It Happens Every Spring (1949)

Fun baseball comedy starring, of all people, Ray Milland. There's so many things about this that shouldn't work yet it does. Milland plays a college professor who also happens to be a brilliant scientist working on a formula for a coating on wood that will make it repellent to things like bugs and mice. Through an accident he discovers his formula, when put on a baseball, will make it impossible to hit. So he does what any scientist would do and decides to become a major league pitcher. He becomes a big success, cheating like the dickens the whole way. This was back in the day when things like fair play and honor were valued. Yet here this guy is cheating his way to the World Series and, amusingly, the movie passes no judgment on it. Now, anybody who knows baseball knows some pitchers back in the day were not above using various techniques to doctor the balls they threw. Like spitballs, for example. Still, such things weren't openly endorsed by Major League Baseball and they wouldn't have anything to do with the movie because of the cheating. This is why they use fake teams in the film instead of real ones, which was more commonplace at the time.Milland is excellent and proves that personable, talented actors can often rise above miscasting. Paul Douglas is great fun as Milland's catcher. It's a role Douglas could play in his sleep and he's perfect in it. Gorgeous Jean Peters plays Milland's girlfriend. Besides good looks, she brings charm and humor to the part. She retired from acting in the mid 50s and married Howard Hughes. It's a very pleasant, enjoyable comedy. Far-fetched and often ridiculous, yes, but still fun.

I haven't followed baseball since I was a child. The only sport that's ever interested me is trying to get out of bed in the morning. But this is a movie that convulsed me as a youth and that I still enjoy watching, along with "The Natural" and "Damn Yankees" (except for Tab Hunter, a black hole in any production).Ray Milland is quite good as a slightly aged-in-the-wood chemistry graduate student and professor. He loves his work; he loves his girl, Jean Peters. The only problem is that through the Spring and Summer he's distracted by baseball, which he monitors religiously.One of those lab accidents takes place that produces an unidentifiable mixture of some white fluid -- about a quart -- that is repelled by wood. Scientist that he is, Milland discovers that rolling a baseball around in the stuff makes it impossible for a wooden bat to hit the ball. The ball leaps like a rabbit before returning to its original trajectory. Milland forces his way onto a major league team, leaving everyone to wonder if he's been kidnapped or become a gangster.It's a raw but engaging comedy. Milland pass off the little bottle of fluid as hair tonic and when anyone borrows it and tries to brush his hair, the hair crackles and tries to escape the brush. Paul Douglas is the catcher who first tries Milland out -- "He ain't got a prayer" -- and then is assigned to keep an eye on him because Milland reads books with titles like "The Atom, The Stars, And The Universe", and "Fundamentals of Ballistics," so he's an odd ball, though a valuable odd ball.Don't expect subtlety or sophistication and you'll enjoy yourself.

There are so many problems with "It Happens Every Spring" that it's hard to imagine that I'd still recommend it. That's because it's a film you can enjoy IF you turn off your brain and simply enjoy it on a brain-dead level. I apparently could do this, though occasionally nagging problems with the plot reared their ugly heads.Ray Milland stars as a goofy college chemistry professor. One day while working on a formula for a wood repellent, a baseball flies through the window and smashes his equipment and notes. Oddly, however, it seems that whatever the concoction landed on now repels wood--and I mean REALLY repels wood. When he puts it on a baseball, it cannot be hit! So, he hatches a plan--to brush up on his pitching and earn money for his research by joining the major leagues. Now here is the part that I couldn't understand and I think it was added simply to make the movie formulaic (giving it some contention)--when he is hired by St. Louis to pitch, he uses an alias and doesn't want anyone to know he's a professor. Why isn't really clearly understandable--as the school, when they discovered, wasn't mad in the least he took a leave of absence to play pro ball.The ball does many insane things when he pitches it--flying about in ways that defy physics. In addition, his using a cloth dunked in the solution to rub on the ball would easily have been discovered. Yet, inexplicably, no one seems to think he's cheating--which he clearly is. Still, despite many logical flaws, Milland is very entertaining (he was a fine actor--and very good in comedy) and the plot is rather cute. As I said above, turn off your brain--otherwise it might be tough to finish.

This is a great comedy. The fact that a college professor uses a chemistry formula (that makes most things repel wood) to win the World Baseball Championship actually makes it funnier. And it's wholesome fun, despite what some moralists may think. The premise that Ray Milland can't actually pitch too well is what makes this a true screwball comedy - and he is redeemed at the end (I won't say how so I won't spoil the fun of watching it). Absurd situations is what makes funny films. This definitely has the formula for comedy: Witty, lots of jokes, madcap romantic situations, and abundant twists and turns. Milland chose to star in this flick right after his Best Actor Oscar for a reason -it became a top comedy of the era. Paul Douglas is outrageously funny as his bemused catcher (the scene where he rubs Milland's wood-repelling formula into his hair is priceless). And the gorgeous Jean Peters comes across with top honors -she can actually do comedy and it's a shame Fox didn't assign her to more of these. Some other Fox actresses without a knack for comedy, were persistently featured in comedies that could have been much funnier if Miss Peters or Marilyn Monroe had been assigned the female lead. See this film. Like "Some Like it Hot" or "It Should Happen to You" (two films featuring Jack Lemmon), this one's full of fun and you'll laugh every other minute. It should have been selected as one of the 50 top comedies ever, but you know how critics love films with a message (which should never be the case with comedies).