We’re working on a Sports Movie issue for WEEKEND, and I hadn’t gotten around to seeing “The Pride of the Yankees” despite how I knew it was essential inspirational Old Hollywood.
And now that I have, it is certainly a staple of the old studio system. It’s corny, tame, rousing and a complete lark. It stars Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig, a huge star at the time who must’ve only been cast because of how damn well he could deliver that ending speech in front of Yankee stadium, the infamous, “Today, I feel like I’m the luckiest man on the face of the Earth” speech.
The rest of the movie, I hate to say it, Cooper’s a bland, nervous and clumsy mama’s boy. He only knows baseball, he’s awkward in front of everyone but his parents and his stabs at personality are captured only in his own lame prat falls and his frolicking wrestling matches with his wife. Continue reading “Rapid Response: The Pride of the Yankees”