| Kommentar: |
nach einer Erzählung von G. Merwin and S. Lester
Aufgenommen in die Epilepsie-Filmographie von Mayo/Wulff: http://www1.uni-hamburg.de/Medien/berichte/arbeiten/0020_03.html
Der Film ist noch heute berühmt wegen des ""Ausnahmeschauspielers"" Ronald Reagan, dem man die Rolle des Grover nie recht zutrauen wollte. Es ist aber etwas anderes, als Schauspieler von einer Charakterrolle - zudem einer heldenhaften - überzeugt zu sein und als Präsident stets ""eine gute Figur"" abgeben zu müssen und wollen.
Alexander bekommt ""Schwindelanfälle mit Doppelbildern"". Die Produktionsfirma bestand darauf, dass Epilepsie nicht genannt wurde. (Maio)
Dagegen protestierte Reagan (siehe IMDB).
from Toba Kerson's notes: When playing for his first professional team, he is hit in the head with a ball, comatose for three days, and then has double vision for almost a year. In instances of feeling dizzy, he is taken out of a game for what the team doctor calls sunstroke. Another physician whom he consults says that these events will keep occurring at unanticipated moments and he should retire to his farm. Cleveland doesn’t tell anyone including his wife or coach, and people accuse him of being a drunk. He leaves home, gets worse and worse, and finally the doctor calls his wife to tell her what is wrong with him. He is finally found by his wife, Aimee (played by Doris Day) where he is working as Alex the Great anwering people’s baseball questions. Aimee gets Grover’s friend the coach of the Cardinals to take him back, and he helps the Cardinals to beat the Yankees for the world series. So, during most of the film, he hides what is thought to be a diagnosis of epilepsy from family and friends, the doc tells him to go back to the farm, Epilepsy is thought to be result of a bean ball, his family is totally supportive but teams and public (including newspapers) see him as a drunk (there is some truth to it because he begins to drink after the consultation), and while the hero with epilepsy is Alex the Great, it is Aimee, his wife, friend and advocate, who supports Clip shows him having a seizure in the dug-out followed by the coach having two team mates drag him off the field. Alexander is playing for a team called the House of David. The inning is ending and the coach turns to call his team from the dugout. Alexander begins to have a seizure. The coach accuses him of being drunk again and asks two team members to drag him off the field. Continue clip until Alexander is off the screen. There are other episodes such as a dizzy spell when he is serving as a gunnery sergeant in WW I, and several spells of double vision and dizziness when he is playing ball. Another clip – “If I’m going to fall down again, I don’t want to do it in a pig sty.”
|
