July 6 Janet Leigh

TCM celebrated Janet Leigh’s birthday with a marathon of films. I watched Angels In The Outfield. I had a hard time watching the film since the sound track was out of sync. Occasionally this happens for a few minutes, but the whole film was off. It is a baseball film. The player would hit the ball and start running and then the sound of the ball hitting the bat is heard. A lot of the film is told in voice over and Paul Douglas as baseball manager when he is swearing the voice is garbled so you don’t exactly know what he is saying but you get the gist.

This film has everything. A woman, Janet Leigh a writer of woman’s features is sent to get the female angle of the hometown team Pittsburg Pirates. She goes to the locker room and sits outside as Paul talks. His voice is garbled and she reacts very shocked and runs out without an interview. She follows Paul around to get a story. How he can’t notice this beautiful woman following him around, I don’t know. Paul walks around the empty field that night and hears a voice, a voice of an Angel. The Angel tells him to cut the swearing, fighting and to be nice and he will help the team win. The team starts to play better and win games. At one game a group of orphans and their guardian nuns comes to the game. One girl sees Angels at the ballpark. Her story gets into the paper. Paul goes to see her at the orphanage. Paul and Janet start to see each other and take the girl on outings after the girl recovers from an illness. The girl actually sees an Angel with each player, in the dugout and at the scoreboard.

The story gets around about the Angels and the commissioner requests a hearing. At the hearing witnesses are called to see if Angels exist. A priest, a rabbi and a minister discuss along the orphan and a nun. After the hearing is the final game for the pennant. The oldest player, the pitcher is dying and struggles through the game. He wins the game which gives them the pennant. Paul, Janet and the orphan are all together, will they become a family? You don’t really know. The final scene is about the great baseball players who have moved on to become an Angel and they are playing in spirit and sound on the field.