Rhubarb (1951)

A charming and fast-paced screwball comedy starring screen legend Ray Milland and enchanting beauty Jan Sterling. Trouble follows when an eccentric millionaire bequeaths his fortune - and his baseball team - to his pet cat! Now the team s publicist (Milland) must convince the players that Rhubarb is the key to their success, at the same time evading gangsters and avoiding the wrath of his lovely - and allergic - fiancé! Rhubarb is a hilarious comedy classic in the style of Bringing Up Baby and His Girl Friday. Product Description

CLASSIC COMEDY

A GREAT FAMILY MOVIE WITH A CAST TO MATCH. THE STORY BRINGS THE FUN BACK IN SIMPLE PLOTS WHICH DEAL WITH A CAT, A BASEBALL TEAM, A MANAGER, AND A MILLION DOLLARS. WORTH CHECKING OUT! November 3, 2008

Big league cat

Fourteen felines were used to make the screwball comedy RHUBARB; the most famous of these was "Orangey," who 10 years later was "Cat" in "Breakfast at Tiffany's." Old Wrigley Field in Los Angeles appears here; sports fans may recall this park from the early '60s TV show, "Home Run Derby."

"Rhubarb" is the story of a feisty feral cat who steals the golfball of an eccentric millionaire ball team owner, along with the man's heart. He eventually captures the golf course dweller and names it "Rhubarb," which in baseball lingo means "a brawl." After they'd spent two contented years together, the man who is now dying leaves all his money and the sports team to Rhubarb.

The players aren't too happy with being owned by a cat and they stage a mass walkout. Rhubarb's appointed caretaker, Eric Yeagar (Milland) uses some trickery to convince the superstitious team that their cat is in reality a lucky charm. Believing they can't lose makes the once faltering "Brooklyns" invincible; they win the pennant and are huge favorites to repeat in the World Series. Bookmakers overwhelmed with the number of "sure bets" decide to eliminate the source of Brooklyn's success-- Rhubarb.

Among the movie's extensive number of uncredited actors are Strother Martin ('Shorty' McGirk) and Leonard Nimoy (young ballplayer). Watch in the final scene for a cameo by Paul Douglas (Jan Sterling's husband), who uses a play on words to plug his latest project, "A Letter to Three Wives."


Bill Frawley also appeared in two other baseball movies (that starred William Bendix): THE BABE RUTH STORY (1948) and KILL THE UMPIRE (1950), which is presented here as a double feature along with SAFE AT HOME (1962) (includes cameos by the '62 Yankees).


Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 viewer poll rating found at a film resource website.

(7.1) Rhubarb (1951) - Ray Milland/Jan Sterling/Gene Lockhart/William Frawley/Donald MacBride/Orangey (uncredited: Strother Martin/Leonard Nimoy/Tristram Coffin/Don Haggerty/Paul Douglas) August 26, 2008

Delightful and forgotten screwball comedy

If you've never seen this 1951 screwball comedy, you have missed a real gem. A cat that can fight and beat dogs, an eccentric baseball team owner who dies and leaves the team to the cat (Rhubarb), the cat's guardian (Ray Milland) whose fiancee is allergic to cats, a group of gangsters who believe Rhubarb is hurting their earnings in the field of betting (the team begins to win after they believe Rhubarb is good luck), and the dead owner's relations who have been left penniless by Rhubarb usurping them in their inheritance all mix together to make great fun for cat lovers and baseball lovers alike. Nobody remembers this one very much because it is rarely televised and also because it was made by Paramount, a studio that tends to neglect its many classic films. In fact, the expression that the Joker utters in the 1989 Batman film : "Never rub another man's Rhubarb" refers to this film, although almost everyone assumed a more unsavory meaning for the expression. The baseball team in this film starts to turn their luck around when one batter pets (rubs) Rhubarb before a game. It really is a great family movie, but not many people at all have seen this one and thus few understand what the Joker was talking about.

This film is finally coming to DVD July 1. That is the good news. The bad news is that there will be no extras included. May 22, 2008

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