Author Archives: Dazzling Erin

I Watched Angels In The Outfield (1951, dir. by Clarence Brown)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Major League Baseball could use some angels right about now.

When this year started, I was so excited for the start of Spring Training at the end of this month.  Finally, I thought, football will be over, baseball will be starting, and maybe my Rangers will finally have another winning season!  Instead, for the last 80 days, we’ve had a lockout while the owners and the players negotiate the terms under which the season can begin.  The start of Spring Training has been delayed.  Opening Day could be delayed.  All I want to do is to enjoy some baseball but who knows when that’s going to happen.

At least I can still watch baseball movies.  The original Angels in the Outfield is about the general manger of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Guffy McGovern (Paul Douglas).  The Pirates are having a terrible season.  They’re last in the league.  Guffy starts fights with the umpires and shocks the media with his unprintable language but he just can’t put together a winning season.  Things are so bad that an orphan named Bridget (Donna Corcoran) stops praying for a new family and instead prays for the Pirates  Then, one night, Guffy hears the voice of an angel who tells him that if he stops cursing and stops fighting, the Pirates will get some heavenly help.

Guffy cuts back on his cursing and learns to control his temper and the Pirates start winning.  Is it because of the angels or is it because Guffy has become a better manager?  He falls in love with reporter Jennifer Paige (Janet Leigh) and they make plans to adopt Bridget but then the voice tells Guffy that, when it comes to the Pennant, he’s going to have to win that one on his own.  Can Guffy lead his team to victory without the help of the angels?

For many baseball fans, Angels in the Outfield is all about wish fulfilment.   That’s especially true if you’re a fan of a team that lost two World Series in a row and who hasn’t had a winning season in a while.  There’s been a lot of times when I’ve watched the Rangers and wished for some heavenly intervention!  Maybe if our coaches would stop cursing or yelling, the Rangers would actually finish somewhere other than in last place.  It’s worth a shot, guys!

Angels in the Outfield is a sweet movie.  I especially liked the scenes where Guffy used Shakespearean language to argue with the umpires so that he could avoid having to curse at them.  Angels in the Outfield captures the excitement of watching your team win.  I actually got jealous of the fans in the movie because it’s been a long time since I’ve seen anyone get that excited over baseball.  When Angels in the Outfield calls baseball “America’s pastime,” you believe it.  I also liked that the angels themselves were never seen.  Instead, all that is seen are the fantastic catches and the home runs that come about as a result of their help.

I’d love some angels to come down right now and talk to the players and the owners for all of us.  Get it worked out, people.  Don’t take away our opening day!

I Watched Old Fashioned (2014, dir. by Rik Swartzwelder)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Clay (Rik Swartzwelder) is a former frat boy who has spent the last nine years trying to find love the old fashioned way.  He won’t accept a kiss on the lips.  He says that all dating does is make people act in superficial and dishonest ways.  He says that he cannot even be alone with a woman unless she is wife.  (Clay’s not married.)  Because he’s so old fashioned, it makes sense that Clay would open an antique store in a small town.  (Of course, he’s named the store Old Fashioned.)  When a single, free-spirited woman named Amber (Elizabeth Roberts) runs out of gas in the town and then impulsively rents the apartment above the shop, Clay is forced to reconsider his rigid rules about dating.

At first, I didn’t know what to make of Old Fashioned.  I can be old fashioned about some things myself but Clay took it to extremes and I wasn’t sure why anyone would want to waste their time trying to get his attention.  Yes, people can be superficial when they’re dating and they act differently once they’re in a committed relationship but what’s the other option?  Arranged marriages?  Only getting to know people through church socials and holiday picnics?  Clay didn’t have the answers for that.  Instead, he just said that he would get married when he met the “right woman” and that he would instinctively know who she was.  Nice plan, Clay. Too bad the real world is a little more complicated than that.

Luckily, it turned out that the movie agreed with me, with Amber challenging Clay’s beliefs and regularly calling him out for his holier-than-thou attitude.  Clay wasn’t presented as being wrong for choosing to be old fashioned but instead for being so extreme about it.  Some good things came about as a result of Clay’s beliefs, like the scene where Clay keeps his best friend from cheating on his fiancée.  But, by being so judgmental and unwilling to compromise, Clay was also intentionally shutting himself off from the world.  He was using his beliefs as an excuse to build walls and keep anyone from getting too close to him.  The movie takes its time in explaining Clay’s backstory and the events that led to him becoming so old fashioned and it turns out that Clay used to be bad even by the standards of the typical frat boy.  Trying to make up for the past, Clay has swung from one extreme to another but he’s never learned how to forgive himself or others for their mistakes.  I still had a hard time believing that Amber would have ever put up with him in the first place but it’s good that she did because Clay really needed someone to help him snap out of it.

Old Fashioned is less about how people should date and more about the importance of being willing to forgive and to accept that no one can ever be perfect.  That’s a pretty worthwhile message, especially in today’s day and age.  Forgiveness should never become old fashioned.