Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.
This emotional quote is from one of the most famed speeches of sports history. As a lifelong, die-hard Yankees fan, one of my required viewings was 1942's baseball movie Pride of the Yankees starring Gary Cooper. The movie tells the life story of a Yankees legend, Lou Gehrig who is considered to be one of the greatest first basemen of all time. The name Gehrig is associated with the disease ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) because Lou contracted the disease at age 34 that ended his baseball career and ended his life only a few years later. The movie is one of the nicest, most sentimental, and old-fashioned movie you will ever see. I love how the story, written by Jo Swerling and Herman J. Mankiewicz has no villainous characters as it just focuses on the man who is very kind and humble. The movie leans more towards emotional value rather than actual facts, and that is not really a bad thing considering the movie was released only a year after Lou's passing. The movie does fail to recognize that Gehrig constantly lived under superstar Babe Ruth's shadow or that Gehrig's wife Eleanor often did not get along with Lou's mother. It also changed the words in the "Luckiest Man" speech around to add some more dramatic value.
Sam Wood's biography of Lou Gehrig starts during his childhood years living in poverty with his mother (Elsa Janssen). His mother wants him to study as an engineer, and he struggles with his finances as he plays varsity baseball at Columbia University. He is discovered by sportswriter, Sam Blake (Walter Brennan). Gehrig makes it to the bigs where he surplants Wally Pipp as the Yankees every day first baseman...and he never looks back. Then after a successful playing career, it is terminated early thanks to the onslaught of ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease.
It is interesting to see how the movie got made because it had a lot of factors going against it. Sports movies were considered to be box office poison because more than half of the paying customers were women and it was assumed that they disliked these kind of movies. Not only that, famed producer Samuel Goldwyn had no interest in the movie. He picked up the rights to the movie after watching newsreel footage of Gehrig's famous speech. These are extremely important factors, and I am amazed how the movie overcame them to get made.
The casting was also a point of interest. I think the acting was very good. Like producer Goldwyn, lead actor Gary Cooper had no interest in baseball. Prior to the filming of the movie, it was known that he never attended a baseball game ever! Cooper's physical resemblance and aura of quiet masculinity made him the perfect choice for Gehrig although he was 41 years of age at the start of filming. Thanks to some beautiful lighting and camera work, Cooper appears younger in the movie. Teresa Wright likewise gives a strong, graceful performance as Eleanor Gehrig. I also liked how Babe Ruth himself was cast. Ruth was not in the greatest physical condition due to a recent heart attack, but he managed to appear in the film alongside former baseball players such as Bill Dickey.
Pride of the Yankees has been heralded as one of the greatest sports movies of all time, and I am inclined to agree. Although director Sam Wood and his writers took some liberty with the material, they created a poignant, graceful, and emotional movie about one of the greatest baseball players of all time. There is the one powerful scene where the doctors tell him about his disease with rather dark undertones (usually doctors would lie to patients if they had any incurable disease during this time period). It may not be historically accurate, but that scene is a real heavy and emotional scene. To all baseball and non-baseball lovers alike, I definitely recommend this film.
My Grade: A
This emotional quote is from one of the most famed speeches of sports history. As a lifelong, die-hard Yankees fan, one of my required viewings was 1942's baseball movie Pride of the Yankees starring Gary Cooper. The movie tells the life story of a Yankees legend, Lou Gehrig who is considered to be one of the greatest first basemen of all time. The name Gehrig is associated with the disease ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) because Lou contracted the disease at age 34 that ended his baseball career and ended his life only a few years later. The movie is one of the nicest, most sentimental, and old-fashioned movie you will ever see. I love how the story, written by Jo Swerling and Herman J. Mankiewicz has no villainous characters as it just focuses on the man who is very kind and humble. The movie leans more towards emotional value rather than actual facts, and that is not really a bad thing considering the movie was released only a year after Lou's passing. The movie does fail to recognize that Gehrig constantly lived under superstar Babe Ruth's shadow or that Gehrig's wife Eleanor often did not get along with Lou's mother. It also changed the words in the "Luckiest Man" speech around to add some more dramatic value.
Sam Wood's biography of Lou Gehrig starts during his childhood years living in poverty with his mother (Elsa Janssen). His mother wants him to study as an engineer, and he struggles with his finances as he plays varsity baseball at Columbia University. He is discovered by sportswriter, Sam Blake (Walter Brennan). Gehrig makes it to the bigs where he surplants Wally Pipp as the Yankees every day first baseman...and he never looks back. Then after a successful playing career, it is terminated early thanks to the onslaught of ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease.
It is interesting to see how the movie got made because it had a lot of factors going against it. Sports movies were considered to be box office poison because more than half of the paying customers were women and it was assumed that they disliked these kind of movies. Not only that, famed producer Samuel Goldwyn had no interest in the movie. He picked up the rights to the movie after watching newsreel footage of Gehrig's famous speech. These are extremely important factors, and I am amazed how the movie overcame them to get made.
The casting was also a point of interest. I think the acting was very good. Like producer Goldwyn, lead actor Gary Cooper had no interest in baseball. Prior to the filming of the movie, it was known that he never attended a baseball game ever! Cooper's physical resemblance and aura of quiet masculinity made him the perfect choice for Gehrig although he was 41 years of age at the start of filming. Thanks to some beautiful lighting and camera work, Cooper appears younger in the movie. Teresa Wright likewise gives a strong, graceful performance as Eleanor Gehrig. I also liked how Babe Ruth himself was cast. Ruth was not in the greatest physical condition due to a recent heart attack, but he managed to appear in the film alongside former baseball players such as Bill Dickey.
Pride of the Yankees has been heralded as one of the greatest sports movies of all time, and I am inclined to agree. Although director Sam Wood and his writers took some liberty with the material, they created a poignant, graceful, and emotional movie about one of the greatest baseball players of all time. There is the one powerful scene where the doctors tell him about his disease with rather dark undertones (usually doctors would lie to patients if they had any incurable disease during this time period). It may not be historically accurate, but that scene is a real heavy and emotional scene. To all baseball and non-baseball lovers alike, I definitely recommend this film.
My Grade: A