Big Leaguer (1953)

A group of young baseball hopefuls head out to a Florida baseball training camp for the New York Giants where an ex major league player (Edward G. Robinson)  puts them through their paces and reports to the front office on who has the potential to make it to the major leagues. Directed by Robert Aldrich (KISS ME DEADLY) in his directorial film debut. This was a job for hire for Aldrich and the movie displays none of the complexities, resonance or subversion of his best work. It's an "inspirational" baseball flick and although I'm not fond of sports movies, this one moves quickly and with a tight running time of one hour and ten minutes, it's painless. It was a low budget effort from MGM but it still lost money. With Vera Ellen (in a rare non dancing role), Jeff Richards, Richard Jaeckel, William Campbell, Paul Langton and Lalo Rios.