Note the billing. Based on Eleanor Gehrig’s autobiography ‘My Luke and I’, this biopic recounts the years Eleanor shared with the famed baseballer from her viewpoint. Going beyond the ‘endless honeymoon’ depicted in The Pride of the Yankees, this made-for-TV film also delves into the years following Gehrig’s ‘luckiest man on the face of the earth’ speech. Yet discerning exactly which stage is being depicted can be troublesome, given the abundance of haphazard flashbacks. Paradoxically, despite constantly jumping between timeframes, the film suffers from a fatally sluggish pace.

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Using the writing of the autobiography as a framing device, the film opens with Eleanor seated in an empty Yankee Stadium talking to the book’s co-author Joseph Durso. Flashback to Lou entering the Mayo clinic, but not for too long, as focus soon shifts to Eleanor drilling the doctors about her husband’s condition. Flashback to Eleanor Twitchell playing cards with her friends, who conspire to introduce her to the socially awkward Lou. Their brief encounter is concluded by a flashforward to you-know-who waiting in her husband’s room at the clinic. Shortly after he enters, we flash forward (I think) to Eleanor having a nightmare before flashing back to the Twitchell household where Eleanor receives a gift from her new admirer… and all of this occurs in the film’s first twenty minutes!

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There follows a sequence of the two lovers exchanging letters, each narrated by their sender. Further voiceovers are provided by the authors of the autobiography. Durso telegraphs the next scene with such leading questions as “How did you first meet Lou?” while Eleanor narrates over old newsreels. Footage of the New York Yankees are included here, which is the only depiction of Gehrig at the plate. There is one shot of him smashing a ball at spring training and another of him playing catch with Eleanor, but that comes after the first symptoms of ALS appear.

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​Despite a strong cast the performances rarely rise above the material. Blythe Danner attempts to approximate contemporary screwball comedies by talking fast and running faster but is undone by a witless script. Edward Herrmann’s portrayal of an honest, earnest man is honest, earnest … and bland. Patricia Neal labours against the afflictions of her stroke but is accommodated by the fact her role struggles with the English language. Only Ramon Bieri, who is ideally cast as Babe Ruth, manages to inject some life into the film.

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In summing up her time with Lou, Eleanor states that they were “six years of joy, two years of anguish and I wouldn’t trade any of it.”  A nice sentiment, though I wish I could trade the 97 mins it took to watch this film.