The Pride of St. Louis

Ok, so this is not as good as Pride of the Yankees; just like the Cardinals are not as great as the Yankee franchise. But as far as the National League goes, the Cardinals are the best of the bunch.; better than the Giants, Dodgers, or Cubs. They have more World Series rings to prove it, too. This film is very close to Pride of the Yankees in several ways. Gehrig caught a bad break with his terrible disease, and Dean had a magnificent career cut short by a stroke of horrible luck from a line drive to the most pivotal part of a pitcher's body, the big toe. Simply put, if you land the wrong way on your foot and toe, the arm will quickly go to pot. At least Gehrig got to play fifteen years with the Yankees before his unfortunate end. The injury to Dean happened just a few years into his career. The acting in this film is very good; as are all the supporting cast members and especially the dialogue. Dean' s rebirth and affirmation as the best color man in baseball history is readily apparent in the film. Only Phil Rizzuto came close as an unforgettable color announcer. A must see film for every baseball fan.

"Pride of St. Louis" is aptly named, as like "Pride of the Yankees", the film was written by the great screenwriter, Herman Mankiewicz. However, despite this, I kept questioning throughout the film how much of this was fact and how much was fancy. Well, according to Wikipedia, which I quote above, it is REASONABLY close to the facts! In other words, it's kind of his life...kind of not! This, along with the odd casting of 37 year-old Dan Dailey (who looked older, incidentally) took me out of the film and led me to believe I was watching a lot of fiction!

Now doing a film about the career of Jerome 'Dizzy' Dean is a bit unusual because the man only had five good years in the major leagues until he was injured and apparently washed up. The same was true of his brother, Paul 'Daffy' Dean...though his career was even shorter. Overall, it's an enjoyable film but if you want to learn about the real Dean, you might want to keep looking elsewhere.

In a sport that prizes quirkiness and treasures it's characters, one of the greatest of them from the 1930s was pitcher Dizzy Dean. He was so colorful a personality he was probably elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on the strength of that as opposed to his pitching statistics. After all part of the Dean story is that early end to his career.

In the Pride of St. Louis Dan Dailey successfully captures the character of Dizzy Dean, at least the Dean I remember. I'm not old enough to remember him pitching, but I do remember him broadcasting Baseball Game of the Week during the 1960s. For that's part of the Dean story as well, being a pioneer broadcaster on radio and later television. Now that announcers are in the Hall of Fame, there's no question Dizzy belongs there.

Jerome Herman Dean was one of a tribe of sharecropper's kids who had very little schooling, but an amazing talent for throwing a baseball at blinding speed. In fact he had a younger brother Paul Dean who was a pretty good pitcher himself.

Richard Crenna plays Paul in this film and it's one of his earliest film roles. Paul Dean in real life was a quiet retiring sort who's career was also cut short by injuries. Because of that Crenna isn't given much to work with. During the Dean heyday, sportswriters tried to pin the nickname of Daffy on Paul, but it never took.

Joanne Dru, taking a break from playing, western gals in gingham dresses and corsets is first rate as the wise, patient, and understanding Patricia Nash who met and married Dizzy while he was playing for Houston in the Texas League.

In the 1937 All Star Game Dizzy started for the National League. Facing Cleveland's Earl Averill, Dean was hit on the foot by a line drive smack at him. Refusing to listen to medical advice, Dean came back to pitch too early. He'd broken a big toe and put too much of a strain on his arm. He was never the same pitcher and his refusal to accept that is part of the story.

Had he had a career of say ten to fifteen years who knows what pitching statistics he might have rolled up. Dean was the next to last pitcher to win 30 games in 1934 and after Denny McLain(who was something of a character himself)did it 1968 it hasn't been done since.

Dean went into broadcasting and while he was not the first former player to go into the broadcast booth, his colorful game descriptions made him an instant hit. He started broadcasting for the other St. Louis team, the Browns, and the Browns were a pretty miserable team with not much to cheer about. Dean became a star attraction there.

Of course part of the Dean story is the trouble he got into because of his lack of education and his colorful way of expressing himself on the air. That's part of the story I won't go into, but in the film it's handled with tact and humility and your eyes might moisten if you tend to the sentimental.

A fine baseball film, a real tribute to an American success story.

Dan Dailey gives a sincere and colorful performance as the great Dizzy Dean. His handling of the character is very true to life and captures the flavor of Dean's background and limited education. The film of course centers around Dizzy Deans rise to fame and his sudden trip to the sidelines with an injury he chose to ignore, much to his regret. His wife is splendidly portrayed by Joanna Dru who gives a very down to earth quality to the woman who loved and supported the ballplayer who rose to a "dizzying height" so quickly. The portrayal of Dizzy's later career as a sportscaster is honest and unflinching, reflecting his troubles which stemmed from his poor education and his colorful language both on and off the air. Dizzy was quite a character and Daily has breathed life into his story with admirable skill. If you enjoyed this film, I recommend the comedy "Kid from Left Field" (1953) wherein Daily plays a down and out has-been ballplayer idolized by his young son (Billy Chapin). Daily again fleshes out a ballplayer in a completely satisfying manner. I heartily recommend Pride of St. Louis to baseball fans everywhere.

This is the story of Jerome 'Dizzy' Dean, Hall of Fame pitcher of the St. Louis Cardinals. An injury caused early retirement, a bout with drinking and gambling; but his down home manner led to another career...baseball radio/tv announcing.

Dan Dailey is kind of ho-hum in his attempts at Dean's hayseed mannerisms. Richard Crenna plays Paul Dean, Dizzy's brother, who also pitched for the Cardinals.

Very little actual baseball action, but the movie is interesting and fun to watch. All little boys that have an interest in baseball should watch this along with PRIDE of THE YANKEES and the BABE RUTH STORY.

Also in the cast are Richard Hylton, Joanne Dru, Stuart Randall and Hugh Sanders. Remember to take a good whack and don't forget to slud into second.