Review of The Babe Ruth Story

Made by Allied Artists, so they can capitalize on the success of MGM Lou Gehrig biopic, 1942's Pride of the Yankees and the recent news of Babe Ruth's failing health in 1947; The Babe Ruth Story was quickly made in 1948, in hopes of a big return. Sadly, it didn't get that, as the movie bomb in the box office. For a movie call for its inaccuracy, it did get some accurate things right. Indeed, he grew up in an orphanage, started as a pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles in 1913, traded to Boston Red Sox in 1914 where he transitioned to the outfield, traded to the Yankees in 1920 where he emerged as a legend, then once accidentally hit a dog during practice, and then finally the Yankees traded him to the Boston Braves in 1935 that cause him to retired at the end of the season, where he indeed ref, a pro-wrestling match, once. Still, this movie is often pointed out as too heavy-handed and too squeaky clean to be taken serious. I have to agree with that, but it's doesn't make it, a really bad movie. It's just makes it, a misguide film. Directed by Roy Del Ruth with the screenplay written by George Callahan & Bob Considine; the movie serves as the ultimate ridiculously sugarcoated sports bio pic of film of all time. It tells the story of baseball legend, George Herman 'Babe' Ruth (William Bendix) on his rise to baseball until his fall. When, he isn't busy being a baseball legend, Babe Ruth found the time to save a sick boy's life, save animals, and cause another crippled boy to walk! You almost have to laugh at some of these cheesy moments that I mention. It's incredibly corny, but at least that part of the stories are surprising true. Indeed, there was a 'dying' boy that he promise to make a home run for him in the next game. He made good on that pledge. Still, the film took liberties with important facts of what really happen. First, the film portrayed Ruth visiting the dying boy during the 1932 World Series against the Chicago Cubs rather than the factual 1926 World Series vs the Cardinals. Second, the film has Ruth visiting the boy home in Gary, Indiana in person and shows Ruth in the boy's bedroom telling Johnny that he will hit a home run if Johnny hangs in there, rather than the factual account of sending autographed baseballs and a note to Johnny in New Jersey. Third is that the boy in the film had cancer. While, in real life, he was supposedly kick in the head by a horse, but the confusion as what was the condition affecting the boy has led to claims that the entire incident was a hoax. Who knows if the boy was really sick or not. Babe Ruth's called shot was also kinda true; although neither fully confirmed nor refuted. Still, he never cured a sick child just by saying hello, but he did brighten the lives of thousands of children, sick and healthy, with his tireless devotion to them. It is conceivable that his support helped a few sick ones stay positive enough to recover. The movie portray Babe Ruth so God-like, it felt like a weird cult religion was brewing. One of the funniest line in the film, had to be 'Sue Baseball? That's like suing the church". Indeed, some people honestly, believe everything that this film is spilling out about Babe Ruth. The real Babe Ruth had a lot of bad qualities the movie doesn't show. Yes, many of them could be made-up by Ruth haters, but I wish, the movie kinda dig deep into finding out if some of them were true, like his wild partying ways. The movie even skip his love affair with his first, Helen Woodford, and went straight to his love story with his second-wife, Claire Hodgson (Claire Trevors). I guess, they didn't want to show that Babe Ruth was divorced and did adultery in Uber-Conservative America. They were perfectly capable of being realistic when they wanted to be. It's just that when they wanted to be lighthearted and whimsical for the sakes of the fans. For a movie that about baseball, it shows very little of the sport. When, you do see him in small bits of action, William Bendix's babe looks out of shape. First off, he's a right-handed actor, when clearly, the real Babe Ruth pitch left hand. This made for awful tossing sequences. Bendix in uniform looks Yogi Berra than Babe Ruth. In the early going, Orson Welles was one of the names supposedly in the running to play the Babe. Too bad, nothing came of that, because William Bendix's performance is very questionable. While, Orson Welles isn't the best athlete at the time, he would make Babe Ruth, a real character. Bendix makes Babe Ruth look a stupid likable moron like Forrest Gump in the film. At less, they didn't show Babe as an unlikeable pig like certain other bio-pic films do like 1992's Babe. One thing that bug me about this film is that, Babe Ruth doesn't aged in the film. He looks 40, when he supposed to 20, and when he's dying, he looks pretty damn healthy for lung cancer victim. Since the movie was made, when the real Babe Ruth was still, alive. The movie has this odd eerily ending, that can go both ways as if Babe Ruth might live. The film premiered on July 26 1948 to negative reviews and Ruth died 3 weeks later on August 16, but still overall: It's not unwatchable. It has a lot of old-fashion charm to it. It wasn't hurting, anybody when it was made and still after all these years. It was, pretty much, an easy watch. Despite all the negatives about it, I enjoy watching it. It's so bad, it's good.