Sunshine’s Baseball Movie Review: The Pride of the Yankees (1942)

Classic film about Lou Gehrig’s life and career

The second film in this baseball film review series is a biopic of legendary baseball star (and great human) Lou Gehrig. It follows his life and playing career, debuting only a year and a half after his untimely death from the disease that now bears his name.

The film features many real baseball players and team staff and was nominated for 11 Oscars, winning one (Best Film Editing). It’s much more of a biopic about the man than a movie about baseball itself, but it’s one I’ve wanted to watch for a long time.

Warning: everything after this line will potentially contain spoilers for the film (yes, it’s 82 years old, still giving you a warning).

Key Stats

Year – 1942
Director – Sam Wood
Writers – Jo Swerling, Herman J. Mankiewicz, Paul Gallico
Starring – Gary Cooper, Babe Ruth, Teresa Wright, Walter Brennan
Budget – Unclear
Box Office – $4.187 Million
Runtime – 128 Minutes

The Cast

Gary Cooper had been an actor for roughly twenty years before this one came out; he was 41 and they had to play with makeup and lighting to make him look younger in early shots. He had two Best Actor Oscar nominations at that point, losing out in 1937 (Mr. Deeds) and winning in 1942 (Sergeant York). He was nominated here as well but lost to James Cagney.

Teresa Wright had shot onto the scene only a year prior with an Oscar-nominated Best Supporting Actress role (The Little Foxes). She was in two huge films in 1942, this one and Mrs. Miniver, being nominated for both Supporting AND Lead Actress Oscars, a rare feat; she won the Leading but lost the Supporting. Hell of a start to a career that spanned decades, but never reached these early heights again.

Babe Ruth was in a few scenes but he’s worth mentioning for a few reasons. By this point Ruth had been retired for a few years, he was wildly overweight, and had to lose massive poundage to look in-shape enough to be an active player. This caused major health issues for him and he apparently barely got through shooting, although his scenes are often humorous and fun. Finally, Walter Brennan was an established supporting actor, having THREE Best Supporting Actor Oscars awards and been nominated for a 4th prior to this film; he’s more comedic background here, but it’s worth noting that this guy was an actor’s actor.

The Director

Sam Wood was a veteran director with dozens of films to his credit prior to this one. He made this film in the middle of a streak of 3 Oscar Nominations for Best Director in a four year span (Goodbye, Mr Chips; Kitty Foyle; King’s Row), which is impressive for a guy I’d never even heard of. I had seen some of his other work though; this is the director that worked heavily with the Marx Brothers in great films such as A Night at the Opera. Interestingly enough, this picture did not earn him another nomination out of the eleven that it garnered. He passed away a few years after this film was completed.

The Baseball

Apparently Gary Cooper had never even swung a baseball bat prior to being cast; he was picked primarily for his screen presence and physical similarity to Lou. Most of the film is him playing (poorly) but apparently one early shot of him throwing a baseball was made with a reversed jersey and reversed footage, making him appear to throw left-handed.

The movie includes a decent number of baseball sequences but they mostly look cheesy to modern eyes. There’s one initial shot where boyhood Lou slugs a HR and breaks a store window; you can literally see the ball being thrown from BEHIND the kid actor as it flies out of the tiny lot kids are playing in. The adult baseball is adequate but nothing too compelling, as this film is far more about the relationships than the sport itself.

I will mention the Lou Gehrig Day celebration in this section, though. As Lou’s health declined in the 1939 season, he stepped away from baseball, ending his iron man streak at 2,130 consecutive games played. The Yankees held a celebration for him on July 4, 1939 where he gave a famous speech; he called himself “The luckiest man on the face of the Earth” for his career and those around him. The film ends with that speech, an emotional and weak Gehrig walking back into the tunnel and away from baseball, and the umpire yelling “Play Ball!” It’s a very poignant ending, looking at how baseball and life move on without him in it.

The Other Stuff

The vast majority of this movie is about Lou’s relationships with his parents and his wife; given that his wife was a paid consultant for the film, it’s not surprising that she’s portrayed as a fantastic person (and in real life she apparently was, devoting herself to ALS research and philanthropy after Lou’s death.)

The early bits are incredibly 1940s. Lots of short scenes – often comedic with zingers – and a breakneck pace until he meets Eleanor, the love of his life. The story shifts to their long distance courtship, and how they teased but loved each other until the end. It’s also highly focused on how much of a momma’s boy he was and how he wanted most of his personal life to be private – the opposite of many scandalous ballplayers of the age.

Gehrig is portrayed as a kind and selfless, although at times naive, ballplayer who just had fun with the game. He’s shown signing with the Yankees not because he wants to play ball as a career, but to pay for his sick mom’s hospitalization. Honestly, the tone comes off as a light-hearted and comedic until the end, when it gets incredibly sad. The couple trying to hide it from each other, how they’re trying to stay strong for each other while not letting on they each know how bad he is…it’s heartbreaking, especially knowing how his story ends.

Film Strengths

The acting from the leads goes from fine to amazing once 1939 hits. Both Cooper and Wright show plenty of powerful emotion during the last few minutes. Cooper struggling with his hands and body as it begins to fail caused me to legitimately tear up; the floodgates burst for me during his farewell speech, one of the most famous bits of dialogue in film (and baseball) history.

There are a few fun montages to show passage of time which are well done. I particularly enjoyed the one that showed his playing career over time; him and his wife add piles of trophies to a table, then a full on case as he racks up the wins and awards in what was a truly astonishing career (dude finished with a 113.7 WAR in roughly 15 seasons). The film is shot and presented well, winning its Oscar for Film Editing.

I was a bit surprised at how legitimately funny Babe Ruth was during his scenes. His humor and delivery were fantastic and I was impressed. There are a number of comedic sequences in the film that at least elicited a chuckle from me, such as the straw hat gag on the train or the policeman’s antics at 4am once he realized he was talking to Lou Gehrig.

Music is also pretty darn good too.

Film Weaknesses

Even in 1942 biopics were messing with history. While there is a lot of accuracy in the film, they definitely change timelines around. The World Series game where he hit two home runs for a sick kid was based on an earlier Babe Ruth event, although the events of the film (Ruth 1 HR and Gehrig 2 HR DID happen against the Cubs in the 1932 series). Nothing too egregious, just a little artistic license that the widow Gehrig was fine with.

Some of the early comedy and such was just bleh, and various moments with teammates were highly over-acted. The controlling mom bit, although apparently truthful, got real old after awhile too.

There’s a long dance sequence and then an original song, “Always,” that sort of derail things during the courtship. It’s shown to be them on a date but it’s very clear this was put in to give folks some work, as it really doesn’t add to the story at all. The strongman scene was also pretty weird, all things considered.

My Final Opinion

I really enjoyed this one. It went from a “this is fine” biopic to an incredibly sad one at the end; the powerful portrayals at the end really elevate this for me. The acting and story are great and easily make this one of the better biopics I’ve seen. It’s hard calling it a true sports movie; rather, it’s a movie about a spots figure’s life, which I consider different. Even though it’s the Yankees, I absolutely recommend it, 8.5/10.

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035211

Lou Gehrig’s career stats: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gehrilo01.shtml

About ALS: https://www.als.org/