An All-American Film: Knute Rockne, All American

Sports biopic Knute Rockne, All American (1940) tells the story of legendary football coach Knute Rockne and the equally legendary halfback George Gipp, both of Notre Dame University. Several film critics agree that Rockne dictated the style in which future sports films would be made.

Synopsis

The film opens with the childhood of Knute Rockne after the Rocknes leave Norway to go to America. Over the passage of time, Rockne attends Notre Dame University, where he plays football, teaches chemistry, and marries his sweetheart, before being appointed head football coach at the school. Briefly, he has under his wing the versatile George Gipp, who after a fleeting career tells his coach to someday have the team “go out there and win one for the Gipper.” Over the years, Rockne perfects the game of football, although toward the end of his life he becomes hobbled with phlebitis. Eventually, a congressional inquiry questions the good name of the college, a smear the coach successfully clears. In the middle of a vacation, Rockne is called away on a meeting; he dies due to a plane crash. His funeral service is held at Notre Dame. The closing scene shows the image of Rockne walking across the school’s football field, demonstrating that his spirit will always live on inseparable from the game.

Overall, the film is full of flying feet and whizzing balls, capturing the exciting spirit of football. Pat O’Brien is believable as the coach, and Ronald Reagan showcases some of his best acting.

Casting

What would later be celebrated as a classic sports film commenced with a budget of $645,618 (approx. $14,159,000 today). With casting proceeding, James Cagney, wanting a break from being typecast in gangster roles, sought the part of Coach Rockne, but because of a technicality was not approved. Producer Jack Waner, with the widowed Mrs. Rockne’s consent, chose Pat O’Brien instead.

O’Brien admitted in his autobiography, The Wind at My Back, that playing the famed coach was “a difficult assignment for me, as he had been alive so recently.” Before Rockne, the Irish actor was most famous for Angels With Dirty Faces (1938) and similar gangster films. He admitted, “It gets tiresome. . . I don’t just want to be a fast-talking Charlie all my life.” Rockne would be his best-known role, one performed at the peak of his career.

Ronald Reagan portrayed George Gipp (left).

Meanwhile, the part of halfback George Gipp was one Ronald Reagan wanted. Reagan and O’Brien had previously co-starred in three films and were now friends. Though he rarely fought for parts, Reagan requested that O’Brien approach Warner, suggesting him for the part. Waner reluctantly allowed the young actor to come in for a screen test, despite the fact that John Wayne and William Holden were under consideration to play Gipp. Reagan produced some photographs of himself on his college football team in order to convince the studio of his sports prowess, and got the part. Although a newcomer to Hollywood, Reagan was at one point included in the list of Hollywood’s top five box-office draws. He would later, or course, become our country’s fortieth President.

Bonnie Rockne is shown at the time of the filming of the movie. At right is actress Gale Page who portrayed Mrs. Rockne.

Gale Page was in her late twenties when she was chosen to play Bonnie Skiles Rockne. She was also a singer. But a newspaper knowingly noted, “Miss Page has always wanted to be an actress.” She appeared in a mere sixteen films, notably Four Daughters (1938) and They Drive By Night (1940).

Johnny Sheffield, known most famously as “Boy” in the popular Tarzan films, was booked to have a short appearance in the film, playing seven-year-old Knute. He was nine at the time. “I loved the motion-picture industry, the people in it, and all the fun we had,” he would later say. Rockne was the most significant film in which Sheffield starred. His younger brother Billy, age four, was also in the film, portraying Knute at an even younger age, before Johnny’s appearance.

He was often seen running through the famous on-screen jungles of the Tarzan films, but Johnny Sheffield was given the part of the small, but tough, seven-year-old Knute.

Filming

Rockne was directed by Lloyd Bacon (42nd Street, Brother Orchid) and produced by Warner and Hal B. Wallis. The screenplay was compiled using Mrs. Rockne’s private papers, Notre Dame records, and accounts from Rockne’s friends and family. “My lines were straight from Rock’s diary,” Reagan explained.

Filming began on location at the Notre Dame campus. O’Brien recalled “mingling elbow to elbow with the student body and black robed faculty.” The producers were under pressure to create a memorable tribute to Rockne through their film; the famous coach’s death only nine years before had by no means banished his memory from the college. Besides using real Notre Dame game footage, the film was made even more authentic by the brief appearance of a handful of Rockne’s actual friends and coaches, playing themselves in the movie.

Pat O’Brien recognized his part was a challenging one to play. His face was unable to conceal the fact that in the scenes during which he portrayed Rockne as a student on the football team, he was playing someone nearly half his actual age. Nevertheless, O’Brien worked to keep in good shape by swimming and playing handball. “I was forty years old but I blocked and tackled and was on the receiving end of all the passes in every one of the scrimmage plays,” he said with pride. “In the long shots, we used clips from actual Notre Dame games, but all of the close shots I did myself.” The actor’s appearance had to be transformed to more resemble the real Rockne. Daily, O’Brien sat for the tedious appliance of the special make-up, a task which lasted three hours. His friends were impressed with the results, as well as how closely he resembled the real coach.

Pat O’Brien (right, with Knute Rockne memorial) bore a resemblance to the coach (above) when he wore special make-up. Even Rockne’s widow was shocked at the similarity.

Reagan’s part as “the Gipper” claimed only fifteen minutes of the film. “It was a nearly perfect part from an actor’s standpoint. A great entrance, an action middle, and a death scene to finish up,” he beamed. Indeed, Reagan’s most famous scene is the deathbed speech, in which he rasps to the coach: “Rock, someday, when the team’s up against it, and the breaks are beating the boys, ask them to go in there with all they’ve got and win just one for the Gipper. I don’t know where I’ll be then, but I’ll know about it. I’ll be happy.” (This quote would later be ranked No. 89 in an American Film Institute “100 Movie Quotes” poll in 2005.) Rockne would give Reagan a lasting nickname—“the Gipper”—and promote him from the B films to the As.

Gale Page was to Pat O’Brien “an excellent actress.” He recalled that she “bore a remarkable resemblance to Bonnie in the days when Rockne was courting her.” (When Mrs. Rockne viewed the film she cried during the love scenes.)Mrs. Rockne helped Miss Page with her role, and following the premiere, the two women would become good friends.

Warner Bros. released Rockne on October 4, 1940. At the gala premiere in South Bend, Indiana, stars gracing the celebration included Bob Hope, Rudy Vallee, and Anita Louise. Tickets to the premiere had been sold out weeks before at $1.65 a ticket. (The premiere’s program misspelled Reagan’s name as “Regan”.) The affair lasted two days, and wrapped up with a Fighting Irish game, with Reagan broadcasting part of it.

The premiere for Rockne was jam-packed, and the movie would continue to run repeatedly in the theaters.

Accuracy

As is the case with most biopics, Rockne presents a few factual errors. First, the film hints that the forward pass was invented by Rockne, when in reality he only popularized it. In those days, the forward pass was a rare but perfectly legal technique; in the film it appears as a new phenomenon. A second fumble was the interchangeable use of the terms “Swede” and “Norwegian”. Rockne was Norwegian; the film muddles this and portrays him as both. A third inaccuracy is the fictional score the film shows during the famed game the Fighting Irish played against the Army. Lastly, the plane which Rockne is shown boarding at the end of the film is the wrong type of aircraft. And as with all movies there are the little mistakes (in Rockne there are inconsistent footprints on the beach, and filming equipment is visible during certain scenes).

Criticism

Reams of newspapers acclaimed the film as a “smash.” Variety called Rockne “an inspirational reminder of what this country stands for.” The New York Times printed a review reading: “As a memorial to a fine and inspiring molder of character in young men, this picture ranks high”, although it was skeptical about what it deemed an “overemphasis of the pigskin sport.” Motion Picture Daily, in its Critics’ Quotes section, said Rockne “should appeal even to those who can’t tell a forward pass from a left tackle.” Reagan always remembered the picture fondly: “It really closed off all those rah rah Joe College pictures, with the hero winning the big game, the girl, and the job all at once.”

Today, Britannica calls Rockne “one of the era’s best sports biopics.” The film has been notably included as “one of the best football films” (Hollywoodreporter.com), and ranked No. 38 in a 2016 list of “The 50 Best Sports Movies of All Time” (Timeout.com).

The film remains a symbol of the importance of sports to Americans. As voiced by seven-year-old Knute in the film: “Poppa, don’t talk Norwegian, talk American. We’re all Americans now, especially me. I’m left end.”

Photograph Credits—O’BRIEN: notrecinema; FILM POSTER: directv; GIPP: listchallenges; REAGAN: regmovies; BONNIE ROCKNE: spiritofknute; PAGE: rarepixvintagesactresses.skyrock; SHEFFIELD: filmfanatic.org; ROCKNE: schoolworkhelper.net; NEWSPAPER PHOTOGRAPHS (4): lantern.mediahist.org.