Knute Rockne All American (1940)

The story of legendary Notre Dame football player and coach Knute Rockne.

Directors:

Lloyd Bacon, William K. Howard (uncredited)

Writers:

Robert Buckner (original screen play), Mrs. Knute Rockne (based upon: private papers of, and the reports of Rockne's intimate associates and friends) (as Mrs. Rockne)

Stars:

Pat O'Brien, Gale Page, Ronald Reagan

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Pat O'Brien	...	Knute Rockne
Gale Page	...	Bonnie Skiles Rockne
Ronald Reagan	...	George Gipp
Donald Crisp	...	Father John Callahan C.S.C.
Albert Bassermann	...	Father Julius Nieuwland (as Albert Basserman)
John Litel	...	Committee Chairman
Henry O'Neill	...	Doctor Treating Knute
Owen Davis Jr.	...	Charles 'Gus' Dorais
John Qualen	...	Lars Knutson Rockne
Dorothy Tree	...	Martha Rockne
Johnny Sheffield	...	Knute Rockne - Age 7 (as John Sheffield)
Moreau Choir of Notre Dame	...	Moreau Choir (as The Moreau Choir of Notre Dame)
Nick Lukats	...	Harry Stuhldreher - The Four Horsemen
Kane Richmond	...	Elmer Layden - The Four Horsemen
William Marshall	...	Don Miller - The Four Horsemen

Storyline

Lars Rockne and his family, including his four year old son Knute, emigrate to Chicago in 1892 from their native Norway. By his mid-twenties Knute saves enough to attend obscure Notre Dame University, where he excels in football and chemistry. He and a teammate develop the forward pass as an offensive weapon while working as life guards on summer break and use it to upset heavily favored Army in a historic game. After graduation Rockne becomes a teacher while coaching part-time but ultimately abandons academics to devote all his energies to football. During his tenure as head coach at the school, he develops such outstanding players as George Gipp, who dies prematurely from a strep infection, and the Four Horseman while introducing many innovative tactics including the backfield shift. Rockne, known for his staccato motivational speeches, devotes his life to maintaining the integrity of the sport he loves and promoting it as an integral component in the development of the American ...

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Plot Keywords:

norway | national film registry | football | forward pass | coach | 

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | Sport

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 October 1940 (USA)

Also Known As:

Knute Rockne All American

Filming Locations:

Stage 12, Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Mrs. Knute Rockne had approval over the casting and approved Pat O'Brien's make-up and acting without reservations.

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Goofs

The West Point game was played in November, but the weather as shown, hot and dry, is not typical of upstate New York in November.

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Quotes

Knute Rockne: Coach, let us use the forward pass, I know it'll work.
Notre Dame Coach Harper: I'm not so sure. We've never seen it in a game.
Knute Rockne: Neither has the Army, what can we lose?

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Alternate Versions

For years TV prints of "Knute Rockne All-Amercian" deleted about 13 minutes of footage, including the famous "Win one for the Gipper" speech, for legal reasons concerning the George Gipps family. When the US video version was released in 1998, all the deleted scenes were restored, and seen for the first time since the original theatrical showings. The restored, complete print has since been released on DVD (as of 2006) and is now available for television viewings.

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Connections

Featured in Family Classics: Family Classics: Knute Rockne: All American (1963)

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Soundtracks

Happy Land
(uncredited)
Traditional spiritual
Sung by Pat O'Brien as "Boarding House"

User Reviews

Knute Rockne movie more than a showcase for Ronald Reagan and a fun football movie

Knute Rockne, All American (1940 Warner Brothers) starring Pat O'Brien, Ronald Reagan, Donald Crisp, and John Qualan is technically and artistically a splendid movie, far better than its reputation in many circles as mainly a nostalgia movie about one of college football's grand old men (Knute Rockne, long time football coach for Notre Dame University in South Bend Indiana).

It is a movie of which displays the very best talents of Warner Brothers movie studio at the height of it's golden age in the years immediately before USA entry into World War II.

The camera work, the special effects provided by Hollywood cameraman and then future director Byron Haskin (he later directed Walt Disney's "Treasure Island" [1950] and also George Pal's "War Of The Worlds" [1952] movies in the early 1950's and in his old age was interviewed on camera in the 1970's by Kevin Brownlow for the "Hollywood: The Silent Era" documentary series which described Haskin's silent era cameraman days), the slick and wonderful newspaper headline montages which punctuate and advance the movie story (which covers the entire, rather long life of Knute Rockne from his childhood in Norway to his death following decades of service as Notre Dame's football coach of fame) are all breathtaking.

This is no "airhead" movie.

In addition to the great way it captures the physical part of college football, and the charismatic personality of Knute Rockne during his coaching years (and also during his undergrad years as a student football player), the movie takes on the question of what place football and "big sports" have had and should have in the college world, and in American culture generally, and provides viewers with thoughtful, worthwhile answers worth pondering and reviewing often.

But briefly, Knute Rockne, All American (1940 Warner Brother) starring Pat O'Brien and Ronald Reagan is an intelligent movie about a subject many people doubt is intelligent at all....football and other big time contact sports.

Ronald Reagan is given second billing in the beginning credits as the co-star of the movie, Pat O'Brien's main co-star. Yet Reagan's time on the screen (he plays George Gipp, a World War I era Notre Dame University football player of fame who sadly died in his senior year at Notre Dame) is relatively brief.

Reagan's actor performance is underplayed, and quiet to the point of being undramatic. His more hysterical performance as "Drake McHugh" in King's Row (1942 Warner Brothers) two years later is rightly counted his best and most skilled movie actor performance by movie historians (he plays a character in King's Row who has his legs amputated and is spectacular in the scene where he discovers in a hospital recovery room what has happened to him).

This movie is part of the USA Federal Government Library Of Congress National Film Registry List and placed among 475 movies (as of 2010) ranked as important and notable due to aesthetic, cultural, and/ or historical importance.

Knute Rockne, All American (1940 Warner Bros) starring Pat O'Brien and Ronald Reagan is important in all three areas, a sweetheart of a movie worth screening often, truly a cinematic masterpiece not ranked usually among "the great movies," but worthy and excellent in every way.

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Written by Tex Allen, SAG Actor. Visit WWW.IMDb.Com and choose "Tex Allen" "resume" for contact information, movie credits, and biographical information about Tex Allen.

He has reviewed more than 42 movies posted on WWW.IMDb.Com (the world's largest movie information database, owned by Amazon.Com) as of January 2011.

These include: 1. Alfie (1966) 29 July 2009 2. Alien (1979) 24 July 2009 3. All the Loving Couples (1969) 17 January 2011 4. All the President's Men (1976) 16 November 2010 5. American Graffiti (1973) 22 November 2010 6. Animal House (1978) 16 August 2009 7. Bullitt (1968) 23 July 2009 8. Captain Kidd (1945) 28 July 2009 9. Child Bride (1938) 24 September 2009 10. Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) 22 September 2010 11. Destination Moon (1950) 17 January 2011 12. Detour (1945) 19 November 2010 13. Die Hard 2 (1990) 23 December 2010 14. The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl (1993) 19 November 2010 15. Jack and the Beanstalk (1952) 26 July 2009 16. King Solomon's Mines (1950) 1 December 2010 17. Knute Rockne All American (1940) 2 November 2010 18. Claire's Knee (1970) 15 August 2009 19. Melody Ranch (1940) 10 November 2010 20. Morning Glory (1933) 19 November 2010 21. Mush and Milk (1933) 17 January 2011 22. New Moon (1940) 3 November 2010 23. Pinocchio (1940) 6 November 2010 24. R2PC: Road to Park City (2000) 19 November 2010 25. Salt (2010) 24 August 2010 26. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) 21 January 2011 27. Sunset Blvd. (1950) 1 December 2010 28. The Forgotten Village (1941) 21 January 2011 29. The Great Dictator (1940) 1 November 2010 30. The King's Speech (2010) 19 January 2011 31. The Last Emperor (1987) 20 January 2011 32. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) 9 January 2011 33. The Man in the White Suit (1951) 5 August 2009 34. The Philadelphia Story (1940) 5 November 2010 35. The Social Network (2010) 19 January 2011

Written by Tex Allen, SAG-AFTRA movie actor. Visit WWW.IMDb.Me/TexAllen for more information about Tex Allen.

Tex Allen's email address is [e-mail].

See Tes Allen Movie Credits, Biography, and 2012 photos at WWW.IMDb.Me/TexAllen. See other Tex Allen written movie reviews....almost 100 titles.... at: "http://imdb.com/user/ur15279309/comments" (paste this address into your URL Browser)