Mr Deeds Goes to Yankee Stadium: Baseball Films in the Capra Tradition - Softcover

Gehring, Wes D.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0786417730 ISBN 13: 9780786417735

Publisher: McFarland & Co, 2004

Synopsis

Celebrated film director Frank Capra was a central architect of the ""feel good"" movie genre now known as populism, which celebrates people, families, second chances, and other traditional American icons such as small town or pastoral life and baseball. Capra developed his own brand of populism by interweaving traditional values of the genre with a younger, more vulnerable hero starting with Mr. Deeds Goes to Town in 1936. The result, Capraesque populism, has had a significant influence of American pop culture in general and forms a small but important variety of baseball movie. This book examines eight of these Capraesque baseball films, starting with the all-important Pride of the Yankees (1942), which one admiring critic has called ""Mr. Deeds Goes to Yankee Stadium."" An introduction provides an overview of baseball and populism. Individual chapters are devoted to the populist legacy from Will Rogers (Capra's mentor) to Capra, The Pride of the Yankees, The Stratton Story, Angels in the Outfield, The Natural, Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, Frequency, and The Rookie.

About this title

Review:

"Gehring remains supreme in film comedy scholarship"--Choice.

About the Author:

Wes D. Gehring is a distinguished professor of film at Ball State University and associate media editor for USA Today magazine, for which he also writes the column "Reel World." He is the author of 39 film books, including biographies of James Dean, Carole Lombard, Steve McQueen, Robert Wise, Red Skelton and Charlie Chaplin.

About this edition

• Publisher: McFarland & Co
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0786417730
• ISBN 13: 9780786417735
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 175