In everyone's list of the top 10 baseball films ever made are usually the Pride of the Yankees and the Stratton Story. No coincidence I think that neglected director Sam Wood is responsible for both.
James Stewart's biggest commercial post World War II hit was this gem of a film. It marked a return to his pre-war studio of MGM and in marked the first of three teamings with June Allyson.
Monte Stratton was a promising young pitcher for the Chicago White Sox in the late Thirties. An off-season hunting accident cost him a leg because in his very rural part of Texas, medical help was not readily available. But that did not keep him down.
The film has a nice baseball feel to it, no doubt helped like in Pride of the Yankees by the appearance of several ballplayers. Bill Dickey of the Yankees for one and long time Chicago White Sox manager Jimmy Dykes for another. The White Sox in the thirties were pretty much a middle rank team in the American League with two franchise players, shortstop Luke Appling and pitcher Ted Lyons, both now in the Hall of Fame. Actors Dean White and Bruce Cowling play both respectively and well.
Two other fine veterans round this cast out. Agnes Moorehead in a kinder gentler version of the rural farm wife she played in Citizen Kane is Stratton's mother. And Frank Morgan does very well as down and out baseball veteran Barney Wile who scouts Stratton and sees him as a meal ticket to get back in the big leagues.
The chemistry of Stewart and Allyson was discovered here and they made this film the hit it was and deserved to be. A truly inspiring story told here.
James Stewart's biggest commercial post World War II hit was this gem of a film. It marked a return to his pre-war studio of MGM and in marked the first of three teamings with June Allyson.
Monte Stratton was a promising young pitcher for the Chicago White Sox in the late Thirties. An off-season hunting accident cost him a leg because in his very rural part of Texas, medical help was not readily available. But that did not keep him down.
The film has a nice baseball feel to it, no doubt helped like in Pride of the Yankees by the appearance of several ballplayers. Bill Dickey of the Yankees for one and long time Chicago White Sox manager Jimmy Dykes for another. The White Sox in the thirties were pretty much a middle rank team in the American League with two franchise players, shortstop Luke Appling and pitcher Ted Lyons, both now in the Hall of Fame. Actors Dean White and Bruce Cowling play both respectively and well.
Two other fine veterans round this cast out. Agnes Moorehead in a kinder gentler version of the rural farm wife she played in Citizen Kane is Stratton's mother. And Frank Morgan does very well as down and out baseball veteran Barney Wile who scouts Stratton and sees him as a meal ticket to get back in the big leagues.
The chemistry of Stewart and Allyson was discovered here and they made this film the hit it was and deserved to be. A truly inspiring story told here.