DEATH ON THE DIAMOND-1934-Interesting drama set in the world of major league baseball. The St. Louis Cardinals aren't given much chance of winning but their owner/manager Pop Clark (David Landau) stakes everything on an egotistical pitcher Larry Kelly (Robert Young). Things take an upward turn but gamblers try a fix. When they give another pitcher 10 thousand dollars to blow a game he instead throws a no hitter! The gangsters cause a car wreck that injures him. Thrown in his the typical love triangle with Larry, Pop's daughter Frances (Madge Evans) and slugger Spencer (Joe Devlin) who is shot to death before scoring a game winning run! It's obvious he was killed by someone in the stands but a stupid cop thinks Kelly did it out of jealousy! Ted Healy is featured as O'Toole, a dumb umpire (with bad eyesight) everyone calls Crawdad. Nat Pendelton plays another player who's poisoned. After another star pitcher is killed Pop wants Kelly to pitch but Frances objects. It turns out the mob had nothing to do with the killings. It's the work of a crazy groundskeeper! Somehow Kelly wins an important game with an inside the park home run in the finale.
Mickey Rooney and Edward Brophy are in it too as well as un-credited roles by Walter Brennan, Ward Bond, Bruce Bennett, Marc Lawrence and Bobby Watson and lines like "You can't tell the American people they can't have baseball!".
Director Edward Sedgwick started in silents, directed several Buster Keaton sound films, the terrible Laurel & Hardy feature AIR RAID WARDENS and many forgotten low budget films. His last work was on TV's I LOVE LUCY.
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(imdb)
