Death on the Diamond

Death on the Diamond (1934)

** (out of 4)

I love a good murder-mystery but I think there are probably lines that shouldn't be crossed. This film passes that line and just keeps going and going and going. The Manager/Owner of the St. Louis Cardinals pays good money to bring in star pitcher Larry Kelly (Robert Young) so that they can win a championship and save the team. Someone else doesn't want them to win and soon players are being killed one by one. It's up to Kelly and the owner's daughter (Madge Evans) to try and strike up a relationship as well as catch the madman. I think having a murder-mystery set on a baseball field is pretty far-fetched but I guess with the right screenplay something entertaining could have been done with it. Sadly, this isn't the screenplay and in the end one can't help be rather bored by the actual story but nevertheless the film manages to be entertaining simply because you haven't seen anything like it before (or since). I think the biggest problem is that the story, in its "B" picture form, just doesn't have enough to make it interesting. Can you imagine if baseball players were really getting picked out what type of stuff would be happening? Terror from the players, the opposite team, the fans coming to the game and I'm pretty sure the media would be all over a player being shot and killed while rounding third base. The story here pretty much looks at the players, the owner and a few cops so there's nothing big or believable that happens. The film offers up everyone as a red herring and I must admit that I laughed out loud when the killer was finally shown. How we learn who it is and what follows almost makes this movie an instant classic. Young and Evans both turn in decent performances and the two seem to be having a good time with all the flirting. Nat Pendleton and Ted Healy are on board and the supporting cast includes Joe Sawyer in a small role and we even have a very young Mickey Rooney playing the ball boy. Ward Bond and Walter Brennan also have small, uncredited roles. Fans of the genre will probably want to check this out if they're like me and just want to see every film of its kind. Others will probably hit the stop button well before the ending but the strangeness of this film and the weird story keeps its mildly entertaining.

Seeing that this film was released in September of 1934 when in real life the St. Louis Cardinals were in a tight pennant race with the New York Giants, it's a wonder that this film didn't give some miscreant the idea of doing in the Dean brothers who were to lead the famous Gashouse Gang to the National League pennant and World Series that year.

The Cardinals are in desperate financial straights this year as owner/manager David Landau and daughter Madge Evans put the team in hock to get star pitcher Robert Young. Madge has a thing for Bob, but other players have a thing for Madge.

In the meantime the rejuvenated Cardinals are screwing up all kinds of gambling interests who don't want to see the long-shot Cardinals win the pennant. They'll stop at nothing including murder to see the Redbirds of St. Louis don't triumph. Murders of three players do occur before the culprit is found.

Nat Pendleton and Ted Healy provide the comic relief as a perpetually quarreling catcher and umpire. Someone did some research for this film or was a fan because legendary umpire Bill Klem who was still active in 1934 had an unbelievable aversion to the name of 'Catfish'. In Healy's case Pendleton calls him 'Crawfish' to get his goat.

Some establishing shots will give you a look at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis which is long gone now. Otherwise the cast MGM put together for this film shot it in and around Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, the minor league park of the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League which also now history.

The ending of the film is the very least bizarre. Nearly the entire cast is suspect at one point, but the guilty party in this baseball mystery comes right out of left field. No, the left fielder didn't do it.

Paul Kelly has a very good role as a sportswriter with a nose for news that serves him well, the scoops he does get in this film.

I might have liked the film better had the ending which I can't reveal been so bizarre. It did give one player an opportunity for a grand piece of scenery chewing.

Someone's trying to keep St. Louis's baseball team from winning the pennant by killing off the players!

No wonder this antique rarely if ever showed up on a Late Show. As a whodunit, the movie generates little suspense as a multitude of characters drift in and out of the meandering scenes. In fact, the plot with a shadowy character shooting players during the game is pretty contrived.

Then too, the occasional poorly done process shots, usually backgrounding Larry (Young), keep reminding you that this is after all only a movie. The badinage between umpire O'Toole (I think) and player Hogan about the former's eyesight gets tiresome even if it does turn poignant in the end. Then too, I don't know where director Sedgwick was during the confession scene, but as others point out, it has to be seen to be believed.

On the other hand, Young does a reasonable job emulating a big league pitcher and is his usual engaging self, while Evans (Frances) and Kelly (reporter Jimmie) outshine the third-rate material. As an old Cardinal fan from the days of Musial and Schoendienst, I did enjoy seeing shots of old Sportsman's Park packed to the rafters. Nonetheless, the movie just doesn't cut it, and not because of its creaky age.

David Landau is the owner-manager of the St. Louis Cardinals -- for the moment. The franchise's finances have been underwater for a while. Everything he has is mortgaged, and he's spent his last moment buying pitcher Robert Young. If the team can't take the World Series this year, he's finished. But the team performs and it looks like they may go to the World Series, until key players are murdered.

It's a pretty good effort from MGM, with Madge Evans as Landau's daughter and Young's love interest, Nat Pendleton, Ted Healy, Henry Gordon, and the usual assortment of MGM players to add gloss. The mystery is ok, although Young does not do the real investigating. That's up to Paul Kelly. It's the sort of enjoyable programmer that MGM could turn out when they weren't trying for greatness.

A very youthful looking ROBERT YOUNG plays a star pitcher hired to help the St. Louis Cardinals win the '34 pennant race. He falls in love with the manager's daughter, pretty MADGE EVANS.

The team is soon involved in a series of murders that take place on the baseball field or in the locker room. Since most of the action takes place in broad daylight, there's no chance to build up the suspense to turn this into a crime melodrama. Instead, the heavier touch is on comedy, supplied by NAT PENDLETON and TED HEALEY. Unfortunately, their humorous material is a bit strained for laughs.

Real footage of the Cardinals is integrated with the studio footage shot at Wrigley Field, with mixed results that are more distracting than anything else. Revelation of the murderer comes in the last reel and is far from satisfying, leading to a scene of ham acting at its worst.

Nothing special about this one, even with a cast that includes PAUL KELLY, WILLARD ROBERTSON and pint-sized MICKEY ROONEY in supporting roles.

Some uncredited bits by GARY OWEN, WARD BOND and DENNIS O'KEEFE for those who stay awake during the proceedings.