Big Leaguer

1953
Approved
1h 11min

NOTE IMDb

6,0/10

533

MA NOTE

John Lobert runs a training camp in Florida for the New York Giants. Every year, he evaluates the hopefuls to pick the best for a minor league contract. They all have dreams and talent, but the elimination whittles them down to a lucky few who'll get the $150 a month contract. This year John's niece comes down from the home office in New York and is attracted to tall quiet Adam.

Lire trailer2:37

1 Video

5 photos

Drama Family Sport

Ajouter une intrigue dans votre langueJohn Lobert runs a training camp in Florida for the New York Giants. Every year, he evaluates the hopefuls to pick the best for a minor league contract. They all have dreams and talent, but ... Tout lireJohn Lobert runs a training camp in Florida for the New York Giants. Every year, he evaluates the hopefuls to pick the best for a minor league contract. They all have dreams and talent, but the elimination whittles them down to a lucky few who'll get the $150 a month contract. Th... Tout lireJohn Lobert runs a training camp in Florida for the New York Giants. Every year, he evaluates the hopefuls to pick the best for a minor league contract. They all have dreams and talent, but the elimination whittles them down to a lucky few who'll get the $150 a month contract. This year John's niece comes down from the home office in New York and is attracted to tall ... Tout lire

Voir les informations de production sur IMDbPro

NOTE IMDb

6,0/10

533

MA NOTE

Voir les informations de production sur IMDbPro

Vidéos1

Trailer 2:37

Official Trailer

Photos4

Avis des utilisateurs17

6,0533

Avis à la une

6SnoopyStyle

sincere baseball

Adam Polachuk (Jeff Richards) recounts his dream of being a big leaguer. He's the narrator and the story teller. He arrives at the Florida training camp for the New York Giants. Over two hundred show up and only a handful make it to the end. John Lobert (Edward G. Robinson) runs the place. His niece Christy (Vera-Ellen) is a baseball expert who works in the front office.

At some point, I needed the constant narration to end. The actors need the room to do their work. The narration keeps interrupting. Robinson is the big name. Vera-Ellen is doing good work. I don't know much about the lead. Apparently, he's a baseball minor leaguer turned actor after an injury. I do recognize William Campbell but I couldn't place him. I look up his credits and Star Trek. He has one of the most iconic Star Trek guest roles. This movie incorporates lots of realistic stories. Yet, the tone is sincere idealism even for the 50's. It's definitely not daring enough to stand out.

5Ed-Shullivan

MGM's long standing relationship with Edward G Robinson does not make this a film worth watching

I have never been a big fan of the pint sized Edward G Robinson and so MGM's veiled attempt to warm up their film goers to Edward G. Robinson by supplanting him in America's favorite past time a baseball film, as the Manager named John Lobert who runs a training camp in Florida for the New York Giants it was difficult for me to visualize this ever happening. I would have believed Edward G Robinson more as a Ballet instructor flirting around the stage in a tutu rather than in a baseball cap and a baseball film.

I know the film was released in 1953 and the lovely actress Vera Ellen would be the only reason I would have watched this in the first place. Awww but who doesn't love a good sports film on a baseball training camp in the springtime injected with a romantic undertow?

I give the film a mere passing grade of 5 out of 10 IMDB rating and this is based on Ms. Vera Ellen's fine performance.

7planktonrules

Enjoyable....and a lot like traveling back to Spring Training camp back in the good old days.

The casting of Edward G. Robinson in "Big Leaguer" is very odd, as I cannot see how anyone would picture him as a coach for a major league team...even the coach in charge of try-outs during Spring Training. However odd this is, the film worked okay and it was much like taking a trip back through time to watch a group of young people try their luck in camp.

Is any of this life-changing and amazing? No...but it's all very pleasant and it's also nice to see Carl Hubbell (a Hall of Fame pitcher) playing, of all people, himself. Overall, a pleasant little film...worth seeing and kind of sentimentally sweet at times.

Michael_Elliott

Good Performance by Robinson

Big Leaguer (1953)

** (out of 4)

There have been quite a few good baseball films over the years but sadly this isn't one of them even though we do get a fine performance from Edward G. Robinson. In the film he plays John Lobert, a former baseball player who currently runs a training camp in Florida for the New York Giants. Each year he judges new talent trying to find the next great player but the team is getting a little fed up with him not finding any All Stars so the pressure is on to find someone to save his job. BIG LEAGUER has a few good moments in it but in the end you can't help but feel rather bored and letdown. I'm sure there could have been a very good movie made about these young kids who come to this camp to try and fulfill their dreams but this film is so child like that you can't help but feel you're watching something fake. The ball players are all stereotypes as you have one whose father was a baseball great and of course he can't live up to his father. You have another who thinks he's the greatest thing on Earth yet he's not. You have another who doesn't want his hard working father to know he's missing college to try and play ball. All the stereotypes are on hand here and not one of them comes across as a real character. Robinson at least keeps the film moving as he has that great energy that only he could get across. There was a quick scene where I thought we were going to get to see him bat but that ended up not happening. Vera-Ellen appears as his niece and makes for the love interest to one of the players played by Jeff Richards. I really wasn't overly impressed with either of them but apparently Vera-Ellen was a very big name back in the day but I really couldn't see why. Frank Ferguson, Richard Jaeckel and William Campbell also star. Carl Hubbell plays himself in a quick cameo.

5JohnSeal

For baseball fans

Edward G. Robinson buoys this fairly routine but thoroughly enjoyable baseball tale. The story follows a handful of youngsters as they try out for the New York Giants, including a Pennsylvania third basemen who was supposed to be going to college, the son of a former major leaguer, and a hot shot pitcher. There's also one of those exotic Cubans to represent the multicultural appeal of baseball---all the other players are white! Real life players Carl Hubbell and Al Campanis appear in cameos. We all know who's going to make it and who's going to get the girl from the get go, but never mind--this is one of those movies that fits like a comfortable old shoe. If you like baseball, try to catch Big Leaguer!

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Histoire

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Anecdotes
First film directed by Robert Aldrich.

Gaffes
(at around 32 mins) The coach lifts the shade covering the blackboard with the names of the players to be cut on it. He erases the last name on the board (Jones), but does not get all the chalk of the name - particularly the bottom of the "J" and a lot of the "s". A few seconds later, when the last player in the room looks at the board, there is no chalk at all where "Jones" had been written. In fact, part of the name above - Banks - is also missing.

Citations
Brian McLennan: [addressing the camera] I'm Brian McLennan a newspaper man. I do a sports column for one of the New York papers. And a few months ago in Florida, I came up with this story I'm writing. It's a baseball story. And while it won't make anybody yell "Stop the Presses!" or "Tear out the front page!", it's got a little different slant. And that's what makes it important.
Brian McLennan: [talking over archive footage] This is baseball. This is the way it is, when you reach the top. Fame and the headlines and the newsreel camera looking at you from every angle. This is the way it is in the big time, with your name on the lips and in the cheers from everyone in the box seats to the bleachers. This is baseball. The National Pastime. The game that has given us all the great names and all the great moments that fill memory and the record book with the achievement of things past. The game of Babe Ruth and of Lou Gehrig, of Ty Cobb and McGraw, and Christy Mathewson. And everyday the sports pages grab a new name and a new moment to go with all the rest. Somebody pitches a no hitter; somebody comes through in the clutch, somebody makes a great catch or a daring play or knocks in a wining run, and a new hero is born. Like at the Polo Grounds a couple of years ago, when a young man named Bobby Thomson, hit a ninth inning home run that won the pennant, and every fan in America, for the New York Giants. Yes, this is the way it is, at the top. The names and the faces at the end of the long way up. My story is about the way it is at the beginning. The names and the faces you've never heard of. The ones who give baseball its tomorrow. This is the story behind every Bobby Thomson, every ninth inning home run, every team like the Giants and every Polo Ground.