The Pride of the Yankees (1942)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Sam Wood

Writers:

Paul Gallico (story)
Jo Swerling (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

5 March 1943 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Family | Romance | Sport

Tagline:

THE Private LIFE OF A GREAT Public HERO! (original print ad - mostly caps)

Plot:

The story of the life and career of the famed baseball player, Lou Gehrig.

Plot Keywords:

Baseball | Speech | Hero | Marriage | Retirement

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 10 nominations

Cast

Gary Cooper	...	Henry Louis 'Lou' Gehrig
Teresa Wright	...	Eleanor Twitchell
Babe Ruth	...	Babe Ruth
Walter Brennan	...	Sam Blake
Dan Duryea	...	Hank Hanneman
Elsa Janssen	...	Christina 'Mom' Gehrig
Ludwig Stössel	...	Henry 'Pop' Gehrig (as Ludwig Stossel)
Virginia Gilmore	...	Myra Tinsley
Bill Dickey	...	Bill Dickey
Ernie Adams	...	Miller Huggins
Pierre Watkin	...	Frank Twitchell
Harry Harvey	...	Joe McCarthy
Bob Meusel	...	Bob Meusel (as Robert W. Meusel)
Mark Koenig	...	Mark Koenig
Bill Stern	...	Bill Stern

Runtime:

128 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Finland:S | Portugal:M/12 | Sweden:Btl | USA:Approved (PCA #8295) | USA:Passed

Filming Locations:

Pelham Parkway, Bronx, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Samuel Goldwyn Company, The

Trivia:

Ranked #3 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Sports" in June 2008.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Lou Gehrig played his first game as a Yankee during the 1923 season. Yet when he enters the Yankee clubhouse for the first time (looking at the lockers, trying on his hat), the lockers of Mark Koenig and Bill Dickey are shown. Koenig did not join the Yankees until 1925, nor Dickey until 1928.

Quotes:

Lou Gehrig: People have to live their own lives. Nobody can live it for you. Nobody could have made a baseball player out of Uncle Otto, and nobody can make anything but a baseball player out of me.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Friends: The One Where Old Yeller Dies (#2.20)" (1996)

Soundtrack:

Auld Lang Syne

Baseball's Iron Horse

The only reason I don't give this film a perfect 10 is that I think Gary Cooper was a bit too old to be playing Lou Gehrig as a youth. Cooper was 41 when Pride of the Yankees was made. He was two years older than Lou Gehrig actually was.

While not terribly convincing as a college age Gehrig at Columbia University, the part of Gehrig grew into Cooper as Gehrig aged cinematically. And of course his recreation of Lou Gehrig's farewell to baseball got him an Oscar nomination.

Henry Louis Gehrig, child of German immigrants who grew up in the Yorkville section of Manhattan, was arguably the greatest first baseman baseball has ever known. He certainly has very few competitors for the honor. His famous record of 2130 consecutive games was bettered about a decade ago by Cal Ripken, but he still holds the major league record for lifetime grandslam homeruns, 23 and the American League RBI record for a single season, 184. He is one of a select group of ballplayers to have won the Triple Crown, he did that in 1934. His lifetime batting average of .340 is only topped by a handful.

He was as writer Frank Graham put it, baseball's "quiet hero." Until he was forced from baseball by the disease he gave his name to Gehrig played second fiddle to the flamboyant Babe Ruth and then to a graceful rookie named Joe DiMaggio.

The facts of Gehrig's life are somewhat jumbled in this film for dramatic coherency, but the essence of his character is brought out in the script by Paul Gallico. In fact Gallico wrote himself into the film as sportswriter Sam Blake as played by Walter Brennan.

Gary Cooper and Lou Gehrig and Teresa Wright as Eleanor Twitchell Gehrig both received Oscar nominations for their portrayals.

It should also not be forgotten that Lou Gehrig was a German American and I believe one of the reasons the film was made was that at that time we were fighting Germany. The German American Bund had its following and very much so in Lou Gehrig's Yorkville neighborhood. German Americans certainly had other and better role models than the Bund.

I remember as a lad going to Yankee oldtimers games and there was always a moment of reverential silence when the Yankee widows, Claire Hodgson Ruth and Eleanor Twitchell Gehrig were always introduced. Both survived their husbands by many years.

In fact when Teresa Wright died this past year when the roll call of former Yankees who had passed on her name was read out among all the ballplayers. It was a fitting tribute to a great actress and a woman who didn't know a thing about baseball before she did this film, but became a devoted fan afterwards. I guess that was her private tribute to Lou Gehrig.

There is still no cure for amytrophic lateral sclerosis or now known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. A lot of other noted persons have passed on from it, Jacob Javits, David Niven, Ezzard Charles, Dennis Day. Still we can hope for a dedicated and inspired scientist to find a cure.

Until then we have this inspirational movie and Lou Gehrig's inspired and remembered life.