Home of the Brave (Screen Plays; United Artists), as a Broadway play by Arthur Laurents, described the crack-up of a Jewish G.I. who was a victim of race prejudice. The movie version, produced by the same small studio that made Champion (TIME, April 11), daringly substitutes a Negro in the central role. Home of the Brave is thus the first of Hollywood's new series of Negro problem films to cross the finish line.
When he is brought back to his Pacific base from a dangerous mission to a Jap-held island, the Negro G.I., Moss (James Edwards), is Suffering from shock, which has paralyzed him from the waist down. Under the care of a sympathetic Army psychiatrist, Moss fumbles back through the fogs of amnesia to what happened on the island. He recalls his hatred of a Negro-baiting corporal (Steve Brodie), and his resentment of all white men, even his friends (Lloyd Bridges and Frank Lovejoy).
Like its Broadway original, and like most movies with a weighty message, Home pays a heavy price for treating human beings as if they were clearly defined symbols in a propaganda tract. Another weakness to be chalked up to Playwright Laurents: the arguments against discrimination get badly mixed up with the abracadabra of psychiatry.
But for all its faults, the film has novelty, emotional wallop and the excitement that comes from wrestling with a real problem, rather than fencing with a cooked-up plot. The acting, even against some unconvincing jungle sets, is persuasively lifelike; and even when it fumbles the statement of its message, the film retains a sort of rough-&-ready strength.
The Stratton Story (M-G-M), in real life, began back in the 19303 when Monty Stratton, a Texas farm boy, got an irresistible yen for professional baseball. By 1938 Monty had become an ace pitcher for the Chicago White Sox. In the same year, as the result of a hunting accident, he lost his right leg and (so the sport world thought) all chance for a future in professional baseball. But Monty had courage as well as a good right arm. Bolstered by thousands of fan letters and an artificial leg, he fought his way back to the mound. By 1946 he had begun again as a pitcher in the Class C East Texas League* and was baseball's "most courageous athlete" of that year. In 1948 he was in Hollywood, still pitching hard, as technical adviser for the screening of his life story.
With Stratton to keep the facts straight and tough-minded Director Sam Wood (Command Decision, Pride of the Yankees, etc.) behind the cameras, The Stratton Story avoids the obvious temptations to jerk extra tears and belabor its moral. Jimmy Stewart plays Monty and, under Stratton's coaching, does a good deal of plausible (but not very hefty) hurling without calling in a double. Except for a bit of sly mugging in the early scenes, Stewart turns in a solid, heart-warming performance with some attractive short-stopping by June Allyson as Mrs. Monty. He also gets solid support from Veterans Frank Morgan and Agnes Moorehead.
*In 1946 Monty started 27 games, completed 20, won 18. In 1947 he graduated to a Class B league (Big State), won seven and lost seven in six weeks with Waco, then quit.