Sports and big teeth. Burt Lancaster sets his jaw and plays one of America's greatest athletes, the wondrous Jim Thorpe, a Native American who captured gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, only to be stripped of them because he had played
semiprofessional baseball, violating his amateur status.
This biopic begins with Billy Gray portraying Thorpe as a youth on an Oklahoma reservation. Lancaster takes over as Thorpe matriculates to the all-Indian college at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he begins playing football to impress Margaret Miller (Phyllis Thaxter), his college sweetheart and
future wife. Coached by the legendary G...
Released:
1951
Rated:
NR
Length:
107 mins