I read part of Karl Malden's recent (in the past five years or so) autobiography, "When Do I Start?". Actually the first thing I did was look up this movie in the book's index! To my amazement, he wrote specifically about the scene that affected me the most, when father & son are in the empty stands, and his son is telling him he's the 2nd best at some position, and father says, "Well, you're not the best." HE WAS SO COLD. In the book, Mr. Malden says he "channeled" (my word, not his) his own father for that scene. I saw this movie for the first time in the past 10 years. It completely freaks me out that Mr. Malden would write about this particular scene FORTY years later. I highly recommend the autobiography, he is so under-appreciated, I think.
Review of Fear Strikes Out
