I had relatively low expectations. After all, it is clearly a B-movie about baseball and despite starring Robert Young, he was not yet a top star and the film had all the earmarks of a cheap time-passer. Imagine my surprise when the film actually turned out to be a pretty good little murder mystery as well as possibly some of the inspiration for the Robert Redford film "The Natural"! There seem to be too many similarities between the two films for it to just be a coincidence.
The film begins with the hard-luck St. Louis Cardinals at Spring training. While the Coach claims he's optimistic, he isn't. His only prayer is a rookie (Young). However, despite Young's amazing success, gamblers try to make it hard for him--offering him bribes and encouraging him to be in on the fix. This is a serious problem--not just for the team, but for the Coach who is has agreed to sell off his interest in the team IF they don't win the pennant. So far, all of this sounds almost exactly like "The Natural". What makes it different, however, begins about midway through the film. Suddenly, players start dying--someone is so determined to hurt the Cardinals that they are murdering players. After a while, the bodies really start to stack up and still they have no idea who is behind all this. And, when it comes to this aspect of the story, the film does a great job of throwing in a few surprises--as the ending certainly caught me off guard. Overall, a very interesting B-movie--well-written and full of nice twists and turns.
The film begins with the hard-luck St. Louis Cardinals at Spring training. While the Coach claims he's optimistic, he isn't. His only prayer is a rookie (Young). However, despite Young's amazing success, gamblers try to make it hard for him--offering him bribes and encouraging him to be in on the fix. This is a serious problem--not just for the team, but for the Coach who is has agreed to sell off his interest in the team IF they don't win the pennant. So far, all of this sounds almost exactly like "The Natural". What makes it different, however, begins about midway through the film. Suddenly, players start dying--someone is so determined to hurt the Cardinals that they are murdering players. After a while, the bodies really start to stack up and still they have no idea who is behind all this. And, when it comes to this aspect of the story, the film does a great job of throwing in a few surprises--as the ending certainly caught me off guard. Overall, a very interesting B-movie--well-written and full of nice twists and turns.