The Pride of the Yankees(1942).

The Pride of the Yankees(1942). Biographical film directed by Sam Wood about the New York Yankees baseball player, first baseman Lou Gehrig, who had his career cut short at 37 years of age when he was stricken with the fatal disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (later known as "Lou Gehrig's Disease"). The film was released the year after Gehrig's death. Cast: Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright and Walter Brennan. Yankee teammates Babe Ruth, Bob Meusel, Mark Koenig, and Bill Dickey play themselves, as does sportscaster Bill Stern.

Columbia University student Lou Gehrig's, mother wants him to become an engineer, but.. Lou Gehrig has a gift for playing baseball. Sportswriter Sam Blake has a scout come out to see him play ball. Gehrig receives a contract offer from the New York Yankees. Lou Gehrig and his father decides to keep this a secret from his mother.

Gehrig wins over his teammates, and before long he is joining them in playing pranks on Ruth.

After a game in which he trips, he meets Eleanor Twitchell, who calls him a "Tanglefoot." It is not long before they fall in love and Lou and Ellie make plans to marry. The news, does not sit well with Gehrig's over baring mother. However, Lou finally stands up to her and marries Eleanor.

The Yankees start winning championships and all is going well for Gehrig. He hits two home runs in a single game as a promise to a sick boy in a hospital.(does that remind you of a Seinfeld episode?). But.. then without warning, Gehrig, baseball's "Iron Horse" begins to feel that somethings wrong.

Gehrig keeps on playing, keeping his illness a secret. But he is not the player he once was and one day he takes himself out of the game.

After an examination, a doctor tells Gehrig that he only has a short time to live.

In celebration at Yankee Stadium in his honor, Gehrig announces to his fans, saying that he has always felt like "the luckiest man on the face of the Earth."

I thought this was a wonderful inspirational movie and a nice way to remember Lou Gehrig.

Teresa Wright's first performance was in the stage play, Life with Father. It was there that she was discovered by a talent scout hired by Samuel Goldwyn to find a young actress for the role of Bette Davis' daughter in the film, The Little Foxes (1941). Which was the film that she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The following year, she was nominated again, this time for Best Actress for The Pride of the Yankees, that same year, she won Best Supporting Actress as the daughter-in-law of Greer Garson's character in Mrs. Miniver. No other actor has ever has received an Oscar nomination for each of their first three films.

Please click here to read Teresa Wright's bio.

MEET JOHN DOE (1941)

Meet John Doe (1941). Comedy/ drama. Director: Frank Capra. Cast: Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. And a couple of my favorite charactor actors: Spring Byington and Walter Brennan. The film, about a political campaign, created by a newspaper columnist and pursued by a wealthy businessman, became a box office hit and was nominated for an Academy Award for best original story (for Richard Connell and Robert Presnell Sr.).

There are so many wonderful reviews about MEET JOHN DOE. I will just share a couple of my thoughts. Stanwyck is absolutely wonderful in this film, as her character realizes she has found a man just like her father. Also Cooper, is wonderful as the average everyday guy. A couple of my favorite scenes are when Cooper needs Stanwycks mother's help to ask her daughter to marry him and the baseball scene in a hotel room, when they play pretend ball, is very charming..
FULL MOVIE: MEET JOHN DOE.
FUN FACTS:

Frank Capra only wanted Cary Cooper to play John Doe. Cooper agreed to play the part (without reading a script) for two reasons: he had enjoyed working with Capra on Mr. Deeds Goes to Town(1936) and he wanted to work with Barbara Stanwyck.

The song 'Sweet potatoes' that Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan play, in addition to "Hi Diddle Dee Dee (An Actor's Life For Me)", from "Pinocchio": Brennan alone plays this on an ocarina (sweet potato), but Cooper plays a small harmonica. The tune they play as a duet, while Barbara Stanwyck is interviewing them, is The "William Tell Overture, Finale" by Rossini (The Lone Ranger Theme). Cooper explains the reason Brennan likes him is that they both play 'Doohickeys'.