Diamond Demon

Diamond Demon (1947)

*** (out of 4)

Fun Pete Smith short takes a look at minor league baseball player Johnny Price. If you haven't heard of Price then you're not alone as I had no idea who he was but after viewing this short it's doubtful you'll forget him. Basically we have Price doing a variety of tricks dealing with baseball. We start off at the small stuff like seeing him hold two baseballs with one hand and then we get more challenging stuff. This includes him standing at home plate and throwing two balls with one hand. One is thrown to the pitcher and the other to the man on second base. We have him throwing three balls with one hand to three different men. We even see Price hanging upside down hitting, pitching and catching. Some of these tricks were just downright crazy including where he holds the bat between his legs to hit and if the pitch had been an inch or two higher then he wouldn't have had any children if you catch what I mean. This short runs a very brief 8-minutes but there's some nice tension in some of the dangerous tricks but at the same time you can't help but smile at the unique talent.

This typically funny Pete Smith short features Johnny Price, ace pitcher of the Oakland Pacific League team -- this was a good ten years before the Dodgers and Giants left Brooklyn and Manhattan to head off to California. He throws multiple balls to various locations simultaneously, catches balls with his shirt or gets a hit with the tip of the bat, bats upside down and hanging from bars, and other wild stunts, all clearly shown with slow-motion photography.

Price did achieve a major league contract with the Cleveland Indians -- as pre-game entertainment. He then went on tour throughout the US and the Caribbean doing his act, before retiring to San Francisco about 1960. He died a suicide in 1967.

This is amazing! Anyone who rates this less than 9 is jealous of this guy's talents!