the audience applauded

Better Late Then Never

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Joe E. Brown stars as Frank X. Farrell, rookie pitcher for the Chicago Cubs. Talented but quirky, Farrell quickly picks up the nickname Alibi Ike—it seems that he apologizes for everything, even his accomplishments: Cap: "How many games did you win last year?" Ike: "Only 28. Had malaria most of the season." Brown is hilarious as the alternately boastful and bashful Ike. William Frawley (looking almost young!) is fine as Cap, the often frazzled team manager. Ruth Donnelly is solid as always as Frawley's wife. Olivia de Havilland, at the very beginning of her career, is lively and cute as the girl who wins Ike's heart, dumps him when he makes one excuse too many, and then roots for him to redeem himself when it counts. Brown's charm really carries the picture; his reluctance ever to give a straight answer is humorous, sometimes almost poignant, but never as irritating as it would be in real life. Sometimes his excuses are very funny, too—like when his buddies, hoping to pin him down, ask him if he gave de Havilland a ring, and he says no, he lent it to her. Lots of laughs, with some great on field baseball action too.

I give this film fairly high marks for a couple of reasons. First, it's very difficult not to like Joe E. Brown on screen. There's just something sort of indefinable about him that makes you smile...and often laugh...sometimes out loud. Brown makes the most of his role here as a great baseball player that has the habit of not being able to be quite honest about anything he says at all...and he not attempting to be deceitful...he just has the CONSTANT urge to fabricate his response to any question or situation. It's interesting here to also note that Brown was a pretty athletic guy, so just right for this film.This film was also the first to be released of a new actress -- Olivia deHavilland. And, she just as she always was. Delightful.William Frawley (much later to be Fred Mertz) has a meatier role here than he did in most of his films...as the baseball team manager. And he's very good in it.The other players, though key to the story are not names many of us know today, but they all do their jobs well, here.The one downer to this film is the lack of an explanation. Why does Ike fabricate everything instead of just telling the truth? That is never answered.Even for us non-sports-fans, every once in a while a baseball movie will come along that keeps us entertained. This is one of those films. Definitely worth a watch.

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!

(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.