Elmer The Great

This likable baseball comedy stars Joe E. Brown as a country bumpkin home-run hitter who gets the best of both gangsters and cheating pitchers to win the World Series for the Cubs against the Yankees. Brown's acting is no great shakes, but his mugging comedy talents provide many a laugh, and he certainly can handle a bat, having played semi-pro ball before going into show biz (see ALIBI IKE, 1935). One-time sportswriter Ring Lardner (portrayed by John Sayles in his EIGHT MEN OUT) and George M. Cohan adapted a Lardner short story into the play on which ELMER THE GREAT is based, though the tale first came to the screen as FAST COMPANY in 1929. The inspiration for Lar...