Comedian Joe E. Brown ... a reel baseball hero

If you are a film buff, chances are you remember the last line of the classic film "Some Like It Hot."

But you might not remember the name of Joe E. Brown, the comedian delivering the immortal line, "Nobody's perfect."

"Everybody knows him from 'Some Like It Hot.' But saying 'Some Like It Hot' is a big Joe E. Brown movie is like saying 'Beat It' is a big Eddie Van Halen song," said James L. Neibaur, author of a new book, "The Joe E. Brown Films," published by BearManor Media.

Brown was one of the top box office stars in the 1930s.

"In 1936 he got up to No. 5, and that's in the days of Clark Gable and James Cagney and Bette Davis," said Neibaur, who has written 30 books, including retrospectives of Elvis Presley and Jerry Lewis films.

Among Brown's comedic trademarks were an extremely wide mouth, a protracted yell reminiscent of an approaching police siren that began quietly and gradually gained in volume, and an acrobatic ability that reflected his circus background.

Baseball figured prominently in Brown's films for Warner Bros. in the 1930s.

Brown, an Ohio native, played semipro baseball in Toledo, Ohio, and according to a 1973 obituary, "came within an eyelash of signing with the Boston Red Sox."

While a movie star, he acquired financial interests in the Kansas City Blues of the American Association and the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League, and lent his talents to celebrity baseball games - in newsreel footage from one, he is seen announcing a charity game involving Buster Keaton.

During his career, Brown translated the works of one of the great baseball writers, Ring Lardner, to the screen in two film adaptations, "Alibi Ike" and "Elmer, the Great."

As a sports writer, Lardner covered both the Cubs and White Sox and wrote the "In the Wake of the News" column for the Chicago Tribune.

In his fiction, Lardner provided a behind-the-scenes look at baseball, viewed through the eyes of a fictional White Sox pitcher, Jack Keefe, who chronicles his checkered baseball odyssey in letters to his hometown friend Al.

Brown brought Lardner's prodigiously talented country bumpkin protagonists to life.

The Cubs figure prominently in "Alibi Ike" and "Elmer, the Great," with the Cubs pinning their pennant hopes on the title characters played by Brown.

In the 1935 film "Alibi Ike," Brown, as pitcher Frank X. Farrell, frustrates his Cubs manager, played by William Frawley of "I Love Lucy" fame, with his oddball antics.

A fresh prospect from Sauk Center, Farrell arrives in spring training by crashing through the outfield fence in his automobile and driving across the field while delivering his patented yell.

He immediately impresses by baffling hitters with an eccentric windup combining a windmill motion of his arm with a twist of his torso.

Farrell has an alibi for every occasion. He tells his manager he "only" won 28 games the year before, but had malaria most of the season.

His manager responds, "Malaria, huh? Where can I send the rest of our pitchers to get it?"

In a spring training game, after pitching eight shutout innings, Farrell walks the bases loaded with nobody out and then calls in his fielders to the mound to watch him close out the 3-0 game.

The manager confronts him on the mound about the stunt but Farrell assures him he can strike out the next three, sealing the deal with a handshake.

Sure enough, when the next batter hits a grand slam, he has an alibi, a sore hand caused by the handshake.

"You squeezed it so hard it got numb."

The climax of the film is, notably, a pennant-deciding night game at Wrigley Field.

"Elmer, the Great" benefits from shooting at Cubs training camp in Catalina Island, as well as marvelous stock footage of Wrigley Field.

The small-town rube character in both films is prey to practical jokes from teammates, but also predatory crooks who try to trick him into throwing ballgames.

In the 1933 film "Elmer, the Great," they try to get Brown, as Cubs slugger Elmer Kane from Gentryville, Ind., to throw the World Series to the Yankees. In the film's tension-filled climax (spoiler alert), the Cubs accomplish a feat they didn't actually achieve again until 2016.

Neibaur said Brown's film career declined in the 1940s, the result of Brown's decision to leave Warner Bros. for independent production.

In World War II, he concentrated on entertaining the troops - his son Don, a captain in the Army Air Corps, had been killed when his bombing plane crashed - and was one of only two civilians to win a Bronze Star during the war.

And he continued to be involved in baseball, recording the album "How to Play Baseball" and becoming the president of P-O-N-Y League Baseball, which provided playing opportunities for 13- and 14-year-old boys.

Brown passed down his love for baseball to his son Joe L. Brown, who ultimately became a major league baseball executive. A protégé of Branch Rickey, the younger Brown succeeded Rickey as general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates at age 37 in 1955 and was responsible for building the great Pirates teams of the 1960s and 1970s.

In July 1960, Frank Eck of Associated Press wrote that when Brown became GM, "He was more popularly known as 'the comedian's son.' Some wondered when his famous dad, Joe E. Brown, would put on one of his baseball skits. But now the good burghers of Pittsburgh talk of Joe L. as 'the GM who will bring us our first National League pennant since 1927.' "

No alibis were needed after that year.