Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

TheLittleSongbird My main reason for seeing 'The Winning Team' was Doris Day as part of my quest to see all the films of hers not yet seen. 'The Winning Team' is also based on an interesting person with an interesting if tragic life, and personally am of the opinion that Ronald Reagan has shown here and in other performances that he was not that bad an actor.'The Winning Team' does stray from the truth significantly from the middle of the film, which will disappoint those who want a truthful account of his life and career. Although it was a pity somewhat, it didn't ruin it for me having seen enough biographical dramas to kind of expect that it would be the case. With that being said, there are some truthful elements too.While the alcoholism and problems with vision and blackouts were covered, it was a shame that the epilepsy was pretty much trivialised to ignored. It is in some way not an easy condition to act out, but not addressing it (and it would have been courageous of the film to do so for a condition that needed awareness raised and still met with ignorance, speaking as an epileptic myself) and not exploring it enough was a missed opportunity when it was such a big part of his health difficulties.A few scenes didn't come over as necessary either and seemed tacked on. The "Ol' Saint Nicholas" seemed like it was put in just to have Day sing, its inclusion felt tacked on, it was completely pointless and it wasn't even a particularly good song despite Day singing it beautifully and doing what she could. The direction was competent enough if unspectacular mostly and workmanlike at best, gets the job done but in need of more spark.On the other hand, despite not being lavish, 'The Winning Team' is a good-looking film and is well photographed. It did also benefit from the inclusion of stock footage which makes one nostalgic and leaves them quite moved. The music is a good fit and doesn't intrude.Generally the writing flows well and packs some emotional punch. The story moves along at a comfortable pace without dragging or being jumpy, it does become thin and suddenly-stop-like in the second half but the ending is uplifting and moving.Reagan occasionally overdoes the mannerisms but on the most part it is a solid performance that shows a lot of commitment that ranks among his better ones. Day shows that when given the chance that she was as skilled in drama as she is in comedy and musicals, even though the character at times frustrates you she gives a sensitive performance and shares good chemistry with Reagan. Frank Lovejoy is good support.In conclusion, a winner mostly if not exceptional. 7/10 Bethany Cox

classicsoncall The title of this movie has more to do with the relationship between big league ball player Grover Cleveland Alexander and his wife Aimee than it has to do about a successful sports franchise. As with many of these sports biopics, I learn more about the historical character from reading other movie fan reviews on this site than from the actual picture, for which I'm quite grateful.The first thing that caught my eye was when the opening credits rolled with Doris Day billed over Ronald Reagan, somewhat backwards considering who the title character was, but probably had something to do with a contractual obligation at the time. A follow up credits screen lists the names of Major League ball players who also appeared in the film, but unless you were a die-hard fan in the Fifties, there's no way you'd recognize any of them. None of them that I recall were mentioned by name in the story.The story has some neat anecdotal stuff in it like Alexander (Reagan) earning a buck and a half to pitch against the Galesburg team, and allowing Rogers Hornsby (Frank Lovejoy) to get a hit when his baseball career might have been on the line. A treat for old time fans would be seeing some of the early ball parks and stock footage from the mid-Twenties glory days, there's even a clip of the Babe running for first base and making an unsuccessful steal attempt at second.In his role portraying Alexander, I thought Reagan was generally competent, although some of his mannerisms seemed exaggerated when he attempted to simulate the pitcher's bouts of dizziness and diplopia. The story's best sequences seemed to occur when Alex and Aimee (Day) shared a tender moment, while virtually every baseball scene had Alex throwing nothing but strikes, which seemed to this viewer as rather unlikely considering his real life overall record (373-208), while impressive, still had it's share of losses. An interesting side note, Alexander has the most career wins for a pitcher who never threw a no-hitter; that's for all you sports buffs.Though the movie leaves out a lot of the real ball player's life and troubles due to epilepsy and alcohol, there's some value in catching the film for it's story of a man's perseverance in spite of obstacles to overcome. If you enjoy these era films, one you might try is another film from 1952 featuring yet another pitcher, the inimitable Dizzy Dean in "The Pride of St. Louis".

Michael_Elliott Winning Team, The (1952) *** (out of 4) Pretty good, if watered down, drama about the career of Hall of Fame pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander (Ronald Reagan) who started life on the farm but quickly made a name for himself as a pitcher. When his career was apparently over he started to suffer from alcoholism but his wife (Doris Day) gets him back into shape so that he can make a comeback. Once again we have a bio-pic that has been fictionalized but even with this the movie manages to be very entertaining from start to finish thanks to some very good performances. I think there are a few minor issues with one of them being the fact that the studio forced the producer's to cut down on some of the more darker moments. The alcoholism issue is only touched for a few seconds and Alexander's battle with epilepsy is pretty much overlooked. Another minor problem is that this is a movie about Alexander yet a lot of the attention goes to the wife. Day got top-billing but this is certainly Reagan's movie but at the same time there are many scenes that are obviously here just to give Day more scenes and this includes a really bad singing sequence around Christmas time. With all of that said, the rest of the movie is pretty much a winner. Baseball fans are really going to eat up seeing how they were playing back in the day plus we get to view the old-time uniforms and even better is that we get to see some of the old baseball stadiums. There's also quite a bit of stock footage used to try and re-create some moments of the 1926 World Series, which was against the New York Yankees and their Murderers Row. This was Reagan's final film at Warner after fifteen-years worth of service and they certainly let him go out on a high note. I thought Reagan was very believable in the role and manages to look quite natural as a pitcher and he also managed to be very believable in the part of the farm boy. The early scenes with him struggling with his disease were extremely well-done and this ranks as one of the actors better performances. Day is also in top-form even though I think we could have used a little less of her character. Frank Lovejoy gets a good bit as Rogers Hornsby and we get some real-life players including Jerry Priddy, Bob Lemon, Peanuts Lowery and Irving Noren. Frank Ferguson, who most will remember from ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN, plays Day's father here. Again, if you're wanting to truth on Alexander then it's best you go read a book but if you're just looking for some quick entertainment then this film does the job.

ccthemovieman-1 Grover Cleveland Alexander was a remarkable pitcher and lived a very interesting life in an era in which baseball sported the most colorful people in its history: the early 1900s. Some of stories about them, like this one, are very inspiring, too, although they end this bio on Alexander's high note not his tragic demise - but what's wrong with that? People want to leave the theater feeling good, not depressed.Ronald Reagan does a decent job portraying "Alex," except for the baseball scenes where he doesn't throw or hit like a real big-leaguer. That was common in classic sports films. You don't see that now. Robert Redford ("The Natural"), Kevin Costner (several baseball films) and the like, know how to play the game.This is corny in spots and it's sugar-coated like some of the other classic sports stories. However, Alexander is shown with his drinking problem and his wife, played by Doris Day, also does the wrong thing walking away from her husband in his time of need.....so you do see some bad with the good. Yet, all ends well and overall, it's an interesting movie.What's more, the climactic scene actually happened in real life where Alexander turned into a World Series hero despite the odds against him. If you really want interesting stories, read the real-life accounts of men like Alexander, Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Christy Matthewson, John MacGraw, Honus Wagner, Tris Speaker, etc. They are fascinating.