The story constructed around the basketball play of the legendary Globetrotters is pretty simple, but they sure are fun to watch. Just seeing them standing around in a circle and throw the ball around with their assortment of trick passes, Sweet Georgia Brown playing in the background, was very entertaining (and man, I love that tune). It’s a nice snapshot of the 1951 team, led by Marques Haynes and his silky slick handle, as well as big man Goose Tatum, who clowns around and palms the ball without even using all of his fingers. When a reporter holds his hand up for comparison, it looks like a child’s. The Globetrotters had lots of antics up their sleeves, but also a ton of skill – in 1948 and in 1949, they beat the Minneapolis Lakers, a powerhouse, champion team in the leagues that preceded the NBA (the NBL and BAA) – and this is essentially the team that did that.The love interest (Dorothy Dandridge) is unfortunately not well developed, and if you’re watching for Dandridge you’ll be disappointed, because her role is so small. The subplots involving gamblers and the star young player considering other options are also pretty weak. The real interest, not surprisingly, is in seeing these players on the court. Even if the game footage is often not all that mind-blowing, it does show just how much the game has changed in 70 years, and we get the playful clowning around. The Globetrotters play against all-white teams and in front of an all-white audience, so there is undeniably a racial element here, especially when you consider that the first black man to break the color barrier in the NBA did so only a year earlier (Earl Lloyd, 1950, soon followed by others, including several Globetrotters). The film doesn’t broach the taboo subjects of the racism they encountered which is unfortunate, but I loved how the players are treated as real people. They have families, don’t speak in stereotypical dialect, and their new star player (Billy Brown) was an honors student in college, having made a measured financial decision to play basketball. What a dramatic and welcome change from the depiction of African-Americans in films in the preceding decades.
A small, simple film shows us the pride behind the Globetrotters and the importance of winning for the community that takes away hope from watching them play. It's thematically present too, emphasizing the idea of forgoing schooling to play a professional sport and the benefits of earning game checks. On the surface, it's a breezy human story about the fun-loving Trotters, but at its core, there's a familiar story about following our passions and doing the sensible thing for our lives.As for shooting the games, it was amazing to see The Old Chicago Stadium and Madison Square Garden filled to capacity. The action of the games was captured to understand the joking nature of the Trotter's and their supreme talent. Add in the feeling surrounding the team and the importance of the game, and we get a full scope of the Trotter's. The film also serves as a history lesson for basketball fans unfamiliar with the great history of the Trotter's.It's nothing too complicated and the filmmaking is low-budget and secondary to the story, but still a highly enjoyable experience.
Viewed on TCMThe Harlem Globetrotters (1951) is a film that is filled with wonderful basketball wizardry by the real Harlem Globetrotters in their film debut, which makes this film a lot of fun to watch.The Harlem Globetrotters are excellent entertainers, and this film reminded me of two things. The TV movie The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island (1981) where they play against a team of robots and also Krusty The Clown betting against The Harlem Globetrotters in an episode of The Simpsons (1989 -)sportshandle.com/best-betting-scenes-krusty-bets-against-the-harlem-globetrotters/Some fun facts about The Harlem Globetrotters on Wikipedia:- The Globetrotters originated on the South Side of Chicago in 1926, where all the original players were raised.- The Globetrotters were perennial participants in the World Professional Basketball Tournament, winning it in 1940. In a heavily attended matchup a few years later, the 1948 Globetrotters–Lakers game, the Globetrotters made headlines when they beat one of the best white basketball teams in the country, the Minneapolis Lakers (now the Los Angeles Lakers).-The Globetrotters gradually worked comic routines into their act—a direction the team has credited to Reece "Goose" Tatum, who joined in 1941—and eventually became known more for entertainment than sports.-In 1952, the Globetrotters invited Louis "Red" Klotz to create a team to accompany them on their tours. This team, the Washington Generals (who also played under various other names), became the Globetrotters' primary opponents. The Generals are effectively stooges for the Globetrotters, with the Globetrotters handily defeating them in thousands of games.- While parts of a modern exhibition game are pre-planned, the games themselves are not fixed. While their opponents do not interfere with the Globetrotters' hijinks while on defense, they play a serious game when in possession of the ball and about 20 to 30 percent of a game is "real." This once led to an infamous defeat at the hands of the Washington Generals in 1971, to the distress of the watching crowd, after the Globetrotters lost track of a big lead with their tricks and the Generals hit a game-winning buzzer-beater.-In June 2021, the Globetrotters filed a petition to join the National Basketball Association (NBA) as an expansion franchise.
