| Kill the Umpire | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Lloyd Bacon |
| Written by | Frank Tashlin |
| Produced by | John Beck |
| Starring | William Bendix Una Merkel Ray Collins Gloria Henry |
| Cinematography | Charles Lawton Jr. |
| Edited by | Charles Nelson |
| Music by | Heinz Roemheld |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 78 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Kill the Umpire is a 1950baseball comedy film starringWilliam Bendix andUna Merkel, directed byLloyd Bacon and written byFrank Tashlin.[1]
Bendix two years earlier had portrayed baseball playerBabe Ruth in the biographical filmThe Babe Ruth Story. One of the ballplayers in this picture is played byJeff Richards, billed as Richard Taylor, a minor-league ballplayer before becoming an actor.[citation needed]
Bill Johnson is a former baseball player whose fanatical devotion to the game has cost him several jobs. He remains steadfast in one thing: he hatesumpires. Matters are complicated by the fact that his father-in-law Evans is a retired umpire.
During a period ofunemployment, needing a job to support his loyal wife Betty and two daughters, Johnson is forced by his father-in-law to matriculate in an umpire school. Johnson initially tries to get himself expelled by school director Jimmy O'Brien, but after being called upon to umpire a children's game, he eventually comes to dedicate himself to his new job. He becomes an ump in the minor leagues, where blurred vision, caused by using the wrong eyedrops, causes him to see everything twice, earning him a nickname as "Two-Call" Johnson.
While on the train to umpire an important playoff series, gangsters attempt to bribe him, but to no avail. When he calls a visiting team's player safe at home plate, the crowd accuses him of dishonesty, not aware that the catcher actually dropped the ball when the runner slid into home plate, leading to a near-riot during which the home team's catcher is knocked out cold. Johnson must disguise himself as a woman, and engage in several madcap subterfuges, to get to an important game on time, but his reputation is restored when the injured catcher recovers and praises him for his honesty as an umpire. The crowd accepts this, although quickly reversing its opinion again after Johnson, inevitably, makes another call they do not like.
The film's climax is a manic chase scene, scripted by animator and futureJerry Lewis directorFrank Tashlin.
Both D'Andrea and Kulky (as the irate boot-throwing spectator) would later co-star with Bendix on his popular, long-runningThe Life of Riley TV series.[2]
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