A Movie Review

Have you ever just sat down and watched a movie you've never heard of? Well, I did it tonight. I'm not usually a brave person when it comes to movies: I stick to who I know, personal recommendations, or classics. Tonight's pick is a classic, and it was recommended to me by Robert Osborne and Carrie Fisher. (I mean, c'mon, if Princess Leia says it's an essential movie classic, you should listen to her, right?)

Tonight's feature on TCM's Essentials was "Fear Strikes Out" (1957), starring Anthony Perkins and Karl Malden, and made by the producer and director who brought "To Kill a Mockingbird" to the big screen. It's a "baseball movie," that's not about baseball. Perkins plays Red Sox star outfielder Jimmy Piersall. Malden plays Piersall's obsessively overbearing father who drives him to play baseball since infancy. The film is superb: Malden's at his character acting best, and Perkins is so hadsome even as he starts to mentally unravel trying to impress his father. Perkins' breakdown scene after an in-the-park homerun is startling, frightening, and touching at the same time. How he didn't get an Oscar nod I'll never know. I highly recommend this to any BoSox fan, Perkins fan (especially if the only thing you've seen him in is "Psycho"), and classic film fan.