The Pride of St. Louis. Nope not that fascist
Charles Lindbergh, but a great American. Dizzy Dean. I still can't believe
Hollywood made The Spirit of St. Louis in 1957 after WWII and Lindberg's
Nazi sympathies were well-known. Mr. American Firster. Pisses me off. Anyways,
Dizzy is a different matter. Born in Arkansas in 1910 to sharecroppers who
picked cotton, Dizzy dropped out of school after second grade but became
one of the most famous and well known pitchers in baseball history. So you
kids out there - just remember that you don't need an education. As long
as you have a fast ball that no one can hit. He was in a way the Koufax of
his era. A few tremendous seasons in the 1930's and then a bad arm brought
his career to a sad premature close. Same with his brother Paul aka Daffy
- two great seasons and then an arm injury ended his career. Dizzy then went
on to a lengthy career in broadcasting where his mangled use of the English
language brought English teachers to tears. Dizzy said in response - you
teach them English, I will teach them baseball.
Dizzy was still broadcasting when this film was made. As far as I can tell
it sticks very closely to the facts of his baseball playing - not as sure
about post-baseball but probably in the ballpark. I would have to guess that
Dizzy had to approve the script which amazingly was written by Herman J.
Mankiewicz. Mankiewicz had Citizen Kane under his belt and a baseball classic
as well - The Pride of the Yankees. This is not in the same league as that
film but it has some great down home Arkansas dialogue that makes your head
spin. And it is pleasant enough. But Dean wasn't dying - just yakking away
- he never stops talking in this film in fact.
He is played by Dan Daily who was best known as a hoofer in musicals but
was just coming off a nervous breakdown. He is much too old to play Dizzy
in the first half of the film when Dizzy was only 20 (Daily was 35) - but
he is fine after Dean leaves baseball. His wife is played by Joanne Dru -
who began her career with a few films that were to become classics - Red
River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, All the King's Men (which had her husband
or soon to be husband in it, John Ireland) and Wagon Master. The three Westerns
were all directed by John Ford. Not a bad start to a career. She is a very
pretty but not flashy woman and gets kind of stuck here in a thankless role
as the patient wife putting up with Dizzy. And Paul is played by Richard
Crenna in his first credited role - I had no clue that was him till I saw
the cast listing. And also as a note of interest - his co-announcer in the
broadcast booth near the end is none other than Chet Huntley - who went on
to much bigger things in the news business. Not sure where David Brinkley
was.
A solid old-fashioned baseball film. My only disappointment is they really
make no mention of the other players. This was the famous Gashouse Gang -
with the Deans, Leo Durocher, Joe Medwick and Pepper Martin. Most of them
were southerners and played hard. Durocher pinned the nickname on them because
their uniforms were usually dirty and smelly. Gashouses were factories that
turned coal into gas to light the homes in the town. But they were smelly
and located in the poor sections of the town. Up on YouTube.
