THE SPY BEHIND HOME PLATE – Review

Most fans of film (especially comedies) may recall this quick three or four-second gag (really, this flick is jam-packed with them) from that iconic 1980 comic smash AIRPLANE. The stewardess is walking up the center aisle, clutching a load of magazines. Spotting a white-haired grandmotherly-type she asks, “Would you care for something to read?” “Do you have anything light?” “How about ‘Famous Jewish Sports Legends’?”. Then Julie Haggerty hands the elderly passenger a very thin (maybe a folded page) leaflet. Got a pretty good chuckle back then (it’s not the “surely Shirley” bit, but…). Well, the subject of this new documentary feature is worthy of a thick book (and he has). It’s a life full of drama and danger, about a man of such varied interests, he could be the hero of a thriller. And he was, in last year’s THE CATCHER WAS A SPY, played by Ant-Man himself, Paul Rudd, no less. So many historical figures and celebrities crossed path with this man, you’d think he might have inspired ZELIG. But no, major league baseball player Mo Berg was very real. And unbeknownst to most of his teammates, and family, he was THE SPY BEHIND HOME PLATE.

Berg’s life is an amazing story, enough for a series of films or a long TV mini-series. He was born to Ukranian Jewish immigrants in 1902. He had a knack for sports (which pharmacist poppa Bernard discouraged) and played baseball at gentile schools under the name “Runty” Wolfe (sounds like the hero of a sports comic strip). Moe studied law, much to his father’s delight, at Princeton, and was one of their baseball team’s standouts (he’d say he was a great “glove-man”, but not much of a hitter). He was recruited by the Brooklyn Robins (later the Dodgers), and begin a pro career that took him to the Chicago White Sox (where he had to choose between law and baseball), the Washington Senators, and the Boston Red Sox. In school, Moe learned a dozen languages, which came in handy when he was part of a baseball goodwill tour in Japan (the sport was getting very popular there). But he was the only member of the group to get a letter from the state department awarding him “diplomatic courtesy”. This aided him when he shot “undercover” 16 mm footage of Tokyo from the top of St. Luke’s Hospital (this was in 1934 as Japan was building up their military). In between trips and cruises around the globe, Moe was a frequent contestant on the radio quiz show “Information Please”, sort of a Jeopardy precursor. Later, when the US entered WWII, Moe was recruited by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS later the CIA), along with many civilians and some celebrities, to be an undercover operative in Europe. As the war neared its end, Moe followed the European scientific community to find out just how much progress Germany was making towards nuclear weapons. His “double life’ was more thrilling than a doubleheader.

How’s that old expression go? If somebody thought this up it would be dismissed as ridiculous or far-fetched. Yes, truth is stranger and perhaps more improbable than fiction, at least when it relates to Mr. Berg. Director/screenwriter Aviva Kempner keeps his “cradle to grave” story rolling at a brisk speed (perhaps faster than Berg’s slow trot to first base, according to sportswriters of the day), making ample use of family photos, archival footage (those bustling streets filled to the brim with vendors just outside those towering tenements), interviews (especially Moe’s older brother Sam), new interviews with baseball players, managers, and historians, and period pop music (lots of big band standards). They reveal many surprises. Father Bernard never saw Moe play baseball (Sam shows us how his pop with spit in disgust at the mere mention of the sport), while Mama Rose would scoop up neighbors to join her at the ballpark. Plus there’s film and new stories about Moe’s more famous acquaintances. He’s on the Japan tour with Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth (seems that Moe was quite taken with Ruth’s 18-year-old daughter, unlike the “sexually fluid” Berg of the Paul Rudd movie). We get to hear Moe dazzle radio audiences with his knowledge (a “book smart jock”). As war approaches, Kempner tells us of the influence of British intelligence on the OSS, mainly via several meetings with Ian Fleming (yes, of 007 fame). On his advice, the OSS goes after citizens like Berg and Marlene Dietrich (she cut records that had anti-Nazi messages). To help illustrate the US spy efforts, clips from then-current Hollywood films are intercut (there’s Alan Ladd and Gary Cooper). The only time the doc stumbles is the detour into the race for nuclear power. Retellings of the Manhatten Project and Werner Heisenberg (hey “Breaking Bad” fans) take several precious minutes away from the journey of Berg. Luckily the film gets “back on track” as it tells of that scientist’s near assassination by Berg (see the Rudd flick for more focus on that). This is another astounding tale of the “greatest generation”, one with more detours and twists than any five Hollywood true spy thrillers. History really comes alive in THE SPY BEHIND HOME PLATE. It doesn’t hit one out of the park, but it’s a solid triple, and so it gets….

3 Out of 4 Stars

THE SPY BEHIND HOME PLATE opens everywhere and screens exclusively in St. Louis at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas