The Babe Ruth Story

OK, so it wasn't a great movie by performance standards; maybe judged differently by baseball standards.

Ruth's prominent years came in the 1920's, right after the Black Sox scandal of 1919 (brought to light in 1920). It's widely accepted that he changed the game and probably saved it.

About 2 months before his death, Babe Ruth was given a "day" at Yankee Stadium. He could barely speak to the enormous crowd who had gathered to bid farewell to a man they loved. Maybe little kids didn't gather outside his hospital room to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame", but the prevailing feeling is that they could have.

More than an other American activity, baseball bonds generations. My dad and I spent hours watching and discussing the game; then my kids and I. Now my grandchildren and I do the same. The "Babe Ruth Story" might have been poorly scripted and acted, but it affected me emotionally when I was 10, and still does today.

The movie has many flaws, but still has lots of love to give.

In Claire Hodgeson Ruth's fascinating book, "The Babe and I," about her famous husband, she is openly critical of the biopic, "The Babe Ruth Story." The film, according The Babe's widow, was rushed into production and on to the public in mid-1948, while Babe was still alive, although he was less than three months from death. It's easier to exploit a live man's life than a dead one's, Mrs. Ruth suggests. That's a primary reason why the production and everything associated with it was hurried. In the book, she also stated that she would forgo all royalties from the film's showings...if it were to be permanently shelved. It wasn't...but should have been. In fact, it never should have been done, if speed, indeed, were the primary motivation.

Babe Ruth was the greatest American sports hero ever...including those who followed him during the second half of the twentieth century. Babe deserved a much grander---and accurate---portrayal than this '48 laugher.

There were only two positive elements to the story..and both involved casting. Claire Trevor as the Babe's second wife, Claire, and Charles Bickford as Brother Matthias, were excellent choices. But selecting comic William Bendix for the title role was more than a case of poor casting; it was one that completely undermined both the film and its title character.

Through Bendix's portrayal, audiences see the "Sultan of Swat" as a buffoonish character. Someone who belongs in a cartoon. Not that Bendix didn't try his best. But he was miserably mis-cast. Mrs. Ruth, in her book, stated that she would like to have seen Paul Douglas portray her husband. Not only was Douglas an excellent actor, she said, but he had been an athlete in his youth. He easily could have handled the baseball scenes.

The whole tone of "The Babe Ruth Ruth" story was embarrassingly melodramatic. Again, The Babe deserved much better.

Haste makes waste, the saying goes. It certainly is true here.

As has been noted already here, this film is worse than mediocre; it is ludicrous at best. Why the film was as badly scripted as it was is anybody's guess at this late date. Scenes which should have come across as poignant come across as corny. The Miller Huggins death scene is especially bad, where "Babe" is talking to him thinking he is still alive, and the nurse pulls the sheet over the face because he is already dead. The jump from his youth in the orphanage to major league baseball is disconcerting. William Bendix wasn't a great actor in the sense of a Bogart or Tracy. But, he wasn't that inept either. The production was rushed to completion before Ruth's death and one can only wonder what he must have thought of it, given the chain of contrivances. This film could have been honest and inspiring, instead it is fraudulent and vapid.

Babe Ruth Story, The (1948)

1/2 (out of 4)

Wow. It's funny but you can read all about how awful a movie is but until you actually see it you have no idea how awful it's actually going to be. I had heard that this here was one of the worst sports movies in history and that's certainly true. The film tries to tell the story of Babe Ruth (William Bendix) from his early, abused childhood up through his star years and eventual "death." It's worth noting that Ruth lived to see the premiere of this film but ended up passing away three weeks before it's official theatrical release. It's strange but you can't help that this film probably took away some time from his life. I don't mind a bio pic from containing lies because they all do. You have to change and alter some things in order to build dramatic moments or at least tell a straight story but this film is so full of itself that you can't help but roll your eyes. There are at least seven scenes in this movie that made me say "oh my God" because I couldn't believe how awful they were. One moment is when Babe hits a foul ball that strikes a dog so he rushes it to a hospital. Another sequence is when the Babe goes into his managers hospital room talking his head off but not knowing the man is actually dead. One of the most insulting things is that the Babe is shown as a complete idiot here. I'm guessing they wanted him to have a child-like quality but he comes off looking incredibly stupid. It doesn't help that Bendix is miscast in the role as you really have to feel bad for it. The actor could certainly deliver the goods in the right roles but he's really, really bad here. You can't blame him too much as it's nearly impossible to play a character as legendary as Ruth but the actor simply doesn't do a very good job at imitating him. Bendix is all over the place in terms of tone and he just doesn't feel or look like a baseball player. Claire Trevor plays his wife and isn't impressive either. Charles Bickford, Sam Levene, Stanley Clements and Frank Ferguson have supporting roles. Ziggy Sears, Bucky Harris, Harry Wismer, Mel Allen and H.V. Kaltenborn all play themselves. As many bad thing as I've mentioned there are still plenty of others including the fact that the majority of the story is told with newspaper headlines, which is never a good thing. THE BABE RUTH STORY is a horrid film in just about every way and the only real entertainment comes from you having to keep watching just to see how much worse it's going to get. I couldn't help but wonder what the real Babe Ruth thought while he was watching this thing but he certainly deserved much better.

This is often pointed to cynically by sportswriters and fans as the ultimate ridiculously sugarcoated sports-hero film. Who's to argue? If you know Babe Ruth and what he was like, you almost have to laugh at some of the stuff in here. That's not to say Ruth was a bad man, because he wasn't. He was extremely likable guy whom his teammates all loved, he was fantastic with kids and very, very generous man. But he also had a lot of faults, too, some of which got him in big trouble with his managers and league officials. His health was a problem at times, thanks, in part to his opulent lifestyle. He was a glutton and an adulterer and life wasn't fun for him as he got unfairly passed over to be a manager, something he desperately sought. Very few if any of these negative qualities are the in the film - just the good 'ole boy - the kind William Bendix played on his TV show, "The Life Of Riley."

Also unrealistic - and typical of sports movies in the "classic era" - is Bendix trying to throw and hit a baseball. Thank goodness modern-day movies don't have actors like this who are clueless on how to play the actual sport they are portraying.

Yet, as sweet and unrealistic as this film can be, it's a lot better than doing the reverse, which is what Hollywood did in 1992. Too bad you usually get two extremes when it comes biographies made in Hollywood. In the "classic era" films, our heroes could do no wrong. Since the '60s, our heroes are shown to be blemished more than anything else. Where is the middle ground.

The solution, obviously, is to be "fair and balanced," but don't look for that in most biographies made into movies, especially dealing with sports heroes.