Watch Alibi Ike For Free

Captivating movie !

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

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.

(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.

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).

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.