oscaralbert Review of The Winning Team

The Winning Team (1952)

"The Gypper" is cleverly recruited by the always eponymous Warner Bros. . . .

[8/10 · 1 April 2020]

. . . to warn America against his future two-faced self during this Grover Cleveland (an earlier POTUS) Alexander biopic, THE WINNING TEAM. During most of the Major League baseball action depicted here, Mr. Alexander is plagued with double vision, delusions and falling-down fits (just like in future Real Life, Tinsel Town's notorious rabble-rousing union president became a HUAC snitch against his duped teammates and ripped up the Constitution with his Iran Contra debacle, not to mention providing constant fodder for the Doonesbury Comic Strip's "Inside the Gypper's Brain" feature). When she's not singing for her Yule Tide eggnog, the fatuous "Aimee" seems to be an uncannily accurate portrayal of the future Second Lady who would turn over the running of the USA to her astrologer. The prolifically proficient prognosticating prophets propel this Warner Bros. flick into the annals of both Past and Future history as it traces the descent of its single-minded Progressive protagonist all the way down to a carnival freak show attraction. Maybe there once was an unclothed emperor lording over his nation in some far-off galaxy, but at least this unadorned gent had a brain in his head. With its spotlight on the declining Grover's fuzzy focus, THE WINNING TEAM warns a nation regarding what it's about to lose!