The Spirit of Notre Dame (1931) — set here, shot at Universal City

Released 13 October 1931 · Universal Pictures · the film Rockne died travelling to make

The contract trip: The Notre Dame Alumnus told the story of this film's making under the title "How 'The Spirit of Notre Dame' Was Made," and its account — reprinted in Dorothy Corson's history of the university's legends and lore, from which this entry takes it — is the production record of the strangest origin in American sports film. In 1930, the magazine says, permission was obtained from Knute Rockne to make a moving picture in which he was to play an actual role on the screen. The various elements of the feature had been incorporated into a contract, and the contract was to be signed on a certain day; in order to keep that engagement, Rockne took off on the airplane trip that killed him, over Kansas, on 31 March 1931. His last letter, left on his desk, survives in the same account: "The only thing is I thought perhaps there might be a chance to put out a picture that might be instructive and educational as regards Notre Dame in every sense of the word."

The memorial that replaced it: Out of the pieces, the Alumnus says, Christy Walsh — Rockne's agent and the syndicator of his name — Carl Laemmle, Jr., of Universal, and the president of the university, Father Charles O'Donnell, created something more significant than the picture Rockne was to star in: a memorial, in which those who admired him most could honour him. A writer, Dale Van Every, was sent to Notre Dame, where he lived the life of a student for three weeks, absorbed the place's traditions and its tales of athletic prowess, and took his story back to Universal City to whip it into shape. There the film was made — the Alumnus's own photograph caption says it without embarrassment: the picture of the players gathered around Lew Ayres "was filmed in Hollywood and is a replica of the Dining Halls on the campus." The Spirit of Notre Dame is therefore this section's one full entry of its kind: a feature set at Notre Dame, populated by Notre Dame, dedicated to Notre Dame's dead coach — and shot in California, in rooms built to imitate the campus three weeks of one writer's residence had taught him.

The film itself: Russell Mack directed, for Carl Laemmle, Jr.'s Universal, from a screenplay credited to Walter DeLeon, Robert Keith, Richard Schayer and Van Every. Lew Ayres, fresh from All Quiet on the Western Front, plays Bucky O'Brien, the country boy who becomes the team's ball-carrying hero; J. Farrell MacDonald plays the Coach, the unnamed figure of Rockne; and around them the production cast the genuine article — the Four Horsemen themselves, Don Miller, Elmer Layden, Jim Crowley and Harry Stuhldreher, with Frank Carideo, twice an All-American quarterback, and a bench of former Notre Dame players, Father Broughal of the university serving as technical adviser. The Hollywood Reporter, quoted in the Alumnus, called it "the best college picture since the coming of talkies... It is good because it is real... it is Notre Dame." The film was released on 13 October 1931, dedicated to the coach who had died flying to sign for it, and it is now, as Corson notes, all but forgotten — but its production is the documented hinge between the campus and the screen: the cooperation that produced it is the same cooperation Warner Bros. sought nine years later, and that no production obtained again between 1940 and 1992.

Sources

1. Notre Dame Alumnus, "How 'The Spirit of Notre Dame' Was Made," as reprinted in Dorothy V. Corson, The Spirit of Notre Dame: Its History, Legends and Lore (the university's own site, nd.edu) — the 1930 permission; the contract and the fatal trip; Walsh, Laemmle, Jr. and Father O'Donnell remaking the picture as a memorial; Van Every's three weeks; the caption recording the Hollywood filming and the replica dining hall; Rockne's last letter; the trade reviews quoted.
2. The film's published credits — Universal Pictures; directed by Russell Mack; produced by Carl Laemmle, Jr.; screenplay by Walter DeLeon, Robert Keith, Richard Schayer and Dale Van Every; Lew Ayres, Sally Blane, William Bakewell, Andy Devine, Harry Barris, J. Farrell MacDonald; Frank Carideo and the Four Horsemen among the players; released 13 October 1931.
3. The Events and People histories in this record — Rockne's death, 31 March 1931, cross-referenced at pointer size.