Movie Review: Death on the Diamond (1934)

Synopsis: A financially strapped St. Louis Cardinals baseball team hopes to win the pennant after signing star pitcher Larry Kelly. However, a crime boss hoping to make a lot of gambling money tries to prevent that from happening, first by attempting to bribe Kelly then through violence.

Who's in it? The movie stars Robert Young, Madge Evans, Ted Healy, David Landau and C. Henry Gordon.


Review: I came across Death on the Diamond several days ago and thought it sounded interesting enough to add to my library. I wound up watching it this morning and it ended up being a good choice.

The overall plot of the movie isn't too bad. If anything, it does a good job of portraying a very real problem professional sports faced during a time when ballplayers weren't making millions of dollars and clubs weren't always profitable. While some of that might have been taking to the extreme, such as shooting a player during a game, it still felt mostly realistic and that added to the drama.

At first, I was a little concerned the movie would become predictable/boring because it was clear who was behind the attempts at sabotage. However, some of the things that were happening, such as an attempt to drug the players through their gloves and a murder that took place in a locked-down stadium, meant there was likely an inside guy and that created an extra mystery.

I thought the various characters added a lot to the movie as well. Kelly (Young) was upbeat and sometimes comical while still able to be serious when needed and the love story between him and Frances (Evans) was somewhat interesting, especially when there were others who were also interested in her.

I am also going to give the movie some props for the ending, which turned out to have a surprise twist about the motive. Between that and the way the killer was caught, I found it highly entertaining and was a big fan of how the film was brought to a conclusion.

Final Opinion: This is an entertaining movie that proved to have a few surprise twists and a good mystery. I'd recommend it as a result.

My Grade: A


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Here are some reviews of other movies from 1934:

Movie Review: The Dragon Murder Case (1934)

Movie Review: Murder on the Blackboard (1934)

Movie Review: Murder in the Private Car (1934)

Movie Review: The Case of the Howling Dog (1934)

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