in umpire training school are funny enough, but what a reality check poor Bendix gets when he umpires his first game. A man used to hearing the cheers of the crowd for his exploits on the diamond. And he's assigned to the Texas League. Texas baseball fans were legendary in their treatment of umpires. Made old Brooklyn Dodger fans like Bendix himself, look like those attending the races in My Fair Lady.

Bendix and Frawley as the head of the umpire training school are reteamed after both of them were in The Babe Ruth Story. This one works far better.

It's so funny I don't even think you need to be a baseball fan to watch this and enjoy it. But it sure helps.

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.

This is a really a funny movie, something Director Lloyd Bacon produced by the carload back in "the classic era." Bacon's movies were fast-moving and entertaining, and this was no exception. If you liked William Bendix in his mid-1950s TV show, "Life Of Riley," you'll like this film.

Bacon had an especially good year in comedies in 1950 with this movie, "The Fuller Brush Girl" with Lucille Ball, and "The Good Humor Man" with Jack Carson. The director must have been a baseball fan because the year before (1949), he directed Ray Milland in another absurd-but-hilarious movie called "It Happens Every Spring." Whether you enjoy baseball or, you'll get a lot of laughs out of it, too. It's just simply a goofy and likable comedy, filled with the kind of characters you'd see in a late '40s/early '50s comedy. What's nice about the older films, too, is that you actually see whole families: dad, mom and a couple of kids.

Actually, you more you know about baseball, the more you'll just shake your in disbelief at some of the things you'll see in this story because they could never happen today, or even back in 1950. (i.e. a fan coming out of the stands and punching an umpire several times over the course of a minute, and then ump slugging him....and nobody arrested?) Anyway, Bendix is very good and the supporting case, led by underrated actor Tom D'Andrea, is fun to watch, too. D'Andrea and Bendix reminded me almost of Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in "Some Like It Hot." They worked well as a team and must have known that because they paired up in the aforementioned TV series, too, later in the decade.

This film also will remind older film buffs of silent movie comedies with a wild scene at the end you have to see to believe. (Hint: Bendix winds up "water skiing down city streets, being pulled by an ambulance).

It's sheer lunacy.

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.

It's sort of nice when you watch a film not expecting much, but discover an entertaining story. That was the case for this film, which I saw on TCM. William Bendix is always enjoyable as a supporting actor, but in this Columbia film he starred, as an ex-baseball player addicted to baseball, who very reluctantly takes a job as an umpire. It's especially nice to see Bendix playing with Tom D'Andrea, who was also his pal in the "Life Of Riley" television series. And, other supporting actors are Ray Collins (of Perry Mason fame), Una Merkel (as the wife), and William Frawley as the owner of the school for umpires.

While I found the film entertaining, it did have its flaws. Most annoying was seeing all the major mountains in St. Petersburg and Cocoa in Florida! Apparently there's been an awfully lot of erosion in the last 60 years since this film was made! There were a few others "errors of location", as well. But, after all, this was a relatively low budget film, and if you ignore such things, you can still enjoy the story. One other problem was that the director couldn't exactly decide what kind of comedy this was. Sentimental? Sometimes. Screwball? No, in a few places (like setting fire to the hotel and the car chase segment) it got downright slapstick. But, still, it's a pleasant enough film to watch. I couldn't help thinking, however, how Red Skelton could have made so much more of the movie.