Not to be confused with the Mitchell Leisen/Preston Sturges 1937 screwball classic of the same name (w/ Jean Arthur, Ray Milland, Edward Arnold), and certainly no classic of its own, this unexpectedly downbeat pro football character piece (Irwin Shaw story/Charles Schnee script) is good enough/interesting enough to count as a real missed opportunity. Victor Mature, uncommonly fit & handsome, top man in the league, is headed for a fall. A literal fall, as in fainting spells from a previously undiagnosed heart condition. Adding to his troubles: ambitious wife Lizabeth Scott needs his star power to put over her new interior decorator biz; his backup plan as college coach has just gone to BFF Sonny Tufts; office secretary/young widow Lucille Ball is carrying a major torch for him in spite of being warned off by owner/coach (and former father-in-law) Lloyd Nolan; plus he needs to perform at peak capacity in one last game to make the playoffs. (A $1000 bonus for each player hangs in the balance! Pro football in the ‘40s, Yikes!) An unusual assignment for director Jacques Tourneur, normally pegged for crime, noir & horror, who runs a tight show, especially good with Tufts & Ball in underwritten roles. What he can’t do is fill in missing pieces in Schnee’s otherwise sharp script. At just 77 minutes, the film loses focus & direction in a rushed last act that suffers from gaps in development, reshoots (?), and shockingly dated slaphappy misogyny, with almost every relationship & sports world issue compromised. Was Irwin Shaw’s story less pat? Worth a look though. Maybe worth a remake.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Late-Night tv historians get a rare chance to see the great Jack Parr in his not-so-great acting days as the team’s PR man.
No comments:
Post a Comment