Sun 8 Jul 2012
Movie Review: IT HAPPENED IN FLATBUSH (1942).
Posted by Steve under Baseball , Films: Drama/Romance , Reviews[7] Comments
IT HAPPENED IN FLATBUSH. 20th Century-Fox, 1942. Lloyd Nolan, Carole Landis, Sara Allgood, William Frawley, Robert Armstrong, Jane Darwell, George Holmes, Scotty Beckett, with Vivian Blaine in her uncredited debut. Director: Ray McCarey.
From Wikipedia: “Flatbush Avenue is the main thoroughfare through the Borough of Brooklyn.†And if you’re of a certain age, what do you think of first when someone mentions Brooklyn? Baseball, of course, and the Brooklyn Dodgers.
They apparently didn’t get the rights to use the team’s name in this movie, since the team that Lloyd Nolan’s character is the manager of is called only the “Brooklyn team,†or simply “Brooklyn” for short, but the team is the Dodgers, all right, no doubt about it. Nolan plays Frank “Butterfingers†Maguire to perfection. He fits the uniform as if he born to do so.
But how did he get the nickname Butterfingers? It turns out he was run out of town as a shortstop several years ago, having committed an crucial error in the field that cost the team the pennant. Against all the advice she’s been given, including that of the general manager (played by William Frawley, who looks exactly the same here as he did in the 1950s playing Lucy’s landlord and neighbor, Fred Mertz), the elderly lady owner (Sara Allgood) brings him back to manage the team.
Upon which point the lady owner ups and dies, leaving the ownership of the team in the hands of relatives, including society dish Kathryn Baker, played of course by pretty dark-haired Carole Landis. None of the new owners know anything about baseball, nor do they care to know, so it’s up to Nolan not only to guide the team, but to persuade Kate to spring real money for some real players.
Persuasion turns to romance, and new players mean a run for the pennant. Can Nolan escape his history of buckling under pressure to be successful at doing both? Well, if Real Life baseball manager Leo Durocher could marry movie star Laraine Day, also back in the 1940s, anything’s possible in Category 1, and as for Category 2, nothing that happens in a sports-oriented comedy could be more surprising than what happens in Real Life.
A fun if slightly fanciful movie, and of course I could watch the always charming Carole Landis in anything, even as the owner of a baseball team who ends up watching the final game of the season in the dugout.
Note: Two more short clips from this movie can be found here.
July 8th, 2012 at 5:21 am
Landis died ridiculously young, and I’ve always felt that she had it in her to be a much bigger star. I’ve always liked Nolan, too, so if this movie ever surfaces near me I’ll certainly give it a look.
July 8th, 2012 at 10:15 am
A good picture. Smart, fast and with plenty of heart. The kind of film they don’t make any longer. A shame.
July 8th, 2012 at 7:07 pm
Bradstreet
I don’t know if you can get it where you are, but as I understand it, the movie has been shown several times in this country on the Fox Movie Channel. I can’t get it myself, so maybe you can’t either. A little Googling may turn up a copy.
July 8th, 2012 at 7:11 pm
Barry
No, they certainly don’t make movies like this any more. I suppose they stopped when TV began to take over and movies started to become events, rather than a hour’s worth of small-scale entertainment.
My wife grew up in Brooklyn, and she spent many a Saturday afternoon at Ebbetts Field, where the Dodgers played, so she enjoyed this one right along with me.
July 8th, 2012 at 7:13 pm
Bradstreet
I forgot to mention that I’m a big fan of Carole Landis, and I’ve been putting together a large collection of her movies on DVD. Look for reviews of more them in the weeks to come.
July 15th, 2012 at 9:50 pm
While thisis not exactly a documentary just about all the major elements have some relationship to baseball history. The team is the Dodgers and Nolan is Leo Durocher. But, when Col. Rupert died he left the Yankees to not one, but three young women. Two, nieces, the third, Helen Winthorpe Weyant, a thirty-seven year old former actress and close friend. We can only hope she did Carole Landis justice, cause Carole did great.
February 23rd, 2016 at 10:50 pm
Now available to all from Warner Archive.