The Spirit of West Point

And that is giving "The Spirit of West Point" all the best of it. Ranking this dead last at the bottom of the list of sports movies---a genre where the list of "greats" can be counted on one hand, and the "goods" wouldn't exhaust the digits on the other hand---has nothing to do with the non-acting ability of the two leads, West Point All-Americans Glenn Davis and Felix "Doc" Blanchard, who certainly didn't lose their amateur status by taking money for appearing in this opus. At that, I give both of them the edge over Glen Campbell in "True Grit." Once past the newsreel footage, (of which, thank goodness, there was a bunch), the only touches of reality came in the use of real names. Prime example of non-reality can be seen in the last part of the film, where the undefeated Black Knights of the Hudson are clinging to a last-quarter three-point lead and Old Navy has the ball. Robert Shayne, as Army coach Colonel Earl "Red" Blaik, checks the wrist watch on his left wrist and announces, "Two minutes to go." Yes, he got that piece of information from his wrist watch. He is the coach, and he is also keeping the game-clock data on his wrist? Hey, no wonder Army won in those days. Makes one think that if they had been behind, he might have proclaimed "Two hours to go." The somewhat-more-than-football-savvy Texas audience watching this one at Lubbock's Lindsey in 1947, mostly doubled up with laughter through the first 70 minutes, gave a loud and relieved round of whooping applause at finding out this turkey only had two minutes to go. The manager said he had only heard a Lubbock audience applaud anything in a movie just once before; that coming in 1939 when Mr. Gable informed Miss Leigh that he frankly didn't give a damn. He opined that the "two minutes" applause lasted at least two minutes longer than the "damn" applause. Wouldn't doubt it a bit.

When I was making my earthly debut in 1947 a pair of second lieutenants graduated from West Point. As distinguished from the rest of that class these two were Glenn Davis of Southern California and Doc Blanchard of South Carolina, back to back Heisman Trophy Winners as the best in college football and known as the best two running backs around. Professional Football was hardly what it is now and college football was the thing. These two were the biggest names in college football at the time. But unlike other colleges the taxpayers footed the bill for their education and it was to be officers and gentlemen at entry grade level in the army.

Just like Jackie Robinson starring as himself in The Jackie Robinson Story as actors Blanchard and Davis were great running backs. These two had a great deal of difficulty summoning up enough conviction to play themselves. Obvious when you put them against Robert Shayne and Anne Nagel playing legendary Army coach Earl Blaik and his spouse. You'll all instantly recognize Alan Hale, Jr. as one of their fellow army players two decades before he started skippering the SS Minow.

Glenn Davis was doing another kind of scoring back in these days as his name was linked with Elizabeth Taylor before she even had one marriage to her credit. No word as to whether Doc Blanchard was doing that well.

Part of the plot has Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside being tempted by gamblers to play pro football. In real life Glenn Davis did do his obligatory three years in the army and did try pro football, but injuries put an end to his career. Blanchard made the army a career and retired a colonel in 1971 after service in both Korea and Vietnam. All this of course after the year our film came out.

As did Jackie Robinson, these two guys deserved better, but they signed with a small independent producer who no doubt took advantage of the grainy black and white newsreel film of their gridiron exploits to make a grainy black and white joint biography.

The Spirit Of West Point has some nostalgia value for football fans and historians of the game, but little else.