Wow! Such a good movie.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Sports biopics are notoriously bad, Pride of the Yankees is among the worst of the worst. Poor writing, inane dialogue, this movie is no credit to the great career of Lou Gehrig, whose records speak for themselves, but are hardly noted in the movie. What purports to be a sport story in a silly love story. The fraternity students at Columbia all look old enough to play the profs at the school, and that goes for Gary Cooper too. It was tough to sit through so many cliches in both performers and actions. Gehrig deserved much better.

This picture follows the short and exciting life of Henry Louis Gehrig. The Iron horse moniker pinned on him due to his unprecedented streak of 2130 straight games for the New York Yankees. This a wonderful story of a boy from turn of the century Manhattan with struggling immigrant parents who want their son to get a good education and follow in the footsteps of Uncle Otto the family success at engineering. Lou starts out breaking a storefront window as a youth to entering Columbia University when he proceed to break another office window getting attention to Sportswriter/ scout Sam Blake played by supporting actor Walter Brennan. This formula of Brennan and our star athlete Gehrig (Gary Cooper)works well together in this story directed by Sam Wood. One of many movies in which the Brennan/ Cooper duo have their chemistry on all cylinders.Sam Blake is not only a beat writer but a close friend and mentor to the green vulnerable young Gehrig. What puts this movie over the top despite it's inaccuracies and phony claims is the presents of Sports Icon and modern day Santa Claus the BABE himself George Herman Ruth, (The Bambino), (The Sultan of Swat)! Babe does a fine job of acting which makes you wonder why he didn't embrace Hollywood more. I felt he was a natural.The casting of Lou's doting parents Ludwig Stossel and Elsa Janssen reminded me of my Maternal Grandparents from Europe and how strange to see their son becoming a star in short pants," This game with pillows on the field!" as the elder Mrs Gehrig quipped. Finally the casting of Eleanor Gehrig The perky Teresa Wright. From the first time Lou tripped over the bats at old Comisky Park and the nickname "Tanglefoot" is born to the horse shoe of Roses scene when Lou's health begins to fail him.Honorable mention to Dan Duryea who plays the foil to Sam Blake during the entire movie as the rival sportswriter involving bets and seltzer bottles. Favorite scene for me is a St.Louis hospital room.There lies a sickly boy named Billy next to a huge radio as the Babe and other Yankees sign a baseball as the Babe promised to hit a home run for Billy in the World series game that afternoon as the Babe boasts, Center Field no less. Lou hangs around after the Yankees and Doctors/nurses left to be alone with the ailing boy. Lou tells him, "keep your chin up Billy!There isn't anything you can't do if try hard enough!" In response Billy makes a bold request to Lou. "Mr. Gehrig can you hit a home run for me today? Can you hit two? Lou looked dumbfounded as to paint himself into a corner and made this proposal to the lad that "I'll hit two home runs if you hit one for me!" impressionable youth looks in shock and Lou went on to explain that one day you'll have to walk out of this hospital under your own power! Powerful words from a great ballplayer. The truth is that it never happened. The Yanks in 1926 fell to the Cards in that World Series but who cares, the guys in Hollywopod created that legend. Despite the falsehoods and there are many along the way, I watch it over and over again. Frank Faylen of Many Loves of Dobie Gillis is the wiseacre coach of the Bronx bombers and puts in his two cents in the art of straw hat eating. Can't get enough of this movie with the conga line chanting LOU LOU LOU! Cal Ripken are you out there?

I'm not too conversant with the story of American baseball, coming as I do from the other side of the Atlantic although I took a crash-course a few years ago watching Ken Burns's terrific PBS history of the game. So I was only slightly aware if I'm being honest of the Lou Gehrig story, the great New York Yankees batsman and fielder who made a record number of consecutive appearances before being stuck down by the AFS disease which curtailed his life at only 37 years old and which still bears his name in the States.With Gehrig being, by all accounts a modest, family man and dedicated team player, Gary Cooper was probably a natural choice to play him on screen. Thus Coop gives a trademark performance highlighting the humility and selflessness of the man, even if there is a seen-it-before feel to his display, going back to "Mr Deeds Goes To Town", "Meet John Doe" and "Ball Of Fire", to name but three. However, it's impossible to believe the forty-plus Cooper as a college freshman or rookie ball-player, no matter his youthful looks and by the same token he also seems to be way older than his new sweetheart, played by Teresa Wright, who if anything, seems too young in her part. Walter Brennan, with his distinctive voice, is excellent as a supportive journalist and friend, as is Dan Duryea in an early role as a more mud-raking reporter.I must confess that a great deal of the scenes seemed apocryphal to me, none more so than when Gehrig promises to a sick boy to hit two home runs in an important game in return for extracting a vow from the boy to get himself well and who then turns up the day of Gehrig's testimonial day all cured. However, there's no denying the emotional heft when Gehrig delivers spontaneously at the same testimonial his famous and touching "luckiest man" speech.The movie chooses this inspiring moment to end on an uplifting basis, where a modern telling of the story might have shown how the man actually coped with his affliction, but given that as the opening titles make clear, America's young men were at war, I can readily accept this upbeat extolling of one man's bravery against formidable odds.So in the final analysis, a more honest and less sentimental version of Mr Gehrig's life might have rung truer, but even if his story does get the Hollywood treatment, even down to polishing up his climactic speech, there's no denying the emotional impact of the movie as a whole.

THE PRIDE OF THE YANKEES (Samuel Goldwyn/RKO Radio, 1942), directed by Sam Wood, taken from the opening credits underscoring to "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," could very well be a historical account about the New York Yankees. Instead, according to the opening tribute by journalist Damon Runyon, "its the story of Lou Gehrig." (Born Henry Louis Gehrig (1903-1941), one of the greatest baseball players of all time). An original story by Paul Gallico details Lou Gehrig's life, first starting him as a boy (Douglas Croft) of twelve in New York City. He's introduced as a son of German immigrants whose father (Ludwig Stossel) is a janitor and mother (Elsa Janssen), a cook at Columbia University whose ambition is for her son to grow up like their Uncle Otto to become an engineer. Even at an early age, Lou's talent for baseball is proved effective as he bats with the neighborhood kids hitting the ball to a point of smashing a store window at a very far distance, costing his mother to come up with $18.50 to replace it. As a young man working his way through school as a waiter, studying to become an engineer, Lou (Gary Cooper), a baseball athlete for Columbia University, is discovered by sportswriter, Sam Blake (Walter Brennan), who eventually signs him as player for the New York Yankees. Though Mama Gehrig is very much against this, her son's newfound success turns her into a baseball fan. After slipping on a pile of baseball bats in his first game in Chicago, Lou is teasingly called "tanglefoot" by pretty spectator, Eleanor Twitchell (Teresa Wright) seated by her father (Pierre Watkin). Following a brief courtship, they would soon marry. As time progresses with Blake and Hank Hannerman (Dan Duryea) watching and reporting first baseman Gehrig making baseball history from the press box, "The Iron Man" as he would be called, would not only rank along with Babe Ruth (Babe Ruth) as one of the greatest sports figures, but become a true pride of the Yankees. All this would change after Lou faces something that would put an end to his powerful sixteen year career.In one of the finest sports movies ever made, THE PRIDE OF THE YANKEES, became producer Samuel Goldwyn's only biographical film, and one of his most admired. Gary Cooper, having already won his Academy Award as Best Actor playing SERGEANT YORK (Warner Brothers, 1941), an American war hero, gets another home run here by the Academy once again for his portrayal of an American sports hero, Lou Gehrig. Being more of a personal and private life story of Lou Gehrig than on his development as a baseball player, it's all wonderfully told during its 128 minutes. Though historians may find several faults of mention, including a scene or two where Cooper writes or bats right handed rather than Gehrig's oft-mentioned left, or placing few factual characters in the wrong time frame, the acting, the story and direction make up for such errors. With time away from some Yankee game re-enactment, there's time out for humorous moments by Babe Ruth and his baseball buddies, musical entertainment featuring a tango dance from the Moon Terrace Cabaret performed by Veloz an Yolanda as conducted by Ray Noble and his Orchestra. There's also female vocalist on platform singing the classic Irving Berlin tune, "Always," that to become the Gehrig's personal love songAside from Teresa Wright's sensitive portrayal during its second half, and Walter Brennan, sporting glasses and mustache, as the sports writing friend, no scene comes close to Cooper's heartfelt closing speech on that historic Tuesday, July 4th, 1939, day at Yankee Stadium that would not only stay in memory long after the film is over, but prove his Lou Gehrig to be "the luckiest man on the face of the earth."Even if THE PRIDE OF THE YANKEES strays from the truth at times, it's every sports buff's dream to actually get to see such baseball legends of the past portraying themselves, Bill Dickey, Mark Koenig and Robert Meusel. There's no one more recognizable than Babe Ruth at bat on the field, taking part in the story as well. Aside from Ruth having appeared in several motion pictures dating back to the silent era, it's little known fact that Gehrig appeared in a feature length motion picture himself, interestingly a "B" western titled RAWHIDE (20th-Fox, 1938) starring Smith Ballew, (Who?), a bit of trivia not included in the film. Aside from the major actors, others participants worth noting are Virginia Gilmore (Myra Tinsley); Ernie Adams (Miller Huggins), Hardie Albright (Van Tuyl), and sports announcer Bill Stern appearing as himself.THE PRIDE OF THE YANKEES, having been a long time movie favorite on New York City's Yankee station of WPIX TV, Channel 11 (1970-1995), has in later years been shown in the colorized format. Distributed to home video and later DVD, it's cable TV history consists of American Movie Classics (1992-1998) and Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: March 30, 2003), and few others. Nominated for Academy Awards: Best Actor (Cooper); Best Actress (Wright); and Best Picture, the legend of Lou Gehrig rests mostly on this motion picture retelling, not for just a while, not for just a day, not for just a year, but always. (****).