The "true story" of baseball great Babe Ruth; Ruth plays himself.The "true story" of baseball great Babe Ruth; Ruth plays himself.The "true story" of baseball great Babe Ruth; Ruth plays himself.
Ralf Harolde
- John Tobin
- (as Ralph Harolds)
Charles Byer
- David Talmadge
- (as Charles Burt)
Ann Brody
- Mrs. Tony Marino
- (as Anne Brodie)
Sammy Blum
- Jimbo Jones
- (as Sam Blum)
Tom Cameron
- Deacon Flack
- (as Thomas Cameron)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaBabe Ruth received $25,000 for this, his first film. The sum was a large amount for the time, and Ruth refused to cash his paycheck and carried it around to show to friends. By the time Ruth had decided to cash his check for the film, the check bounced because of the film's poor box office results. Ruth shrugged off his loss and kept the check as a memento.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Fractured Flickers: Rod Serling (1963)
Featured review
It's no home run, but it's enough to get to at least first base.
Boy howdy, if this isn't a trip through time, and maybe even more so than other works of the silent era. Porkpie hats galore; effusive intertitle representation of colloquial phrases, slang, and dialects that are practically another language one century later; self-mythologizing that makes T. E. Lawrence's exaggerations of his escapades look like a little white lie. And to top it all off, 'Headin' home' is a fictionalized biography that is presented as loose narrative fiction, with focus at times on tertiary figures who have nothing to do with the man himself! Very light "comedy," and very light "drama," are really nothing more than an excuse to give baseball legend Babe Ruth his own movie - and at times, it seems, to allow the folks writing the intertitles to let their imagination run wild, seemingly with the aid of several bottles of a favored alcohol beverage.
Neither Ruth, nor writers Arthur "Bugs" Baer or Earle Browne, nor director Lawrence C. Windom were a Buster Keaton or a Harold Lloyd, and this flick is no exemplar of humor or of this period in cinema. Anyone who isn't already enamored of silent films may not find anything here to change their mind. Be that as it may, it's modestly enjoyable on its own merits, and there are some small bits and pieces that are unexpectedly keen. The writers may have been imbibing a brew or five while penning the intertitles, but every now and again they slip in an especially witty line, such as a reference to the League of Nations and Woodrow Wilson's peace plan following World War I, or sly wordplay. Some scenes herein would fit neatly within a feature from a contemporary comedic icon, and for that matter - replace the central sports figure with any other actor, and at once the storytelling in 'Headin' home' would both be less noteworthy, but also right in line with most any picture of 1920. Granted, I think the story is a tad unfocused, and maybe even scattered; there are also instances where the contemporary references in the intertitles are so firmly cemented that a modern viewer can only make inferences as to the full meaning. All the same, these criticisms are no worse than can be said for what other writers have conjured.
In addition to old fashion and old language, it's striking to see depictions of period sports equipment and facilities. In every other capacity this title is well made, if unremarkable - some filmmakers were pushing the envelope and innovating in the medium, and others were happy just to have their fare sell tickets and entertain, and this is an example of the latter. It's all that it needs to be to provide a good time, though, and after all, that was the only earnest intent. It's no lightning bolt of genius, but it does actually earn a few laughs, and overall it's exactly the lighthearted fun that it wants to be. If one is a huge fan of baseball or of Babe Ruth then it will surely come more highly recommended, yet even for the casual viewer this is a splendid diversion for a quiet day. Don't go out of your way for 'Headin' home,' but if you do have the opportunity to watch, this is a fine movie that stands pretty solidly on its own feet even over one hundred years later. Not every winner needs to hit a home run, and this ably runs the bases all by itself.
Neither Ruth, nor writers Arthur "Bugs" Baer or Earle Browne, nor director Lawrence C. Windom were a Buster Keaton or a Harold Lloyd, and this flick is no exemplar of humor or of this period in cinema. Anyone who isn't already enamored of silent films may not find anything here to change their mind. Be that as it may, it's modestly enjoyable on its own merits, and there are some small bits and pieces that are unexpectedly keen. The writers may have been imbibing a brew or five while penning the intertitles, but every now and again they slip in an especially witty line, such as a reference to the League of Nations and Woodrow Wilson's peace plan following World War I, or sly wordplay. Some scenes herein would fit neatly within a feature from a contemporary comedic icon, and for that matter - replace the central sports figure with any other actor, and at once the storytelling in 'Headin' home' would both be less noteworthy, but also right in line with most any picture of 1920. Granted, I think the story is a tad unfocused, and maybe even scattered; there are also instances where the contemporary references in the intertitles are so firmly cemented that a modern viewer can only make inferences as to the full meaning. All the same, these criticisms are no worse than can be said for what other writers have conjured.
In addition to old fashion and old language, it's striking to see depictions of period sports equipment and facilities. In every other capacity this title is well made, if unremarkable - some filmmakers were pushing the envelope and innovating in the medium, and others were happy just to have their fare sell tickets and entertain, and this is an example of the latter. It's all that it needs to be to provide a good time, though, and after all, that was the only earnest intent. It's no lightning bolt of genius, but it does actually earn a few laughs, and overall it's exactly the lighthearted fun that it wants to be. If one is a huge fan of baseball or of Babe Ruth then it will surely come more highly recommended, yet even for the casual viewer this is a splendid diversion for a quiet day. Don't go out of your way for 'Headin' home,' but if you do have the opportunity to watch, this is a fine movie that stands pretty solidly on its own feet even over one hundred years later. Not every winner needs to hit a home run, and this ably runs the bases all by itself.
helpful•00
- I_Ailurophile
- Nov 15, 2023
Details
- Runtime1 hour 11 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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