The Spirit of Notre Dame

Lively tale of US college football featuring many of the actual players from the time. They aren't too bad as actors, either, although it's down to professionals Lew Ayres, WIlliam Bakewell and Andy Devine to do the heavy lifting. Quite funny at times, and it plays like a '30s version of a college comedy with the players chasing and being chased by little cuties before getting down to the serious stuff. The ending is hokey to say the least, but it's still hugely enjoyable.

Lew Ayres comes to Notre Dame as a freshman, proud of his hometown high school football team, and soon is trained by J. Farrell MacDonald into a very useful football player. Four years later, there's a new crop up, and Ayres feels resentment as William Bakewell gains a national reputation.

There's actual signs of academics in this college football movie. Early on, there's a guy reading from Julius Caesar. Credentials established, it turns into one of those movies in which it's football, football, football, and Sally Blane. Anyway, after Ayres and Bakewell fight, MacDonald can't play them both, so puts perennial sub Andy Devine in. Devine is badly injured, and the baby game with Army is coming up.

Ayres shows some nice acting, a hick in the first half, a debonair collegiate in the second. Knute Rockne was supposed to be the technical advisor on this movie. He was killed in an airplane crash on the way to the West Coast. The movie is dedicated to him.

This one was popular in 1931. The tribute to Knute Rockne was a nice touch. But today, it is just a standard football drama. J. Farrell MacDonald is excellent as the coach. For old-time movie buffs, it is an OK film to watch.

Released a few months after the death of legendary Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne, this well-intentioned film was dedicated to his memory. While J. Farrell MacDonald is right on target as the sympathetic but tough coach, the other actors and the thin story line seem corny and cliché to today's audience. Andy Devine has some good comedy relief scenes with a touch of genuine pathos as a bench warmer who is the butt of the team's practical jokes. But things go over the top when he is critically ill and delirious in the hospital, listening to the big game on the radio. When Notre Dame scores a winning touchdown and Andy reacts, the doctor hovering near by shouts, `By God, he's going to pull through!' Also starring Lew Ayres and William Bakewell, both much too thin to be football players! Screened at Cinefest in Syracuse New York March, 2004.