Ring Lardner wrote about Cole in articles for The Sporting News. Lardner compiled the stories into the Alibi Ike stories.
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Alibi Ike is a 1935 American romantic comedy film directed by Ray Enright and starring Joe E. Brown and Olivia de Havilland. Based on the short story of the same name by Ring Lardner, first published in the Saturday Evening Post on July 31, 1915, the film is about an ace baseball player nicknamed "Alibi Ike" due to his penchant for making up excuses. Lardner is said to have patterned the character after baseball player King Cole. Alibi Ike was the most successful of Joe E. Brown's "baseball trilogy" of films, which also included Elmer the Great and Fireman Save My Child.
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It is considered one of the best baseball comedies of all time.Harrison's Reports and Film Reviews June 29, 1935. Alibi Ike was the first feature film released starring Olivia de Havilland, although she made two previous films that were released later that year—The Irish in Us and A Midsummer Night's Dream. A print of the film is held by the Library of Congress.
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Despite the publicity campaign, the film generated little enthusiasm with audiences. While the critical response was mixed, deHavilland's performance was praised by The San Francisco Examiner critic. In his review in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Winston Burdett wrote that she "acts graciously and does greater justice to Shakespeare's language than anyone else in the cast". Two minor comedies followed, Alibi Ike with Joe E. Brown and The Irish in Us (both 1935) with James Cagney.
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He appeared in Miracle on 34th Street (1947), portraying Judge Harper's political adviser, who warns his client in great detail of the dire political consequences if he rules that there is no Santa Claus. Some of his other memorable film roles were as the baseball manager in Joe E. Brown's Alibi Ike (1935), as the wedding host in Charlie Chaplin's Monsieur Verdoux (1947), and as a hard-nosed insurance investigator in My Home in San Antone, with Roy Acuff and Lloyd Corrigan.
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Frank X. Farrell (Joe E. Brown) is an ace baseball player whose insistence on making excuses earns him the nickname "Alibi Ike." In the course of his first season with the Chicago Cubs, Farrell falls in love with Dolly Stevens (Olivia De Havilland), sister-in-law of the team's manager. Farrell's "alibi" habit prompts Dolly to walk out on him, after which he goes into a slump - which coincides with attempts by gamblers to get Farrell to throw the World Series.
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His other books were The Honorable Rocky Slade (1955), Target (1964), and The Image (1968). His filmography credits are Alibi Ike (1935), Man of Iron (1935), Black Legion (1937), Slim (1937), Mr. Dodd Takes the Air (1937), Submarine D-1 (1937), The Texans (1938), Beyond Glory (1948), Command Decision (1948), The Racket (1951), One Minute to Zero (1952), The Eternal Sea (1955), The Wings of Eagles (1957), and Torpedo Run (1958). Haines was a member of the Authors Guild and the Dramatists Guild of America. He also contributed various articles and stories to magazines.
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Nevertheless, Chandler joined David Manners and Bela Lugosi in what became one of the most successful movies made at that time. Chandler appeared with Manners that same year in the Lost Generation celebration of alcohol in Paris, The Last Flight, also starring Richard Barthelmess and John Mack Brown. She achieved more successes in A House Divided (1931) and Christopher Strong (1933), all the while dividing her time among films, radio work, and theater roles in Los Angeles, New York and London. She starred in British actor Will Hay's 1934 movie, Radio Parade of 1935 and played a role on Lux Radio in Alibi Ike with Joe E. Brown (1937).
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He appeared in Fireman, Save My Child (1932), a comedy in which he played a member of the St. Louis Cardinals, and in Elmer, the Great (1933) with Patricia Ellis and Claire Dodd and Alibi Ike (1935) with Olivia de Havilland, in both of which he portrayed ballplayers with the Chicago Cubs. In 1933 he starred in Son of a Sailor with Jean Muir and Thelma Todd. In 1934, Brown starred in A Very Honorable Guy with Alice White and Robert Barrat, in The Circus Clown again with Patricia Ellis and with Dorothy Burgess, and with Maxine Doyle in Six-Day Bike Rider. Brown was one of the few vaudeville comedians to appear in a Shakespeare film; he played Francis Flute in the Max Reinhardt/William Dieterle film version of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) and was highly praised for his performance. He starred in Polo Joe (1936) with Carol Hughes and Richard "Skeets" Gallagher, and in Sons o' Guns.
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