Fear Strikes Out
Directed by Robert Mulligan
Written by Ted Berkman and Raphael Blau from a story by Jimmy Piersall and Al Hirschberg
1957/USA
Paramount Pictures
First viewing/Amazon Instant
[box] “Never allow the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game!” ― Babe Ruth[/box]
Nobody does troubled like Anthony Perkins. His performance makes this biopic about a baseball player battling mental illness.
This based on the story of Jimmy Piersall who came back from a very public nervous breakdown to stardom in Major League Baseball. Jimmy (Perkins) shows athletic talent from an early age. From that same age, his father (Karl Malden) has dreams that Jimmy will play for the Boston Red Sox and pushes him relentlessly to achieve that dream. Spending more than one year in the Minor Leagues is abject failure. So is achieving only third place in hitting. But Jimmy and dad are very close and the ballplayer can’t seem to make a move without him.
Jimmy gets some solace from his marriage. When he is finally selected to play for the Sox, he falls apart. It starts out by angrily driving his teammates to do better. Then he completely snaps, goes nuts after hitting a home run, and must be hospitalized.
I thought the theme was handled well. The treatment was not too heavy handed or Freudian. Perkins is outstanding and Malden makes the father very human. Piersall, however, disowned the movie because he thought it was too hard on his dad. I enjoyed this.
Trailer – this makes it look like Rebel Without a Cause and misses the mark
