Fresh
Fear holds up well, and the climactic showdown between father and son offers a tremendously appealing resolution.
Ty Burr, Entertainment Weekly
Fear Strikes Out
This is Jimmy, balanced on the ragged edge of violence, twisted and trapped by a world he never made…
1957 · 1h 40m · Approved
Drama
Directed by
Robert Mulligan
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Fear Strikes Out
Overview
True story of the life of Jimmy Piersall, who battled mental illness to achieve stardom in major league baseball.
Director and cast
- Robert Mulligan Director
- Anthony Perkins as Jim Piersall
- Karl Malden as John Piersall
- Norma Moore as Mary Piersall
- Adam Williams as Doctor Brown
- Perry Wilson as Mrs. John Piersall
- Peter J. Votrian as Jim Piersall as a Boy
- Richard Bull as Reporter Slade (uncredited)
- Edd Byrnes as Boy in Car Assisting Jimmy Up Stairway (uncredited)
- Morgan Jones as Sandy Allen (uncredited)
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
83%
Tomatometer
Fresh
Anthony Perkins, in the young Piersall role, delivers a remarkably sustained performance of a sensitive young man, pushed too fast to the limits of his ability to cope with life's pressures.
Variety Staff, Variety
Fresh
Mr. Perkins plays the young fellow excellently, not only conveying the gathering torment but also actually looking like a ballplayer on the field.
Bosley Crowther, New York Times
Fresh
Absorbing, but rather clinical, in the rubber-gloves style of 50s television drama.
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
Fresh
Fear Strikes Out rolls Frank Merriwell and Sigmund Freud into a ball and then lines it out for a solid hit.
TIME Magazine
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