Reluctant sports reporter Charles Quigley, desperate to cover crime, gets his wish reluctantly when he is put in charge of reporting on a professional girls softball team. That's right. You read it correctly. In the 1930s, most sports movies, in fact 99.9% of them, covered on male athletes. Women could be doctors, lawyers, business owners and politicians, but an athlete? Unheard of. The girls softball team is owned by mobster John Galluadet who utilizes it to cover his illegal activities. The team catcher is a very young Rita Hayworth, who happens to be involved with the owner and perhaps knows too much.
Utilizing his charm, Quigley entices player Jacqueline Wells (AKA Julie Bishop) to join him for lunch. it all goes innocently except for the fact that she loses her place in line applying for a job, so he gets an ice cream cone in the face for his efforts. Whatever the point of this is never is revealed, but somehow Quigley and Welles discover that the death of one of the players wasn't so accidental. As for Hayworth, she's a player with a heart condition who is suspected of revealing things that she knows, and this leads to a very tense situation on the field when she heads to the outfield.
In the late 1930s, the young Rita Hayworth was a fairly known dancer who got a Columbia contract and was groomed by the studio as a starlet, appearing in several dozen films before Technicolor discovered her and turned her into a superstar. Her role here is important and there are signs that she has what it takes, if not the right part yet. Something is missing from the look even though she is obviously beautiful, and once the spark is discovered, her career takes off in directions that her early films didn't even dare explore. Quigley and Welles do fine in the leads, but once this rare film is discovered, it will be Hayworth that will get the attention simply because of the legend that came out of the starlet. The film itself is not all that great, rather contrived and predictable, but a unique topic makes it interesting. Mixing comedy, romance and crime drama is indeed a great combination that covers all the bases.
Utilizing his charm, Quigley entices player Jacqueline Wells (AKA Julie Bishop) to join him for lunch. it all goes innocently except for the fact that she loses her place in line applying for a job, so he gets an ice cream cone in the face for his efforts. Whatever the point of this is never is revealed, but somehow Quigley and Welles discover that the death of one of the players wasn't so accidental. As for Hayworth, she's a player with a heart condition who is suspected of revealing things that she knows, and this leads to a very tense situation on the field when she heads to the outfield.
In the late 1930s, the young Rita Hayworth was a fairly known dancer who got a Columbia contract and was groomed by the studio as a starlet, appearing in several dozen films before Technicolor discovered her and turned her into a superstar. Her role here is important and there are signs that she has what it takes, if not the right part yet. Something is missing from the look even though she is obviously beautiful, and once the spark is discovered, her career takes off in directions that her early films didn't even dare explore. Quigley and Welles do fine in the leads, but once this rare film is discovered, it will be Hayworth that will get the attention simply because of the legend that came out of the starlet. The film itself is not all that great, rather contrived and predictable, but a unique topic makes it interesting. Mixing comedy, romance and crime drama is indeed a great combination that covers all the bases.