huggibear I really, really enjoyed this black & white film. It was truly my first one! It came on the Major League Channel (MLBHD), very fitting and in high definition as well. I had to suffer through commercials, but it was well worth watching. I thought the romance and love he and his wife shared through all those years was something special. They portrayed it very well in this movie. We all dream of experiencing their kind of love. And, the scene with the young boy towards the end was very touching. He displays true, raw emotion. In the movie, they say nothing about the disease. However, most know what Lou Gehrig died from. If not, it can be easily looked up via Google search. Regardless of whether you can handle black and white movies, this is well worth anyone's viewing pleasure and time. I gave it an 8 and that's rare for me! I could have gone higher because it deserves to be a top notch movie, but I'll stick with an 8 since that is pretty high for IMDb.

Steve Pulaski The Pride of the Yankees is a great sports film because it works as more than just a sports film, but also a compelling drama and a pleasantly romantic story of a larger-than-life baseball player who was tragically brought down by a crippling disease that eventually killed him at 37. Just two years before his death, Gehrig was every young boy's idol, an incomparable hitter and a terrifically talented ballplayer on all cylinders. It's only complementary to his legacy that he get one of the strongest sports films of the era to go along with his tremendous achievements.Gary Cooper plays Gehrig in a performance that would exhaust even a veteran like Cooper. Jo Swerling and Herman J. Mankiewicz craft the role of Gehrig in a manner that emphasizes his impressive accomplishments and accolades, his love-life with his wife Eleanor (Teresa Wright), and the struggle with his diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (more commonly known in the modern-day as ALS). Cooper throws himself into the role of Gehrig in a way that shows off all these attributes with great nuance and character acting.Swerling and Mankiewicz are also very disciplined in the way they handle Gehrig's story of unabashed talent and persistency. He is such an easy figure to emptily bedazzle and decorate in meaningless awards that can be tossed around with little or no context. Given the time period when this film was made - in an age where cinema was largely resting its strengths on the shoulders of stars - this seems like the perfect film to be an oversimplified trainwreck, but thanks to careful writing and mindfulness regarding a scene or a time period's particular direction, the film winds up being anything but an oversimplification.The element of the film that will undoubtedly get downplayed the most, though it deserves a greater focus, is the relationship between Lou and Eleanor. Their marriage is frequently positioned as one that's romantic and loving, for good reason, as both parties consistently respect the intentions of one another. Conventional biopics would embellish this marriage's more hostile/theatrical exchanges of what path Lou should take once he discovers he is facing terminal sickness, but rather than make light out of arguments, Wood, Swerling, and Mankiewicz show how caring Eleanor was to Lou and how respectful and reciprocating Lou was to her intentions. Ultimately, let's not forget how unlikely this whole setup would've worked, regardless of writing, if Teresa Wright hadn't handled her role with such conviction, especially during the later scenes, where she can barely look at her ailing husband without her eyes welling with tears.Another emotional or heart-tugging element in the film comes with seeing the evolution of Gehrig's parents role in his life. In early scenes, Gehrig's mother (Elsa Janssen) would always affirm that Gehrig would grow up to be like his uncle, a wealthy engineer that would work to provide for himself and his family and be a valued member of society. When Gehrig ditches his academic aspirations for athletic ones, Wood is conscious to keep Gehrig's mother's initial disillusionment with her son's choice in perspective before gradually showing her change of heart that most mothers would undergo as they witness their son be an incomparable success and a community staple.The result is a film that's very romantic and thoroughly heartwarming, in addition to simply being a very well-edited sports biopic. The Pride of the Yankees' broad title suggests an all-encompassing look, or even history, into the renowned franchise, but its focus, while broad and far-reaching, profiles a wonderful life, and the film itself features tremendously engaging performances to compliment its story.Starring: Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright, Babe Ruth, Elsa Janssen, and Ludwig Stössel. Directed by: Sam Wood.

bill_golden Movie critic Leonard Maltin rates this film at 4 stars (****), his highest rating. On that basis, and as a longtime baseball fan, I gave it a look on TCM. Now I'm confused! Why is it rated at 4 stars? I puzzled at this odd portrayal of a star athlete by Gary Cooper as awkward, stiff, lacking in self-confidence, and ungraceful in the extreme on a baseball diamond. Off the field Gehrig was shown as jittery, socially inept and gullible, with darting eyes that displayed his apparent suspicions of the world around him. How he managed to charm his girlfriend is anyone's guess. Also wasn't Cooper a little old to be playing a guy in his early 20's when he reaches the big leagues? Is this really how Gehrig was in real life? Also, I could never figure out the character Sam, played by a barely recognizable Walter Brennan. Was he a friend, mentor, agent, sportswriter or what? At first I assumed he was an employee of the Yankees. He and Lou and Lou's wife wind up spending a lot of time together. One positive note: I liked Theresa Wright very much as his faithful wife: she was the only character in this film that rang true for me. Oddly, exactly what Gehrig's physical ailment was is never revealed, nor is there any discussion of it. Yes, today we know what it was (ALS) but I thought it strange that the film didn't deal at all with the diagnosis. All in all, I rate Pride of the Yankees at 5 stars out of 10.

beauzee for all the B-movie sentimentality we do have the incredible, amazing opportunity to watch the great Bambino play himself and do one h*lluva good job! and not just the Babe...many of "Murder's Row", the 1927 (real) Yankees. can't get over that...even after 55 years of loving the movie.Gary Cooper was, as we all know, selected by the fans who chose guess who? had to be Gary Cooper! Here's a little confusion for me: I love Gary and Lou but Gary was, at 40, built like a tennis player and Lou was build like...an Iron Horse. Muscles over muscles. Was there an actor to really play Gehrig? I do not know. Movie historians, please advise. I know how negative that sounds. But Cooper looked awful in uniform.but..to dispel any "confusion"...Gary's beautiful final speech at Yankee Stadium, July of 1939. "Today, I consider myself...". For Americans and Americans only, we cherish that after THe Ghettysburg Address!