The Stratton Story
by Sam Wood, Tex Avery
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Agnes Moorehead, Bill Williams, Frank Morgan, James Stewart, June AllysonDirector: Sam Wood, Tex Avery
Brand: Warner Brothers
Cinematographer: Harold Rosson
Editor: Ben Lewis
Producer: Fred Quimby
Producer: Jack Cummings
Writer: Douglas Morrow
Writer: Guy Trosper
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 102 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-08-15
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Movie Reviews of The Stratton Story
Movie Review: Stewart Elevates This Baseball Story
Summary: 4 Stars
This was a nice baseball story, nothing exceptional, but one in which Jimmy Stewart's presence in the title roll elevates it.
Jimmy looks a bit old to be playing a rookie pitcher, and he doesn't throw like a professional, but at least he isn't pathetic in that regard like some of the other classic-era actors who attempted to do so (you know who they are). Anyway, they faked enough of the pitching scenes here to get away with Stewart's baseball shortcomings.
It's just as much a human-interest story as it is a baseball movie, the story of "Monty Stratton" (Stewart) and his girlfriend-then-bride "Ethel," played warmly by June Allyson. She and Frank Morgan, who plays the scout who discovers Monty, are excellent as the two other main actors of the film.
On my second viewing I was surprised to discover that the key part of the film - the part which identifies this story as different from others - doesn't occur until the last third of the film. Then, after that, we see how a difficult and traumatic physical loss affects everyone and whether Monty can return to baseball.
Overall, it's an entertaining film if you are a fan of Stewart's work, or a big baseball fan. Most people fall into at least one of those categories. If remade today, I would suspect the script would be a little tighter, but stories were told slower 50 years ago and one has to expect that. I'm not complaining. I've enjoyed the movie both times I've watched it, and the DVD transfer is very good. I'll gladly watch it again, which tells you how good it is.
Summary of The Stratton Story
Chicago White Sox pitcher Monty Stratton is an affable long drink of water with an easy, whiplike delivery and a pitch so unhittable the young phenom racks up consecutive 15-win seasons. But Stratton's greatest victory doesn't come on the manicured green diamonds of our national pastime. James Stewart portrays Stratton, who loses a leg in an accident just as his career is on the rise...and whose triumph over despair and disability leads him to pitch again. Stewart signed on for the role when he realized the film would be an inspiration to injured World War II GIs. The film still inspires. Awarded an Oscar?* for Best Motion Picture Story, directed by Sam Wood (The Pride of the Yankees) and supported by a top cast that includes real-life ballplayers, The Stratton Story is sports biography at its best.James Stewart and June Allyson enjoyed one of their gee-whiz pairings in The Stratton Story, a baseball biopic with an easy swing. Stewart plays Monty Stratton, who, according to the film, is a country boy plowing the back forty when a transient scout (Frank Morgan) discovers him and hooks him up with the Chicago White Sox. Stratton has a couple of great years, only to be accidentally shot in a hunting accident, which results in his leg being amputated. If you think this is the end of the story, you might want to check the fact that The Stratton Story was one of the biggest box-office hits of 1949. The film rests on director Sam Wood's eye for outdoors American spaces--a country road, small-time baseball parks--and on the can-do chemistry of Stewart and Allyson, whose first teaming this was. (The Glenn Miller Story and Strategic Air Command would follow.) Audiences adored the lanky Stewart playing off the tiny, low-voiced, indomitably perky Allyson, even if the material is as programmed as a studio pitch meeting. Lovers of nostalgic baseball pictures won't have any problem with the cornball script (a few big-league cameos pass by, notably Bill Dickey). Agnes Moorehead is Stratton's down-home Maw, though she's mostly restricted to a backlot farmhouse. It won an Oscar for best original story, back when they gave Oscars for that. --Robert Horton
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