But there are a lot of baseball movies I like (I may have made a list of my favorites at one time or another before the brain operation removed my compulsion to make lists) and this one I didn't remember seeing though I suspect I probably did at some point (another thing the brain operation seemed to remove is scores of movies I'm pretty sure I saw, maybe even more than once, but when I watch them it seems I never saw one frame of them before).
As Osborne pointed out, it's better than the remake with Danny Glover (which I do remember watching a few times with my now fifteen-year-old when he was younger—and enjoying) because it doesn't use special effects to flesh out, so to speak, the angelic forces, it just uses the audience's imagination mostly.
Another thing that's fun about it is the odd leading man stature of Paul Douglas, a regular in leading roles in my boyhood but a highly unlikely movie star. For one thing he starred in his first movie at 42 (around the same time I did but his was good and a hit and mine was very much not either) playing pretty much the same character he continued to play, a working-class rough neck lug type who usually had a heart of gold, or mush. But the truth is he's fun to watch and was a natural (he came from the world of sports having been a professional football player and sports announcer, as Osborne pointed out).
The other was the lovely and mismatched leading lady Janet Leigh (mother of Jamie Leigh Curtis and wife for a while of Tony Curtis, and a woman I was totally in love with for much of my boyhood and young manhood and actually got to meet in person a few times in my Hollywood years when she was older but still lovely in every way). And a supporting cast from kids to oldtimers that were all part of one of those wonderfully deep Hollywood benches, so to speak, totally and reliably entertaining.
Not on anyone's greatest list, I'm sure, but a great way to mark the opening of the season, baseball, not Spring. For that we'll find another film, though today was certainly Spring like here until late afternoon when it reverted to winter or Fall again (part of the unnatural fluctuation that makes the rightwingers think "global warming" is a misnomer, but we don't have to explain that again, because you probably already understand the science of it, unless you're one of those rightwingers, in which case no scientific explanation will change your already made-up-for-you-by-your-rightwing-masters mind).
3 comments:
Yes, even as a kid, the appeal of baseball never took hold. Boring to play and even boring to watch.
And as for Paul Douglas, I thought the same thing, how unlikely it was for him to be a leading man. It makes "Angels In The Outfield" kind of distracting.
I also thought he looked *a lot* older than his age. These days, I don't see a lot men in their early fifties who have his "gone to seed" physique.
Yeah Douglas did look older. usually just the old styles make actors look older in old movies, but he really looked effin' old in many scenes, certainly too old and to other things for the incredibly beautiful Janet Leigh. But more reason(s) to find this flick a curiosity. And the kid who played the orphaned girl was really terrific in some scenes, too.
Yeah Douglas did look older. usually just the old styles make actors look older in old movies, but he really looked effin' old in many scenes, certainly too old and to other things for the incredibly beautiful Janet Leigh. But more reason(s) to find this flick a curiosity. And the kid who played the orphaned girl was really terrific in some scenes, too.
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