O Último Jogo

"The Guy Who Came Back" (1951-Joseph Newman), along with Jacques Tourneur's "Easy Living" made at RKO, depicted professional football in the 1940s with a touch of realism. Though the Tourneur film is broadcast on TCM occasionally, "The Guy Who Came Back" appears to have fallen off the map, though I can vividly recall seeing this broadcast on TV in the 1970s.

I was touched and amused by the story of an aging football player living in the past until WWII allows him to relive his "glory days". Paul Douglas as the immature but very human guy is at his best, making you smile and feeling a tug of compassion for the man as he sees life as he imagined it, slipping away. Linda Darnell is very winning and gives a nuanced performance as an understanding beauty attracted to the big lug, and Joan Bennett, as she was in that year's big hit, "Father of the Bride", exceptionally funny, using her dry comedic skills to create a thumbnail portrait of a a woman who is vexed by her husband's lack of perspective on life. Each of the actors who appeared in this film are probably much more appreciated now than when they were working.

Why would 20th Century Fox, which is renowned for the quality of the DVDs that it produces, allow this movie to moulder somewhere in a vault or at least broadcast it on FMC, as they have with other rarities, such as Paul Douglas' equally obscure "Everybody Does It" (1949-Edmund Goulding) and "Love That Brute" (1950-Alexander Hall)?

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Paul Douglas has been a star football player since college days, but he's getting on. The Navy doesn't want him -- this is during the Second World War -- because his bones have been broken too often. But if he isn't a football player, what is he? Linda Darnell thinks he can become a performer, but his marriage to Joan Bennett is crumbling, and his son, Billy Gray, knows that things are going wrong.

Douglas gives his usual fine performance as a man in out of his depth: well meaning, honest, and just smart enough to understand he's not smart enough to turn his life round. It's a surprisingly brutal film for a post-war Fox programmer. Zero Mostel plays a thinly disguised Toots Shor.

This entertaining piece of sentiment doesn't feel like a 1951 movie. It feels like a 1942 Americana film, but since about half of the film takes place during that time, it's not really a criticism. Paul Douglas tells his story through narration and flashbacks to the WWII era; he plays an ex-football player whose injury prevents him from joining the service. He's embarrassed and doesn't feel like a man anymore when even the football teams don't want him. His wife, Joan Bennett, and his young son, Billy Gray, love him, but it's not enough. When alluring Linda Darnell jumps in his taxi and tells the driver to head to her apartment, it might be too much temptation for Paul to take. . .

I love seeing Paul and Linda together. They have such a great chemistry that makes you think they'll really head to her apartment after the cameras stop rolling. Joan, in contrast, acts like she can't stand Paul and would rather do anything than act in this movie. There's really no contest between the two ladies, especially since Linda gets to wear some beautiful clothes.

Three years before becoming immortalized in Father Knows Best, Billy Gray had already quite the list of screen credits to his name. In this family drama, he really shows off his acting chops. He has a couple of crying scenes that break your heart. And, in 1950s fashion, rather than support people's need to "find themselves" in order to be a better parent, the film shows the damage divorce has on children. All in all, I might not watch this movie again, but it was definitely entertaining. Check it out if you're a fan of the cast.

I like seeing Paul Douglas movies...he was a fine actor and was a great 'everyman' sort of actor because he looked and seemed like a working stiff...not an actor. He was VERY popular with Twentieth Century-Fox, though he is mostly forgotten today. All this being said, "The Guy Who Came Back" is a film that really should NOT have starred Douglas, as he was all wrong for the part. As for the role, he played a pro football player who was at the twilight of his career....but Douglas looked about as much like a football player as Sidney Greenstreet or Billy Barty! Douglas was a squat, unathletic looking guy who would have looked fine playing an accountant or machinist...but NOT an athlete! Still, despite horrible casting, the film is modestly enjoyable AND had a decent point to make about athletes who simply have nothing to fall back on as they are forced to retire.

Harry Joplin (Douglas) is at the end of yet another pro football season. Like some of the old-time players, such as Sammy Baugh, he was a guy who played defense AND offense....and even was the kicker!! He had clearly been a big star. But now, running the ball (Douglas...running?!?!) is tougher as is coming back from injuries. Not surprisingly, the team refuses to offer him a new contract. But, they did offer him a coaching job...but Joplin's ego wouldn't consider such a demotion. So, he ends up having a mid-life crisis...one where he can't find decent work and alienates his loved ones. Can Harry find his way or is he destined to be a loser in his retirement?

As I said above, it's a decent enough film and the subject matter is excellent. While not quite as good as the studio's other football film about an aging player forced to retire, Victor Mature's "Easy Living", it is pretty good.