Decathlon Champion: The Story of Glenn Morris (1937)
*** (out of 4)
Another nice short from Pete Smith and MGM discusses what it took for Glenn Morris, a poor farm kid, to get his body in shape so that he could quickly conquer ten different events and get ready for the 1936 Olympics. Morris would go onto try various things in his life but this short keeps its eye on his athletic career and makes for a good way to spend ten-minutes. For the most part the film does a wonderful job at keeping one entertained as well as informed on all the events that Morris went through to get ready for the Olympics. It was rather funny seeing how he originally got in shape and how all this early training was the perfect fit to get him ready for Berlin. Morris plays himself throughout the film and the re-enactments are quite good, although actual footage from the Berlin Olympics would have been better. The direction is nice throughout as is the narration by Smith.