Storyline

Former baseball player Bill Johnson, portrayed by William Bendix, failing at many jobs after his ball-playing days are over, reluctantly takes the advice of his father-in-law, Jonah Evans (Ray Collins), a retired umpire, and enters an umpire-training school. Assigned to the Texas League, he does fine until the championship play-offs when a riot develops over one of his calls. The involved player is knocked unconscious in the proceedings and cannot verify that Bill made the correct call. Despite lynch mob plans to at least tar-and-feather him, Bill's family - his daughters Lucy (Gloria Henry and Susan (Connie Marshall ) and his wife Betty (Una Merkel) - help Bill reach the ballpark safely the next day through a series of hair-raising encounters.—Les Adams

Plot Keywords

actor shares first name with character, indian, secretary, slang, hot dog, radio announcer, fireman, husband wife relationship, dispute, texan, title spoken by character, 1940s, b movie, baseball cap, father daughter relationship, mother daughter relationship, father in law son in law relationship, grandfather granddaughter relationship, hotel, loss of job

Short Review

So bad it's good and so unreal it's often too real.  That's the best way to describe 'Kill the Umpire', a film so obscure, yet so culty, it's available for free if you search for it.   The umpire school scenes and the vitriol that the fans and players have for the umpire is a good example of how important the announcers are to the game.  If the announcers bash the umpires the fans often do as well.  Anyway, if you're an umpire, you'll get a kick out of it and if you're an umpire hater you will as well.  If you're not a fan of sports or baseball then this probably is something you should stay away from.  Long story short:  A Sometimes drunk husband and father with anger issues who can't hold a job goes to umpire school and finds out it's nothing he'd expect.  Final Score: 7/10

Trailer

Streaming Service

1. Amazon Video : Rent from $1.99, Or $0.00 with a Prime membership