In 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to compete in Major League Baseball when he played first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Shortly thereafter, the screenplay for The Jackie Robinson Story started doing the rounds in Hollywood, but no major studio was interested unless the focus was changed from Robinson to a white man teaching him how to play. Two years later, Robinson was called upon to testify before the House of Un-American Activities Committee to refute Paul Robeson’s claim that blacks would not fight for America against Russia. Suddenly a film about the baseball star seemed more palatable.  

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Before production could commence though, Dodgers’ president Branch Rickey insisted on a few conditions. One was that filming could not interfere with Robinson’s spring training, necessitating a tight thirty-day shooting schedule. Another was that the screenplay be amended to include more of the racial abuse Robinson faced leading up to and including his first year with the Dodgers. It was a significant improvement, for before these scenes The Jackie Robinson Story is an amiable enough film extolling the virtues of baseball, America and hard work. Once Robinson signs on with the Dodgers however, shit gets real.

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“I want a ball player with guts enough not to fight back” Rickey explains to Robinson on their first meeting, and that requirement is sorely put to the test. During his season in the minor Leagues teammates are reluctant to practice with him, his coach doesn’t think of him as a human being and exhibition matches are cancelled because of his inclusion. A step up to the majors is followed by a step up in the abuse. Crowds jeer his every appearance at the plate, opposing teams taunt him with such tropes as shoeshine boxes and watermelons and he gets a visit from the Ku Klux Klan. The fact that Robinson himself is reliving these moments for the camera adds a degree of potency to what are unexpectedly hard-hitting scenes.

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Portraying himself, Jackie Robinson’s acting is on par with his fellow cast members, which is alas faint praise. Despite the presence of such names as Ruby Dee and Louise Beavers, the performances barely manage to prevail over the film’s lack of time and budget. One exception is Minor Watson, who turns in a memorable performance as Branch Rickey. Though his scenes tend towards the speechifying, they are done so with a conviction that lifts the film above its limitations.

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The film concludes with a fictional version of Robinson’s appearance before HUAC in which he praises American democracy while being superimposed with the Statue of Liberty. His actual testimony, taken in its entirety, was somewhat less black and white. “The fact that it is a communist who denounces injustice in the courts, police brutality, and lynching when it happens doesn’t change the truth of the charges… Negroes were stirred up long before there was a Communist Party, and they’ll stay stirred up long after the party has disappeared”.​​