Smoky Joe Grant isn’t as smart as he thinks he is, but neither is he as dumb as other people believe him to be. A Fireman with a wicked fastball who wants to patent his “extinguisher”, he dominates the diamond but is more precisely a lump of coal. Lloyd Bacon’s homage to the legendary (and since Hall of Fame) baseball player Rube Waddell adds some sense to the nonsensical narrative as the orally elastic Joe E. Brown’s schtick and Cheshire grin wear a bit thin during its brief run-time.
Smoky Joe’s goal in life is to patent his baseball-size fire extinguishing grenade so that every man, woman and child can carry one around and toss it at the hint of any conflagration. Joe has developed a pinpoint accuracy with the grenade which has made him a much sought-after pitching prospect for the St. Louis Cardinals. In love with a local girl (whom he’ll marry when he saves $5,000) he finally goes to the big leagues and falls under the spell of a gold-digging blonde. He’s torn between two women while pursuing his patent at the expense of the World Series! Jocularity ensues. Guy Kibee makes an excellent Connie Mack style manager sans uniform whose ornery attitude is more fatherly than managerial. In the first act, we see Smoky Joe lose interest in pitching while in the middle on a windup when he hears a siren. He runs quickly to the local firehouse to change and rides the engine to a burning pickle & sauerkraut factory. Yes, the movie is that funny...if you find that funny. His windup, however, is quite a thing of beauty as if he’s fending off a swarm of killer bees!
Lloyd Bacon’s direction seems to be to just allow Joe E Brown to mug for the camera, but DP Sol Polito at least adds some interesting camera angles and setups to the mix. He films Joe on the mound and places his camera underneath the catcher (the groin low-angle POV) and even place the catcher’s mask over the lens and gives us a neat game-worn perspective. The film incorporates stock footage of the Yankees-Cardinals World Series (1926 or 1928) but doesn’t match the medium and long shots of the actors playing on the field. And I’m not sure what the title of the film has to do with saving children as it remains (to me) rather oblique. Also, when writing a story about a pitcher who invents a baseball-size fire grenade and not have a scene when he accidentally (or purposely!) confuses it with a real baseball is an utter sin.
Smoky Joe ends up proving the value of his invention and winning the seventh game by being knocked-out and falling unconscious on home plate which is kinda how I felt by the final reel.
Final Grade: C
