The Pride of St. Louis

The life story of Jerome Herman "Dizzy" Dean is the subject matter of this amiable baseball movie. The opening caption tells us that we are going to meet "one of the most colourful characters of our time", and certainly Dean, ace pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, is quite an entertainer.

Dan Dailey barnstorms it as the droll hayseed with bags of charm and a disarming grin. We follow him along the usual star trajectory as Dean is discovered in an Arkansas hick game, then rises inexorably through the Texas League and into the big time, winning the World Series with the Cardinals and smashing all pitching records on the way. A sports injury leads to decline, and the downward slide begins, but Dizzy is irrepressible. He overcomes life's disappointments and learns how to make his zany charm work for him in a new career.

"You're a child, Diz - a sweet, kind, generous child," says his wife Patricia, played admirably by Joanne Dru. His boyish enthusiasm captures the hearts of the Cardinals fans, who are just as likely to see Dizzy ushering them to their stand seats or working in the ticket booth as winding up his arm on the mound. He even sings with the jazz combo during the interval. However, this very childlike quality is Dean's fatal flaw - he is impulsive and undisciplined, and when his career starts to slide he lacks the maturity to deal with the diasppointment.

From the Cardinals he plummets in quick succession to the Chicago Cubs and then back into the Texas League. He takes to drinking and gambling, and neglects his adoring wife. The fight in the poker den is his lowest point. Getting knocked to the floor is the visual representation of his moral fall.

Baseball is his life, and baseball comes to his rescue. A characteristic act of kindness brings him into contact with Johnny Kendall (Richard Hylton), a rich young entrepreneur who happens to be a baseball nut and Dean's biggest fan. Kendall sees that Dean's intimate knowledge of the game and his quirky, homespun talking style will make him a natural as a radio commentator. The hunch is borne out triumphantly. The baseball-listening public loves him. Dailey is great, pouring out the malapropisms thick and fast ('confidential' for 'confident, 'respectable' for 'respective'). Pat has left her husband and made a new life for herself, but when she hears that familiar rustic drawl over the radio, she falls back in love with him.

To call "The Pride Of St Louis" a 'baseball movie' is something of a misnomer, because the film isn't really about baseball as such and doesn't attempt to get to grips with the sport. Repetitive shots of Dean's deliveries, filmed monotonously from behind the plate, form the standard fare. Wrigley Field is a mere back projection, and even the World Series is rapidly glossed over. The film's focus is Dizzy, and Dan Dailey delivers him.

"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.

Dan Dailey is a bright spot in this otherwise run of the mill baseball movie that could have been so much better. Like most films that deal with baseball, you don't get the idea that you are seeing anything close to realistic play on the field. If you love baseball as I do, try Pride of the Yankees, with Gary Cooper. In it many of the Yankee players actually were seen on the filed including the great Babe Ruth.

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.

Pride of St. Louis, The (1952)

*** (out of 4)

Pretty good bio-pic about Jerome "Dizzy" Dean (Dan Dailey), a redneck who rose through the minors at a quick pace to end up with the St. Louis Cardinals and for a time be one of the greatest pitchers in the lead. After being injured during the All-Star game, Dizzy's career quickly fell apart and his personal life grew more issues as he was unable to accept that his career was over. It seems after the success of PRIDE OF THE YANKEES, just about every major personality in baseball eventually got their own movie and this one here has quite a few negatives but the wonderful performance by Dailey makes it worth sitting through. I think the biggest problem is that a lot of the subject matter is obviously sugar-coated as there are times where it seems Dizzy is going through some extremely dark issues with his attitude and some of his habits yet this are downplayed. I'm not sure if they were originally shown more but they decided to tone them down to be more kid friendly but it's just way too obvious at certain parts of the film. Another weak aspect is that the movie doesn't seem to know what they want to tell us about Dizzy as the film bounces around quite a bit and at times has a hard time on what part of the story it wants to focus on. With that said, there's still some very entertaining moments here including a couple very touching ones. One such moment happens when Dizzy meets a crippled man and starts up a relationship with him. Another moment happens towards the end of the picture when Dizzy gets a job as a radio broadcaster but a certain teachers group starts to complain about his language. Since he was uneducated he used a lot of words he shouldn't and this leads to a very good ending. The main reason to watch this thing is for the performance of Dailey who really takes this character and makes it his own. The way he handles the "redneck" language is very good but the biggest thing is that he brings this wonderful personality to life and really makes you feel as if you're watching the real man. He also handles the baseball scenes fairly well and in the end he's extremely memorable in the role. Joanne Dru also delivers as his wife and Richard Crenna is fun as the brother. The screenplay got an Oscar-nomination and while I didn't care for the way it handled parts of the story, there's no denying that the dialogue is terrific. The way it captures Dean's language made for some great fun and especially in the early scenes as the pitcher constantly gets ahead of himself no matter what he's doing. This certainly isn't the greatest baseball movie ever made but for fans of the sport it's a must-see thanks in large part to the main performance.