thejcowboy22 Review of It Happens Every Spring

It Happens Every Spring (1949)

Repels everything made of Wood except Natalie!

[5/10 · 11 May 2017]

I recall my first little league experience. I started in left field. A ball was hit to me and it hit off the heal of my and rolled forever behind me . The hitter ending up getting an inside the park home run. The bottom of the inning didn't fair any better as I stuck out swinging as the opposing pitcher threw bee bees at lightning speed. Ray Milland although an academy award winning actor always plays a dour, serious kind of actor. This film is sort of an aberration for Milland taking part in this baseball fairy tale comedy. Milland plays a college professor Vernon Simpson who is a baseball fan. One day while running an experiment in his lab, a baseball crashes through his window breaking beakers and glassware. The fluids combined with a fictitious substance methylethylpropylbutyl creates this holy grail that only major league pitchers were looking for in the quest of greatness, a chemical that repels wood. The mild mannered Vernon takes leave from the university and goes into obscurity. Vernon immediately tries out for the St. Louis club as a pitcher. On first impression by the owner and coaches was not a good one despite his slow delivery and lack of velocity until the teams top slugger was whiffing at ball soaked pitches after pitch. Catcher and second banana Paul Douglas plays the room mate Monk to the green Major Leager/ professor King Kelly as his alias. Meanhile back at the Campus Vernon's fiancé Deborah (Jean Peters) is worried as there's no word on his whereabouts. Our new phenom King Kelly is making headlines across the country setting strikeout records and victories using a sponge inserted in his catching glove. Reporters try to find out where he's from. Protected by Monk, King Kelly's personal catcher who is constantly harassed by his wife via the telephone borrows that formula mistaking it for hair tonic. The results are astounding as at one point the hair goes one way and the opposite way when using a wooden brush. This baseball fantasy plays itself out and in 9 beautiful innings.