Really Surprised!

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

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?

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Robert Young (Larry Kelly), Madge Evans (Frances Clark), Nat Pendleton (Truck Hogan), Ted Healy (Crawfish O'Toole), Paul Kelly (Jimmie Downey), C. Henry Gordon (Joe Karnes), David Landau (Pop Clark), DeWitt Jennings (Patterson, groundskeeper), Edward Brophy (Sergeant Grogan), Willard Robertson (Lieutenant Cato), Joe Sawyer (Dunk Spencer), Mickey Rooney (Mickey), Robert Livingston (Higgie Higgins), Ward Bond (police guard), Walter Brennan, Heinie Conklin, Max Wagner (hot dog vendors), Howard C. Hickman (Dr Cushman), Al Hill (Moore, a Cardinal player), Hector Sarno (barber), Harry Semels (man in barber's chair), Gertrude Short (importunate player's wife), Fred Toones (porter), Charles Sullivan (taxi-driver), Allen Wood (newsboy), Billy Watson (boy), Bobby Watson, Dennis O'Keefe, Sherry Hall, Brooks Benedict (baseball announcers), Garry Owen (news flash announcer), Bruce Bennett, Don Brodie, Sumner Getchell, Jack Raymond, Kane Richmond (men in ticket line), David Thursby (Burke, an ex-player), Larry Steers, Wilbur Mack (gamblers), Sam Rice (a Karnes henchman), Eddie Phillips (man in broadcasting booth), Jack Norton (a Karnes associate), Pat O'Malley (cashier), James C. Morton (husband), Ray Mayer (Sugar Kane, a player), Bert Lindley (policeman), Marc Lawrence (doorman), Alice Lake (Lucy Warman), Ralph Bushman (Sam Warman), Baldwin Cooke (Cardinal player), Jules Cowles (hayseed in car), James Ellison (Sherman, pitcher for Cincinnati), Jim Farley (policeman at St Louis game), Pat Flaherty (Pat, the coach), Franklyn Farnum (fan), Sam Flint (baseball commissioner), Francis X. Bushman, junior (Sam Briscoe, the pitcher), John Hyams (Henry Ainsley), Fred Graham (baseball double for Nat Pendleton), and Leslie Goodwins, William Griffith, Julie Bescos, Frank Layton, Albert Richman, and the Cincinnati Reds, the Chicago Cubs, and the St Louis Cardinals. Director: EDWARD SEDGWICK. Screenplay: Harvey Thew & Joe Sherman and Ralph Spence. Based on the 1934 novel by Cortland Fitzsimmons. Photography: Milton Krasner. Film editor: Frank Sullivan. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons and David Townsend. Music: William Axt. Song, "Take Me Out To the Ball Game" by Albert Von Tilzer (music) and Jack Norworth (lyrics). 2nd unit directors: John Waters, Edward Woehler. 2nd unit camera operators: Ray Binger, Leonard Smith. Technical advisers: Pat Flaherty, Fred Graham. Sound supervisor: Douglas Shearer. Sound mixer: G.A. Burns. Western Electric Sound Recording. Producer: Lucien Hubbard.Copyright 11 September 1934 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corporation. New York opening at the Capitol: 22 September 1934. U.K. release: 22 December 1934. Australian release: 20 March 1935. 7 reels. 69 minutes. SYNOPSIS: Someone is out to prevent the St Louis Cardinals from winning the pennant, and this desperate fiend doesn't stop at murder. The finger firmly points to gambling czar Joe Karnes, who stands to lose a million dollars if St Louis wins. A less obvious suspect is Henry Ainsely, who stands to inherit the Cardinals if they lose.COMMENT: This big "B" holds a well-deserved reputation amongst both baseball freaks and film fans. True, a lot of the location material is a bit fuzzy, but that's baseball. The movie itself is great. Not only does the script strike a startling balance amongst the various elements of romance, mystery, comedy, sport and suspense, it's not afraid to spring a few surprises that will have most audiences riveted to their seats. With lines as pithy as these to say and characters of such enthralling realism to play, the actors have a field day. Young (replacing Franchot Tone who was originally announced for the role) is both superbly personable and utterly convincing as a star pitcher. Madge Evans, one of my favorite stars, makes (as usual) a delightfully pert heroine. David Landau gives the performance of his life as the harried St Louis manager, while Paul Kelly is likewise ideally cast as the nosy reporter. But the big surprise lies in the joint efforts of Nat Pendleton and Ted Healy. These stalwart players pool their collective comic expertise to make a dazzling tit-for-tat duo, with both displaying dramatic talents well above the call of duty. Also, I'd give special pats on the back to DeWitt Jennings as the affable groundsman and delightfully aggressive Joe Sawyer as Young's rival. In fact, the whole cast — just look at it! — is something really special. Aside from the fuzzy 2nd unit and process work, technical credits are A-1, whilst production values (by "B" standards) are absolutely staggering.

"Death On The Diamond" traps a pretty solid cast into a cheesy murder mystery. This picture trots out every baseball and murder mystery cliché and contrivance known to Hollywood, and puts them all into an underwhelming movie that wastes 70 minutes of our time. A ball player leans against the dugout wall as a hand reaches out from a darkened stairway ... A dying player staggers into the locker room, and answers the Big Question, saying, "The murderer is..." before collapsing on the floor dead... A player running home with the winning run is shot between third and home plate... A missing player falls face first out of an empty locker... Heard enough? Robert Young does his best, aided by Madge Evans and Paul Kelly, but the obstacles are daunting, first off a hackneyed script, and second, comic relief is supplied by Ted Healy, perhaps the most obnoxiously unfunny comic (?) in Hollywood's long history. Last, but not least, even I guessed the murderer halfway through. This is a serious flaw, because I am the worst mystery guesser on the East Coast, maybe the country. So, in view of the preceding, I had no choice but to give the movie a mediocre rating of five.

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.

This film has a lot going for it. It is a sports mystery with a fabulous cast (there are cameos by Ward Bond, Walter Brennan, and Mickey Rooney). It has great chemistry between Young and Evans as the leads and Pendleton and Healy in comedic relief. Finally, it has (with two exceptions) fine acting and a good pace.Sure there are flaws. When the murderer talks early in the picture, more of his motivation could and should have been provided. That would have shortened the film's resolution, and reduced much of the histrionics others have noted. Also, in the locker room, the panning camera cheats when the poisoned player looks for his killer by not including the murderer—we are simply informed of his reactions later. Still, neither of these annoying things, by themselves, spoils the picture.Unfortunately, however, they're not all the bad news. There is a third glitch, and it completely destroys the mystery. It proves the murder couldn't have committed one of the killings. To wit: at the top of the stands, we are shown an umpire treating his player friend to a hot dog after one game. But suddenly everyone is distracted by loud bangs from below. A black-shirted arm reaches around the stand to substitute poisoned mustard for the regular stuff, and three seconds later (by my watch) we see two umpires and the murderer (now clad in a white outfit) examining firecrackers down on the diamond. Now considering the field is at least one hundred yards away by any route the perp could have taken, he clearly couldn't have committed that particular crime.Since the director and editor made films for a living, it's hard for me to comprehend how they could have overlooked such an egregious error. Still, they obviously did. But there is an easy solution. Just re-shoot the brief field close-up. Put two period-costumed umpires (with no murderer) by a home plate on some field. Film them picking-up and examining some firecrackers. Then cut the new footage in. Voila! The film is saved; the mystery works, and the DVD can be released.