The Catcher Was a Spy

We watched this at home on DVD from our public library.

Over the years there have been many movies made regarding interesting WW2 stories. This one caught me by surprise because it could have had such a significance in the worldwide Scientific community.

German Physicist Werner Heisenberg was one of the great minds of the 20th century. He was responsible for the development of Quantum Mechanics and most science students know him for his "Uncertainty Principle." But the US intelligence worried that he might be on the verge of developing the technology to build atomic bombs.

Paul Rudd comes across really well as Moe Berg, former MLB catcher. Although he was a mediocre big league baseball player he was highly intelligent and highly educated, and spoke several languages fluently, including German, Italian, and French. And he was a patriot, willing to die for his country if it came down to that.

Berg was given the spy assignment as a scientist, to travel to Italy and meet with Heisenberg, find out what he could about their progress. Berg was armed, he was to kill Heisenberg on the spot if he determined that they were on track to develop the bomb. It would be his decision alone.

There isn't a lot of action but it is a very realistic accounting of the Moe Berg story in a very well made movie with some of the best actors in key roles.

FEB 2024 edit: I just watched it again, for me, being a Scientist acutely aware of Heisenberg's role in 20th century Physics, it is one of the better movies I have ever watched.

This is decidedly a film for those with a sense of historical curiosity. Moe Berg was an extremely interesting fellow; not just a ball player who became a spy for the US. He was proficient in several languages and an Ivy League scholar; not your typical jock ballplayer. Rudd does a very good job of convincing us that he is in total control at all times. The race for the atom bomb is the subplot in the film and is nicely accented by the director. Production values are excellent and the only weakness of the film is the hurried entry into Nazi Germany from the front lines established by the Allies. I would have preferred a longer sequence on that circumstance. However, the viewer is kept in suspense as to whether Berg will carry out his orders; assassinating a German scientist capable of creating the atom bomb. I found this film to be very entertaining.

It reminds me of the Steven Spielberg, Tom hanks collaboration, Bridge of Spies, but did not hit me as hard.

World war 2 was the type of war that all good Americans wanted to be a part of, so no surprise that a Major baseball player (our fav pastime) wanted to get in on the action.

Moe Berg was an over the hill baseball player who happen to have went to college and became a master of a lot of languages. Right there, he sounds like the type of spy they make TV shows out of, which is why I think this movie is so good.

Paul Rudd was good at playing this type of spy too. I felt it to be believable in the situation. Possible not that important, but I like it none the less. Not exactly James Bond but Rudd used his overall charming and humorous persona to be the leading man this movie needs.

Good Watch.

Ben Lewin has brought Nicholas Dawidoff 1994 biography about the mysterious Moe Berg. And Moe Berg remained a mystery until he died. Here's food for thought: when you think of Jews in baseball Moe Berg's name doesn't easily come to mind. Hank Grrenberg, yes. Sandy Kofax, for sure. Not Moe Berg who played for the Boston Red Sox during the 20s and the 30s. 'The Catcher was a Spy' is a conventional film with a fascinating 'hero': a polyglot, a polymath, born of Eastern Europeans Jews who settled in Harlem. And yet, Berg, played by a charming Paul Rudd who like his character celebrates tight lip secrecy. It is to Rudd's credit to have learned smatterings of six or seven languages to give body to his character who know many, many more. Berg graduated summa laude from Princeton when few Jews could attend. A lawyer from Columbia law who passed the bar before he finished his degree. Yet baseball was his life as was spying. The script writers give short shift to the spy Berg when he went to Japan with an all-star team that included Babe Ruth. We get the idea Berg dresses up as a Japanese in full kimono, armed with a camera films from the roof of a hospital Tokyo Harbor which had a dual use as a military facility. It would have taken too much to explain the prewar politics and the role of Japan invading Manchuria, testing America's and European empires' turf in Asia. So, although Berg was acting on behalf of a rudimentary US spy agency, Lewin's script white washes it as an act of a patriot. There is a 'love' story, but beneath the surface the film there is a flaw, a 'moral flaw' for the time. Was Berg queer? Probably. A scene of a night visit to the waterfront frequented by men, and non reputable bars frequented soley by men. Now to the film: Wild Bill Donovan, founder of the OSS, predecessor to the CIA, recruits Berg after Pearl Harbor. Donovan asks him if he's queer. And without a beat, Rudd replies, 'I know how to keep secrets'; to which Donovan replies, I don't care wo a man f--ks, I'm only interested if he's wants us to win the war'. Berg's assignment is to kill Werner Heisenberg, father of the German nuclear bomb. And here the film takes wings...and a high moment of the 'Catcher was a Spy' is when Rudd and Strong play mental chess, to fathom have the Germans the bomb. And here we see Berg has a dialectical frame of mind, he's willing to spare Heisenberg for an answer that Germany's nuclear project is not very advanced. (Heisenberg is the object of an award winning play "Copenhagen' that infers Heisenberg purposefully delayed Hitler's plans for a nuclear weapon.) The camera turns all over the place Japan, Italy, New York and Switzerland. Long shots, close shots, it runs the full alphabet of film making. Rudd speaks his languages fairly well with a good accent, but slips briefly when it comes to French. There is nothing dramatically wrong, but the film never plumbs the secretive Moe Berg. At the end we are told Berg never married and spent time in libraries. And yet he never left the CIAin mind and spirit and died the loner he was.

This started out so strong. Based on a true story, I was so interested in how this Major League Baseball player who has to hide his from most people will navigate both his life as a spy during WWII as well as his personal life.... But it didn't go as deep as it could have. Maybe the casting of Paul Rudd was a little off too, but I think much of it is attributable to the script and directing. It felt like it stayed too surface level, and then when there were scenes of spy activity that could have been suspenseful, it was directed in a way to play for the joke or the levity of the scene.

If you're into WWII stories, historical biopics, etc. I think this is worth a watch, but I think it could have been better.