Angels in the Outfield is a 1951 sports comedy film directed by Clarence Brown. The films stars Paul Douglas and Janet Leigh and is centered around the real-life Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team.
Director: Clarence Brown
Production Company: Metro-Goldwyn Mayer
Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn Mayer
Cast: Paul Douglas, Janet Leigh, Keenan Wynn, Donna Corcoran
US Box Office: $3,665,000 ($66,200,000 adjusted for inflation)
Film Format: Black & White
Genre: Comedy, Sports
Release Date: September 7, 1951
Plot Summary: Aloysius “Guffy” McGovern (Paul Douglas) is the mean and foul-mouthed manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who are doing very poorly this season. One day, Guffy hears the voice of an Angel who tells him that he will help the team win, but only if Guffy agrees to change his ways. After changing his behavior, the team starts winning, and Guffy becomes friends with Jennifer Page (Jante Leigh), a young reporter who previously criticized him. However, once orphan girl Bridget (Donna Corcoran) sees angels helping the Pirates, the media learns what’s going on and starts causing trouble.
Production: The concept for the film came from Jesuit Friar Grandy who used the pseudonym “Richard Conlin” to write the story and submit it to MGM, donating the proceeds to his Church. MGM liked the story and they had Dorothy Kingsley and George Wells write the script. MGM also hired Clarence Brown to be the film’s director and producer. After gaining the rights to use the Pittsburgh Pirates team, Branch Rickey, then general manager of Pirates, and Brown negotiated with MGM to have the film primarily shot in Pittsburgh. The film originally had the working title The Angels and the Pirates, but MGM later decided to change it to Angels in the Outfield.
MGM originally planned to cast Spencer Tracy in the lead role when they bought the story, but later choose Clark Gable instead. Gable declined so that he could make MGM’s Lone Star (1952) instead. MGM tried to borrow James Cagney from Warner Bros, but WB turned down their offer, so they decided to cast Paul Douglas in the leading role. Janet Leigh, who had previous starred in several films for MGM, was chosen to play Jennifer. Child actress Donna Corcoran was cast as Bridget. Angels in the Outfield was Corcoran’s first movie role, her father was a maintenance department worker for MGM.
Much of Angels in the Outfield was shot on location in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where the story takes place. Most of the baseball scenes were shot at Forbes Field, the former home of the Pittsburgh Pirates (as well as the football team the Pittsburgh Steelers). A number of trademark features of Forbes Field are visible in the film, including the Barney Dreyfuss monument and the “Kiner’s Korner” fence in the left field. Unfortunately, Forbes Field was demolished in 1971. Some of the close ups during baseball scenes were also shot at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles.
Angels in the Outfield handles Guffy’s swearing in a very inventive fashion. Given that the film was intended for family audiences, and that the Hays Code prohibited most profanities, the film did not conventionally depict swearing outbursts. Instead, multiple audio recordings of Paul Douglas yelling were cut into segments of one or two syllables. The segments were then rearranged, and pasted back together, making it sound like unintelligible gibberish.
Fun Facts and Trivia: A few famous baseball-related figures make cameo appearances as themselves in the “interviews” in Angels in the Outfield. They include: Joe DiMaggio, Ty Cobb, songwriter Harry Ruby (who composed some baseball songs), and Bing Crosby (who was one of the co-owners of the real life Philadelphia Pirates at the time). Several real life players of the Pittsburgh Pirates also have uncredited appearances as members of the team. They include players Ralph Kiner, Ed Fitz Gerald, George Strickland and George Metkovich, as well as coaches Lenny Levy and Sam Narron.
Paul Douglas had previously played a catcher in the sports comedy film It Happens Every Spring (1949). Actress Barbara Billingsley, who would later be known for playing the mother on the tv show Leave it to Beaver, plays the hat-check girl at the restaurant. Angels in the Outfield is said to have been one of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s favorite films.
Reception: Angels in the Outfield fittingly premiered at Loew’s Penn Theatre in Pittsburgh. The film received positive reviews from critics at the time. For example Variety thought that Clarence Brown did a very good job directing the film, which could have turned out badly due to the fantasy concept. AH Weiler of The New York Times thought that the film was heart-warming and also gave it a positive review. The film did decently well at the box office in the United States, however it seriously underperformed overseas, so it ended up losing money for MGM.
Janet Leigh and Donna Corcoran reprised their roles for a Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of the film on April 6, 1953, but Douglas was unavailable, so George Murphy voiced Guffy. In 2006, Angels in the Outfield was one of the 300 movies nominated for the American Film Institute’s list of the Top 100 most inspiration movies. In 2008, Angels in the Outfield was also one of fifty movies nominated by the AFI for their list of the Top 10 best Sports films.
Why You Should See It: Angels in the Outfield is a cute and heartwarming comedy film. The film has plenty of funny moments. Paul Douglas is really good in his role: he is strong in both the comedic and more serious scenes, and he does a good job making Guffy likeable and relatable. The film is very unique for its time by being a sports comedy with fantasy elements. Angels in the Outfield also has Christian moral themes and a good message about the importance of self improvement.