Jim Thorpe – All-American ** (1951, Burt Lancaster, Charles Bickford, Steve Cochran, Phyllis Thaxter) – Classic Movie Review 8549

Director Michael Curtiz’s 1951 biographical sports drama Jim Thorpe – All American [Man of Bronze] stars Burt Lancaster as American-Indian track star Jim Thorpe, who wins both the pentathlon and decathlon in the same Olympics but loses his medals on a technicality when he becomes a baseball player. His marriage to his college sweetheart collapses, he has to fight alcoholism, and then he is forgotten.

An impressive Lancaster works hard in a role which athletically and emotionally he is ideal for, though of course he is not a Native American (his four grandparents were immigrants from Northern Ireland), and the underrated Charles Bickford scores as his Carlisle College coach Glenn S ‘Pop’ Warner. The two actors sustain the film’s momentum.

But otherwise it is tough going amid Douglas Morrow and Everett Freeman’s clichéd triumph into tragedy screenplay and Curtiz’s wayward direction.

Also in the cast are Steve Cochran as Peter Allendine, Phyllis Thaxter as Margaret Miller, Dick Wesson as Ed Guyac, Nestor Paiva, Jimmy Moss and Billy Gray.

The screen story is by Douglas Morrow and Vincent X Flaherty, based on the biography by Jim [James] Thorpe and Russell J Birdwell.

Jim Thorpe – All American [Man of Bronze] is directed by Michael Curtiz, runs 106 minutes, is made and released by Warner Bros, is written by Douglas Morrow and Everett Freeman, shot in black and white by Ernest Haller, is produced by Everett Freeman, is scored by Max Steiner and is designed by Edward Carrere.

In Britain, films with All American in the title did not fare well, so it was re-titled Man of Bronze.

Steve Cochran died at the age of 48 on 15 June 1965 on his yacht off the coast of Guatemala. Three young Mexican females aged 14, 19 and 25 were aboard. There were rumours of foul play and poisoning, but no evidence was found. The girls did not know how to sail the yacht, which drifted to shore in Port Champerico, Guatemala, and was found by authorities after ten days.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8549

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Steve Cochran (born Robert Alexander Cochran, May 25, 1917 – June 15, 1965).