Death on the Diamond (1934)
** (out of 4)
I love a good murder-mystery but I think there are probably lines that shouldn't be crossed. This film passes that line and just keeps going and going and going. The Manager/Owner of the St. Louis Cardinals pays good money to bring in star pitcher Larry Kelly (Robert Young) so that they can win a championship and save the team. Someone else doesn't want them to win and soon players are being killed one by one. It's up to Kelly and the owner's daughter (Madge Evans) to try and strike up a relationship as well as catch the madman. I think having a murder-mystery set on a baseball field is pretty far-fetched but I guess with the right screenplay something entertaining could have been done with it. Sadly, this isn't the screenplay and in the end one can't help be rather bored by the actual story but nevertheless the film manages to be entertaining simply because you haven't seen anything like it before (or since). I think the biggest problem is that the story, in its "B" picture form, just doesn't have enough to make it interesting. Can you imagine if baseball players were really getting picked out what type of stuff would be happening? Terror from the players, the opposite team, the fans coming to the game and I'm pretty sure the media would be all over a player being shot and killed while rounding third base. The story here pretty much looks at the players, the owner and a few cops so there's nothing big or believable that happens. The film offers up everyone as a red herring and I must admit that I laughed out loud when the killer was finally shown. How we learn who it is and what follows almost makes this movie an instant classic. Young and Evans both turn in decent performances and the two seem to be having a good time with all the flirting. Nat Pendleton and Ted Healy are on board and the supporting cast includes Joe Sawyer in a small role and we even have a very young Mickey Rooney playing the ball boy. Ward Bond and Walter Brennan also have small, uncredited roles. Fans of the genre will probably want to check this out if they're like me and just want to see every film of its kind. Others will probably hit the stop button well before the ending but the strangeness of this film and the weird story keeps its mildly entertaining.
