A washed up baseball player (Lloyd Nolan) returns to Brooklyn to manage his old team but ends up clashing with the beautiful new owner (Carole Landis)A washed up baseball player (Lloyd Nolan) returns to Brooklyn to manage his old team but ends up clashing with the beautiful new owner (Carole Landis)A washed up baseball player (Lloyd Nolan) returns to Brooklyn to manage his old team but ends up clashing with the beautiful new owner (Carole Landis)
- Walter Rogers
- (as Joe Allen Jr.)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaStudio publicity and Hollywood Reporter news items noted that some scenes were shot on location at Gilmore Field in Los Angeles, CA. The Variety review pointed out that "numerous clips of the [Ebbets Field] Flatbush ballpark [were] used to interweave with staged action." A 14 April 1942 Hollywood news item asserted that "a different ending with lots of baseball" was to be shot at Gilmore at a cost of $25,000 for five days' work.
- GoofsIn the final baseball sequence, Brooklyn is beating St. Louis 2-1. There are 2 outs and bases loaded and the relief pitcher runs the count to 3-2. The announcer twice indicates that the next pitch will decided the pennant and even says "If it's a strike, it's Brooklyn. If it's a ball, it's St. Louis." Not true. A ball would walk in a run TYING the game, not giving the game to St. Louis. A baseball announcer would surely know that.
- Quotes
Frank 'Butterfingers' Maguire: Now get this straight, Sam - I'm not stupid, I know what I've been tagged around here. The only one who wanted me was the old lady, but dead or alive, that's who my contract is with, you understand?
Sam Sloan: Okay, okay. But we still need ballplayers. Now, what are gonna use instead of money?
Frank 'Butterfingers' Maguire: What about the new owners?
Sam Sloan: Relatives. The majority of the stock goes to a niece, Kathryn Baker.
Frank 'Butterfingers' Maguire: What's she like?
Sam Sloan: Filthy rich!
Frank 'Butterfingers' Maguire: Does she know anything about the game?
Sam Sloan: Since when do we play baseball on horseback? She's strictly social.
Frank 'Butterfingers' Maguire: Alright, forget it then. Let me do the worrying about her. Look, call a meeting of those relatives for tomorrow morning. We gotta get the ball started rolling fast. And in the meantime, what about those scouts of ours? What have they been doing? Tell them to get out, get on the job. Dig me up a Ruth or a Gehrig.
Sam Sloan: Is that all you want?
- ConnectionsReferenced in You Must Remember This: Carole Landis (Dead Blondes Part 5) (2017)
- SoundtracksTake Me Out to the Ball Game
(uncredited)
Music by Albert von Tilzer
Played during the opening credits and occasionally throughout the picture
The most notable thing about this sports story is how the fans of Brooklyn are portrayed. Note that the movie was made at the beginning of WWII. The preceding decade of the 1930's was the decade of the "common man" when everyday ordinariness was honored by Hollywood's dream factory.
Here, that ordinariness is on display with an emphasis on fighting spirit from both the rowdy fans and the Brooklyn team. On a larger scale, it would take that sort of popular effort and team spirit to win the big war, which amounts to a topical sub-text even in this modest programmer.
Note too how the upper class is portrayed as slightly effete, especially lounge lizard Walter (Allen), Maguire's rival for Kathryn's affections. In the screenplay, Brooklyn stands for the borough of the common man and his combative spirit, while Manhattan receives a rather dismissive upper-class reference. It's Hollywood gearing up for the big war, and, on the whole, a better movie than I expected, but nothing special.
(In passing—I can't help noticing that the Brooklyn team is never referred to as the Dodgers, just as the generic "Brooklyn". Similarly, for St. Louis minus the Cardinals. I expect these generic references allowed the producers to avoid legal problems.)
- dougdoepke
- Jan 21, 2012
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Dem Lovely Bums
- Filming locations
- Ebbets Field - 55 Sullivan Place, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA(establishing shots)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 20 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1