The Pride of the Yankees (1942)

There are a select few baseball players that are remembered for their character off of the field as much as their prowess on it: Lou Gehrig was one of those players.  Directed by Sam Wood, The Pride of the Yankees starred Gary Cooper as the iconic first baseman with Teresa Wright playing Eleanor, his beloved wife.  The film was released to critical acclaim in 1942, the year after Gehrig tragically died.  Equal parts of baseball, romance, and tragedy make The Pride of the Yankees refreshingly different from most of the inspiring sports movies that have frequented cineplexes for decades.

Lou Gehrig is a typical American child, he desires only to play baseball for the New York Yankees and to please his domineering mother.  His problem is that in order to please his mother, he must give up baseball (though he has prodigious skill with the bat) and become an engineer like his Uncle Otto.  He manages to juggle both his studies and baseball until monetary issues force his hand while he is a student at Columbia: his mother's hospital bills necessitate quick cash that a signing bonus from the Yankees can provide.  Gehrig quickly rises through the minor leagues and is called up to the majors.  He meets the charming Eleanor on the way up to his first at-bat; he trips and she quickly christens him "Tanglefoot" to Gehrig's embarrassment and the crowd's delight.  As Gehrig develops into one of the game's most beloved stars, he falls in love with and eventually weds Eleanor.  Gehrig leads a blissfully happy life, accumulating accolades for his play and respect for his character while setting the record for the most consecutive games played.  One day, illness causes Gehrig to take himself out of the lineup (for the first time in 2130 games) so as to not be a detriment to the team.  A visit to the doctor reveals that the "Iron Horse" is dying; the Yankees host a "Lou Gehrig Day" at the ballpark to commemorate the man.  The film ends with Gehrig's famous speech to the crowd.

The film's greatest strength is Gary Cooper in the lead role, his stiff and often awkward demeanor in the film is ideal  for Gehrig and his apparently sinless existence.  The sole downside of casting Cooper was his age, he was around forty when he played Gehrig: his age distracted from his performance for much of the film's runtime.  It was, and is, nearly impossible to have a forty-something actor play an eighteen year old college student.  Teresa Wright (in one of her first roles) is charming as Lou Gehrig's beloved Eleanor and Walter Brennan does his typical good work in his supporting role as Gehrig's sport-writer friend.  Not to forget Babe Ruth, the film's most famous cast member, who appears on screen in several (brief) scenes; though his appearance appears as more of a novelty than a tribute to Gehrig.

The film is immensely predictable in both the romance and sports portions of the plot, the main difference between the The Pride of the Yankees and other sports films of the same variety is the tragic element that comes into play during the final act.  The romantic portion of the film (which is most of it) is characterized by the fairy-tale-esque relationship that develops between Gehrig and Eleanor.  A scene takes place where Gehrig suggests that he goes to spring training without her so she does not get bored, not ten seconds pass before they run into each others arms because they could not possibly stand to be apart for that long: if it wasn't so gosh darn sweet it would be sickening.  The relationship between Gehrig and his mother has heavy Oedipal overtones during the first half of the film, but abandons them midway through it.  It was a mistake to include them at all.  It was not sweet.  It was just creepy.  A film's portrayal of a domineering mother's relationship with her son does not have to be Oedipal to be effective.  One thing to be noted is that there has rarely been a movie character to approach death with the amount of dignity that Cooper's Gehrig does in The Pride of the Yankees.

The Pride of the Yankees is one thing above all else: a tribute to the man, and in that manner the film works.  Though in the end Gehrig's life story makes for merely an interesting film and not an essential one, with the well-cast Cooper and Wright doing good work despite the (unavoidably) clichéd nature of the film. 

6/10

Note: This review was previously posted on another blog that I wrote.