Flyerplesys Perfectly adorable

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Scotty Burke It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Beulah Bram A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

ccthemovieman-1 Despite seeing thousands of films including Joe E. Brown in his famous supporting role in "Some Like It Hot," I had never seen him in a starring role...until this was aired on TCM the other night. Being a baseball fan, too, I had a feeling this might be an entertaining film.....and it was!Yes, it's goofy and some of the humor is very dated but Brown has a number of things going for him. First, he actually can throw and catch a baseball. The guy could play the game! That's unusual to see in classic-era feature films. Secondly, as in "Some Like It Hot," he's funny and he's a likable guy with that "heyyyyyyyyy" noise that, for some reason, always makes me laugh.Brown plays "Frank Ferrell," a.k.a., "Alibi Ike," a Dizzy Dean-type rookie for the Cubs who winds up with Olivia de Havilland (as a 19-year-old, no less, making one of her first films) - and helping the Cubs, of course. (Boy, they could use him now.)Along the way, we get some very entertaining baseball scenes. Ya gotta Joe E's windmill windup! "Ike's" romance with "Dolly" (de Havilland) takes up a fairly good chunk of the second half and noticeably slows down the movie. I almost lost interest. It doesn't pick up again until near the end with a wild baseball finish which includes the greatest "slide" at home plate I've ever seen!

sol1218 (Some Spoilers) Nice follow up to his previous baseball flick "Elmer the Great" Joe E. Brown is the Chicago Cub's new pitching sensation Frank X. Farrell the man with the golden arm and lighting quick swing. What Frank's only drawback in his playing ability has nothing to do with playing baseball: His inability to tell the truth! This lead to him being nicknamed by his teammates and the newspapers as "Alibi Ike".As soon as the Cubs started spring training their manager Cap, William Frawley, knew he had a pennant winning team as long as Frank's pitching arm stayed healthy. But on the very first game Cap almost whacked it by shaking Frank's hand so hard and almost breaking it! Still Frank came back strong as his pitched the Cubs into 1st place with a string of shut-out victories. It was when Frank was introduced to Cap's sister in law Dolly Stevens, Olivia De Havillan, his mind started to forget the reason he was on the Chicago Cub baseball team in the first place. To help the team win the both National League Pennant and World Series: Or "World Serious" as Frank pronounced it.If Dolly wasn't enough to keep Frank's mind off on winning the World Series a group of gangsters headed by Lefty Crawford, Paul Harvey, were! Trying to get Frank to throw the two games he's to pitch against the NY Giants in the World Series Frank ends up getting kidnapped by Lefty's hoods after he got the word from one of his flunkies-Jimmy the Newsboy-that Frank, with Dolly's urging, is out to win not throw the final game.Escaping from his hoodlum captors Frank makes it to the ballpark, in his pajamas, by hijacking an ambulance and then replacing the Cub pitcher who just let the Giants score the tying run. Taking the mound Frank's will-mill like pitching still wasn't enough to win it for the Cubs. Going into extra innings it was Frank's batting and running as well as jumping talents that finally made the Chicago Cubs the World Baseball Champions. By far the best scene in the movie was Frank running out an inside the park home run and preventing himself from being tagged out at the plate by flying, some six feet, over the giant's catcher instead, in what you would usually expect in situations like that, sliding away from him!P.S Even though it wasn't the first movie that she made "Alibi Ike" was the first film released with Olivia De Havilland in it. There was also in the film the World Series between the Cubs and Giants, who incidentally are both in the same National League, playing the deciding game of the series at night! This predated the first World Series night game by some 36 years which was played on October 13, 1971 between the Baltimore Orioles and Pittsburgh Pirates at the Pirates new ballpark Three River Stadium.

Ron Oliver Known as ALIBI IKE for his never-ending excuses, the brash new pitcher for the Chicago Cubs becomes involved with nasty crooks and a very pretty young lady.Comic Joe E. Brown has a grand time clowning about in this sporting comedy based on a Ring Lardner story. Although many of the jokes & situations are very similar to his previous films, Brown is always worth watching, his huge mouth & rubbery face perfectly fashioned for eliciting laughs. Whether careening about the infield in a runaway jalopy, attempting an escape from kidnappers or commandeering a huge truck to get to the ball field, Brown consistently delivers the comedic goods.Lovely Olivia de Havilland scores a home run, playing Joe's girlfriend in one of her earliest film roles. Gruff William Frawley does a fine job as the Cub's stern coach. Ruth Donnelly plays Olivia's older sister, but unfortunately this wonderfully talented comedienne is given little to do. Roscoe Karns is fun as the team's sarcastic catcher.This was the last of Joe E. Brown's Baseball Trilogy, following FIREMAN, SAVE MY CHILD (1932) & ELMER, THE GREAT (1933).

bobc-5 I had previously known Joe E. Brown more from brief clips and caricatures than from anything else, and I managed to completely forget the fact that he had done a wonderful job in a small role in "Some Like it Hot". Therefore, it was a pleasant surprise for me to discover that he was much more than just a goofy looking large-mouthed guy yelling "heeeyyyyyyy!". In this film, he does an excellent job portraying Alibi Ike, the small town hot-shot rookie pitcher with an excuse for everything. Even when he does everything right, he's got an excuse for why he didn't do better.While helping his team win the pennant, he doesn't want to admit to the boys that he's actually fallen for a girl. His teammates, who are fully aware of what is going on, playfully goad him into one crazy excuse after another as he refuses to admit his romance. Brown gets excellent support here from Olivia de Havilland as his love interest and William Frawley ("Fred Mertz") as his grumpy manager, making this a thoroughly enjoyable film.