Main Cast: Dan Dailey, Joanne Dru, Richard Hylton, Richard Crenna, Hugh Sanders
Release Year: 1952
Country: US
Run Time: 93 minutes
Plot
Pride of St. Louis is the story of one of baseball's most colorful characters, Jerome Herman "Dizzy" Dean. While playing amateur ball in 1928, Dizzy (Dan Dailey) is hired by the St. Louis Cardinals. He spends a year or so playing with the Cards' Texas farm team, during which time he woos and wins department-store clerk Pat Nash (Joanne Dru, who ironically was the real-life aunt of pro baseball player Pete LaCock!) Once in the majors as a pitcher, Dean is joined on the Cards lineup by his younger brother Paul (Richard Crenna), whom the press nicknames "Daffy." Through a combination of spectacular ballplaying and zany publicity stunts, Dizzy and Daffy become nationwide favorites. Their popularity really soars after they help the Cardinals win the 1934 World Series. After this triumph, things begin to go downhill for Dizzy, who endures several injuries and finally "loses" his pitching arm. Dean is rescued from a binge of self-pity by his old friend Johnny Kendall (Richard Hylton), whose dad is a brewery executive. Johnny convinces his dad to sponsor a series of St. Louis Browns radio broadcasts, and to hire Dizzy as a play-by-play announcer. Ol' Diz gets in a lot of trouble with local schoolteachers because of his eccentric grammar ("he slud into third base," etc.) but things eventually turn out A-OK. Pride of St. Louis takes any number of liberties with the facts, but the real Dizzy Dean didn't care so long as 20th Century-Fox ponied up a huge sum of money for the rights to his life story: "Jeez," he said at the time, "they're gonna give me 50,000 smackers just fer livin'!" Future NBC news commentator Chet Huntley shows up in one of the closing scenes as sportscaster Tom Weaver. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
James Brown - Moose; Leo Cleary - Mgr. Ed Monroe; Stuart Randall - Frankie Frisch; William Frambes - Herbie; Damian O'Flynn - Johnnie Bishop; Cliff Clark - Pittsburgh coach; Fred Graham - Alexander; Billy Nelson - Chicago manager; Pattee Chapman - Ella; Richard Reeves - Connelly; Johnny Duncan - Western Union Boy; John Butler - Waiter; Freeman Lusk - Doctor; Jack Rice - Voorhees; Al Green - Joe [uncredited]; Philip Van Zandt - Louis; Victor Sutherland - Kendall, Sr.; Frank Scannell - Chicago 3rd Base Coach; Larry Thor - Announcer; John Wald - Announcer; Hank Weaver - Announcer; Jack Sherman - Announcer; Tom Hanlon - Announcer; Chet Huntley - Tom Weaver; John Doucette - Benny; Harris Brown - Hotel Clerk; Kathryn Card; George McDonald - Roscoe; Robert Nichols - Eddie; Jon-Mikl Thor; Kenny Williams - Castleman; Jerry Wald; John R. McKee - Delaney
Credit
Addison Hehr - Art Director, Lyle Wheeler - Art Director, Charles LeMaire - Costume Designer, William Travilla - Costume Designer, Harmon Jones - Director, Robert L. Simpson - Editor, Art Lange - Composer (Music Score), Lionel Newman - Musical Direction/Supervision, Ben Nye, Sr. - Makeup, Leo Tover - Cinematographer, Jules Schermer - Producer, Thomas K. Little - Set Designer, Stuart A. Reiss - Set Designer, Fred Sersen - Special Effects, Bernard Freericks - Sound/Sound Designer, Harry M. Leonard - Sound/Sound Designer, Herman Mankiewicz - Screenwriter, Guy Troper - Screenwriter
