For anyone still wondering, older Dotti is NOT Geena Davis in prosthetics! Studio ADR simply replaced older actor Lynn Cartwright's spoken voice with Ms. Davis'. The two actors had such great likeness because the film's dauntless director really auditioned actors (who also had to be ball players) nationwide, yet found the perfect older actor living in Hollywood!
This wholesome 1992 classic is director Penny Marshall's legacy (d.2018), since her own family situation parallels the subject-matter so well: she herself was a feminist, a baseball-loving tomboy, and an oft-overlooked sibling of tv maven Garry Marshall. After watching a 27min documentary (removed from YouTube) about the AAGPBL, she realized a feature film had to be made. Eventually Penny herself had to step up as its director.
As Penny tells it (emmytvlegends.org 28 Jan 2016), precisely zero female Hollywood writers were keen on writing a (wrongly presumed to be gay-focused) screenplay about the AAGPBL. So, keeping her discoveries, the incipient 1988 documentarians Kim Wilson & Kelly Candaele on the project as Story Consultants, Penny turned to her longtime friend, baseball-loving Laverne&Shirley co-creator Lowell Ganz and his writing partner "Babaloo" Mandel to finally fictionalise a movie about still-living real people! They and the documentarians did a glorious job. Ganz&Mandel's reputations burgeoned after this film; they became showrunners of both the 1993, and of the 2022 spinoff series too.
Their brilliant homage--based on the real AAGPBL's Dorothy"Kammie" Kamenshek and the Callaghan sisters (apparently Marge was convinced to follow her sister Helen into the league by their own father)--eventually changed a lot after Madonna "agreed" to be in the film. According to 2023 tell-all book "NO CRYING IN BASEBALL" by Erin Carlson, Madonna (whose pointedly hetero-casting for AAGPBL "wildwomen" Faye Dancer &Pepper Paire Davis) drew much internal criticism during filming. Debra Winger, during her first 3months as Dotti, objected to Madonna's casting, and departed the project. Winger felt Madonna would twist this ensemble story into an "Elvis movie"(prima donna vehicle), because Madonna at first didn't know how to inspire--only threaten and challenge--her co-stars. To combat Madonna's attitude on set (confirmed in interviews), Rosie O'Donell's main job afterwards became wrangling Madonna. In befriending her, O'Donnell finally taught Madonna to play baseball, although still only like a dancer, as their director often complained, and what Tom Hanks called Madonna's "step-step-kick-FLING!" style (in HBO-First-Look). Eventually Madonna did well; none of her behind-the-scenes diva appears on-screen, except as comedy about All-the-Way-Mae's sexual prowess. Her performance is usually capped-off, hilariously, by her standup-comedian wrangler; plus she's helped by an incognito look with her dark-brown hair and surprisingly tiny physique.
And "Ro" & "Mo" in real life are still best buds 30+ years later.
Geena Davis wasn't a baseball player either, but as a real archery athlete, despite her very late casting, she soon outshone her Peaches "teammates"(actors) at baseball. Her diffident performance now embodies Dotti probably better than either Debra Winger or Demi Moore would have, and Davis' temperament matches her onscreen husband Bob (Bill Pullman)'s, making their onscreen marriage look extremely healthy.
Tom Hanks is unavoidably likeable even as gruff, alcoholic-has-been manager Jimmy Dugan (based mainly on AAGPBL's Jimmie Foxx). His trickiest performance is his hungover, mushmouth-tirade outside the bus, capped ever-so-perfectly again by Doris (O'Donnell):"Was that ENGLISH??"...after his embarrassed "frenching" of chaperone Ms. Cuthbert (Pauline Brailsford). Back on the bus Jimmy hilariously "compliments" Ms. Cuthbert for resembling the (1938) Wizard of Oz witch! Dugan's drunkard character introduction really began with his peeing in the locker-room sink (never washing his hands), then shredding Betty Spaghetti (Tracy Reiner)'s husband's precious baseball card with those same fingers! Sharp-eyed viewers will catch this as Hanks' incipient bladder-related cutesy career bit.
Marla (Megan Cavanagh, Maid Marian's hefty-but-pretty chaperone in Men in Tights(1993)) Hooch's looks--and maybe name--proceed to launch an epic running gag of her being seen as the ugly/backwards tomboy; but audiences should really expect her eventual triumph with just a change in circumstances. Marla's surprising life journey benefits greatly from her warm single-father (Eddie Jones)'s loving indulgence of her talent, not her deportment.
In retrospect many beloved (final) cast members deserve kudos--so jolting in these early roles--such as Tea Leoni (a Racine 1stBaseman, now Madame Secretary), David Strathairn (nervous Mr Lowenstein here, Klaes Ashford on The Expanse), Penny's big brother Garry Marshall (Walter Harvey, whose HarveyBars are "fed to the cows when they're constipated" here, hilariously similar TV executive Edmund Edwards in Soapdish (1991)), Ann Cusack (the adorably illiterate Shirley Baker here, Warden Theresa Porter on Castle Rock), Don Davis (Racine manager here, General Hammond in Stargate:SG-1), Joey Slotnick (half of No.22's fan club here, Dr. Merril Bobolit in Nip/Tuck), and Harry Shearer (B&W newsreel narrator here, no less than 21 roles on The Simpsons).
But it's Jon Lovitz who steals the movie as Ernie Capadino. His "external" monologue is so sarcastically rooted in the 1940s that he trumps all in this role actually written for him. My favorite of his explosions is at chickens:"...keep these wild animals away from me! Haven't you ever heard of a LEASH?!?" Sadly, only his most outrageous improvs were kept in the film. Disappointingly, Lovitz himself only appears inthe first act.
Both the opening- and closing-credit theme songs are tear-jerkers. "Now and Forever" is a Grammy-nominated 1992 hit written especially for the film by tunesmith/singer-songwriter Carole King; while the film's epilogue & closing credits roll to Madonna's equally good "This Used to be My Playground". Additionally, Hans Zimmer's evocative, perfectly timed-to-the-action soundtrack is an awesome showcase of what a soundtrack should be.
The LGBTQIA-toned 2022-2023 spinoff has now stalled, partly due to dried-up 1940s queer storylines. Penny declined a 1992 queer tone largely because the AAGPBL was composed mostly of tomboys, not lesbians. 1940s orientations remained inexplicit and not discussed, apart from players in open-secret relationships with each other--which would've become a distraction from the film's feminism of women doing Rosie-the-Riveter jobs admirably. The film's most telling and core feminist line is Doris(O'Donnell)'s bus rebellion against her fiancée: "[You're right:]...looks aren't the most important thing; the important thing is that he's stupid, out of work, and treats me bad"!
These days I just marvel at the richly crafted 1992 SudsBucket scene. It single-handedly became transformative for most of the ensemble characters, incl Mae (a former professional "taxi" dancer looking for a better life), Doris (who almost outs herself as a former bouncer), Marla (whose looks are stunningly rehabilitated here), Dotti (who is cemented in this scene as their true coach, looking out for the players far better than their drunkard male coach), and even Kitt (a corrosively resentful "shorty" finally thanking her sis). Such awesome exposition in this single origin-scene!
Penny's nod to the racial segregation of post-war ProBaseball is represented by a beloved cameo of a trailblazing Black woman hard-throwing a wayward ball. The knowing civilian is played by present-day Evansville softball player DeLisa Chinn-Tyler (uncredited!), written into the film after being unused as a (filmic) league tryout. This scene became the screenplay's honorable reference to Mamie "Peanut" Johnson, who was one of only three 1950s Pro Black women in the segregated Negro Leagues.
The flashback's ending hits us like Christopher Nolan's Inception (2010), with matching ambiguity concerning Dotti's ball. Audiences find it the most vexing thing about the film.
SPOILER:--------------------The intended ambiguity hints at/actually reveals Dotti's sacrifice: her massive professional lie reversing Kit's thousand-paper-cuts-experience is the price Dotti just had to pay, once she'd grown psychologically unable to watch just one more disappointment borne by her little sister--especially at Dotti's hand. The prologue of old Dotti with her grandsons reveals she has no zero-sum-bias: she kindly shepherds their physical inequality into a fairer competition. She'd done that with her ungrateful sister for 44+ years. It's why Dotti was "nervous" around Kit's husband--who probably always wanted to dredge up the ball business. As written, Kit instead WAS a zero-sum-game thinker--something psychologists now accept as making such people into untrusting/untrustworthy, lifelong point-scorers.
This wholesome 1992 classic is director Penny Marshall's legacy (d.2018), since her own family situation parallels the subject-matter so well: she herself was a feminist, a baseball-loving tomboy, and an oft-overlooked sibling of tv maven Garry Marshall. After watching a 27min documentary (removed from YouTube) about the AAGPBL, she realized a feature film had to be made. Eventually Penny herself had to step up as its director.
As Penny tells it (emmytvlegends.org 28 Jan 2016), precisely zero female Hollywood writers were keen on writing a (wrongly presumed to be gay-focused) screenplay about the AAGPBL. So, keeping her discoveries, the incipient 1988 documentarians Kim Wilson & Kelly Candaele on the project as Story Consultants, Penny turned to her longtime friend, baseball-loving Laverne&Shirley co-creator Lowell Ganz and his writing partner "Babaloo" Mandel to finally fictionalise a movie about still-living real people! They and the documentarians did a glorious job. Ganz&Mandel's reputations burgeoned after this film; they became showrunners of both the 1993, and of the 2022 spinoff series too.
Their brilliant homage--based on the real AAGPBL's Dorothy"Kammie" Kamenshek and the Callaghan sisters (apparently Marge was convinced to follow her sister Helen into the league by their own father)--eventually changed a lot after Madonna "agreed" to be in the film. According to 2023 tell-all book "NO CRYING IN BASEBALL" by Erin Carlson, Madonna (whose pointedly hetero-casting for AAGPBL "wildwomen" Faye Dancer &Pepper Paire Davis) drew much internal criticism during filming. Debra Winger, during her first 3months as Dotti, objected to Madonna's casting, and departed the project. Winger felt Madonna would twist this ensemble story into an "Elvis movie"(prima donna vehicle), because Madonna at first didn't know how to inspire--only threaten and challenge--her co-stars. To combat Madonna's attitude on set (confirmed in interviews), Rosie O'Donell's main job afterwards became wrangling Madonna. In befriending her, O'Donnell finally taught Madonna to play baseball, although still only like a dancer, as their director often complained, and what Tom Hanks called Madonna's "step-step-kick-FLING!" style (in HBO-First-Look). Eventually Madonna did well; none of her behind-the-scenes diva appears on-screen, except as comedy about All-the-Way-Mae's sexual prowess. Her performance is usually capped-off, hilariously, by her standup-comedian wrangler; plus she's helped by an incognito look with her dark-brown hair and surprisingly tiny physique.
And "Ro" & "Mo" in real life are still best buds 30+ years later.
Geena Davis wasn't a baseball player either, but as a real archery athlete, despite her very late casting, she soon outshone her Peaches "teammates"(actors) at baseball. Her diffident performance now embodies Dotti probably better than either Debra Winger or Demi Moore would have, and Davis' temperament matches her onscreen husband Bob (Bill Pullman)'s, making their onscreen marriage look extremely healthy.
Tom Hanks is unavoidably likeable even as gruff, alcoholic-has-been manager Jimmy Dugan (based mainly on AAGPBL's Jimmie Foxx). His trickiest performance is his hungover, mushmouth-tirade outside the bus, capped ever-so-perfectly again by Doris (O'Donnell):"Was that ENGLISH??"...after his embarrassed "frenching" of chaperone Ms. Cuthbert (Pauline Brailsford). Back on the bus Jimmy hilariously "compliments" Ms. Cuthbert for resembling the (1938) Wizard of Oz witch! Dugan's drunkard character introduction really began with his peeing in the locker-room sink (never washing his hands), then shredding Betty Spaghetti (Tracy Reiner)'s husband's precious baseball card with those same fingers! Sharp-eyed viewers will catch this as Hanks' incipient bladder-related cutesy career bit.
Marla (Megan Cavanagh, Maid Marian's hefty-but-pretty chaperone in Men in Tights(1993)) Hooch's looks--and maybe name--proceed to launch an epic running gag of her being seen as the ugly/backwards tomboy; but audiences should really expect her eventual triumph with just a change in circumstances. Marla's surprising life journey benefits greatly from her warm single-father (Eddie Jones)'s loving indulgence of her talent, not her deportment.
In retrospect many beloved (final) cast members deserve kudos--so jolting in these early roles--such as Tea Leoni (a Racine 1stBaseman, now Madame Secretary), David Strathairn (nervous Mr Lowenstein here, Klaes Ashford on The Expanse), Penny's big brother Garry Marshall (Walter Harvey, whose HarveyBars are "fed to the cows when they're constipated" here, hilariously similar TV executive Edmund Edwards in Soapdish (1991)), Ann Cusack (the adorably illiterate Shirley Baker here, Warden Theresa Porter on Castle Rock), Don Davis (Racine manager here, General Hammond in Stargate:SG-1), Joey Slotnick (half of No.22's fan club here, Dr. Merril Bobolit in Nip/Tuck), and Harry Shearer (B&W newsreel narrator here, no less than 21 roles on The Simpsons).
But it's Jon Lovitz who steals the movie as Ernie Capadino. His "external" monologue is so sarcastically rooted in the 1940s that he trumps all in this role actually written for him. My favorite of his explosions is at chickens:"...keep these wild animals away from me! Haven't you ever heard of a LEASH?!?" Sadly, only his most outrageous improvs were kept in the film. Disappointingly, Lovitz himself only appears inthe first act.
Both the opening- and closing-credit theme songs are tear-jerkers. "Now and Forever" is a Grammy-nominated 1992 hit written especially for the film by tunesmith/singer-songwriter Carole King; while the film's epilogue & closing credits roll to Madonna's equally good "This Used to be My Playground". Additionally, Hans Zimmer's evocative, perfectly timed-to-the-action soundtrack is an awesome showcase of what a soundtrack should be.
The LGBTQIA-toned 2022-2023 spinoff has now stalled, partly due to dried-up 1940s queer storylines. Penny declined a 1992 queer tone largely because the AAGPBL was composed mostly of tomboys, not lesbians. 1940s orientations remained inexplicit and not discussed, apart from players in open-secret relationships with each other--which would've become a distraction from the film's feminism of women doing Rosie-the-Riveter jobs admirably. The film's most telling and core feminist line is Doris(O'Donnell)'s bus rebellion against her fiancée: "[You're right:]...looks aren't the most important thing; the important thing is that he's stupid, out of work, and treats me bad"!
These days I just marvel at the richly crafted 1992 SudsBucket scene. It single-handedly became transformative for most of the ensemble characters, incl Mae (a former professional "taxi" dancer looking for a better life), Doris (who almost outs herself as a former bouncer), Marla (whose looks are stunningly rehabilitated here), Dotti (who is cemented in this scene as their true coach, looking out for the players far better than their drunkard male coach), and even Kitt (a corrosively resentful "shorty" finally thanking her sis). Such awesome exposition in this single origin-scene!
Penny's nod to the racial segregation of post-war ProBaseball is represented by a beloved cameo of a trailblazing Black woman hard-throwing a wayward ball. The knowing civilian is played by present-day Evansville softball player DeLisa Chinn-Tyler (uncredited!), written into the film after being unused as a (filmic) league tryout. This scene became the screenplay's honorable reference to Mamie "Peanut" Johnson, who was one of only three 1950s Pro Black women in the segregated Negro Leagues.
The flashback's ending hits us like Christopher Nolan's Inception (2010), with matching ambiguity concerning Dotti's ball. Audiences find it the most vexing thing about the film.
SPOILER:--------------------The intended ambiguity hints at/actually reveals Dotti's sacrifice: her massive professional lie reversing Kit's thousand-paper-cuts-experience is the price Dotti just had to pay, once she'd grown psychologically unable to watch just one more disappointment borne by her little sister--especially at Dotti's hand. The prologue of old Dotti with her grandsons reveals she has no zero-sum-bias: she kindly shepherds their physical inequality into a fairer competition. She'd done that with her ungrateful sister for 44+ years. It's why Dotti was "nervous" around Kit's husband--who probably always wanted to dredge up the ball business. As written, Kit instead WAS a zero-sum-game thinker--something psychologists now accept as making such people into untrusting/untrustworthy, lifelong point-scorers.
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