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Epoch Times
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Epoch Times
Three Classic Baseball Movies With a Supernatural Twist
For years, baseball has been called America's national pastime. As a symbol of American culture, it's no wonder that the sport has been the topic of many movies. Sports-themed films aren't a new phenomenon. There are plenty of movies from the Golden Era of Hollywood that focus on boxing, horse racing, football, and of course baseball. Three interesting movies made in the late 1940s and early 1950s are about baseball: 'It Happens Every Spring' (1949), 'Rhubarb' (1951), and 'Angels in the Outfield' (1951). Ironically, two feature actor Ray Milland as the leading man, and two feature actor Paul Douglas in a prominent role. Technically, all three films feature Paul Douglas, since he makes a cameo appearance at the end of 'Rhubarb.' These three films have an even greater common denominator than the shared actors and the general theme. All three movies are about struggling baseball teams that receive a little supernatural help, one from science, one from a lucky cat, and one from angelic intervention. The Stories In 'It Happens Every Spring,' doctoral scientist Vernon K. Simpson (Milland) with a secret passion for baseball accidentally creates a formula that repels wood. Realizing the value of this compound, he offers his services as pitcher to a St. Louis baseball team. Although they laugh at his bold claim that he can win any game for them, they take him seriously after he strikes out their best players with the unbelievable hop he puts on the ball. He joins the team under a pseudonym to keep his fiancée's father from finding out what he's doing until he earns enough money to marry her. Meanwhile, the managers assign veteran catcher Monk Lanigan (Douglas) to be his roommate so he can chaperone the 'screwball' who can't seem to lose. Little do they know that his hop is caused by the chemical-soaked cloth he keeps in his glove. The promotional poster for "Angels in the Outfield." Public Domain In 'Rhubarb,' eccentric millionaire Thaddeus J. Banner (Gene Lockhart) sends his devoted employee Eric Yeager (Milland) to catch a ferocious stray cat to be his pet. Banner tames and names the cat Rhubarb, and the two are close companions until the old man's death. But panic ensues when it's discovered that Banner left his vast fortune to Rhubarb, appointing Eric as the cat's guardian. The late millionaire's greedy daughter, Myra (Elsie Holmes), vows to claim her inheritance by any means. Among Banner's holdings is a professional baseball team full of superstitious players who aren't happy about being owned by a cat. Eric tricks them into believing Rhubarb is lucky, and they get so attached to the idea that they refuse to play any games without their beloved mascot in the stands. Meanwhile, Eric faces a serious personal problem: His fiancée Polly (Jan Sterling) is seriously allergic to Rhubarb. Related Stories 4/20/2022 4/14/2025 Drama abounds in "It Happens Every Spring," when Prof. Simpson (Ray Milland, C) discovers a wood-repelling substance. 20th Century Fox In 'Angels in the Outfield,' the Pittsburgh Pirates can't seem to win any games, and local newspaperwoman Jennifer Paige (Janet Leigh) is determined to find out why. As soon as she meets the team's foulmouthed manager, Guffy McGovern (Douglas), Jennifer pegs him as the problem. However, Jennifer isn't the only one who disapproves of McGovern's profanity and bullying. One night when McGovern is alone in the otherwise deserted stadium, a mysterious voice addresses him, identifying itself as his guardian angel. There have been a lot of prayers on behalf of the Pirates. McGovern agrees to the angel's demands that he clean up his act so that heavenly ballplayers will help the team win. The agreement works well until a prayerful orphan, Bridget (Donna Corcoran), sees the angels during a game. Ray Milland and Jan Sterling appear in "Rhubarb," the name of a lucky cat. Paramount Pictures Loading the Bases Classic sports movies can be very entertaining for three reasons: interest in the game, interest in the actors, or a captivating story. With these three films, the filmmakers took no chances. They made these athletic tales more intriguing than a commonplace yarn about the game by adding a gimmick. In all three movies, the gimmick is an intangible concept whose effects are seen more than itself. Those concepts are chemistry, luck, and faith. Vernon's chemical formula is an unremarkable milky liquid. He discovers it by accident after an errant baseball crashes through his laboratory's window and destroys his chemical compound. As he cleans up, he notices that the baseball covered in the diluted formula pooling in the sink is repelled by wood. Vernon immediately knows where such a formula would be invaluable: on a pitcher's glove in a baseball game. With this formula in hand, Vernon can win games for a major league team, earn enough money to marry his fiancée, and fulfill his own dream of playing the sport. Meanwhile, Monk insists on using his roommate's 'hair tonic' (the formula), with hilarious results whenever he tries to style his hair with a wooden comb or brush. Movie poster for "It Happens Every Spring." 20th Century Fox In 'Rhubarb,' the baseball team's special advantage is the least extraordinary and most honest. Everybody knows about it, but the team can't be disqualified because their lucky charm is the power of positive thinking. Can a beloved mascot, in this case the team's feline, influence a game's results? The film doesn't imply it can. Eric manufactures the first lucky instances that convince the ball team that Rhubarb can sway fortune. After that, the cat merely gives the team confidence. The players are a temperamental bunch, so it's no wonder that they soon believe they can only win when Rhubarb is watching the game. Sometimes, believing you can't lose is the only lucky charm you need. In 'Angels in the Outfield,' the baseball team's winning formula begins as a secret, but it doesn't remain such. It might seem unethical for angels to influence a baseball game to one team's advantage, but heaven is more concerned with saving souls than the outcome of a game. McGovern's life transforms, thanks to the prayers of an 8-year-old orphan girl. Loew's Inc. Guffy McGovern is a hard man with a bad temper, a vile vocabulary, and no interest in anything he can't see. (His swearing is cleverly conveyed by overdubbed gibberish.) He needs strong motivation to reform; seeing his team start winning games is enough! Guffy's life is transformed as he meets the 8-year-old orphan who has been praying for him. When news spreads that Bridget can see angels assisting the Pirates, it becomes a huge story that brings people together and turns hearts heavenward. Baseball on the Big Screen If you like sports, it's fascinating to see how they were played in past generations. Movies about athletic events offer vivid depictions of the games before televised broadcasts were commonplace. All three of these films offer extended baseball sequences. Filmmakers used famous baseball stadiums, including Wrigley Field in Los Angeles and Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, to capture the impressive outdoor shots. They also featured professional athletes of the day alongside the actors and occasionally as their stand-ins. This baseball season, take yourself out to the ballgame of yesteryear with these three charming films! What arts and culture topics would you like us to cover? Please email ideas or feedback to
New York Times
19-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
How ‘Moneyball' and ‘Sugar' Altered the Baseball Movie
From 'Eight Men Out' to 'Field of Dreams,' baseball movies are usually enraptured by the past. Steeped in traditions, these films celebrate homespun heroes whose anything-is-possible journeys toward a championship elevate our spirits. But two baseball movies from the last 20 years had something else on their minds that would alter how the sport was looked at onscreen. Bennett Miller's 'Moneyball' (2011), based on a true story, and Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's 'Sugar' (2008), aren't about tenacious winners or mythic achievements. Instead, they're fascinated by failure and community. That notable shift defies a subgenre built on uplift. A baseball movie will often spin a yarn about a band of misfits coming together for an unlikely title run ('Angels in the Outfield'). They can also center once-talented players given one more chance at greatness ('The Natural'), or recall life-changing summers ('The Sandlot'). They tout the majesty, poetry, superstitions and purity of the sport, appealing to truisms lodged in our cultural understanding of fairness: three strikes, you're out and, as Yogi Berra said, 'It ain't over till it's over.' Following the Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), 'Moneyball' aims to critique an unfair system not by yearning for the past, but by deconstructing the present. Beane is an executive whose small market ball club can no longer compete monetarily with big spenders like the New York Yankees, so he hires the nerdy Yale economics graduate Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) and turns to the teachings of Bill James, a writer who preached sabermetrics as a statistically informed way to maximize talent. Beane and Brand's unorthodox approach puts them in opposition to the team's irritable old school manager (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and the craggy scouts who rely on their ingrained biases to evaluate players. Pitt plays the Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane. Credit... Melinda Sue Gordon/Columbia Pictures While Beane deconstructs the business of baseball, assembling a stacked roster of discarded players, 'Moneyball' the movie also disassembles the subgenre by not really being about baseball. Partway through the film, Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin's patient screenplay introduces Beane's young daughter, who hopes the team wins enough for her dad to keep his job. Pitt is wonderful in these scenes, softening Beane's rigid executive exterior for a kinder, sweeter approach that slowly builds the importance of this father-daughter relationship to the point of Beane turning down a higher paid position with the Boston Red Sox (coincidentally, the A's are leaving California in 2028 for a lucrative offer to play in Las Vegas). Seeing Beane's embrace of fatherhood recalls an imperative moment in Ken Burns's 'Baseball.' In that documentary mini-series, Mario Cuomo, the former New York governor, describes baseball as a 'community activity,' in which 'you find your own good in the good of the whole.' As much as Beane prizes winning in 'Moneyball,' his journey becomes about cherishing family. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
