Lee Lowenfish

I usually end my blogs with TCM tips. But time is of the essence now. You're in for a treat tomorrow night Mar 22.

 TCM airs the original - accept no substitutes! - "Angels in the Outfield" from MGM in 1951.  It is directed by Clarence Brown, the man who learned his craft in early days of

silent movies from Maurice Tourneur [father of the Noir director Jacques Tourneur ["Out of the Past", "Easy Living" the 1949 version and many more], Clarence Brown became the man whose craft made Greta Garbo a star and later shepherded Elizabeth Taylor in her first films.

 

"Angels" stars Paul Douglas, a onetime pro football player and NBC announcer/sportscaster who made his acting name in the Broadway version of "Born Yesterday". He plays Guffy McGovern, the crusty manager of the tailend Pittsburgh Pirates who becomes a winner thanks to the human touch of 24-year-old Janet Leigh playing a Household Hints reporter for a Pittsburgh newspaper. (Pgh natives will love the on-location photography of Forbes Field and its environs - Ralph Kiner hits a home run in one scene and Sam Narron, one of the 8 Narrons in pro ball, has a line as s first base coach.) Douglas's biggest help comes from the orphan girl Bridget played by 8-year-old Donna Corcoran who didn't become the next Shirley Temple but she lives in posterity for this believable part. 

 

Bridget sees angels in the outfield helping the Pirates win games.  Her supervising nuns are played by Spring Byington and Ellen Corby. Keenan Wynn plays a nasty broadcaster as only this talented actor can. He leads a crusade to ban Guffy from baseball for being loony enough to see angels. (Bat Guano in "Dr. Strangelove" was a few years ahead in Wynn's future.)

 

James Whitmore is the uncredited voice of angel Gabriel, coach of the Heavenly Choir.   I can't fail to mention Bruce Bennett who plays aging pitcher Saul Hellman/ Bennett is probably the best athlete ever to play in the movies (he won the silver medal in the shot put in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics and earlier played for Washington Huskies n 1926 Rose Bowl.)  Bennett was notable opposite Ida Lupino in "The Man I Love" (1946) and vital to the success of "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1946). 

If you disagree on my enthusiasm for this film, feel free to make comments. 

 

If this film is not enough for the first Sat night of spring, before "Angels" there is a 15-minute short, "Donkey Baseball" (1935), one of promoter Ray Doan's many hustles during the Great Depression.  After "Angels", Babe Ruth stars in a 1936 short, "Home Run on the Keys" with Rez Confrey who made a hit with "Kitten on the Keys".  Babe is trying to sell a song about baseball to the radio.  Have not seen this one and it could be a hoot.   

 

AND NOW SOME EXCITING NYC HOOPS NEWS! 

At 4p today Fri Mar 21 NYU men's basketball team plays for Division III title against Trinity from Hartford CT. Also at 4P the women go for their second straight title and their 62nd win in a row in a rematch against Smith of Northampton MA.  Use your search engines to find where you can see these games.

 

My Columbia women's team won their First Four game in thrilling fashion last night (Th Mar 20).  Trailing by 13 at the half, aggressive defense and timely offense pulled

off a 63-60 victory.  Next up tomorrow Sa Mar 22 at 2P on ESPNEWS is West Virginia University.  Followed by Harvard, conquerors of Columbia in the Ivy League tourney.

 

Wisconsin Badger men live on with a Saturday match against tough Brigham Young tomorrow (Sa Mar 22) 745P CBS - all times are EDT.

It has been a dream college season for yours truly.  Columbia women were expected to do well and they have exceeded expectations.

Wisconsin men were picked for 12th in the now-18-team Big Ten.  The Badgers are proof that players with the help of coaching preparation win games, not pundits or fans.

But how we love to root them on.

 

More next time on today's MLB which opened the season in Tokyo earlier this week with two predictable wins of the Dodgers over the Cubs.  Baseball should

open the season in Cincinnati where it used to for many many years.  And if they claim that Jackie Robinson's debut game on April 15 1947 was the greatest

moment in the sport's history, why not start the season then?  Of course, the powers don't believe that about JR's debut. They even purged that story from their website as "DEI infected" until they were shamed to return it. 

 

But I will not end this post on a down snarky note.  "It's not my style," Ricky Nelson says to John Wayne in "Rio Bravo".  Instead I will give the last word to

Columbia women's coach Megan Griffith in the post-game presser after the 63-60 win over Washington:

"I like to teach young people how to do hard things together - maybe it's something missing in today's society."

 

Amen sister!  Until next time, stay positive test negative and take it easy but take it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This coming Monday October 17 at 930A EDT, the original "Angels in the Outfield" (1951) airs on the Turner movie channel TCM.  Rarely mentioned in the pantheon of baseball films, "Angels" has many fine performances starting with Paul Douglas as the profane manager of the struggling Pittsburgh Pirates who

is humanized by Janet Leigh, a manners reporter for a local newspaper.

 

Bruce Bennett - born Herman Brix, a silver medalist in the shotput at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, and briefly a movie Tarzan - plays a key supporting role as a gritty starting pitcher. Some of the film was shot on location at Forbes Field during Branch Rickey's first of five unsuccessful years trying to turn around the undermanned Pittsburgh franchise.

 

The film was originally entitled "Angels and The Pirates" but the producers decided it would be false advertising if overseas viewers thought they were getting a swashbuckling adventure movie.

Uncredited, James Whitmore plays the voice of the angel who does his part in taming Douglas's

explosive temper.

 

I won't spoil the film any more if you haven't seen it. I'm not saying you might find it too hokey and

corny. I must admit that Keenan Wynn's sportswriter is over-the-top and the orphaned Donna Corcoran might be a little too cute.

 

But I do want to mention that director Clarence Brown was a major Hollywood player, dating back to his role in guiding Greta Garbo to her first stardom.  You also don't want to miss cameo appearances by Joe DiMaggio, Ty Cobb, and the baseball-obsessed songwriter Harry Ruby.  

 

Am interested in your opinions on the film.  So please post comments on the blog page.

 

While watching the endless parade of pitchers in the MLB playoff games, I thought a lot about Bruce Bennett's Saul Hellman, the starting pitcher in "Angels" who yearns to complete his games. In

today's baseball, it is a minor victory for baseball traditionalists when a starting pitcher goes into the 6th inning let alone completes it.

 

I'm not against new information on pitching and hitting, but there is definitely such a thing as Too Much

Information (TMI) and PBA (Paralysis By Analysis).  Maybe it is inevitable given the power arms that every team seemingly posseses these days, but I am saddened if not downright angered by the number of strikeouts that are accepted as the norm in today's game. 

 

I'm posting this blog with the Cleveland AL team (aka the Guardians, formerly Indians) having knotted the best-of-five series with the Yankees.  They could advance to the ALCS by the end of the weekend but they'll have to score more runs than usual.  

 

They do strike out the least of all the playoff teams and play good defense with solid pitching so they have a chance. They wil have to contain Aaron Judge who is ready to break out after striking out a lot in

Games 1 and 2 of the ALDS before the impatient if not downright boorish home Yankee fans.  

 

I am drawn by nature to underdog teams with the most hunger and the most to prove. Take a player like Phillies second baseman (once shortstop) Jean Segura, the position player who had appeared in the most MLB games without appearing in the post-season.  

 

The Phillies can dethrone the Braves later today but that is hardly a gimme.  Even if they lose today, I predict they won't go down easily in a game 5 at Atlanta.  

 

The Mariners hadn't been in a playoff since 2001 when winners of 116 games, Seattle bowed to the

Yankees in the ALCS.  They lost two close games in Houston and before a packed house at home today,

I think the can handle the battle-tested Astros.  I kinda doubt they can do it twice, but that's why they

play the games, to find out who's best.

 

I still want Houston's Dusty Baker to earn his first World Series win as a manager, but I don't want underdogs ever to be embarrassed. The Padres have a chance tonight to exorcise the dominance of their haughty big brothers of the North, the LA Dodgers.

 

Behind proud local boy Joe Musgrove, they may have the pitcher to lead the way. Whatever happens,

like the upstart Phillies, the Padres should make a winner-takes-all Game 5 very competitive. 

 

Before I close, here are a couple of more TCM tips for the next week or so.

 

Tues Oct 18 back-to-back early 1940s Hollywood anti-Nazi films.  

4p "The Mortal Storm" with James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan.  My most vivid memory of this one is

watching CBS TV's "The Early Show" before dinner and Dan Dailey - years before he played Dizzy Dean

in the utterly forgettable "Pride of St. Louis" appears as a Nazi bookburner sitting afire Heinrich Heine.

 

6p "So Ends The Night" written by Erich Maria Remarque who shot to fame with the book

and later movie "All Quiet on the Western Front". The haunting Ms. Sullavan appears in this one, too.

This is Hollywood after all, but on my first viewing I thought two Gentiles, Sullavan and Glenn Ford, gave creditable performances as aspiring Jews escaping from eastern Europe. Also with Fredric March.

 

BTW I highly recommend Scott Eyman's, "Hank and Jim" (Simon and Schuster, 2017).  Subtitled

accurately "The Fifty-Year Friendship of Henry Fonda and James Stewart."  Fonda was briefly married

to Sullavan and  Stewart held life-long affection for her (as seen in the original "Shop Around The Corner").  In an adversarial age like ours, their friendship despite political disagreements is good

to know about and learn from.

 

Tues Oct 20 630p documentary on film director Val Lewton

8p "Salt of the Earth" 1954, about an union organizing effort in Mexico directed by Herbert Biberman            

10p "A King in New York" Charlie Chaplin's 1957 return to the screen in USA

 

Fri Oct 21 930A "College Coach" (1933) In a rarity, pre-Noir Dick Powell morphs into fiery football coach

         6p "Knute Rockne" (1940) Pat O'Brien in title role, Ronald Reagan as the Gipper 

 

That's all for now - always remember:  Take it easy but take it, and especially these days:

Stay positive, test negative.