I looked at a lot of video clips when writing about the recent passing of John Mahoney, the actor who played Kid Gleason, manager of the 1919 Chicago White Sox, in the film version of Eliot Asinof’s Eight Men Out. I was specifically looking for the courtroom scene but couldn’t find it. I did find this short piece of Alec Baldwin on why people should watch the movie.
That was then, this is now. Still looking forward to seeing The Catcher Was A Spy, the cinematic adaption of Nicholas Dawidoff’s book. It received middling review from what I’ve seen so far.
Here’s Paul Rudd, who played the catcher Moe Berg, along with director Ben Lewin at Sundance, where the film premiered:
And their interview from The Hollywood Reporter:
Here’s one story from Tablet, a Jewish online magazine. And here are some reviews, mostly linked from Rotten Tomatoes (which gave is a score of just 54 percent): Variety; The Hollywood Reporter; Black Girls Nerds (!); The Film Stage; The Guardian; Cultured Vultures; Slash Film; Joblo.com; Uproxx; The Wrap; Collider; and RogerEbert.com.
Most of the critiques use words like “bland” and “dull.” I find it humorous actually: I wonder how many knew the story of Berg as well as baseball fans would. If they did, they might argue that Rudd’s appearance was most unlike the big, bulky, swarthy catcher. I don’t care; I’ll see it anyway. There aren’t too many films about baseball and the Venn diagram of films about Jews and baseball is even smaller.
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