Stylish but barely mediocre overall

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

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.

Joe E Brown gets a lot of mileage out of his character in this baseball farce about the Cubs winning the World Series with Brown as an outrageously funny pitcher. The director of this film started in silents with a short comedy & a Rin Tin Rin film where Rin Tin Tin plays another dog. That does not mean this is a dog.The film is pretty entertaining as William Frawley plays the Cubs manager. This is one of the first of many sports films Frawley would do. As for Brown, he is an under-appreciated funny man who in his films always plays someone a bit eccentric. He is that character here for sure. The script is co-written by Lardner & the writer who did Torpedo Run & Command Decision later. For a 1935 feature, while it is by no means a perfect film, it does hold up better than some others from the year it was made. Dreaming of the Cubs winning a World Series continues to this day & it might be a few more years before it happens yet as the Cubs are closing in on 100 years without a World Series Victory.

Alibi Ike is a mildly amusing baseball comedy based on Ring Lardner's character of a pitcher with an excuse for everything. It's a pretty good example of Joe E. Brown's hayseed type character at the height of his popularity. And of course because A Midsummer Night's Dream was held up in release, Alibi Ike marks the debut of Olivia DeHavilland on the silver screen.Although Olivia has little enough to do in this film which is strictly a Joe E. Brown show, she's one pretty thing here. She was only 19 when she made this film and would have to wait through another film besides this one and the Max Reinhardt extravaganza before settling into her Warner Brothers niche as crinolined heroine, yearning for Errol Flynn to win her as he did in Captain Blood.Joe E. Brown took naturally to this role, possibly because he was known as a very big baseball fan in real life. Playing his ever harried manager in Alibi Ike is William Frawley who in real life was also known as a baseball aficionado. Brown's son, Joe L. Brown didn't follow his father into show business, he became a well respected baseball executive best known as general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates world championship team of 1960.It's worth seeing the film alone to see how Joe E. Brown does that exaggerated windmill windup when he pitches. Funny as all get out, but in real life, a runner with the speed of Ernie Lombardi would have stolen two bases on him. Who's Ernie Lombardi, a Hall of Fame catcher with the Cincinnati Reds during this same period who was a legend for his lack of speed. For baseball fans, and baseball film fans, make sure you don't miss this.