The Spirit of Notre Dame

7/19/2020

I saw this Universal film (from the same year as Frankenstein) on a very degraded print on You Tube. The film works well though at capturing a moment in history, showing the American Football talents of Notre Dame at a point in time immediately after the death of their well regarded coach, Knute Rockne. Indeed Rockne was on his way to Hollywood to be an advisor on this film when the plane he was in crashed, ending a legendary career. He is portrayed in this film simply as the un-named character of 'Coach' played by an actor who bares a close resemblance to the Rockne of later years. Unusually the film adopts a very distinct two act structure; the first covering the arrival of neophyte player Lew Ayres at university and his gradual acceptance by his peers due to his grit and determina