HotToastyRag I remember renting this movie with my mom. She'd recently recovered from a vertigo attack, and I reassured her, "Don't worry, this movie won't make you sick. It's from 1952!" Low and behold, I happened to pick the one film from the silver screen that actually triggered my mom's vertigo; Ronald Reagan's character had a problem with his eyesight and the camera blurred and swirled. After I told her the famous, "Don't look, Mom!" we had a good laugh about it.With that big build-up, the movie had better be good, right? I'm sorry to disappoint you, but this baseball movie starring Ronald Reagan and Doris Day isn't very good. If you're a die-hard baseball fan and happen to love Ronald Reagan, go right ahead. I always get a kick out of seeing him in his young, handsome glory-he looked like my old sweetie pie from high school! Besides the eye candy, it's a pretty mediocre movie. It's a biography of Grover Cleveland Alexander, and shows his midwestern roots, his courtship and marriage to small-town sweetheart Doris Day, his medical problems, and his overwhelming obsession with baseball. He puts the sport above everything else in his life, including Doris, but she steps up to the plate as the "long suffering wife" and supports him through his neglect. The Winning Team doesn't really hold a candle to The Pride of the Yankees, so you're better off just sticking with that one.DLM Warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, like my mom does, this movie might not your friend. There are times when the camera swirls and blurs, and that will make you sick. In other words, "Don't Look, Mom!"

Hitchcoc Often there is kind of a disdain for a person like Ronald Reagan. While we flock to see movies and adore actors, we don't always give them credit for talent and intelligence. While I'm not a huge Reagan fan and knowing that he made some real clunker movies, I always enjoyed this one. I don't know much about the personal life of Grover Cleveland Alexander, I do known, lie with Babe Ruth, some real liberties were taking with this story. But visually it is great fun. Doris Day is just a tad on the sickening side (I always thought she was so darned cute growing up--obviously, I'm an old guy), but she is the woman behind the man. As Alex puts his life back together, she finally comes to realize that he deserves happiness. Anyway, Alexander became one of the all time greatest pitchers in the Golden Age of baseball. Fun for baseball fans.

edwagreen When Forbes Field was mentioned, they spelled Pittsburgh incorrectly. They left out the last letter.That being said, we have a very solid movie here with a marvelous performance by future President Ronald Reagan as Grover Cleveland Alexander. Unfortunately, Doris Day would need another 3 years to develop as a dramatic actress and that would come in her brilliantly breakout performance in "Love Me or Leave Me."It's really a shame that there were some distortions in the film. I read that Amy Alexander divorced her husband twice and remarried him for a 3rd time. It's also ridiculous that the script never mentioned that Alexander suffered from epilepsy. After all, talking about his dizzy spells through us all of somewhat.The picture itself is a heartbreak. From humble beginnings, Alexander became a star baseball pitcher only to suffer a beaning and epilepsy, the latter being confused with alcoholism; although, it was shown that he was hitting the bottle as well as a way out of his frustration.The film succeeds because of his triumph and amazing comeback.Reagan totally captured the essence of Grover Cleveland Alexander. Miss Day did not. Jeanne Crain would have been better suited for the part.

bkoganbing In filming the life story of Grover Cleveland Alexander, Warner Brothers made it a story of redemption when in fact it was a story of tragedy. But 1952 movie audiences wanted their happy endings.Grover Cleveland Alexander (1887-1950) was possibly the greatest right handed pitcher in National League history. He played for 3 teams, the Phillies, Cubs, and Cardinals and compiled 373 lifetime victories over a 20 year period.While still in the bush leagues Alexander sustained a serious head injury when a ball struck him right between the eyes while he was a base runner. He had double vision and headaches for a year. During World War I while an artillery officer the noise of exploding shells compounded a seemingly healed injury with a complication of epilepsy. To anesthetize himself, Alexander took to drinking some of that Prohibition whiskey and became an alcoholic. After leaving baseball in 1930 for the next twenty years, Alexander drifted to all kinds of menial jobs, occasionally making headlines with some alcohol related incident. One positive headline was his election to the Hall of Fame in the second round of elections. He was on hand for the dedication of the building in Cooperstown. In 1950 Alex was on hand as the Phillies won their second National League Pennant. Alex was the star of the first pennant winning team in 1915. A month later he was found dead in a cheap rooming house.That unfortunately is the sad truth of the real Grover Cleveland Alexander. This is not the film you will see.Ronald Reagan is just fine and actually comes close to the character of the real Alexander who was a genial and kind man with a terrible drinking problem. This was the final film Reagan made while at Warner Brothers.Doris Day in her second film with Reagan plays Amy Arrants Alexander, his loyal, faithful wife. In her memoirs Doris wrote that during the shooting she and Reagan had a few dates and she remembers him best as a good man who was quite a dancer when they went out. This film also qualifies as a musical for in the beginning Doris has a Christmas number, Old St. Nicholas, and Reagan joins her for the last two bars. Ronald Reagan actually did sing in one of his films.Today Hollywood would have no problem filming the real story which was quite a love story. Amy Alexander married Alex 3 times and divorced him twice, both those divorces an effort to give him a wake up call.But the widow Alexander was an adviser on the film and she got the film made to show the public the husband she wanted them to remember.And baseball fans the world over remember Grover Cleveland Alexander as a great baseball pitcher and a decent and patriotic man whose service to his country caused him a lifetime of triumph and tragedy trying to control the pain in his brain. It's a good legacy that doesn't need any embellishment from Hollywood.