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Just what I expected

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

The Pride of the Yankees is an old fashioned biopic of Lou Gehrig, the legendary baseball player played by Gary Cooper. It was rush released after Gehrig's death from Motor Neuron Disease and it shows as the film is filled with sentimentality such as his poor immigrant parents, Gehrig working his way from serving food to his fellow students to signing for the New York Yankees so he can pay for his mother's medical bills. We even have a scene of him promising two home runs to a poorly lad at hospital who returns some years later when Gehrig falls ill.Cooper is frankly too old for the young Gehrig scenes and his romance with sweetheart Eleanor Twitchell (Teresa Wright) looks odd. In fact his scenes with his parents look strange as well as he only comes across as slightly younger than them.The film is rather unfocused, sometimes going for comedy and at one point a musical interlude. However the film becomes more affecting as Gehrig realises that something is not right with his body which hinders his game and then his farewell speech where thousands turned out to see him for the final time.

I'm not too conversant with the story of American baseball, coming as I do from the other side of the Atlantic although I took a crash-course a few years ago watching Ken Burns's terrific PBS history of the game. So I was only slightly aware if I'm being honest of the Lou Gehrig story, the great New York Yankees batsman and fielder who made a record number of consecutive appearances before being stuck down by the AFS disease which curtailed his life at only 37 years old and which still bears his name in the States.With Gehrig being, by all accounts a modest, family man and dedicated team player, Gary Cooper was probably a natural choice to play him on screen. Thus Coop gives a trademark performance highlighting the humility and selflessness of the man, even if there is a seen-it-before feel to his display, going back to "Mr Deeds Goes To Town", "Meet John Doe" and "Ball Of Fire", to name but three. However, it's impossible to believe the forty-plus Cooper as a college freshman or rookie ball-player, no matter his youthful looks and by the same token he also seems to be way older than his new sweetheart, played by Teresa Wright, who if anything, seems too young in her part. Walter Brennan, with his distinctive voice, is excellent as a supportive journalist and friend, as is Dan Duryea in an early role as a more mud-raking reporter.I must confess that a great deal of the scenes seemed apocryphal to me, none more so than when Gehrig promises to a sick boy to hit two home runs in an important game in return for extracting a vow from the boy to get himself well and who then turns up the day of Gehrig's testimonial day all cured. However, there's no denying the emotional heft when Gehrig delivers spontaneously at the same testimonial his famous and touching "luckiest man" speech.The movie chooses this inspiring moment to end on an uplifting basis, where a modern telling of the story might have shown how the man actually coped with his affliction, but given that as the opening titles make clear, America's young men were at war, I can readily accept this upbeat extolling of one man's bravery against formidable odds.So in the final analysis, a more honest and less sentimental version of Mr Gehrig's life might have rung truer, but even if his story does get the Hollywood treatment, even down to polishing up his climactic speech, there's no denying the emotional impact of the movie as a whole.

Of course, I would never say that The Pride Of The Yankees was the worst movie ever made about the sport of Baseball, but, then again, I'd definitely never admit that it was the best, either.Yes. I do fully realize (much to my dismay) that this 1942 picture was clearly intended to be MGM's respectful homage to honour one of baseball's greatest and beloved stars, Lou Gehrig (who sadly died only one year before this film's release) - But, the thing is, I personally think that the revered memory of an idolized man like Gehrig certainly deserved so much better than the likes of this less-than-satisfying "rush job".One of this film's biggest and most detrimental deficits was the casting of one of Hollywood's dreariest and utterly non-charismatic actors of the 30s & 40s, Gary Cooper.Not only was Cooper (at 42) way too old for the part of playing a man 15 years his junior, but I also found Cooper to be such a totally forgettable non-entity in his part as Gehrig that it teetered on the very edge of being downright insulting and disrespectful.Gary Cooper clearly didn't have the capacity to bring any reasonable depth or life to his floundering character. He just played his usual bumbling, "aw-shucks" self, and, believe me, it was actually pathetic to watch at times.This film also suffered from sentimentality-overload, 1940's style. And, yes, again, I do realize that this film was intended to be a loving tribute to Gehrig (who I have nothing against), but, all of this schmaltzy sentimentality made him out to be a literal saint (who could swing a mean bat) and whose feet never once seemed to touch the ground.Besides what I've already beefed about above - This film (with its gruelling 2 hour and 10 minute running time) contained not a single surprise. In fact, it often tripped over itself when it came to the likes of predictability.The final blow that forced me to reduce this picture's overall rating even lower was the unnecessary focus paid to the portrayal of Lou's mother, played by the scenery-chewing actress, Elsa Janssen. This opinionated woman was insufferably overbearing.As it appeared in this film, Gehrig was apparently so completely devoted to his mother that he was reduced to the point of being a frickin' "momma's boy". Even after Lou moved away from home and had gotten married, he still remained absolutely ruled by mommy-dearest's demands and the vicious strangle-hold of her apron strings.As you can well-imagine, this intense focus on Lou's screwy attachment to his mother (which carried right through to the end of the story) grated on my nerves, big-time.Perhaps after seeing this film for yourself, you will find your opinion of it to be much less harsh than mine. But, I just want to say that I did not hate this movie. I just thought that since it was meant to honour a sports hero of Gehrig's magnitude, then it certainly could've been a helluva lot more entertaining and enlightening in regards to presenting Gehrig as a real person (warts & all) and not just as the product of some cheap, Hollywood white-washing job.

Didn't think i would like this movie but i am a Gary Cooper fanatic since Meet John Doe. He certainly didn't deceive me here...what fantastic acting.....this guy is phenomenal. Never was a Theresa Wright fan until this movie. She played it with style and conviction. Good story that provided us with humour as well as sadness. Just happy Sam Wood chose not to show Lou Gherig dying. The scene where Lou meets little BILLY all grown up and the end.....had me in a turmoil. ELSA J ANNSEN would go on to play another mother in 1943 s blockbuster SO PROUDLY WE HAIL. She registers emotions so capably you just want to cuddle her. Walter Brennan is well Walter Brennan...he didn't received 3 Oscars for nothing. All and all a fast paced well made movie that will pull at your heart strings whether you like baseball or not.