NR | 1h 46 min | Drama, Biopic | 1949
Director Sam Wood begins his film with a brief text of tribute: “This is the true story of a young American—Monty Stratton—and it starts one fall afternoon, near Wagner, Texas.” For that heartwarming tale, writer Douglas Morrow won the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture Story.
Washed-up baseball catcher Barney Wile (Frank Morgan) makes the catch of a lifetime in talent-spotting young pitcher Monty Stratton (James Stewart). Monty makes the catch of a lifetime, too, falling for and marrying Ethel (June Allyson). Their romance blossoms because Ethel is invariably in the stands cheering for him as he trains, shows up in tryouts, and competes in big games.
That Monty is the catch of a lifetime becomes clear as his star in the American League rises. That Ethel is the catch of a lifetime becomes clear when his star falls, and he plunges into self-loathing after losing one leg to a freak gun injury. Heroically, Ethel, supported by Monty’s mother (Agnes Moorehead) and adoring fans, comforts and cheers him on his road to recovery.
Wood’s scenes of baseball minutiae may not enthrall film fans who aren’t also baseball fans. So, Stewart and Allyson hold up the dramatic core, supported by screenwriters Guy Trosper and George Wells who pack the dialogue with perceptive exchanges.
For his role, Stewart perfected his pitching action by spending time with Monty himself and with league players. He consulted orthopedists and used a steel harness to ensure that his limp was convincing enough.
Watch Stewart as Monty, on his very first date, hinting at probable incompatibility given Ethel’s ignorance of and indifference to baseball. His eyes soften when she says, “I could learn.”
Jhan Robbins’s biography of Stewart poignantly confirms what Monty had said: “When I first saw Jimmy on the screen, I wept. He was more me than I am!”
Allyson’s sunny smile isn’t the only reason she’s right for the role. Before she became an accomplished dancer, she’d spent four years in a metal brace following an accidental injury as a child. She knew a thing or two about bouncing back. Watch her as Ethel in pigtails, wielding a glove and a ball, willing Monty back to his old self.
Moorehead, as Monty’s mother, captures the secret of his comeback when she confides in Ethel that there’s something about Monty: good sense or “whatever you call it, … if you got it, no doctor can amputate it.”
Inspiring Biopic
Jimmy Dykes, Mervyn “Merv” Shea, Bill Dickey, Gene Bearden, and several other professional players play themselves. Monty threw 814 minor league innings—unsurprising, if it weren’t for the fact that nearly half of those were after his leg was amputated. He was first cold to the idea of a film, but blessed the project when studios spoke of how it would inspire disabled World War II vets struggling to cope.
Wood uses thoughtful camera positions to convey meaning.
Before Monty’s first big game after a slow, painful recovery on a prosthetic leg, Ethel rushes to him in a corridor leading up to the baseball field. He’s a hazy figure, far from the camera; she’s so close that you can almost touch her. She walks toward him to cheer him up, but only some of the way. She then returns because he must walk the rest of the way alone.
Early in the film, Wood inserts a pointer to Ethel’s fidelity.
At one point when Monty is putting himself down, Ethel clarifies that it doesn’t matter to her whether he’s in the big leagues or not, as long as he’s enjoying his game and staying true to himself.
When the couple are trying their hand at dancing, Monty has just taken dancing lessons to impress Ethel and asks if she’s game enough to support him as he takes his first steps: “You think you can stick with me?” Meaningfully, even without her knowing that she’d have to soon support more than a few of his steps in their lives ahead, Ethel replies, “Oh, I’ll stick with you.”
