Headin’ Home

Larger-than-life baseball superstar Babe Ruth is a blast as he plays himself in this wonderfully entertaining biopic. The slugger is portrayed as a bit of a country bumpkin with a passion for the game, but a lack of real talent. But that changes quickly as he develops his game and turns into a pitching and hitting machine, leading his small-town squad to a championship and taking his prodigious skills to the Major Leagues. Ruth Taylor plays his sweetheart. Margaret Seddon is his Ma., The sole purpose of this picture was to make money exploiting the “King of Swat,” Babe Ruth, in his motion picture debut. The baseball hero plays a character, appropriately named Babe, a country boy who the locals consider useless. He thinks he’s got some batting talent, but no one will take him seriously until a rival team comes to town and engages him when their one of their own players can’t make it. Babe hits a ball that soars five blocks and smashes through a church window. From that point on, his future fame is assure d. Along the way, he foils the villain — the local pitcher who does a bit of embezzling on the side (William Sheer) — and wins the banker’s daughter, Mildred (Ruth Taylor). Lawrence Windom directed the picture under the supervision of Raoul Walsh. The sporty subject matter was right up Walsh’s alley, but even he couldn’t do anything with this silly story, and Ruth was no actor. Its sole saving grace were witty title cards courtesy of Bugs Baer.