It Happened in Flatbush

Enjoyable movie. Years back they would have called this a B film. Today, it would rate A+.

Lloyd Nolan provides just the right touch as the baseball manager. His speech intonation reflects a wonderful Brooklyn accent. We bums in Brooklyn would appreciate every minute of it.

Brought back to manage a baseball team by the owner, (Sara Allgood in an all too brief performance) the film depicts the trials and tribulations of managing a last place team to pennant contention.

Romance is in the air as Nolan tries to woo the snooty niece of the recently deceased owner. Carol Landis does well as the niece.

We see Brooklyn at its best here as the faithful root for the Bums of yesteryear.

Wonderful nostalgia.

Although in 1942 Brooklyn was only one of the five boroughs of Greater New York when it was a city by itself it had a ballclub in the National League that eventually became known as the Dodgers. That club helped Brooklyn keep its individuality and was what made Brooklyn as Lloyd Nolan put it, "the greatest baseball town in the world".

Although you can see a lot more of old Ebbetts Field in the Red Skelton film Whistling In Brooklyn, you get enough of it here in a film about the Dodgers and their run for the pennant. In fact It Happened In Flatbush celebrated what happened in real life, the Dodgers winning their first pennant in 21 years in 1941.

But they lost the World Series in five games to the Yankees, a pattern that would repeat itself until 1955. That series is best remembered for passed ball by Dodger catcher Mickey Owen in game four on what would have been the last out of the game and the Dodgers winning and evening the series up at two games to two. But the Yankee right fielder Tommy Henrich ran to first safely and then the Yankees opened up and won the game. The heart was cut out of the Dodgers with that play.

Something similar has happened to Lloyd Nolan in It Happened In Flatbush. He was a promising shortstop who made an error and cost the Dodgers the pennant back in the day. In fact he was tagged "Butterfingers" and literally run out of the Big Leagues. More modern fans would call this the Bill Buckner syndrome.

Anyway Dodger owner Sara Allgood hires Nolan as manager and then she promptly dies leaving the biggest share to her niece Carole Landis who is a Park Avenue débutante with not much interest in the game. General Manager William Frawley is in Nolan's corner however and to keep his job he puts the moves on Landis.

Let's say she develops an interest in her Brooklyn roots and in baseball and Nolan with the inevitable results.

Watching that I couldn't help thinking of the real Dodger manager at the time, one Leo Durocher who had an eye for the ladies and would soon take as a third wife, movie star Laraine Day. If Durocher had a pretty owner like Carole Landis to deal with instead of the mercurial Larry MacPhail at the time, he would have been in their pitching with Carole.

Baseball players all over organized baseball would have voted Lloyd Nolan an Oscar if they had a vote for punching out the character that Robert Armstrong plays. Armstrong is one of those grudge bearing sportswriters who will pick on a target of some athlete and just always tear him down for whatever the reason. Ted Williams had one such individual in Boston, a guy named Dave Egan and if the Splendid Splinter ever saw It Happened In Flatbush he would have stood and applauded Nolan for doing what he would like to have done. In real life that would probably get you banned, fortunately Armstrong and Nolan had no witnesses.

The misanthropic William Frawley who was in real life a very lonely alcoholic has an unusual number of baseball films in his film credits. That's because he was a huge fan and probably would have paid 20th Century Fox to be in It Happened In Flatbush.

It Happened In Flatbush celebrates the place of my birth and the unique place in American culture it has. Its fans made it the greatest baseball town in the world.

I've been on an old movie kick lately. Some are more watchable than others. This one is in the former category. Although some of the hooliganism gets tiring after a while.

I have been living in Brooklyn for over 25 years, and my father was born and raised here until he went into the army in 1942, so I enjoyed the location shots, such as they were. And speaking of 1942 (the year this movie was released), I presume it was filmed in 1941 because there is not a single mention of the war.

A couple of other observations. 1. They must not have gotten permission to use the real team's name, because the word "Dodgers" is never once used in the movie. Or even "Dem bums". 2. When Nolan is in a taxi, crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, there is a streetcar in the left lane. My father talked about the streetcars on the surface streets (and how the kids would climb on the back to ride for free), but I never knew they used the bridges too.

Those of us who grew up with, and loved, the Brooklyn Dodgers had gotten a smile and a kick out of this film. Does anyone know if it is available anywhere? Would love to turn back the clock and enjoy this one over again. Great film - hell no! But so much of the Brooklyn spirit....and great dialogue poking fun at non-Brooklynites.Lloyd Nolan, of course, was fine in his role as manager of the team, and the much maligned but beautiful and actually quite talented Carole Landis is a wonderful woman to have around. Then there is the wonderful Sara Allgood...... No, Ray McCarey didn't have the chance to reach the career status of his brother, Leo, but Ray's films are devoid of the sentimental mash that his brother offered. Has anyone actually been able to watch Going My Way anymore? Impossible (even with the joy of seeing Rise Stevens).

Following their first National League Pennant win since 1920, The Brooklyn Dodgers team players, though losing the 1941 World Series, went to Hollywood to appear as themselves in this film's field and locker room scenes. Though uncredited on screen, they included Mickey Owen, Dolf Camilli, Billy Herman, Pewee Reese, Arky Vaughan, Dixie Walker, Cookie Lavagetto, Peter Reiser, and pitchers Hugh Casey, Whitlow Wyatt, and Freddie Fitzimmons. However, Lloyd Nolan played the team manager instead of Leo Durocher and Red Barber's substitute was KMPC radio Broadcaster Hal Berger whose 1941 in-studio game recreations fostered the birth of L.A.'s Dodger fan clubs.