Il ritorno del campione

I saw this movie many years ago with my father on television. He told me about his experience with Monty Stratton.

My father wanted to be a big league pitcher. He tried his luck with the White Sox in the late l930's. He only got as far as spring training before being sent down to the minors leagues. He liked to say that in the minors he made as much money as a soda jerk, but girls at parties were a lot more impressed with someone who played baseball than with some who made root beer floats.

As a rookie in spring training, My dad was too shy to walk with the veteran ball players to the field. He always walked a distance behind them.

One day, Monty Stratton turned back to him and said that if he wanted to be a big league ball player he had to walk with them.

My dad got to know Mr. Stratton very well that Spring. Years later, after WWII and marriage, my dad met Monty again at a ballgame. They talked and Mr. Stratton told him that Hollywood was going to make a movie about him.

My dad said they couldn't have picked a better man to make a film about.

Supposedly Jimmy Stewart did not really want to do this film. However, he changed his mind when it was pointed out to him by the bosses at MGM that it would inspire veterans of World War II who had limited mobility. One inspirational scene that occurs is the one where he and his son walk together for the first time. It is complemented nicely by June Allyson who is exceptional and perfectly cast as Stewart's wife (this was the first of three films they made together).

The supporting roles are worth noting, too. Agnes Moorhead refrains from chewing the scenery, in a performance that is very understated as the mother. And this is another film where Frank Morgan plays a paternal role to one of Stewart's characters. Morgan seems very lively in this offering. The game scenes are equally lively, and the film continues to remain uplifting with each viewing.

Before Hollywood took to making "feel good" movies, this is what they made: apparently simple stories that were intelligently and not at all simply written, performed by actors who knew how to act so well that, if you don't pay attention, you think they are just "being themselves," whereas they are actually building characters, a little piece at a time.

Yes, James Stewart is the star of this picture, and for very good reason. His Stratton is not a country rube. He's a young man with certain ideas, certain goals, and certain ideals. He's not perfect, and Stewart and his director, Sam Wood - who directed such a variety of masterpieces as the Marx Brothers' A Night at the Opera, Goodbye Mr. Chips (one of my favorite movies), and For Whom the Bell Tolls - do not sugarcoat that part of his character. Stewart builds a very complete, human individual from a lot of small details. He also looks like a real baseball pitcher on the mound, which amazed me.

Allyson is not one of my favorite actresses, but she is good here, if not at Stewart's level. She doesn't seem cute - nothing like Meg Ryan at her worst, say. She, too, seems real. And when she has to play catch, she doesn't throw like a girl, which is pretty impressive!

You don't have to know a thing about baseball to enjoy this movie, since it actually has very little to do with baseball. It's the story of a fundamentally good man who is badly mistreated by fate, but who rises above that, eventually, not because he is a goody two-shoes, but because he has certain very fundamental values that he will not abandon.

It's not surprising that this movie won the Oscar for best script. The story seems simple, and it is, but it is developed in a very careful, very intelligent way.

Made in 1949 - at about the time that WWII veteran amputees were emerging from their VA hospital prosthetics rehab program and thus beginning to appear among the general population - 'The Stratton Story' topic of a man working hard to overcome the wound he suffered was timely, and it helps to explain the film's resonance with the audiences of its day.

Well crafted in all respects 'The Stratton Story,' though certainly a rather fictionalized Hollywood treatment, gives a straightforward, honest look at a man, a farmer, a baseball player, a husband, a father facing his amputation squarely and making the best of himself despite his handicap - and the real Monty Stratton accomplished this feat in the days before every mosquito bite or knee-scrape prompted the callout of armies of professional counsellors. The pairing of June Allyson with James Stewart proved to yield attractive screen power as the two thespians work together very well here in their first effort as a movie couple. The supporting cast give solid performances, though I give special mention to Agnes Moorehead for her restrained, dignified portrayal of Stratton's mother which in the hands of a lesser actress could have been turned into a cliché of the farm-earth-mother.

There's fraught drama here as well as lighthearted and inspiring moments, and none are overindulged or wrung out beyond their intrinsic value. 'The Stratton Story' is a nicely balanced example of forthright cinematic storytelling of a self-reliant man supported unflinchingly by his clear-eyed, plain-spoken family and his baseball fraternity. Over time the film stands up well and it needs no third millennium explication or embellishment; it's fine fare for adults and children alike.

Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Baseball Movies; ah yes, just what could be more American! Ever since the earliest days of the motion pictures as both Business and Art Form, we've had them with us. Some were not so good, whereas most were pretty good and some were truly outstanding.

THE STRATTON STORY has to rank in the uppermost tier when it comes to placement. It is not only in the First Division*, but it also Wins the Pennant! This is one biopic that just had to be made! First of all, a Great Man, my own Dad, the late Clem Ryan, had a saying that, "Truth is Stranger than Fiction." He didn't claim that it was his original, just a favourite. Monty Stratton's real life story was certainly a good example to use.

The cast was excellent both in the choice of Actors to fill the roles. Mr. Stratton,was very much like his movie biographical counterpart, James Stewart. Stratton was listed at 6'6" in height, but weighing a slender 180 lbs. Stewart also used a slow, deliberate manner of speech. He is practical, even economic in not wasting any words needlessly. This may even be an indication of the personality of a man shaped by the life on a farm and dealing with the realities of the Great Depression.

June Allyson and Agnes Morehead provide their best characterizations as the women in Stratton's life; being Wife and Mother, respectively. Miss Allyson is very beautiful, sweet and fragile, and yet demonstrates a strength of character that rises to the occasion when the tragedy strikes her husband. Miss Morehead goes the 'less is better' route by underplaying her part as Stratton's Mother and brings her across firm, loving and kind.

The real life Major Leaguers in the film do adequately in the roles given them, like playing themselves-a not so easy thing to do before an audience or rolling cameras.Pitcher Gene Beardon,Catcher Mervyn Shea and Yankee Great,Catcher and Manager, Bill Dickey, all add a certain authenticity to the story. And long time player and White Sox Manager Jimmy Dykes turns in a yeoman's job in managing before the camera.

It is Frank Morgan, who portrays a former Big League Catcher, now a down and out hobo.Ity is he who discovers the young Monty Stratton and in turn, he finds his own worth as a man and useful person. Now, we just don't know if his character of Barney Wile was a real person or not. Mr. Morgan shows the deep acting talents in bringing the character to the screen. Even in the scenes when he is instructing Baseball Fundamentals, he appears to be a real, old veteran Ball Player who has been through it all.

THE STRATTON STORY is a good example of what a Hollywood can be. Its ilk is timeless and the Film Moguls would do well to give the making of this kind of Movie a try again. They might be surprised at that old Barometer of The Film Business, namely Box Office.

* First Division is a now outmoded Baseball term. In the days before League Expansion, about 1961, both the National League and the Amwercan League had 8 teams each. In reference to the standings First Division meant the teams ranked in 1st through 4th Place. 5th through 8th Place was called Second Division, with the 8th Place team was referred to as being in 'The Cellar'. The First Division Teams also received a share of World Series Money.