Kill the Umpire is a 1950 comedy starring William Bendix and Una Merkel, directed by Lloyd Bacon and written by Frank Tashlin.

Ex-baseball player Bill Johnson (William Bendix), failing at many jobs when his ball-playing days are over, reluctantly takes the advice of his father-in-law, Jonah Evans (Ray Collins), a retired umpire, and enters an umpire-training school. Assigned to the Texas League, he does fine until the championship play-offs when a riot develops over one of his calls. The involved player is knocked unconscious in the proceedings and cannot verify that Bill made the correct call. Despite lynch mob plans to at least tar-and-feather him, Bill's family - his daughters Lucy (Gloria Henry) and Susan (Connie Marshall) and his wife Betty (Una Merkel) - help Bill reach the ballpark safely the next day through a series of hair-raising encounters. Written by Les Adams

A former baseball player (Bendix) spends his days (and eventually loses his various jobs) watching baseball games. His favorite nemesis is the umpire, the "lowest a man can get." After his last baseball- related unemployment, his father-in-law, an ex-umpire, suggests that Bendix use his love of baseball and become an umpire. Against his wishes but to appease his wife, he attends umpire school, where he tries everything to get thrown out, providing some funny scenes. The school director Frawley eventually convinces him to take it seriously and he becomes "Two-Call" Johnson. Written by Jerry Milani