| Big Leaguer | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Robert Aldrich |
| Screenplay by | Herbert Baker |
| Based on | a story by John McNulty Lou Morheim |
| Produced by | Matthew Rapf |
| Starring | Edward G. Robinson Vera-Ellen Jeff Richards Richard Jaeckel William Campbell |
| Cinematography | William C. Mellor |
| Edited by | Ben Lewis |
| Music by | Alberto Colombo |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Loew's, Inc. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 71 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $498,000[1][2] |
| Box office | $559,000[1] |
Big Leaguer is a 1953 American sports drama film starring Edward G. Robinson and was the first film directed by Robert Aldrich.
Although this story is fiction, Robinson's character in it, Hans Lobert, was an actual baseball player who played for five Major League Baseball teams and managed the Philadelphia Phillies. Third-billed in the cast, Jeff Richards was a professional ballplayer before he became an actor, and Hall of Fame pitcher Carl Hubbell appears as himself.
"It was not a personal film of my status at the time," said Aldrich later. "I feel the film was good but not indicative of what I wanted to express in the motion picture medium."[3]
- ^ a b The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
- ^ The figure has also been given as $800,000 – see Alain Silver and James Ursini, Whatever Happened to Robert Aldrich?, Limelight, 1995 p 230
- ^ Aldrich, Robert (2004). Robert Aldrich : interviews. University Press of Mississippi. p. 12.