The Great American Pastime

Actor Tom Ewell plays the part of Bruce Hallerton a lawyer whose busy schedule leaves him little time to pay much attention to his own ten (10) year old son Dennis (played by Rudy Lee). An opportunity presents itself due to Bruce's love for the New York Yankees baseball team to coach his own little league baseball team. Once Bruce commits to coaching the little league team he is presented with his first of many unexpected surprises which is that his son Dennis has been selected to play on one of the other leagues competitive teams which means that Bruce and his son Dennis will be awkwardly competing against one another.

Tom Ewell has one of the most animated faces in all of Hollywood and I have yet to see him provide a sub par performance bar none. In The Great American Pastime Coach Hallerton believes in fair play and turning the other cheek. That is until his team keeps losing game after game and his son Dennis's team keeps winning because they are prepared to be the more aggressor.

This leads to some long rides home from the ball park between father and son and on top of that one of the other attractive moms has set her roaming eyes on Coach Hallerton. A dinner invitation is arranged over at single mom Doris Patterson's (Ann Miller) home which makes it another awkward threesome for Mrs. Hallerton (played by Anne Francis) to which Coach Hallerton has been smitten by the attention he has been paid by Ms. Patterson, and he is oblivious to how much he is ignoring his own wife until its time to go home.

This is a light hearted and wholesome family and sport themed film which I quite enjoyed regardless of what some of the other IMDb reviewers appear to disregard. Tom Ewell is one of the most memorable comedic actors with no end of facial expressions and deserves so much more credit in Hollywood than his career portfolio would indicate. The Seven Year Itch is most likely his most memorable role after receiving the Golden Globe Best Actor award for his performance.

I I give the film a highly commendable 8 out of 10 IMDb rating.