Baseball Double Feature - Kill the Umpire / Safe at Home
by Walter Doniger, Lloyd Bacon
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Don Collier, Mickey Mantle, Patricia Barry, Roger Maris, William FrawleyDirector: Lloyd Bacon, Walter Doniger
Brand: Sony
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 162 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-04-03
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Sony Pictures
Movie Reviews of Baseball Double Feature - Kill the Umpire / Safe at Home
Movie Review: Sometimes it's hard to go home again...
Summary: 3 Stars
I have the fondest memories of this movie from my youth. Whenever I found I was repeating myself for whatever reason, it was hard not to have a fleeting thought of William Bendix as Bill "Two Call" Johnson. So, finally, I had to see it again on DVD.
I enjoyed seeing the movie again, but not while I watched it. One problem is that the memories planted when we are younger don't get reassessed from an adult perspective as we age. The histrionics and sight gags that seemed so appropriate to a 12 year old now seem way over-the-top and interfere.
While I was watching the movie, my thought was, "What did I ever see in this?" But, a few days later, the memories of that happy 12 year old are blended with renewed memories of the details of the script and, once again, I get that warm glow thinking about it.
Summary of Baseball Double Feature - Kill the Umpire / Safe at Home
Kill The Umpire - Ex-baseball player Bill Johnson (William Bendix) failing at many jobs when his ball-playing days are over reluctantly takes the advice of his father-in-law Jonah Evans (Ray Collins) a retired umpire and enters an umpire-training school. Assigned to the Texas League he does fine until the championship play-offs when a riot develops over one of his calls. The involved player is knocked unconscious in the proceedings and cannot verify that Bill made the correct call. Despite lynch mob plans to at least tar-and-feather him Bill's family - his daughters Lucy (Gloria Henry) and Susan (Connie Marshall) and his wife Betty (Una Merkel) - help Bill reach the ballpark safely the next day through a series of hair-raising encounters.Safe At Home! - Young Hutch Lawton brags to his Little League buddies that his dad knows Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris. Forced to "put up or shut up" Hutch goes to spring training camp where he is lectured about honesty being the best policy. He returns to face his buddies with the truth to find the entire Little League team invited to camp.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre:?SPORTS/GAMES UPC:?043396168824 Manufacturer No:?16882Kill the Umpire and Safe at Home reside cozily on this family-friendly disc, a pair of entertaining movies about baseball-crazy characters with very different reasons for getting close to the game. The 1950 Kill the Umpire stars William Bendix as Bill Johnson, a working man so enamored of America's pastime that he regularly loses jobs because he can't stay out of his favorite New York ballpark when he's supposed to be at the office. Loudly disdainful of all umpires, Bill gets both a blessing and a comeuppance when his father-in-law (Ray Collins), a retired ump, sends him off to umpire school to learn the profession he deserves. After a lot of resistance, Bill understands the basic nobility of being the guy people love to hate despite also being necessary to baseball. The script is by Frank Tashlin, the animation director who would soon have better things to do in the 1950s and beyond, such as directing Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and guiding Jerry Lewis in some of his best vehicles. Indeed, Kill the Umpire, in many ways, looks like a collection of old cartoon gags connected by Bendix's charming performance. But under the sure hand of seasoned director Lloyd Bacon (Knute Rockne All-American), it all comes together nicely.
The 1962 Safe at Home is built around the presence of New York Yankees stars Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle, who prove stiff but game playing themselves in the story of a little boy who gets in trouble for overstating his friendship with them. Young Hutch Lawton (Bryan Russell), a motherless child trying hard to help his preoccupied dad (Don Collier) build a business, brags to his Little League team that he knows Maris and Mantle, then sets out on a journey to talk the legendary sluggers into going back with him to meet the team. William Frawley (who also appears in Kill the Umpire) helps keep the pace going as the Yankees' manager, and Patricia Barry is a welcome presence as Mr. Lawton's love interest. --Tom Keogh
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