Elmer Kane (Joe E. Brown) is a simple small town ballplayer with small town girl Nellie Poole. He is recruited by the Chicago Cubs, but he hates the big city. Nellie convinces him to go. His teammates hate him even though he hits loads of homers. He loses Nellie and gets entangled by criminal gamblers.

The character is frustratingly dumb. He's not actually dumb. His idiocy comes from arrogance. It's a particular character and I struggle to like him all the time. I don't buy the teammates especially after they are winning. Winning solves all problems in the clubhouse. This movie is oscillating between pass fail and ultimately wins me over.

Sure it's cornball, and in many respects it seems hopelessly naive, and Joe E. Brown's persona is in some respects pretty insufferable, but it's clear that the makers of this picture knew all that. For some reason, Joe really resonated with American society of the 1930s, and that's what the producers gave to the public. I doubt if folks back then could have related to Johnny Depp, either. While "Elmer the Great" is certainly no masterwork, if you just take it on its own terms, the film is quite likable. It's particularly atmospheric in the earlier scenes set in Gentryville, Indiana. And there's some nice moments of pathos here, too. I would rank all three of JEB's baseball trilogy as about equally good.

ELMER, THE GREAT home run hitter doesn't want to leave his pretty boss in Gentryville, Indiana, to play ball for the Chicago Cubs.

Rubber-limbed comic Joe E. Brown scores big in this fine little comedy. Without even trying, the fellow could be funny - his huge grin and mischievous eyes a sure catalyst for laughter. In his first scenes, the mere act of his putting on his socks or eating his breakfast is a riot. The film also gives him a chance to suffer from unrequited love and face the abuse heaped on him for his yokel ways as he tries to deal with professional ballplayers and dangerous gamblers. Brown carries it all off with natural aplomb.

A sturdy cast lends fine support: pretty Patricia Ellis as Brown's conflicted boss; sweet Emma Dunn as his loving mother; goofy Sterling Holloway, perfectly cast, as Brown's baseball-mad younger brother (notice that Holloway's name is spelled incorrectly in the credits). Blustery Berton Churchill plays the owner of the Cubs, Preston Foster is the manager. Genial Frank McHugh plays the Cubs catcher. Claire Dodd has a mysterious role; she seems to be a chum of the ballplayers and little else - but at least she's easy on the eyes and the plot doesn't try to set up a silly romance between her and Brown. Casino hoodlum J. Carrol Naish plays the film's villain.

Movie mavens will recognize an uncredited Jessie Ralph as Brown's plain speaking, softhearted housekeeper.

The early scenes in Gentryville have a delightfully homespun, nostalgic charm which the later Chicago sequences can't match. Notice the fine use the minimal soundtrack makes of just two songs: ‘Take Me Out To The Ball Game' & ‘On The Banks Of The Wabash.'

Brown's use of a four-letter word near the film's climax underscores the film's pre-Code status. Also of interest, in the last inning of the final World Series game, the plot has the catcher & pitcher of the New York Yankees deliberately and maliciously cheat in an attempt to win. One wonders what Babe Ruth & Lou Gehrig must have thought of that...

ELMER, THE GREAT was the second of Brown's ‘baseball trilogy,' the other films being FIREMAN, SAVE MY CHILD (1932) & ALIBI IKE (1935).