Das letzte Spiel (1973)

Das letzte Spiel: Directed by John D. Hancock. With Michael Moriarty, Robert De Niro, Vincent Gardenia, Phil Foster. The story of the friendship between a worldly-wise star pitcher and a half-wit catcher as they cope with the catcher’s terminal illness through a baseball season.

“Robert DeNiro looked so young in this picture I hardly recognized him and the role he played is unbelievable. This is however, a good baseball film with many veteran actors giving great supporting roles. In this picture Bruce Pearson, (DeNiro) plays the role of a simple minded catcher who was made fun of by all of the team players except one guy, Henry Wiggen, (Michael Moriarty) who stood by Bruce and gave him all the moral support and good advice to deal with his situation. It seems when the players got off of Bruceu0026#39;s back, he was able to hit home runs and had more pep as a catcher. Henry brings Bruce to the Mayo Clinic in Minneapolis and there was bad news for poor Bruce. Henry agreed not to tell anyone about the findings at the clinic and this is when the story gets funny at times and it hits a rather sad note. Entertaining film and great to see DeNiro just starting a great career on the silver screen. Enjoy”