The Iron Major

Pat O'Brien made at least three films where he played a college football coach. The first, COLLEGE COACH, was amazing because O'Brien stood for the exact opposite of his character in KNUTE ROCKNE. Instead of clean living and sportsmanship, in COLLEGE COACH, O'Brien emphasized that you should do anything to win...anything!! While this message was simply awful, the film was so vile in its message that you can't help but watch. Later, with KNUTE ROCKNE, the image was now squeaky clean and the film went on to become an iconic classic. So with these two films under his belt, why would anyone want to make yet a third film--especially when it is essentially KNUTE ROCKNE all over again?! Yep, the reason must be money! It can't be because the story in the IRON MAJOR is compelling--because frankly it isn't. In fact, I can't think of a single reason for O'Brien to have made what is essentially "KNUTE ROCKNE II" other than the money!

The film purports to be the story of one of the winningest coaches in college football history. Frank Cavanaugh had an incredible .731 winning percentage and did a lot to improve the game in the early 20th century. But to base an entire film around the man was a mistake, as his life story wasn't that interesting or unique. Plus, throughout the film, I couldn't help but notice that Cavanaugh couldn't keep a job--bouncing from school to school. If he was so great, why did he coach for six different programs? His nobility (which Warner Brothers tried so hard to point out) didn't seem so great and he never really was an institution at any of the schools. And, as a consequence, he's all but forgotten today. And, with KNUTE ROCKNE getting so much attention, THE IRON MAJOR is also pretty much forgotten today.

Watchable but frankly (get it?), you'd be better off watching one of O'Brien's other football films instead.

One must remember that this film came out in the middle of World War II and Hollywood was busy churning out propaganda flicks like they were going out of style. Frank Cavanaugh was a noted football coach pre and post World War I and in that war he enlisted and became a wounded hero.

Pat O'Brien had left Warner Brothers a few years earlier and signed with RKO. One of his last films there was Knute Rockne - All American which was probably his most famous part. I've listened to recordings of Rockne who was famous for his locker room pep speeches and in truth he does sound like Pat O'Brien which made O'Brien such a felicitous choice in casting.

So O'Brien was stereotyped, he played fast talking press agents, managers, reporters etc., in most of his films so he had it down pat. (pun intended) The only time O'Brien slowed down was when he played priests.

It's not that the Iron Major is a bad film, but it broke no new ground. I don't know if the real Frank Cavanaugh was like, maybe he was like Pat O'Brien. I got the impression that O'Brien was just feeling like he'd done this all before.

One thing that truly annoyed me though was, why were they so mysterious about the disease that killed him. We know he was wounded in World War I, he apparently developed some complications that killed him in the mid-thirties, but RKO chose for whatever reasons to be purposely vague about it.

I asked someone I know who's two generations removed from me to watch the film. He was a high school football player and that kind of film left him cold. So I suppose Frank Cavanaugh if people remember him now will await a better biographical film.

It's 1942. The seven Cavanaugh siblings all join the war effort. Their mother Florence Cavanaugh is talking to Father Tim Donovan. They recount the story of her husband Frank Cavanaugh (Pat O'Brien) and the need to tell it. Frank coached football and volunteered for the first war despite having seven young children at home.

This is a biopic of a lesser known personality. The bigger goal must be as a wartime propaganda. That's how one gauges success in this. The biopic is bland and takes up too much time. There are a couple of important notes to hit for propaganda purposes. Frank is volunteering despite all the kids needing him at home. That should be explored more. For me, the biggest moment is convincing a shell-shocked Private Manning to go back to the frontlines. Again, that needs to be expanded and it can't happen as soon as he's introduced to the troops. The biopic aspect needs to be in the background and that is the movie's big flaw.

Iron Major, The (1943)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

By the numbers bio pic from RKO features Pat O'Brien in the role of William 'Frank' Cavanaugh, a top football coach who gave up his career to enter WWI where he became a hero. After the war he went back to coaching where he ended up having one of the best winning percentages in football history. There are some nice things about this bio pic but in the end there's just too many familiar items to make it a complete winner. You can also clearly see that RKO didn't have too much money to spend because there's way too much stock footage from either earlier silent movies or just newsreels. This is an extremely big problem when we're watching one of the footballs games and we're suppose to be caught up in what's going on but we're just seeing stock footage with cutaways to O'Brien sitting on the sideline. This certainly takes one out of the action and this also happens during the war scenes. Some of the war scenes contain actual footage and these moments are among the best in the film as O'Brien does a very good job at motivating his men before going into battle. These speeches are also very well handled by the actor in terms of the football talk as he easily films the coach role as he did earlier in COLLEGE COACH and of course KNUTE ROCKNE, ALL American. He's fine in the role as is Ruth Warrick and Robert Ryan in their supporting roles. The film moves along at a pretty good speed but one can't help but feel there's no real direction going on as the film is all over the place in what it's trying to do. At one point it wants to be a football film. The next minutes a complete bio of the man. The next minute it's hyping up the patriotic tone, which is understandable considering what was going on when the movie was originally released. None of the three things really come together and in the end we're left with a movie that offers nothing new to the genre.

I understand that after the success of Knute Rockne, O'Brien had a monopoly on playing beloved yet star-crossed football coaches. But here he is supposedly a Darmouth undergrad and O'Brien is a ripe old 48 -- with a hairline to match his age. With all the makeup magic available in Hollywood -- even in 1943 -- couldn't they have done something to make him look a little younger? The only answer is that the producers felt they didn't have to change anything -- that our affection for O'Brien would allow us to accept him in any role. That's a lack of respect for your audience -- and for the actor, who with a little bit of fake hair would have been fine.

I am an admirer of O'Brien's work -- who wouldn't be -- and I understand he was just doing his part as an employee. But the studio really let him -- and us -- down this time.