"Fear Strikes Out" was both a sports film and a film about mental illness, topics that were fashionable when the film was made. It was also director Robert Mulligan's first film and it gave Anthony Perkins his first starring role. It could just as easily have been called 'The Jim Piersall Story' as it deals with the early career of the Red Sox player who fought mental illness for a good part of his life and the film makes no qualms about laying the blame at the feet of his domineering father, played by Karl Malden.
Knowing nothing about the real Jim Piersall I can't say how accurately Perkins embodies the role. He does seem a somewhat awkward athlete but is often superb in his more psychotic moments. Perkins was always a somewhat unlikely star; tall, gangly, good-looking and at least bisexual. I'm sure the studios must have wondered what to do with him and it took Hitchcock to find the perfect part. Unfortunately, after "Psycho" he was basically Norman Bates for the rest of his career. Mulligan, fresh from television, handles the fairly obvious material with some skill and did at least secure a nomination from the Director's Guild. Minor, perhaps, but still worth seeing.
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