Just what I expected

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

. . . DEATH ON THE DIAMOND virtually gives viewers a play-by-play of this sport's upcoming Bud Selig Era. As "'Roid Rage" claims the lives of more and more former hopped-up Real Life "stars," one cannot help but see the handwriting on the wall for all of this prospective carnage as the St. Louis Cardinal's top slugger John "Truck" Hogan succumbs to a similar fatal poisoning minutes after a Red Birds victory toward the end of DEATH ON THE DIAMOND. (Selig still backs Lance Armstrong's candidacy for the Bicycling Hall of Fame!) Furthermore, when a sniper guns down the Card's Duncan Spencer as he's rounding third with the tying run (and two out in the bottom of the Ninth) during a pivotal contest and the Commissioner callously saddles the home team with a devastating defeat because dead men cannot score, what does this remind you of? Right, it's perfectly analogous with Selig viciously ordering the 2001 baseball season to resume as if nothing happened while 9-11 victims were still roasting at Ground Zero in New York City solely to enable Racist Cheater Big Head Bonds to continue bad-mouthing the Nelson Mandela of Baseball--New York's George Herman "Babe" Ruth--while making a mockery of the sport's most hallowed standards!

Someone's trying to keep St. Louis's baseball team from winning the pennant by killing off the players!No wonder this antique rarely if ever showed up on a Late Show. As a whodunit, the movie generates little suspense as a multitude of characters drift in and out of the meandering scenes. In fact, the plot with a shadowy character shooting players during the game is pretty contrived.Then too, the occasional poorly done process shots, usually backgrounding Larry (Young), keep reminding you that this is after all only a movie. The badinage between umpire O'Toole (I think) and player Hogan about the former's eyesight gets tiresome even if it does turn poignant in the end. Then too, I don't know where director Sedgwick was during the confession scene, but as others point out, it has to be seen to be believed.On the other hand, Young does a reasonable job emulating a big league pitcher and is his usual engaging self, while Evans (Frances) and Kelly (reporter Jimmie) outshine the third-rate material. As an old Cardinal fan from the days of Musial and Schoendienst, I did enjoy seeing shots of old Sportsman's Park packed to the rafters. Nonetheless, the movie just doesn't cut it, and not because of its creaky age.

Just watched this for the first time, after recording it a few days ago off TCM. I figured a murder mystery involving baseball was something I had to watch since I have enjoyed both murder mysteries and baseball almost all my life.Expecting a straight drama, I was surprised how much of the film was devoted to humor, particularly between the catcher and the umpire. Robert Young was Jim Anderson and Marcus Welby to me as I grew up--having seen him in many roles in old films, I think he is one of the most underrated actors of the 20th Century. He handled a wide variety of roles and the did them all quite well.It is certainly true that some of the ways the murders were committed were rather far-fetched. I'll say it's also true that they handled most of the baseball action scenes better than many other films did. Young, in his closeups, looked believable as a pitcher to me. They mixed in real baseball footage to make the baseball scenes realistic enough.Because they had much focus on the baseball scenes, and the romantic angle, they didn't have enough time for the typical detective movie where we see clues point to different suspects. Instead, we basically were pointed toward numerous people, mostly because they were in the vicinity of the activity. But since this was a light-hearted murder mystery, I don't think this ruined the film.I think it equates with a Matlock or Diagnosis Murder where we follow the star around as everything happens around, and we can guess at who committed the murders, but we never have any real clues until the very end. Frequently on those two TV series, we didn't really have clues to the killer, just a group of suspects to makes guesses about.The big difference here is, after the killer is caught, there's still the mystery of whether or not the Cardinals can clinch the pennant.It was a fun movie to see. It would be a mistake to get bogged down in details of how this or that seems unbelievable. While I caught Mickey Rooney and Ward Bond, Walter Brennan's short role slipped past me.

"Death On The Diamond" revolves around the world of professional baseball, and contains extensive baseball footage. I myself am no follower of this sport, but I still enjoyed the film. A lot of the credit should go to the director, Edward Sedgwick, and the editor, Frank Sullivan: quick cutting and frequent changing of camera angles give this film a fairly fast pace and help it belie its age. The casting is also very good: each actor fits the type of the character he's playing. And then there's the unjustly forgotten Madge Evans, one of my favorite actresses from that era: she is so sweet and lovely, I could watch her smile all day long. And if you want to bet on who the (serial) killer may be, the odds are against you! **1/2 out of 4.