Big Leaguer ** (1953, Edward G Robinson, Vera-Ellen, Jeff Richards, William Campbell, Richard Jaeckel, Carl Hubbell, Bill Crandall) – Classic Movie Review 12,245

The 1953 American fictional sports drama film Big Leaguer is a rare dull film from director Robert Aldrich, making his first movie. It stars Edward G Robinson, Vera-Ellen, Jeff Richards, William Campbell, Richard Jaeckel, Carl Hubbell and Bill Crandall.

Edward G Robinson plays real-life old baseball player John ‘Hans’ Lobert, who runs a tough coaching centre for young hopefuls for the New York giants in Florida.

One of Robinson’s boys (Bill Crandall), destined for college, is scouted for the big time.

Big Leaguer is a small leaguer overloaded with cardboard characters, dull scenes and predictable developments.

Hans Lobert was an actual baseball player who played for five Major League Baseball teams and managed the Philadelphia Phillies. Third-billed Jeff Richards was a professional ballplayer before he became an actor. Hall of Fame pitcher Carl Hubbell appears as himself.

Aldrich recalled: ‘It was not a personal film of my status at the time. I feel the film was good but not indicative of what I wanted to express in the motion picture medium.’

Big Leaguer is based on an original story by John McNulty, who sold it to producer Matthew Rapf at MGM.

The cast are Edward G. Robinson as John B ‘Hans’ Lobert, Vera-Ellen as Christy, Jeff Richards as Adam Polachuk, Richard Jaeckel as Bobby Bronson, William Campbell as Julie Davis, Carl Hubbell as Himself, Paul Langton as Brian McLennan, Lalo Rios as Chuy Aguilar, Bill Crandall as Tippy Mitchell, Frank Ferguson as Wally Mitchell, John McKee as Dale Alexander, Mario Siletti as Mr. Polachuk, Al Campanis as Himself, Bob Trocolor as Himself, Tony Ravis as Himself, Robert Calwell as Pomfret, Donald ‘Chippie’ Hastings as Little Joe Polachuk, Bing Russell, and Harv Tomter as Himself.

Aldrich remembered Robinson as ‘a marvellous actor and a brilliant man but he was not physically co ordinated. He would walk to first base and trip over the home plate.’

The film cost $498,000, and earned $467,000 in the US and Canada and $92,000 elsewhere, resulting in a loss to MGM of $163,000.

The films of Robert Aldrich: Big Leaguer (1953), World for Ransom (1954), Apache (1954), Vera Cruz (1954), Kiss Me Deadly (1955), The Big Knife (1955), Autumn Leaves (1956), Attack (1956), Ten Seconds to Hell (1959), The Angry Hills (1959), The Last Sunset (1961), Sodom and Gomorrah (1962), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), 4 for Texas (1963), Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), The Flight of the Phoenix (1965), The Dirty Dozen (1967), The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968), The Killing of Sister George (1968), Too Late the Hero (1970), The Grissom Gang (1971), Ulzana’s Raid (1972), Emperor of the North Pole (1973), The Longest Yard (1974), Hustle (1975), Twilight’s Last Gleaming (1977), The Choirboys (1977), The Frisco Kid (1979), and …All the Marbles (1981).

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,245

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