The Kid from Left Field ** (1953, Dan Dailey, Anne Bancroft, Billy Chapin, Lloyd Bridges, Ray Collins, Richard Egan) – Classic Movie Review 9778

Director Harmon Jones’s 1953 black and white 20th Century Fox sports comedy The Kid from Left Field stars Dan Dailey as Larry ‘Pop’ Cooper, a former baseball player who ends up as a snack salesman at the ballpark while giving playing hints to his nine-year-old son Christy (Billy Chapin), who relays his tips to the team, leading the kid to be taken on to manage the players.

The Kid from Left Field is a fanciful but pleasant little fable designed to produce a smile or two. The playing is amiable if modest, the satire in Jack Sher’s script very gentle and the handling all too laid back.

Also in the cast are Anne Bancroft, Lloyd Bridges, Ray Collins, Richard Egan, Bob Hopkins, Alex Gerry, Walter Sande, Fess Parker, George Phelps, and John Gallaudet.

Up-and-coming actor Richard Egan plays Billy Lorant notably, and was rewarded with a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer – Male, albeit tied with two other actors, including Steve Forrest in So Big (1953) and Hugh O’Brian in The Man from the Alamo (1953).

Anne Bancroft gets good star billing but not much of a role as Marian Foley.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9778

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