In some ways, this is an interesting historical curio. It's one of the earliest films in existence about baseball and it also deaths rather sympathetically with American Indians. Also, odd for its time, it actually had Indians playing many of the main characters--by the 1930s and 40s, practically none of the films from America had real Indians playing leading roles. In other ways, however, the film is a bit of a letdown, as the plot is pretty strange and the chronology in the film is a mess to say the least.
The film begins with a bunch of guys running about wearing baseball uniforms. Oddly, instead of showing the actual team names on their jerseys, names for two clubs are pinned quite sloppily over top the original team names. It seems that these guys are gathering for a game and a sleazy gambler tries to at first bribe and later drug the Indian pitcher in order to fix the game. However, the Indian is both bright AND he sees through the plan. When this happens, the gambler tries to shoot him and they struggle--at which point the gun goes off and kills the gambler. Oddly, the Indian is arrested AND apparently sentenced to death in the space of about two minutes!!! There WERE witnesses who could verify it was self-defense and an appeal is made to the judge. In the meantime, the guard agrees to let the Indian go and pitch the ballgame IF he agreed to promptly return! Amazingly, this is EXACTLY what occurs! And, in a twist, the Indian is executed just seconds after the sentence is commuted!! All this, in the space of only a few minutes!! Talk about swift justice!!
By the way, in addition to having a bizarre chronology, the film suffers from the absolute WORST baseball playing in history! The pitching is abominable and the batters swing wildly at every pitch!! Most six year-olds play better, yet these are supposed to be real honest-to-goodness teams of adults!!! Still, despite this, the film is interesting and worth a look if only for its historical significance.
The film begins with a bunch of guys running about wearing baseball uniforms. Oddly, instead of showing the actual team names on their jerseys, names for two clubs are pinned quite sloppily over top the original team names. It seems that these guys are gathering for a game and a sleazy gambler tries to at first bribe and later drug the Indian pitcher in order to fix the game. However, the Indian is both bright AND he sees through the plan. When this happens, the gambler tries to shoot him and they struggle--at which point the gun goes off and kills the gambler. Oddly, the Indian is arrested AND apparently sentenced to death in the space of about two minutes!!! There WERE witnesses who could verify it was self-defense and an appeal is made to the judge. In the meantime, the guard agrees to let the Indian go and pitch the ballgame IF he agreed to promptly return! Amazingly, this is EXACTLY what occurs! And, in a twist, the Indian is executed just seconds after the sentence is commuted!! All this, in the space of only a few minutes!! Talk about swift justice!!
By the way, in addition to having a bizarre chronology, the film suffers from the absolute WORST baseball playing in history! The pitching is abominable and the batters swing wildly at every pitch!! Most six year-olds play better, yet these are supposed to be real honest-to-goodness teams of adults!!! Still, despite this, the film is interesting and worth a look if only for its historical significance.
