THE SPIRIT OF NOTRE DAME

 

Just about everyone is familiar with, or have at least heard about, the two most famous films concerning the University of Notre Dame football team: KNUTE ROCKNE, ALL AMERICAN, and RUDY. There was, however, another movie based around the Fighting Irish football program that is all but forgotten today--THE SPIRIT OF NOTRE DAME, a 1931 production from Universal Studios. 

As someone who was born in South Bend, and who has spent most of his life living in the surrounding area, I've always been intrigued about this obscure title. I finally got the chance to see it recently on the Xumo streaming channel. 

According to Murray Sperber's outstanding book on the cultural history of Notre Dame football, SHAKE DOWN THE THUNDER, one of the main reasons Irish head football coach Knute Rockne was on his way west during his fateful plane trip in March, 1931, was to meet up with Universal executives about a proposal to appear in a movie adaptation of a play entitled GOOD NEWS. Rockne was to play the role of (what else) a football coach. Rockne died when his plane crashed in Kansas....but agent-promoter Christy Walsh convinced Universal to take advantage of the nationwide publicity about the coach's death and turn the project into a story concerning Notre Dame. 

Universal brought out several former Notre Dame stars to appear in the film, including all of the famed Four Horsemen (Don Miller, Elmer Layden, Jim Crowley, and Harry Stuhldreher). Among the other players were All-Americans Adam Walsh and Frank Carideo. Universal also assigned the lead role in the movie to its #1 male star at the moment, Lew Ayres, who had gotten major attention for his critically acclaimed performance in the studio's smash hit ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. 

One would assume that Universal wanted THE SPIRIT OF NOTRE DAME to be a blockbuster production--but the results fell far short of that. 

The movie starts out with the Notre Dame Victory March playing over the main titles, then we see footage of Knute Rockne giving one of his famous pep talks. Soon we are introduced to Lew Ayres as Bucky O'Brien, a cocky freshman who arrives at Notre Dame from a small town in North Dakota. Bucky was the BMOC back home, but during his first football practice he learns very quickly that he's got a huge challenge ahead of him to make the varsity. The movie moves forward a couple years later, and Bucky is now the main ball carrier for the Irish. The ND coach (J. Farrell McDonald) decides that he needs Bucky to spend more time blocking, and O'Brien's best friend and roommate Jim Stewart (William Bakewell) starts to gain all the yards, and all the attention. Bucky becomes dissatisfied with the situation, and he's kicked off the team. While sitting in the stands watching Notre Dame's climatic game against Army, Bucky realizes the error of his ways and comes down at halftime to help the Irish. 

THE SPIRIT OF NOTRE DAME is basically a standard generic sports movie--the main thing that stands out about it is the Fighting Irish connection, and the inclusion of real-life ND legends. Lew Ayres looked far more comfortable in the trenches of WWI than he does in the trenches of the gridiron. It has to be said that none of the actors playing members of the team resemble athletes--and that's taking in the fact that football players were much smaller than those days. The movie was shot at Universal Studios instead of on the Notre Dame campus, and due to the ordinary look of the surroundings the story could be taking place at any college anywhere in the U.S. 

The staged football sequences are rather basic, although one gets to see plenty of the famed "Notre Dame shift" in action. There's a lot of actual college football footage crudely edited into the story, but because everything is in black & white, it seems more randomly inserted instead of actually matching up with anything. Much of the movie deals with the light comedic antics of Bucky and his teammates, but they're probably the most boring college football players one's ever come across. The only main female role in the story is played by Loretta Young's lookalike sister Sally Blane, who is romanced by both Bucky and Jim, but she doesn't have much screen time. 

Middle-aged supporting character actor J. Farrell McDonald's "Coach" is never given a proper name (he's also referred to as "The Old Man"), but since McDonald has a certain resemblance to Knute Rockne, it's obvious Universal wanted the audience to assume he was playing the Rock. McDonald's coach is stern, but also kindly and fair (he never shouts or screams at anybody). 

A major subplot of the film deals with eternal benchwarmer Truck McCall, played by Andy Devine. When the dopey Truck finally gets in a game, he winds up puncturing his lung, and approaching death's door on a hospital bed. Truck's situation moves into George Gipp territory, as during the climatic Army game ND's coach implores his boys to come back and win for "Ol' Truck". (I believe the real Gipper wouldn't have appreciated being represented by a goofy hayseed.) 

As for the real-life former Notre Dame stars, they come off surprisingly well (and natural) on camera. The inclusion of these actual gridiron heroes was a big part of the movie's publicity (see poster above). One must remember that back in 1931, other than attending an actual college football game, the only way an ordinary American could encounter college football stars was through the newspapers or radio. Seeing players like the Four Horsemen on the big screen was quite a deal in those days--one also must realize that at the time college football was a much, much bigger sport than the fledgling NFL. 

As a lifelong Fighting Irish football fan, I have to say that while THE SPIRIT OF NOTRE DAME is interesting due to the appearances of so many real ND legends, it isn't much of a fictional story. The true "spirit" of Notre Dame is mostly absent here. 

The print of this film that I viewed on Xumo was very ragged. I'm surprised that, because of the power of the Notre Dame mystique, Universal hasn't attempted to restore this film for proper home video release. (The Fighting Irish connection alone would attract some buyers.) Perhaps there's some rich ND alums in the entertainment industry who could financially help Universal clean up the film? 

Whatever it looks like, THE SPIRIT OF NOTRE DAME will appeal to hardcore buffs of Fighting Irish football history. Just don't expect much of a story....according to sources even the priests that ran Notre Dame in 1931 were not too happy with how the movie turned out.