With its combination of high-impact action and youthful players, football has always been a natural choice for the movies, as in this MGM programmer. The story of four city toughs who find their calling when a judge hands them over to college football coach Preston Foster for a little discipline provided a showcase for young studio leading man Robert Young. As the leader of a group dubbed the Bombers, he's tempted to break training to bet on their games and even considers dropping out of college to go pro (at the urging of a member's brother, played by Ted Healey, founder of The Three Stooges). He even finds romance with pretty young Betty Furness. The Bombers were loosely modeled on the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame, the 1924 team's legendary backfield. That's not surprising, as one of the film's sources was "The Gravy Game," a story co-written by Horseman Harry Stuhldreher. The film also features a surprisingly serious turn by Stu Erwin as the Bomber who's sidelined by an injury and nurses a crush on Furness. Two years later, he would win an Oscar® nomination for a more characteristically comic turn as a hick who becomes a college football star in Pigskin Parade (1936).

By Frank Miller