Big Leaguer

From Viennale

After a decade working as an assistant director and a year of intensive work in television, Aldrich was given the chance to direct his first feature film: a low-budget MGM production about a baseball training camp in Florida run by former star player “Uncle Hans” Lobert (Edward G. Robinson). As well as the challenges facing the candidates (including Aldrich’s regular actor Richard Jaeckel), the film also explores the future of the training programme. BIG LEAGUER evokes the charm of the sport before it was taken over by big business and itself embodies a corresponding form of modest yet engaging cinema, enhanced by the lightness of Aldrich’s fluid direction. A successful showcase of talent: as in later sports film masterpieces (THE LONGEST YARD (1974), ...ALL THE MARBLES (1981)), Aldrich builds towards a grand final match, though he is not yet able to incorporate his subversive worldview. Although BIG LEAGUER was not a commercial success, Aldrich did manage to prove himself, finishing on time while shooting on location and without the embellishment of make-up, two realistic factors of which he was proud. “I feel the film was good, but not indicative of what I wanted to express in the motion picture medium.” (Christoph Huber)