Stratton Story [VHS]

Stratton Story [VHS]
by Sam Wood

Stratton Story [VHS]

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Product details

Actor: Agnes Moorehead, Bill Williams, Frank Morgan, James Stewart, June Allyson
Director: Sam Wood
Cinematographer: Harold Rosson
Editor: Ben Lewis
Producer: Jack Cummings
Writer: Douglas Morrow
Writer: Guy Trosper
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Unknown)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, NTSC
Running Time: 106 minutes
Release Date: 1994-06-30
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: MGM (Warner)
Studio: MGM (Warner)

VHS Movie Reviews of Stratton Story [VHS]

Movie Review: When it ends, you'll wish there was more
Summary: 5 Stars

When one hears about the most famous and most loved Jimmy Stewart movies, the list usually goes something like this: IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, HARVEY, REAR WINDOW, VERTIGO, THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, SHENANDOAH. And for whatever reason, you would have to dig a little deeper to find THE STRATTON STORY. But now having watched it for myself for the first time, I would rank it up there with REAR WINDOW and HARVEY. THE STRATTON STORY is simply one of the best films ever made, but unfortunately it has been often overlooked.

STRATTON boasts expert performances from Jimmy Stewart, the endearing June Allyson, and Frank Morgan. It has the kind of good acting that makes you wish the movie would keep going on. The true story of Monty Stratton as reproduced on film is of the unknown underdog who is then defeated and nearly destroyed and comes back more determined than ever. The story of the underdog is all too common in Hollywood today. But they never show the underdog who rises to the top, gets knocked down lower than he started, and comes back again.

I'm very glad I watched THE STRATTON STORY, and I will be very glad when I watch it again.

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.

Movie Review: When the Look and Feel are Right, Corniness Doesn't Matter
Summary: 4 Stars

If baseball is so symbolic of America that it becomes a metaphor for how we like to think we are or can be, then films that celebrate the immortals of baseball can easily tap into a well of mythic consciousness that resonates with each generation that watches them. In THE STRATTON STORY, director Sam Wood recreates a celluloid vision of grass roots America that audiences could well remember from PRIDE OF THE YANKEES. James Stewart as Monty Stratton has never been better as the small town pitcher who goes from the minors to the majors only to discover that the biggest obstacle of all is not the fearsome sluggers of Murderers Row but rather the difference between success and failure is the ability to rise above personal misfortune by sheer effort of will.

Director Wood splits screen time between country scenes of dusty roads and Texas farmhouses with baseball parks, all of which are populated by the good folks that we see in any painting by Norman Rockwell. Stewart as Stratton does far more than aw-shuck his way through a role that in the hands of a lesser might have emerged as little more than a bumpkin stereotype. As Stratton struggles to rise in the hierarchy of baseball and slowly connects with June Allyson as Ethel, we can see that despite some serious obstacles in the way, we have no doubt that he will succeed. Indeed, we find that as Stallone later could do as Rocky, we pull for him from the very first reel where Frank Morgan first sees him in some out of the way ball field and just knows that he is destined for greatness. For a movie that is grounded in baseball, most of the really interesting parts occur off the field. We can identify with the cast in a manner that is rare. Agnes Moorehead as Stratton's mother is the rock that Ethel leans on when Monty loses a leg in a hunting accident, and Ethel tries to be that rock for a man who first needs to know what it means to be a man before he knows what it means to be a ball player. The on the field scenes ring with hardscrabble baseball lore, so much so that we do not care that the cliches add up mostly to justify the winning games that emerge from Stratton's prosthetic leg as much as from his strong right arm. There are several cameos of real life ball players and managers, all of whom add a note of authenticity to a film that already rings true on every level that counts. What emerges by the end is an entertaining look into just what constitutes a myth of a larger than life hero that is peculiarly American. When Gary Cooper gave his "I am the luckiest man in the world" speech at the close of PRIDE OF THE YANKEES, he might also have been speaking to Monty Stratton who can now see himself as similarly blessed. In fact, it is the audience that can participate in Gehrig's and Stratton's paean to luck and happiness. Only the very best films like THE STRATTON STORY can claim that.

Movie Review: Genuinely Delightful
Summary: 5 Stars

This movie is based on a true story, which always makes for the best kind of movie! And it is genuinely delightful. The picture quality is very clear, so much so, that the people I was watching the movie with couldn't believe it was a movie from the forties. Jimmy Stewart does an excellent job of portraying Stratton, a "country" baseball player from Texas who makes it to the majors and then wounds himself while hunting for rabbits. Resulting in the amputation of his leg. June Allyson is so very likeable as Stratton's very encouraging wife. The interplay between Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson is very sweet and very funny. Overall, the movie is just so delightful and likeable that I recommend it for everyone of all ages. It has a lot of baseball that can appeal to the young and old alike and the story is one that reaches everyone. It is actually one of the better movies I've seen, and given how many I like to watch, that's really something!

Movie Review: Great Come Back!
Summary: 5 Stars

True Story Marty Stratton, who pitched for the Chicago White Sox in the 1930's. After consective 15-win seasons in 1937-38, Marty's career was on the rise, when before the 1939 season, he had an accident that cost him his right leg. The movie shows how he, with the help of his wife, started pitching again. Through he never pitches in the majors again he did pitch again. Great movie to show how you can come back and do things you love even if you are disabled.

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Summary of Stratton Story [VHS]

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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