ironhorse_iv
Directed by Sam Woods & released just 17 months after Lou Gehrig's death. The Pride of the Yankees is a great tribute to one of the greatest baseball players of all-time. It shows, nearly everything about the guy. His early years, as a young man rising within the college's ranks. Then, the movie moves to his lucky break as a pro-baseball player within the New York Yankees organization & at last, his very unlucky break with ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), a disease, now known, bearing his name. However, like most other biopics from that same era, there was a lot of heavy dramatizing. They weren't really worry about staying true to the historic facts. Some big examples are how Lou Gehrig (Gary Cooper) played the game. The movie never once, mention his pitching career at Columbia University nor, the fact that he played in 34 games scattered over three seasons before his famous streak started on June 1, 1925. Then there was the sequence where Gehrig hits two home runs in a game of the 1928 World Series to inspire a little sick boy. Don't get me wrong, Gehrig did hit two homers in Game 3, but nothing like the game-winning play, he had in the movie, nor was it for a little kid. All of that, was very fictional. I really didn't like, the large amount of fictional characters that the movie surround Gehrig, with. It was somewhat alarming. While the sport-writers, characters of Sam Blake (Walter Brennan) & Hank Hannerman (Dan Duryea) weren't real. They were in-turn, based off, many of the sport writers, that might have been, with Lou Gehrig. However, I think the movie focus, way too much on their antics. While, Lou's mother (Elsa Janssen) is indeed, real. I also think, the movie focus way too much on her. They really do, slow the film, somewhat down. Another thing, I didn't like about the movie is the long sequences, of pointless dancing and singing. It has little to do with the main plot. I know, it's part of the era style of filmmaking, but it was somewhat jarring to watch, as the movie somewhat lose focus on Lou Gehrig's relationship and instead, focus on fame- ballroom dancer, Frank Veloz and Yolanda Casazza's dancing. Then follow up, close by, with nightclub singer, Bettye Avery's musical number. This film also suffered from sentimentality-overload, 1940's heroic style. A lot, has been say, about the movie's saccharine treatment of Lou Gehrig. The movie portray Lou Gehrig as a good old-American Boy with little to no vice. All of this praise, was a bit too schmaltzy. The sentimentality really made him out to be a literal saint. I kinda wish, there were a little more complexity with his character than that. As much as I love Gary Cooper as an actor. I do believe, with certain critics, that the right-handed actor kinda miscast. However, I don't believe in the rumors, that producer, Samuel Goldwyn wanted to replace him, with a real-life, baseball player with Johnny Humphries, due to his strong facial resemblance and his ability to play the sport. Nor do I believe, that the movie was filmed with mirror imagery, so it looks like Cooper was left-handed. From the research, I can gather, Cooper indeed, trained really hard to be left-handed. Plus, he really did learn how to play baseball, a sport, he never played at all. Based on, the real life, Mrs. Lou Gehrig's account, she felt thrilled with the performance of Gary Cooper as her husband. Believing that Cooper has every one of his mannerisms down to a science. However, I do have to disagree with her, a bit, when it came to Cooper portraying Gehrig's early years. It really hard to believe, a 41 year old man, as a 20 some year old, rookie. Still, in my opinion, while, he was indeed felt miscast, he still gave a great lanky and slightly awkward, likable performance as Gehrig. Just not, the best. Nevertheless, I did like the chemistry, Cooper had with his co-star, Teresa Wright as Eleanor Gehrig. You can really tell, that they love each other. Wright was perfect as Eleanor. She was cute, feisty, and had a strong emotional range in her. It was no surprise, that Teresa Wright received her third consecutive Academy Award nomination for only her third film, ever, here. While filming the movie, Teresa Wright wore the actual bracelet that Lou gave to Eleanor on their fourth anniversary. Eleanor brought the bracelet to the set to be used in the movie. The bracelet is made up of 17 metal medallions that celebrate the seven World Championships and six All-Star game appearances that Gehrig made. The bracelet is now displayed in the Baseball Hall of Fame. I love that, love to detail, the movie put for. It's also nice to see, real-life baseball players, playing themselves within the film. I really surprise to see Babe Ruth play himself, due to his own problem with his own illness with cancer. I really shock, this movie even got made. Samuel Goldwyn was initially reluctant about making the film as he believed that baseball movies were box office poison. He was persuaded to do it when he viewed footage of Gehrig's famous farewell speech. Still, the film kinda change, a bit of Gehrig's famous "Luckiest Man" Speech. While it was edited for the film. The change didn't really affect the emotional impact. However, in my opinion, the original speech, by Gehrig's himself, was a little bit stronger than what we saw on screen. Overall: It's a solid inspirational sports movie, worth checking out. A home run of a film.
BasicLogic
Use your calculator and figure out when Gary Cooper played the Lou Gherig role in this 1942 film. Mr. Cooper was born in 1901, so when he played this role, he was already an over 40 years old middle aged guy, yet according to what we have seen in this film and BIOS of Gherig, he indeed attended Columbia University. So he would be a very young man as most of us normally graduated from high school at 18 and then enter the university for advanced education. But what we saw in the movie, an already over 40's guy, Gary Cooper, played a college student who should and would be under 22. So the supposed to be still a very young Ghrig played by Cooper appeared on the screen to serve the food for those Columbia students, what we saw was an 40-year old guy! And well, in order to allow the middle aged Cooper not showing too old among those Columbia undergraduates, those young students were also played by a bunch of over 30 or around 40s guys, just for the purpose not to make Cooper's middle aged face became so apparently old like a sore thumb! Gee, what a joke!When Cooper entered the kitchen of the university, the female actor who played Ghrig's mother, after 10 years when her son broke the store's window, she looked exactly the same as 10 years ago when the movie started. Gee, what a lousy arrangement we got here again. According to Ghrig's BIOS, "...A native of New York City and attendee of Columbia University, Gehrig signed with the Yankees in 1923.....Lou Gehrig died at his home on June 2, 1941 from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)" So according to Ghrig's death year and the release of this particular film about him, we inevitably realized that Samuel Goldwyn Company just took the opportunity to shoot a picture about a guy just died, on the surface, the movie was paying tribute to the great late Ghrig, but under and behind the facade, the Jewish movie company just used the rare opportunity to cash in, and indeed, not only the box office successful, but also won a lot of Oscars. But to me, this film was just opportunist wet dream played by a bunch of wrong cast of the wrong ages. By all means, do not be so easily to be touched and fooled. When you watched those movies churned out around that period, we often saw some very old guys, especially Gary Cooper, Randolph Scott, John Wayne and lot of other older faces, played much much younger characters and young lovers, but the wrinkles on their faces just screamed off the silver screen, they were just a bunch eye-sore old Romeos forced to play those young roles by those movie companies in Hollywood. You have to lower your reasoning to accept those roles played by these old bunch. I can't give any star of this film, because I really don't like really old guys to play those characters who should be 20 years younger.
