Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious:
The Making of 'Mary Poppins
Cobb (1994)
Ron Shelton’s directorial debut, Bull Durham, is ranked as one of the best baseball movies of all time. His follow-up film, Blaze, was a biopic. Then, after the critical and commercial success of White Men Can’t Jump, Shelton combined the themes of his first two films for Cobb, a biopic about a baseballer. However the genre it most belongs to is 'road movie' which is appropriate given that it’s a bit of a car wreck, both figuratively and literally.
After Ty Cobb and his would-be biographer Al Stump exchange unpleasantries, the two embark on an excruciatingly long and unfunny car chase down a snowbound Donner Pass. Not content with wrecking his own car, Cobb commandeers Stump’s vehicle and proceeds to crash that on the outskirts of Reno. Bunking down for the night, Cobb threatens to rape a cigarette girl at gunpoint, only to reveal that all he really wants is for her to say they had sex. Hilarious! As the pair extend their road trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Stump decides to write two versions of Cobb’s biography. One that will meet with Cobb’s approval and another that tells the truth.
But does it? Later research strongly indicates that many of Stump’s stories are nothing but outrageous fabrications (see Real vs Reel). Even putting this controversy to one side, Cobb still leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. Vile scenarios are played for laughs under the mistaken belief that if everybody shouts the meanness will be drowned out. Tommy Lee Jones portrays Cobb as if he is auditioning for his upcoming role as Two-Face in Batman Forever, but seems content in only showing one side of his character. Meanwhile Robert Wuhl, in his role as Al Stump, does this little more than stand around with his mouth agape.
Shelton’s next two films, Tin Cup and Play It to the Bone, continued the sporting theme with diminishing returns. He did however get the cigarette girl, marrying actress Lolita Davidovich in 1997.
as Ty Cobb
Eloy Casados as Louis Prima, Paula Rudyas Keely Smith and Brian Mulligan as Charlie Chaplin
Biopic depicts Cobb’s father being killed with a shotgun. Yet despite Stump selling a shotgun that he said was the one used in the shooting, Cobb’s mother actually shot her husband with a pistol. It is further claimed that Stump sold Cobb's letters and diaries which were later discovered to be forgeries.
According to Charles Leerhsen, author of ‘Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty’, Cobb never sharpened his spikes. In fact, he asked the major league to get players to dull their new spikes with a file and have umpires inspect them for excessive sharpness before each game.
'The National Pastime' journal examined contemporary autopsy records and newspaper reports and found no evidence to support the story that Cobb killed a would-be assailant.
“[Cobb abusing the cigarette girl] was not in the original screenplay. That is something that Al and I came up with during the shoot. It felt like the sort of thing that Cobb might do.”
Writer/director Ron Shelton
Biopic makes no mention of Ty Cobb's starring role in the 1917 six-part feature Somewhere in Georgia.