THE PRIDE OF THE YANKEES

US, 1942, 128 minutes, Black and white.
Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright, Babe Ruth, Walter Brennan, Dan Duryea.
Directed by Sam Wood.

This film must have made great impact on release in 1942. It was nominated for best film and Gary Cooper and Teresa Wright were also Oscar nominated. (Cooper had won the Oscar the year before for Sergeant York and Teresa Wright won the same year for her supporting role in Mrs Miniver.)

The film is a biography of Yankee baseball champion Lou Gehrig, who died of leukaemia after a very successful and popular career. The film is in the line of sports biographies and has heroism and sentiment. However, it is done with taste as well as sentiment and has great popular appeal. Cooper is a strong hero and he is well supported by Walter Brennan. (Brennan had just won his third Oscar with Cooper in William Wyler's The Westerner.)

Direction is by Sam Wood who was also to make the baseball film The Stratton Story in 1949 with James Stewart. Cooper worked with Wood at this time in For Whom The Bell Tolls, Casanova Brown (with Teresa Wright) and Saratoga Trunk. There have been many other similar baseball films including Brian's Song and It's Good To Be Alive. The film naturally dates somewhat but its basic humanity still appeals.

1. The quality of the film? Its entertainment value? in its time, now? For American audiences -? especially those who love baseball and remember its heroes? A sports film for a universal audience? Capturing the twenties and thirties?

2. The conventions of the genre: the establishment of the family of the hero, childhood adventures, influence of mother and father, difficulties, opportunities, struggles, the waiting, the training, success, the romantic interludes and marriage? The sports writers? The games? Success and failure? Illness and collapse? Fidelity, hope? Sentiment and realism? how well did this film use its conventions?

3. Black and white photography, baseball sequences? The Yankee Stadium? The score? The songs of the time - especially Always and its use for Lou and his wife?

4. The film based on fact? The opportunity for Americans to be what they wanted to be? The career of Lou Gehrig? Personality? His successes? Babe Ruth and his appearances - for authenticity, comparisons? How contrived the screenplay for giving a portrait of the player in two hours? A satisfying portrait?

5. The sketch of Lou as a boy, his breaking the windows, his power? His mother's control? His father's forfeiting responsibility? The ambitions of his mother that Lou be an engineer? The pressure of his mother? Her cooking at Columbia? His work as a waiter? The discussions about his being a member of the fraternity? His mother's joy? Her illness and his decision to go to train with the Yankees? The breaking of the news via the papers? Coping with his mother's hostility? The support of his father? The humour of his parents going to the ball park? His waiting, his playing and his skill? Sam's belief in him? The cynical comments of the younger commentator? Tanglefoot and the encounter with Ellie and her father? His building up a reputation? The outings with Ellie? for example to the fun fair and ringing the bell, the shooting gallery? Dancing? (Contrast with the dance at the fraternity and the men mocking his talk with the young girl)? The marriage ceremony and going to the ball park? His intervening against his mother in the decoration of the house? The collage of the happy years? The family bonds? The 2,000th game? His illness, collapse and people's reaction? Going to the doctor, being told straight? The final sequences with Ellie? His tribute to all at the Yankee Stadium? His walking out and the audience knowing he would die? His success in the American context, the fulfilment of the American dream? A good manager, sportsman? The portrait of a hero forties' style?

6. Ellie as heroine: her calling Lou Tanglefoot, his making her slip, their meetings, shooting gallery and dancing? Telegrams? The introduction to his mother? The differences in the decoration? His mother learning to bow out? Ellie's support over the years? The scrapbook sequence? Her knowing that her husband would die?

7. Lou's mother and father - migrants, working hard for their son? His mother's pressure? her illness and the hospital sequences? her disappointment about his being a ball player? and her change, pride in her son, knowledge of the game? The necessary control by Lou, in her interfering in Ellie's decoration? The continued support of his parents?

8. Sam and his eye for Lou's skill, the continued support, the bets with the young commentator? His presence at the wedding, with the doctor at the end?

9. The world of professional baseball, the training, friendships in the club. reputations? Babe Ruth and the publicity with Billy? The significance of the Billy sequence? Babe Ruth's home run, Lou's two home runs and the suspense? Billy's learning to walk and meeting Lou at the end of the film?

10. The film's reflection of the twenties and thirties? Poor migrants and their work, the university fraternities? Training for baseball? Radio, the sports writers, the managers? The national heroes?

11. The strength of Gary Cooper's performance in communicating an American hero? (And the impact of this kind of film, and its title in war time?)