Alibi Ike (1935) User Reviews

Time to appreciate Joe E. Brown

[bobc-5 · 7/10 · 18 April 2001]

I had previously known Joe E. Brown more from brief clips and caricatures than from anything else, and I managed to completely forget the fact that he had done a wonderful job in a small role in "Some Like it Hot". Therefore, it was a pleasant surprise for me to discover that he was much more than just a goofy looking large-mouthed guy yelling "heeeyyyyyyy!". In this film, he does an excellent job portraying Alibi Ike, the small town hot-shot rookie pitcher with an excuse for everything. Even when he does everything right, he's got an excuse for why he didn't do better.

While helping his team win the pennant, he doesn't want to admit to the boys that he's actually fallen for a girl. His teammates, who are fully aware of what is going on, playfully goad him into one crazy excuse after another as he refuses to admit his romance. Brown gets excellent support here from Olivia de Havilland as his love interest and William Frawley ("Fred Mertz") as his grumpy manager, making this a thoroughly enjoyable film.

Fun 30's Baseball Movie

[KateMulder · 7/10 · 28 July 2005]

I came across this movie on TV and, though I'm usually not a huge fan of black and white movies, I found myself really enjoying this one! It's lighthearted and funny, and it was fun to watch a movie all about old time baseball as a big fan of modern baseball. The love story is basic, but worked in well, not overwhelming the baseball aspect of the movie. The fact that his love interest is the team manager's sister-in-law is interesting. And I liked the fact that the other players are always playing rookie pranks on him even though he is a young phenom. Definitely not a serious drama, and I don't think it would be hard to follow or "get" for someone who's not a sports fan as some of the newer baseball movies are. It's a great movie for a Sunday when your home team was rained out. I recommended this one to my baseball-loving friends.

That Windmill Windup

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 28 July 2007]

Alibi Ike is a mildly amusing baseball comedy based on Ring Lardner's character of a pitcher with an excuse for everything. It's a pretty good example of Joe E. Brown's hayseed type character at the height of his popularity. And of course because A Midsummer Night's Dream was held up in release, Alibi Ike marks the debut of Olivia DeHavilland on the silver screen.

Although Olivia has little enough to do in this film which is strictly a Joe E. Brown show, she's one pretty thing here. She was only 19 when she made this film and would have to wait through another film besides this one and the Max Reinhardt extravaganza before settling into her Warner Brothers niche as crinolined heroine, yearning for Errol Flynn to win her as he did in Captain Blood.

Joe E. Brown took naturally to this role, possibly because he was known as a very big baseball fan in real life. Playing his ever harried manager in Alibi Ike is William Frawley who in real life was also known as a baseball aficionado. Brown's son, Joe L. Brown didn't follow his father into show business, he became a well respected baseball executive best known as general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates world championship team of 1960.

It's worth seeing the film alone to see how Joe E. Brown does that exaggerated windmill windup when he pitches. Funny as all get out, but in real life, a runner with the speed of Ernie Lombardi would have stolen two bases on him. Who's Ernie Lombardi, a Hall of Fame catcher with the Cincinnati Reds during this same period who was a legend for his lack of speed.

For baseball fans, and baseball film fans, make sure you don't miss this.

One joke but told very well

[icknay · 9 May 2001]

I loved Lardner's short story and didn't really expect movie to have same punch. That said I love this movie; yeah, I'm a sucker for old movies. They didn't go on forever, had good pacing and terrific dialogue. This one fits the category. Joe E Brown is "goshdarnit" fun as Ike and just can't help himself. I've known people like this who have an excuse for everything. Yes, it's one joke but it's a funny one!

Joe E. Brown but not Lardner

[howardeisman · 6/10 · 14 July 2010]

The character of Alibi Ike was well known to the American public. There was not only Ring Lardner's short novel but a comic strip for a couple of years, with Ring Lardner as one of the strip's writers.

Lardner's prose was funny, but it was also an incisive exposure of the ignorance and bigotry of middle America of the 1920s. He was inditing a culture which was smug in its ignorance and prejudices. There is, of course, none of this in this Joe E. Brown comedy, designed mainly for Brown to do his familiar shtick while cruising along with a well used plot.

Warner Brothers was willing to bring social criticism into their films at this period (unlike the other studios), but they knew that it wouldn't work in a Joe E. Brown comedy. Brown's movies were designed for rural America (and were very successful), and rural America could laugh as Brown made fun of "citified ways", but they wouldn't have appreciated cogent criticism aimed at them. At least, they wouldn't have laughed.

So this is a fast comedy, pretty funny, especially for baseball fans and baseball historians.

Very Pleasant Movie for a Sunday Afternoon

[bbrebozo · 7/10 · 21 July 2013]

This movie is a nice, enjoyable way to spend a weekend afternoon. Nothing heavy or terribly dramatic, just the very comical and entertaining Joe E. Brown, backed by an able supporting cast.

Brown is perfect as Alibi Ike, a baseball player who is a chronic liar but somehow manages to be likable despite this rather serious fault. Olivia de Havilland is young, very pretty, and engaging as Brown's somewhat frustrated but ultimately successful fiancé. And it's a treat to see William Frawley -- crusty old Fred Mertz himself -- as the baseball manager. Frawley was a real-life baseball fanatic, so he probably really enjoyed making this movie.

I loved Brown's crazy unique wind-up before pitching the baseball. He seems to be great with physical comedy. I think I read somewhere (can't remember where, so consider this unverified) that in real life Brown was very athletic, and the reason he wore full business suits, long sleeved shirts, and loose fitting baseball uniforms throughout this movie was that his rock hard abs and well-defined biceps conflicted with the loose and easy-going character he portrayed on the screen.

Got a free afternoon or evening? I'd recommend giving this film a try. And thanks to Turner Classic Movies for broadcasting the "uncensored" version of Alibi Ike! (See the Trivia section of the IMDb Alibi Ike site for more information.)

JOE E. BROWN WAS A GREAT COMEDIAN!

[whpratt1 · 6/10 · 25 April 2003]

"Alibi Ike" 1935 was just one of Joe E. Brown's great contributions to the comedy world. In this picture he was a pitcher for the Chicago Cubs and played other roles as a St.Louis Cardinal, always arriving in the top of the nineth inning and saving the game as a top notch pitcher and hitter. It surprised me to see that Oliva de Havilland co-stared with this slap stick comedian, it was her very first film in 1935 and she went on to great fame in "Gone With The Wind" 1939 and many other famous classic movies. William Fawley, veteran film star("My Three Sons" TV Series) also performed his great talents. Another great star in this film was Roscoe Karns, who played, "Rocky King, Inside Detective" in the 1950's TV Series. Joe E. Brown's famous large mouth was his trade-mark and he sure gave people a great deal of happiness during World War II, his films will live on forever and ever.

Mildly entertaining time capsule

[rollo_tomaso · 6/10 · 17 April 2001]

Alibi Ike is adapted by Ring Lardner from his short story about an apocryphal pitching wunderkind who never tells the truth when an alibi will do, especially about his true feelings. Lardner took some of the edge off his original wit in attempting to adapt it to the slapstick talents of Joe E. Brown and it loses its punch in the process. Brown is lively enough, however, to engender enough good will to watch the fast-moving film to the end. Frawley is a standout as the manager, and Karnes, Harvey, and Dehavilland head a splendid supporting cast. If you have any tolerance for slapstick, this is pleasant enough fluff.

Yet, the most interesting thing about the movie is that the climactic scene in the movie takes place at a NIGHT game at a then-recently-built Wrigley field. For many years, until the last 80's, Wrigley was the only stadium which had no lights installed, and no scheduled night games. Apparently, I have come to learn just yesterday, that many teams, including the Cubs, experimented with temporary lighting for occasional big games at night, in the mid-30's, until Ebbets Field in Brooklyn became the first stadium with permanently installed lights in 1938. Still, it seems strange to watch a night game at Wrigley as it was in 1935. For that alone, baseball fans will find this worth watching. One final note, in real life, the Cubs went from cellar-dwellers in '34 to NL champs in '35 which is exactly what the movie reflected, even though the film was in the can by July of 1935, and there was no way that Enright and company could have known that the Cubs would win the pennant that year. Interesting. 6 of 10.

Genial Joe E. Brown mugs his way through predictable baseball comedy...

[Doylenf · 5/10 · 16 April 2001]

While A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM was really Olivia de Havilland's first film, the studio in the meantime put her in ALIBI IKE which was released first--so this gave the public their first view of her.

She's a pretty ingenue here with just a hint of stardom about her. Joe E. Brown was very popular at the time and had already done a couple of baseball comedies. Apparently, his fans considered this Ring Lardner tale one of his best.

I couldn't work up much enthusiasm for it, although I did find several scenes rather amusing. However, unless you're a die-hard fan of Joe E. Brown with an addiction for baseball, ALIBI IKE comes across more as a curiosity piece than anything else. The night baseball scenes came as a surprise to me. Brown does his usual genial job in the title role and obviously relishes the limelight.

William Frawley plays a baseball manager and Ruth Donnelly has a brief role as Olivia's sister.

Trivia note: Ruth Donnelly would join Olivia thirteen years later for 1948's THE SNAKE PIT, as a fellow inmate.

Heyyyyyy, Joe E. Brown Can Play!

[ccthemovieman-1 · 6/10 · 9 November 2010]

Despite seeing thousands of films including Joe E. Brown in his famous supporting role in "Some Like It Hot," I had never seen him in a starring role...until this was aired on TCM the other night. Being a baseball fan, too, I had a feeling this might be an entertaining film.....and it was!

Yes, it's goofy and some of the humor is very dated but Brown has a number of things going for him. First, he actually can throw and catch a baseball. The guy could play the game! That's unusual to see in classic-era feature films. Secondly, as in "Some Like It Hot," he's funny and he's a likable guy with that "heyyyyyyyyy" noise that, for some reason, always makes me laugh.

Brown plays "Frank Ferrell," a.k.a., "Alibi Ike," a Dizzy Dean-type rookie for the Cubs who winds up with Olivia de Havilland (as a 19-year-old, no less, making one of her first films) - and helping the Cubs, of course. (Boy, they could use him now.)

Along the way, we get some very entertaining baseball scenes. Ya gotta Joe E's windmill windup! "Ike's" romance with "Dolly" (de Havilland) takes up a fairly good chunk of the second half and noticeably slows down the movie. I almost lost interest. It doesn't pick up again until near the end with a wild baseball finish which includes the greatest "slide" at home plate I've ever seen!

So we're supposed to love a non-stop liar? How odd.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 12 March 2020]

Back in the day, Joe E. Brown was a very popular screen comic. However, when you see them today, you might have a similar reaction that I had...that some of these films were harmed by the scripts making Brown's characters so unlikable. In so many, he plays a liar or a braggart...the sort of guy you'd NORMALLY want to see fall on him face, so to speak. Here in one of his most popular films, Brown plays a guy who lies non-stop and makes a million and one excuses for every mistake he makes...yet, his girl (Olivia de Havilland) is captivated by him and he's some sort of baseball playing hero.

When the film begins, the coach of the Cubs (William Frawley) is lamenting about how bad the club will be in the upcoming season. But when Frank Farrell (Brown) arrives, he's got what appears to be the answer to his prayers, as Frank is an amazingly good pitcher. But he's also an obnoxious braggart...and you wonder how long folks will put up with his many, many excuses.

Apart from this being Olivia de Havilland's first released film, I was not a huge fan of this film as Brown is probably THE most obnoxious and unlikable guy he's ever been! I did like the ambulance bit near the end and a few other scenes...but mostly I found myself rooting against him!!

Feel good movie hits a home run

[canterburyroads · 8/10 · 2 June 2006]

The Chicago Cubs finally win the pennant! And it takes Joe E. Brown's immortal character Alibi Ike to do it. William Frawley once again is superb in the supporting role, as the manager. Olivia De Havilland shines as the love interest. The rest of the supporting cast which includes Ruth Donnelly and Roscoe Karns are excellent. Director Raymond Enright keeps the film moving along in good fashion. The movie is predictable but it's a lot of fun getting to the end. The ending puts a lasting smile on one's face reminiscent of the movie "Some Like It Hot". This feel good movie hits a home run with this viewer. Take yourself out to the ballgame and enjoy!

Pleasant baseball yarn with the great Joe E. Borwn...with one unanswered question

[vincentlynch-moonoi · 7/10 · 18 April 2012]

I give this film fairly high marks for a couple of reasons. First, it's very difficult not to like Joe E. Brown on screen. There's just something sort of indefinable about him that makes you smile...and often laugh...sometimes out loud. Brown makes the most of his role here as a great baseball player that has the habit of not being able to be quite honest about anything he says at all...and he not attempting to be deceitful...he just has the CONSTANT urge to fabricate his response to any question or situation. It's interesting here to also note that Brown was a pretty athletic guy, so just right for this film.

This film was also the first to be released of a new actress -- Olivia deHavilland. And, she just as she always was. Delightful.

William Frawley (much later to be Fred Mertz) has a meatier role here than he did in most of his films...as the baseball team manager. And he's very good in it.

The other players, though key to the story are not names many of us know today, but they all do their jobs well, here.

The one downer to this film is the lack of an explanation. Why does Ike fabricate everything instead of just telling the truth? That is never answered.

Even for us non-sports-fans, every once in a while a baseball movie will come along that keeps us entertained. This is one of those films. Definitely worth a watch.

Errol Flynn, Shakespeare and Joe E. Brown all in the same year. What a way to start a film career.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 9 April 2021]

There was also James Cagney in two of Olivia de Havilland's four films made that year, and while she would be reunited with Flynn and Cagney on screen and did Shakespeare on Broadway, she never went into Joe E. Brown territory again. The raucous loud mouthed comic, an actor of limited appeal, was a huge baseball fan (as was co-star William Frawley), and has a great entrance in this film, accidentally driving his car through a baseball field wall. Both Brown and Frawley made more than just a few films on their favorite sport, and it seems that a baseball film without William Frawley was a strikeout.

De Havilland plays Brown's love interest in this, and like Joan Bennett and Ginger Rogers before this and Joan Blondell and Susan Hayward after, quite the opposite and personality. Certainly no Winnie Lightner or Martha Raye or Judy Canova (more in tune to his outlandishness), Olivia is game in her starlet year, but like the more dramatic actresses I mentioned above, this was merely a contractual fulfillment, and when she did comedy again, they were more gentlemanly performers whose comedy was based on witty dialogue rather than slapstick. Warner Brothers had two other films hers awaiting release, but this one (the third she made) was the first, a test for the public to see how she fared on the big screen.

To add to the fun in the casting is Ruth Donnelly whose appearance in any Warner Brothers film added automatic enjoyment. Like Helen Broderick at RKO and later Eve Arden, Donnelly could deliver a wisecrack with a sting and always guaranteed to get a laugh. The story isn't much. Brown is a big braggart of a professional baseball player, finding innocent blame for his errors and eventually this has Olivia tired of his ways although she obviously loves him. He has the opportunity to redeem himself when he becomes involved with a group of racketeers who are trying to get him to throw the game. It is formula Joe E. Brown, dated in many ways, a must for his fans and those studying Olivia's career from the beginning. Baseball fans could skip this and not really miss anything, but knowing Brown and Frawley's love of the sport, not really a waste of time at 75 minutes. I love the model train and little village set Brown going from from game to game.

Plenty of Laughs

[Michael_Elliott · 27 February 2008]

Alibi Ike (1935)

*** (out of 4)

Third in Joe E. Brown's trilogy of baseball films has him playing Frank X. Farrell who gets the nickname of Alibi Ike because he comes up with an alibi no matter what's thrown his way. He joins the Chicago Cubs and becomes a wiz hitter and pitcher but a woman (Olivia de Havilland) falls in love with him and tries to change his ways. I really wasn't expecting too much out of this film but was pleasantly surprised at how many laughs Brown gives off. I'm sure many will find him annoying but the jokes were written very well and Brown carries them without a hitch. de Havilland is nice as the love interest and the supporting cast is nice as well. The highlight is when Brown tells his fielders to sit down behind the pitcher's mound so they can watch him strikeout the side. Many real-life baseball players can be seen on various teams and even Jim Thorpe can be spotted.

Heck! I wouldn't throw a game even if my mother was playing on the other team!

[sol1218 · 7/10 · 15 July 2010]

(Some Spoilers) Nice follow up to his previous baseball flick "Elmer the Great" Joe E. Brown is the Chicago Cub's new pitching sensation Frank X. Farrell the man with the golden arm and lighting quick swing. What Frank's only drawback in his playing ability has nothing to do with playing baseball: His inability to tell the truth! This lead to him being nicknamed by his teammates and the newspapers as "Alibi Ike".

As soon as the Cubs started spring training their manager Cap, William Frawley, knew he had a pennant winning team as long as Frank's pitching arm stayed healthy. But on the very first game Cap almost whacked it by shaking Frank's hand so hard and almost breaking it! Still Frank came back strong as his pitched the Cubs into 1st place with a string of shut-out victories. It was when Frank was introduced to Cap's sister in law Dolly Stevens, Olivia De Havillan, his mind started to forget the reason he was on the Chicago Cub baseball team in the first place. To help the team win the both National League Pennant and World Series: Or "World Serious" as Frank pronounced it.

If Dolly wasn't enough to keep Frank's mind off on winning the World Series a group of gangsters headed by Lefty Crawford, Paul Harvey, were! Trying to get Frank to throw the two games he's to pitch against the NY Giants in the World Series Frank ends up getting kidnapped by Lefty's hoods after he got the word from one of his flunkies-Jimmy the Newsboy-that Frank, with Dolly's urging, is out to win not throw the final game.

Escaping from his hoodlum captors Frank makes it to the ballpark, in his pajamas, by hijacking an ambulance and then replacing the Cub pitcher who just let the Giants score the tying run. Taking the mound Frank's will-mill like pitching still wasn't enough to win it for the Cubs. Going into extra innings it was Frank's batting and running as well as jumping talents that finally made the Chicago Cubs the World Baseball Champions. By far the best scene in the movie was Frank running out an inside the park home run and preventing himself from being tagged out at the plate by flying, some six feet, over the giant's catcher instead, in what you would usually expect in situations like that, sliding away from him!

P.S Even though it wasn't the first movie that she made "Alibi Ike" was the first film released with Olivia De Havilland in it. There was also in the film the World Series between the Cubs and Giants, who incidentally are both in the same National League, playing the deciding game of the series at night! This predated the first World Series night game by some 36 years which was played on October 13, 1971 between the Baltimore Orioles and Pittsburgh Pirates at the Pirates new ballpark Three River Stadium.

Buys An Enguagement Ring For His Sister

[DKosty123 · 7/10 · 26 October 2010]

Joe E Brown gets a lot of mileage out of his character in this baseball farce about the Cubs winning the World Series with Brown as an outrageously funny pitcher. The director of this film started in silents with a short comedy & a Rin Tin Rin film where Rin Tin Tin plays another dog. That does not mean this is a dog.

The film is pretty entertaining as William Frawley plays the Cubs manager. This is one of the first of many sports films Frawley would do. As for Brown, he is an under-appreciated funny man who in his films always plays someone a bit eccentric. He is that character here for sure. The script is co-written by Lardner & the writer who did Torpedo Run & Command Decision later.

For a 1935 feature, while it is by no means a perfect film, it does hold up better than some others from the year it was made. Dreaming of the Cubs winning a World Series continues to this day & it might be a few more years before it happens yet as the Cubs are closing in on 100 years without a World Series Victory.

"Will he make good, or is he just another bust?"

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 8 August 2015]

Some time ago I caught Joe E. Brown in another baseball flick, "Elmer the Great". His character Elmer in that one was quite arrogant, and not at all the way I remembered Brown from flicks I caught as a kid back in the Fifties. In "Alibi Ike", Brown brings back that old time magic for me, right down to that siren like "Heeeyyyyy" whenever he gets into a tight spot. And then there's that fantastic double triple loopy windmill windup he makes when setting up to pitch. Man, I could have used that delivery as a Little Leaguer to confound the opposing batters.

In both baseball flicks, Brown's character winds up on the Chicago Cubs, this time by way of Sauk Center. I guess we've all run across someone at one time or another who makes excuses for just about everything, but with Frank X. Farrell (Brown), he just never gives it a rest. Most of the time I had to wonder why too, because a lot of the situations on screen were slice of life stuff, like buying an engagement ring. I guess Ike was so much into the Alibi persona he just couldn't quit. Speaking of which, that was quite the double talk line he threw at the jeweler; I don't remember Brown ever using that before.

After a false start with his gal Dolly, Farrell rises to the occasion on both the ball field and in the romance department. Some of the baseball stuff is just plain silly, like calling all the players around to the pitcher's mound while Ike strikes out the side. There's also a brief interlude involving mobsters attempting to get Ike to 'throw' some games, but it's done somewhat haphazardly and blows by without much consequence. It's the physical comedy that entertains, along with Joe E. Brown's unique facials that make "Alibi Ike" a fun diversion.

Liar Liar

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 1 July 2020]

Chicago Cubs are short of pitchers until Francis X Farrell (Joe E. Brown) drives his car crashing through the outfield fence. He has a crazy windup and great pitches. He falls for the manager's sister-in-law Dolly Stevens (Olivia De Havilland). His non-stop excuses earn him the nickname of Alibi Ike.

Joe E. Brown with his wacky face is automatically loveable at first sight. It does clash with this character's constant excuse making. I'm reminded with another comic with a rubber face. It's Jim Carrey in Liar Liar but that movie adds a funny layer to the comedy. This one runs out of steam relatively quickly. He loses his loveability and the humor is lost after that. This premise needs that extra layer of comedy.

Baseball comedy is charming and very funny

[csteidler · 8/10 · 8 September 2017]

Joe E. Brown stars as Frank X. Farrell, rookie pitcher for the Chicago Cubs. Talented but quirky, Farrell quickly picks up the nickname Alibi Ike—it seems that he apologizes for everything, even his accomplishments:

Cap: "How many games did you win last year?" Ike: "Only 28. Had malaria most of the season."

Brown is hilarious as the alternately boastful and bashful Ike. William Frawley (looking almost young!) is fine as Cap, the often frazzled team manager. Ruth Donnelly is solid as always as Frawley's wife.

Olivia de Havilland, at the very beginning of her career, is lively and cute as the girl who wins Ike's heart, dumps him when he makes one excuse too many, and then roots for him to redeem himself when it counts.

Brown's charm really carries the picture; his reluctance ever to give a straight answer is humorous, sometimes almost poignant, but never as irritating as it would be in real life. Sometimes his excuses are very funny, too—like when his buddies, hoping to pin him down, ask him if he gave de Havilland a ring, and he says no, he lent it to her.

Lots of laughs, with some great on field baseball action too.

Up On The Mound With Mr. Brown

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 8 February 2004]

Known as ALIBI IKE for his never-ending excuses, the brash new pitcher for the Chicago Cubs becomes involved with nasty crooks and a very pretty young lady.

Comic Joe E. Brown has a grand time clowning about in this sporting comedy based on a Ring Lardner story. Although many of the jokes & situations are very similar to his previous films, Brown is always worth watching, his huge mouth & rubbery face perfectly fashioned for eliciting laughs. Whether careening about the infield in a runaway jalopy, attempting an escape from kidnappers or commandeering a huge truck to get to the ball field, Brown consistently delivers the comedic goods.

Lovely Olivia de Havilland scores a home run, playing Joe's girlfriend in one of her earliest film roles. Gruff William Frawley does a fine job as the Cub's stern coach. Ruth Donnelly plays Olivia's older sister, but unfortunately this wonderfully talented comedienne is given little to do. Roscoe Karns is fun as the team's sarcastic catcher.

This was the last of Joe E. Brown's Baseball Trilogy, following FIREMAN, SAVE MY CHILD (1932) & ELMER, THE GREAT (1933).

'Elmer The Great' Was Better

[GManfred · 13 July 2010]

Joe E. Brown was a funny man. Here he recreates the over-confident rube character he played in 'Elmer The Great', but the plot is very thin here. As someone already mentioned this is a one-joke movie and Joe E. milks it for all it's worth but it becomes tedious about half-way through.

Without going into detail, the plot is formulaic and predictable, about a braggart pitcher from the minor leagues who becomes a sensation and falls in love with Olivia DeHavilland along the way. William Frawley is his manager and Roscoe Karns is his best friend. But Brown is the whole show and gets a lot of mileage out of his character, which first appeared in 'Elmer The Great'. Personally, I thought 'Elmer' was a better picture and a lot of what he did in it is recycled here, just not as well.

I give a rating of 5 and the picture's appeal is mainly for his fans. One again, TCM comes through for all us old-time movie fans.