I'm not much of a major league baseball fan, due in part to the nonsensical gobs of money thrown at professional athletes today, but I don't think you have to be a sports fan to appreciate the tale of Lou Gehrig - "The Pride of the Yankees". Gehrig's story took place at a time when guys would play ball just for the love of the game, and sign autographs without charging their fans for the privilege. Can you imagine that? The movie is helped immensely by the decidedly low key portrayal of the baseball legend by Gary Cooper, who a year earlier provided a similar effort in an Oscar winning Best Actor bid as the title character in "Sergeant York". I had to wonder to myself what type of person Gehrig might have been playing for the Yankees today, or if he would even get that far without an ego larger than the entire team. It's probably better that we'll never know.
I got a kick out of a couple of scenes in the picture that really didn't even have much to do with Gehrig himself. I thought it was pretty cool to see Babe Ruth's rookie cigarette card when he was playing for the Boston Red Sox, although I doubt that it was the real deal. The other scene had to do with the cost of the doctor's house call for the sick Mrs. Gehrig, Lou's mom (Elsa Janssen) - two dollars!!! Where can I get a plan like that?
You know, I'd seen "To Kill A Mockingbird" almost a half dozen times, and always wondered what exactly was a chifforobe, and that film came out twenty years later. Not only does this picture answer my question, but it provides a visual aid as well, (along with the correct spelling if you have sub-titles on!). Got to love these old movies!
The thing that had me scratching my head though was the poetic license taken with expanding on the Babe's legend of calling his famous World Series shot. That was one of the first things I researched after I finished watching the picture, and sure enough, Gehrig's promise was simply made up for the picture. Taken in stride though, it was kind of neat to see the happiness on little Billy's face to have his heroes come through.
Getting back to the Babe, I really studied his expression during the movie's climactic 'luckiest man' speech. I was looking for any tell tale expression that might have betrayed his feelings for having already gone through the ordeal once for real. If there was any, the Babe kept them completely to himself, I don't know how he did it, because I don't think you can get through that scene with a dry eye. And even though my viewing of the film today was the first time I've seen it, my best friend, who's a HUGE Lou Gehrig fan, says that he's choked every time he's watched the picture - at least thirty times!
One closing note - it was really interesting to see Walter Brennan in a role that didn't rely on his trademark limp and hayseed speech pattern. In fact, even though I saw his name in the opening credits, it didn't click with me that it was Brennan portraying sports reporter Sam Blake until well into the picture. Brennan's character had it right after all, in his analysis of why Lou Gehrig would wind up such a huge fan favorite. In response to rival reporter Hank Hanneman's (Dan Duryea) remark that Gehrig was merely a boob, Blake's retort - 'he's a boob with a batting eye', and that's why fifty million people will watch him. And they did.
I got a kick out of a couple of scenes in the picture that really didn't even have much to do with Gehrig himself. I thought it was pretty cool to see Babe Ruth's rookie cigarette card when he was playing for the Boston Red Sox, although I doubt that it was the real deal. The other scene had to do with the cost of the doctor's house call for the sick Mrs. Gehrig, Lou's mom (Elsa Janssen) - two dollars!!! Where can I get a plan like that?
You know, I'd seen "To Kill A Mockingbird" almost a half dozen times, and always wondered what exactly was a chifforobe, and that film came out twenty years later. Not only does this picture answer my question, but it provides a visual aid as well, (along with the correct spelling if you have sub-titles on!). Got to love these old movies!
The thing that had me scratching my head though was the poetic license taken with expanding on the Babe's legend of calling his famous World Series shot. That was one of the first things I researched after I finished watching the picture, and sure enough, Gehrig's promise was simply made up for the picture. Taken in stride though, it was kind of neat to see the happiness on little Billy's face to have his heroes come through.
Getting back to the Babe, I really studied his expression during the movie's climactic 'luckiest man' speech. I was looking for any tell tale expression that might have betrayed his feelings for having already gone through the ordeal once for real. If there was any, the Babe kept them completely to himself, I don't know how he did it, because I don't think you can get through that scene with a dry eye. And even though my viewing of the film today was the first time I've seen it, my best friend, who's a HUGE Lou Gehrig fan, says that he's choked every time he's watched the picture - at least thirty times!
One closing note - it was really interesting to see Walter Brennan in a role that didn't rely on his trademark limp and hayseed speech pattern. In fact, even though I saw his name in the opening credits, it didn't click with me that it was Brennan portraying sports reporter Sam Blake until well into the picture. Brennan's character had it right after all, in his analysis of why Lou Gehrig would wind up such a huge fan favorite. In response to rival reporter Hank Hanneman's (Dan Duryea) remark that Gehrig was merely a boob, Blake's retort - 'he's a boob with a batting eye', and that's why fifty million people will watch him. And they did.