The Babe Ruth Story

Babe Ruth Story, The (1948)

1/2 (out of 4)

Wow. It's funny but you can read all about how awful a movie is but until you actually see it you have no idea how awful it's actually going to be. I had heard that this here was one of the worst sports movies in history and that's certainly true. The film tries to tell the story of Babe Ruth (William Bendix) from his early, abused childhood up through his star years and eventual "death." It's worth noting that Ruth lived to see the premiere of this film but ended up passing away three weeks before it's official theatrical release. It's strange but you can't help that this film probably took away some time from his life. I don't mind a bio pic from containing lies because they all do. You have to change and alter some things in order to build dramatic moments or at least tell a straight story but this film is so full of itself that you can't help but roll your eyes. There are at least seven scenes in this movie that made me say "oh my God" because I couldn't believe how awful they were. One moment is when Babe hits a foul ball that strikes a dog so he rushes it to a hospital. Another sequence is when the Babe goes into his managers hospital room talking his head off but not knowing the man is actually dead. One of the most insulting things is that the Babe is shown as a complete idiot here. I'm guessing they wanted him to have a child-like quality but he comes off looking incredibly stupid. It doesn't help that Bendix is miscast in the role as you really have to feel bad for it. The actor could certainly deliver the goods in the right roles but he's really, really bad here. You can't blame him too much as it's nearly impossible to play a character as legendary as Ruth but the actor simply doesn't do a very good job at imitating him. Bendix is all over the place in terms of tone and he just doesn't feel or look like a baseball player. Claire Trevor plays his wife and isn't impressive either. Charles Bickford, Sam Levene, Stanley Clements and Frank Ferguson have supporting roles. Ziggy Sears, Bucky Harris, Harry Wismer, Mel Allen and H.V. Kaltenborn all play themselves. As many bad thing as I've mentioned there are still plenty of others including the fact that the majority of the story is told with newspaper headlines, which is never a good thing. THE BABE RUTH STORY is a horrid film in just about every way and the only real entertainment comes from you having to keep watching just to see how much worse it's going to get. I couldn't help but wonder what the real Babe Ruth thought while he was watching this thing but he certainly deserved much better.

When I was a lad I remember taking the book this film was based on out of the Brooklyn Public Library. Babe Ruth's ghost written memoirs by Bob Considine were considered so innocuous that it could be found in the children's section of the library.

The Babe had only been gone from us for about seven years when I read the book and saw the film. The film is as how he would like to have been remembered. Of course it was hardly the character he was. Left out of this film is the hedonism that ran rampant in his persona, the drinking, the womanizing, the brawling.

What gets me about this film is that William Bendix was a huge baseball fan, in fact he was a bat boy for the New York Giants as a kid. So too, was William Frawley when he wasn't drinking you could find him at a game in a given city during the season.

Some of the bare bones facts of Ruth's life are covered and some of the stories attributed about Ruth are presented here. Left conspicuously out of the film are Ruth's first wife and daughter. This was a film intended for kids and that wouldn't have quite fit.

In a recent biography of Ruth, I learned that the Considine book wasn't even Considine's. Bob Considine was a fine journalist and reporter who was not a sportswriter per se. Ruth agreed to the memoirs while he was undergoing treatment for cancer to leave a permanent legacy. But he proved such a difficult subject to interview because he dominated the sessions with his own rollicking anecdotes when he wasn't in pain from the illness. Long time Ruth friend and noted baseball writer Fred Lieb helped Considine with the book with no credit as Lieb ghosted a whole lot of the book himself helped by his encyclopedic knowledge of Ruthiana.

In that era of the Twenties, what has been termed the Golden Age of Sports, Babe Ruth's was the brightest star in the sports world. He was a larger than life figure, down to the fact that his excesses were larger than life. He transformed his sport to one of power from one of speed. He drew sellout in every American League city, transformed the New York Yankees into the greatest sports franchise ever.

Ruth had a couple of good made for TV films about him that were closer to the truth. But he deserved what Lou Gehrig got, a big A budget film from someone like Samuel Goldwyn.

Still he did better in a biographical film than Jackie Robinson.

OK, so it wasn't a great movie by performance standards; maybe judged differently by baseball standards.

Ruth's prominent years came in the 1920's, right after the Black Sox scandal of 1919 (brought to light in 1920). It's widely accepted that he changed the game and probably saved it.

About 2 months before his death, Babe Ruth was given a "day" at Yankee Stadium. He could barely speak to the enormous crowd who had gathered to bid farewell to a man they loved. Maybe little kids didn't gather outside his hospital room to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame", but the prevailing feeling is that they could have.

More than an other American activity, baseball bonds generations. My dad and I spent hours watching and discussing the game; then my kids and I. Now my grandchildren and I do the same. The "Babe Ruth Story" might have been poorly scripted and acted, but it affected me emotionally when I was 10, and still does today.

The movie has many flaws, but still has lots of love to give.

In Claire Hodgeson Ruth's fascinating book, "The Babe and I," about her famous husband, she is openly critical of the biopic, "The Babe Ruth Story." The film, according The Babe's widow, was rushed into production and on to the public in mid-1948, while Babe was still alive, although he was less than three months from death. It's easier to exploit a live man's life than a dead one's, Mrs. Ruth suggests. That's a primary reason why the production and everything associated with it was hurried. In the book, she also stated that she would forgo all royalties from the film's showings...if it were to be permanently shelved. It wasn't...but should have been. In fact, it never should have been done, if speed, indeed, were the primary motivation.

Babe Ruth was the greatest American sports hero ever...including those who followed him during the second half of the twentieth century. Babe deserved a much grander---and accurate---portrayal than this '48 laugher.

There were only two positive elements to the story..and both involved casting. Claire Trevor as the Babe's second wife, Claire, and Charles Bickford as Brother Matthias, were excellent choices. But selecting comic William Bendix for the title role was more than a case of poor casting; it was one that completely undermined both the film and its title character.

Through Bendix's portrayal, audiences see the "Sultan of Swat" as a buffoonish character. Someone who belongs in a cartoon. Not that Bendix didn't try his best. But he was miserably mis-cast. Mrs. Ruth, in her book, stated that she would like to have seen Paul Douglas portray her husband. Not only was Douglas an excellent actor, she said, but he had been an athlete in his youth. He easily could have handled the baseball scenes.

The whole tone of "The Babe Ruth Ruth" story was embarrassingly melodramatic. Again, The Babe deserved much better.

Haste makes waste, the saying goes. It certainly is true here.

I've seen this movie many times, since I was a little boy. By the time I was a little older, I learned more about baseball and the Babe, and realized the movie was full of exaggerations and myths, but I didn't care. An 'innocent' movie that conveniently skips out on some of the more distasteful aspects of Ruth's life (drinking, carousing, womanizing), I think it works. It's so corny, that you've gotta love it. One of my favorite parts is when Claire yells at Babe to remember about Johnny lying sick in the hospital, who will obviously die if Babe doesn't smash a homer. Amazingly, Babe hears Claire above 50,000 other screaming fans, makes incredibly outrageous gestures pointing to the centerfield bleachers, and socks the homer with a dreadful swing that would make a 6 year old girl embarrassed. How can you not love it? When the group of kids sing 'hymns' (ie take me out to the ballgame) outside his hospital window? I absolutely love this film because I take it for what it is - a fun film that tries to serve as a tribute to one of the greatest players ever.