It Happens Every Spring (1949)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

The greatest movie ever made..!

That was an excellent one.

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Having read almost all of the comments on this film by IMDb reviewers, the thing that surprises me more than anything else is that no one mentioned the age disparity between Professor Vernon Simson/King Kelly (Ray Milland) and his fiancée Deborah (Jean Peters). Give or take a year either way, Milland was twice as old as his co-star in the picture, and the relationship didn't seem credible to me at all. It didn't help that the story didn't reveal any chemistry between the two either. I wonder why film makers took that route back in the day; it happened quite frequently with other actors too, like Randolph Scott and John Wayne for example. I think we're pretty much beyond that kind of casting by now.Otherwise the story has the kind of whimsical fantasy perspective of movies like Disney's "The Absent Minded Professor" (1961) and "Son of Flubber" (1963). Attempting to formulate something akin to an anti-termite solution, Professor Simpson accidentally stumbles upon a concoction that makes baseballs allergic to baseball bats. One of the students helping him test his theory was Alan Hale Jr. looking remarkably young, and it was funny to hear him calling Milland 'Professor' instead of Russell Johnson, a fellow castaway on Gilligan's Island.An interesting theme the story line treads on in describing the character of Professor Simpson was one of possible mental illness. The subject is broached early in the story when Professor Greenleaf asks a colleague what he thinks of Simpson and the response suggests that he's okay from November through April but then he suddenly starts to exhibit erratic behavior, corresponding as we learn, with the annual baseball season. Later, when Simpson approaches Greenleaf for an extended and indeterminate leave, it's without a coherent reason that he makes his request. So there's good cause to question Simpson's mental state. I bring this up because later on in the scene outside the jewelry store with Simpson and Deborah, they pass under a movie marquee featuring "The Snake Pit", which dealt with a woman who's confined to an asylum. I thought the connection was pretty interesting and wondered whether it was done intentionally. Incidentally, another movie on the marquee was "Jungle Patrol", both films from 1948.Considering what the modern era has wrought in the way of technological advances, it seems almost impossible that the Professor could have pulled off his ruse as an incognito pitcher for a Major League baseball franchise, even as far back as 1949. I suppose it could have been possible, but by the time he breezed past his thirtieth win as a pitcher, I would think the home town fans would have made the connection. Heck, even Wyatt Earp was recognizable from illustrations in pulp magazines of the 1870's.Anyway, sports fans can have some fun with this picture despite the quirky stuff going on with the nitrocyclohexane juiced baseball, fully understanding that it's all done simply for entertainment. Catch the quick reference comparing King Kelly to Dizzy Dean, pitching legend for the St. Louis Cardinals during the Thirties. A couple years after this picture was made, a film on Dean came out titled "The Pride of St. Louis".

Shy and reserved chemistry professor Ray Milland (as Vernon "King Kelly" Simpson) becomes absent-minded every spring. It happens. Following a disruptive class, he accidentally creates a liquid compound that repels wood. The solution gets on a baseball and something unusual happens. The baseball avoids contact with anything wooden, so Mr. Milland decides to "play ball." He joins the St. Louis team as a pitcher, telling roommate and catcher Paul Douglas (as Monk Lanigan) his magic liquid is a hair tonic. One problem is that – being absent-minded – Milland is unable to make any new bottles of the wood repellent. This could prove interesting if there is to be a big game. Another concern is pretty girlfriend Jean Peters (as Deborah "Debbie" Greenleaf), who suspects Milland is leading a more nefarious double life...Directed by Lloyd Bacon, this whimsical comedy may have been the inspiration for Disney studio's "The Absent-Minded Professor" (1961). Screenplay writer Valentine Davies had little time to find bemusement in the homage, felled by a heart attack just after the Disney picture's release. What makes "It Happens Every Spring" so enjoyable is that it's sheer nonsense and does not overindulge in mugging. Milland is a seventh inning stretch as a young graduate student, but he makes a fine impression. Milland sometimes suggests a screwball Cary Grant, but without suffering in the comparison. Of course, Mr. Douglas and the supporting cast assist admirably. Watch big names in little places as former "silent" film star Mae Marsh walks on as a housekeeper and future "Gilligan's Island" skipper Alan Hale Jr. makes the team.******* It Happens Every Spring (6/10/49) Lloyd Bacon ~ Ray Milland, Paul Douglas, Jean Peters, Ray Collins

"Field of Dreams" is the best baseball fantasy yet filmed, followed closely by "The Natural". In this picture, Prof. Vernon Simpson (Ray MIlland) invents a chemical which makes any object avoid wood. This property is invaluable to baseball pitchers who wish that their pitches avoid contact by batters. Simpson, tests his invention himself as he gets himself hired by the St. Louis baseball team. Their is decent comedy in this movie as Simpson tries to hide the reason for his success from his teammates, such as Monk (Paul Douglas), and his manager, Jimmy Dolan. The reason Simpson has for pitching, in addition to proving that his invention works, is to earn money so he can marry his girlfriend Debbie (Jean Peters), but he wants her not to find out why he has departed his college campus. I like this movie, it would probably play better during spring training, not the dead of winter, so it get a grade of C+ and a modest recommendation.

One of my most memorable baseball images is that of George Brett who after hitting a home run against the Yankees had it disallowed because of excess pine tar used on his bat. The protest was lodged by Billy Martin the Yankee manager of the time who knew about the obscure rule and waited for an appropriate moment for the protest. I remember vividly the image of George Brett in his Royals uniform charging out of the Kansas City dugout, bat in hand looking to rearrange Billy Martin's face with it.Now if pine tar got that home run disallowed, what do you think the ruling heads of baseball would say to a wood repellent that made it impossible to hit a doctored ball? Yet that's what we're being asked to accept here.A lot has sure happened to baseball since 1949, but I think outright cheating would have been frowned upon back in the day. Of course Ray Milland doesn't think of it as cheating. He accidentally discovers a compound that repels wood in an experiment to develop some stain free varnish. He's a university chemistry professor and he decides to join the hapless St. Louis team and pitch them to the pennant, purely as a scientific experiment.I do love baseball and baseball films, but this is one of the worst ever made. It has a few laughs in it, the players Ray Milland, Jean Peters, Paul Douglas, Ted DeCorsia give adequate performances, but the premise is impossible. Ray Milland is like a pitching version of Joe Hardy from Damn Yankees. Hardy had some underworld intervention to account for his success, but Milland relies on some scientific cheating. I can hardly believe that the Commissioner of Baseball who at the time was Albert "Happy" Chandler would not have called for an investigation as to the strange doings in St. Louis.And if he didn't no one should ever have criticized and attacked such pitchers as Whitey Ford, Lew Burdette, and Gaylord Perry who were accused of using the outlawed spitball to help their game.In fact we ought to consider bringing back all those doctored pitches from days gone by.