The Pride of the Yankees (1942)

NOT ANOTHER EDITION!

How many editions are there going to be? They have special editions, ultimate, anniversary, etc. Instead of coming out with the same movie over and over again, how about putting some more classics out there. The African Queen, Cavalcade, Samson and Delilah and The Uninvited, to name just 4, still aren't on DVD yet! July 21, 2008

Great Classic!

I first saw this film on Turner Classic Films on cable and couldn't wait to get myself a copy. Gary Cooper and Teresa Wright are dynamite. They had wonderful chemistry and did a beautiful performance! Gary Cooper was right handed so he batted right handed and they made him run to third base for the filming.

The film portraits Lou and his family true to life as well as the climax between Babe Ruth and Lou. A touching story that will make you want more. Good clean fun for the whole family to enjoy. Don't miss one of hollywood classic films! July 13, 2008

Pride of the Yankees

Great movie always enjoy a Gary Cooper movie, and I love baseball even though I am an Australian and cricket is our local game.. June 28, 2008

"Classic Sports Film: Even for Phillies & Red Sox Fans"

PRIDE OF THE YANKEES was released in 1942 to both critical and commercial success. It is at once a sports movie and a romance, with both dramatic and comedic elements. The cast is absolutely wonderful, with stellar performances by Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright and Walter Brennan leading a well rounded bevy of supporting actors including Dan Duryea and Ludwig Stossel & Elsa Janssen (as Mom & Pop Gehrig). Director Sam Wood (A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, Our Town, Goodbye Mr. Chips, The Stratton Story, and so many others memorable films) coaxed believable performances out of a number of Yankee greats including Bill Dickey, Bob Meusel, Mark Koenig, and of course, Babe Ruth. PRIDE was nominated for a total of 11 Academy Awards in its year of release, including best picture, best actor and actress, and other various categories. It won for Film Editing (well-deserved - the pace and timing of the film are perfect).

The DVD itself is well done: the film is beautifully mastered with pristine picture and sound quality.

The real story of course, is Lou Gehrig the man, not merely the baseball player. Gary Cooper becomes Gehrig as he progresses from the naïve rookie and awkward romantic to seasoned ballplayer and devoted husband. Teresa Wright, who passed away in 2005, gave a wonderful performance ranging from playful to tearful. Walter Brennan, as Gehrig's reporter/best friend, displays the remarkable range that brought him three supporting actor Oscars.

Gary Cooper's delivery of Gehrig's farewell at Yankee Stadium (after his retirement due to the disease that bears his name), while not historically accurate, still brings tears to one's eyes after repeated screenings. The ending is one of the most dramatic and fulfilling of any movie.

PRIDE OF THE YANKEES ultimately transcends the sports movie genre. It is a classic film in terms of plot and character development and paints a vivid portrait of one of the most enduring legacies in the history of baseball and twentieth-century life.
June 20, 2008

You Know the Type

Stodgy. Hokey. Stiff. Predictable. You know the type. This is the kind of movie that gives those cliches a bad name. And to think... 50 years before Forrest Gump we had Gary Cooper doing it up first! The dim-witted country bumpkin-type... hamming it up as a sort of cross between a alchoholically impaired Stan Laurel and a gay Lurch the Butler. It's somehow hard to believe that our 6' 3" tall leading man could be the dutiful son of two short fat Austrian-American parents! And the dialog....!! Funny! Cooper fills in for the lack of it with the corniest facial gestures and quivering lip movements this side of the silent movie days. It was like watching a severely retarded child try to thread a needle for two hours. A movie that looks like it could have been made a decade or more earlier. One star given for the appearance of the real Babe Ruth (and for seeing Walter Brennan when he was young enough to have teeth). The other....?? Because they won't let me get away from here without giving it. Absolutely one of the worst 'great' movies ever made. In my humble opinion, of course... :) June 11, 2008

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