I have published my top fifteen sports movies of all-time at www. fredpahlke.com. Today I will begin posting those fifteen films here. These are movies that I are significant as they display sport in a way that is unique and held my interest in a great way.
Jimmy Stewart and Robert Young with Lionel Barrymore star in a movie on the Academy in Annapolis. Caught it one night on cable and was blown away. As good as Knute Rockne All-American for tears and historical presence, a great story as you gain a love for the US Naval Academy. Directed by the great and under-rated Sam Wood.
Review by Harold Thorton: James Stewart plays “Truck” Cross an enlisted soldier who has been accepted into the Unites States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. Truck meets Roger “Rog” Ash (Robert Young)and Richard “Dickie” Gates Junior (Tom Brown). Three very different young men become roommates. Truck Cross has a secret he doesn’t want let out. Ash is full of himself and needs to learn to be part of a team. Gates seems to just want to belong to something get away from his mother (played by Billie Burke, whom you will instantly remember as Glinda the Good Witch) The boys make it through their Plebe year (Freshman) year, and into the Sophomore year is when the plot really begins to thicken, Truck’s secret is found out, and the outcome could mean expulsion, Ash thinks he’s not Navy at all and it could lead to expulsion as well, Captain Dawes (played by the incomparable Lionel Barrymore) always seems to be in the right place at the right time to help make things happen for this threesome. Will the three of them make it to the Army versus Navy Game and who will wind up with Gates’ sister Pat?
