Fear Strikes Out

Fear Strikes Out. 1957 Paramount Pictures
Starring: Anthony Perkins, Karl Malden, Norma Moore, Adam Williams, Perry Wilson
Director: Robert Mulligan
Buy the DVD from Amazon.

Robert Mulligan's first feature length film is a loose adaptation of the autobiography by baseball player Jimmy Piersall, who is known for his problems with bipolar disorder. Piersall (Perkins in the film), in real life, played a seventeen year career filled with many notable and bizarre incidents with a lifetime batting average of .272 and 104 home runs before embarking on a career in broadcasting.

Piersall would later disown the film adaptation of his book, since he felt that the screenplay distorted facts, and it also made it appear that his father (played by Malden) pushed his son too hard, helping contribute to Jimmy's on-screen breakdown, following his first home run as a member of the Boston Red Sox.

Still, Fear Strikes Out as a film is a decent popcorn movie, and an easy recommendation from me. Just be sure to keep in mind that it's another baseball movie, not a true biopic of an interesting ball player.