Big Leaguer
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Big Leaguer |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1953 |
| length | 71 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Robert Aldrich |
| script | Herbert Baker, John McNulty |
| production | Mathew Rapf |
| camera | William C. Mellor |
| cut | Ben Lewis |
| occupation | |
| |
Big Leaguer is an American sports film from 1953. It is Robert Aldrich's first directorial work . The story of the film is fictitious, but the character Hans Lobert was a baseball player. The budget for the film was $ 800,000.
action
John "Hans" Lobert runs a training camp in Florida for the New York Giants baseball team . Every year he tries to find the best players for minor league baseball from the many players between the ages of 18 and 22 . Everyone has dreams and talents, but the selection is only made by the lucky few who are then awarded a contract for $ 150 a month.
Lobert's niece from New York feels drawn to Adam Polachuk, one of the players, and the tall, calm Polachuk would therefore particularly like to be part of the selection team. He even has the best chance of securing a place on the team. He tries at all costs to prevent his father from finding out about it, because he has his son's legal career in mind and expects Adam to successfully complete his studies. When he does find out, he forbids Adam to continue playing baseball. With a crucial Giants game coming up, coach Lobert tries to persuade Adam's father to let his son play. Lobert is successful and Adam is the star of the game that the Giants win through him too.
Reviews
At Rottentomatoes the film received mostly positive reviews: “Gradually, Adam emerges as the film's central character, as he simultaneously tries to make good for Lobert, romance Lobert's niece Christy (Vera-Ellen), and keep his dad from finding out that he's not attending law school. Though Big Leaguer was held in such low esteem by distributor MGM that it became the first Edward G. Robinson picture not to be given a regular playdate in Manhattan, the film is worth seeing today, if only for the presence of such genuine big leaguers as Al Campanis, Carl Hubbell, Bob Trocolor and Tony Ravish. "
Popmatters.com's Micheal Barrett focused on director Robert Aldrich and wrote, “This was his feature debut after a long apprenticeship and a number of TV episodes. It's generally overlooked in his filmography because he himself said it wasn't a personal work and it certainly went unnoticed. Still, it's made to order as an example of what critic Richard Combs (quoted in American Film Directors, Volume Two) called 'the desired end of any Aldrich film, the achievement of maturity.' "
Web links
- Big Leaguer in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Marcus Stiglegger: [Article] Robert Aldrich. In: Thomas Koebner (Ed.): Film directors. Biographies, descriptions of works, filmographies. 3rd updated and expanded edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 2008 [1. Edition 1999], ISBN 978-3-15-010662-4 , pp. 7-10, here 7.
- ↑ Film review at rottentomatoes.com (engl.)
- ↑ Micheal Barrett 'Big Leaguer' (1953) at popmatters.com, accessed March 5, 2020.