It's unique in that film was made within three years after Robinson began to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers and that Jackie Robinson plays himself.
The film begins with Jackie Robinson as a boy (played by Howard Louis MacNeely). Baseball is his favorite sport, and he is encouraged by his mother, Mallie (Louise Beavers), and older brother, Mack (Joel Fluellen), who works as a street cleaner even though he was an Olympic athlete and junior college graduate.
The movie moves quickly through Jackie Robinson's college days at UCLA, where he was a football star and his military service. It then picks up his return to baseball and interaction with Branch Rickey (Minor Watson) that persuades him to make a baseball career. He marries his college sweetheart, Rae (Ruby Dee), just as he begins this quest. The film follows the challenges he faced with teammates, as well as fans and players from other teams. It concludes with his historic year with the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers.
This movie gets the rating it does because it came out in 1950 when Jim Crow remained a huge factor in American life. Jackie Robinson was a much better ballplayer than he was an actor. The screenplay is simplistic and stiff and pales in contrast with the later biopic, "42." Racism is portrayed, but not with the graphic intensity of the latter film. Most of the secondary characters are forgettable, though Minor Watson gives Branch Rickey a bit of life. But I see "The Jackie Robinson story" as a notable landmark.
The film begins with Jackie Robinson as a boy (played by Howard Louis MacNeely). Baseball is his favorite sport, and he is encouraged by his mother, Mallie (Louise Beavers), and older brother, Mack (Joel Fluellen), who works as a street cleaner even though he was an Olympic athlete and junior college graduate.
The movie moves quickly through Jackie Robinson's college days at UCLA, where he was a football star and his military service. It then picks up his return to baseball and interaction with Branch Rickey (Minor Watson) that persuades him to make a baseball career. He marries his college sweetheart, Rae (Ruby Dee), just as he begins this quest. The film follows the challenges he faced with teammates, as well as fans and players from other teams. It concludes with his historic year with the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers.
This movie gets the rating it does because it came out in 1950 when Jim Crow remained a huge factor in American life. Jackie Robinson was a much better ballplayer than he was an actor. The screenplay is simplistic and stiff and pales in contrast with the later biopic, "42." Racism is portrayed, but not with the graphic intensity of the latter film. Most of the secondary characters are forgettable, though Minor Watson gives Branch Rickey a bit of life. But I see "The Jackie Robinson story" as a notable landmark.