Tall Story Reviews

Looking much more at home on a basketball court than he did on the diamond (FEAR STRIKES OUT), Anthony Perkins costars with Jane Fonda (making her film debut) in this mostly unfunny romantic comedy based on a play by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, which was in turn adapted from Howard Nemerov's novel The Homecoming Game. June (Fonda), a tall girl, matriculates to Custer College, home of one of the nation's finest men's basketball teams, hoping to land a husband from among the school's talented cagers. Setting her sights on Ray (Perkins), an All-American who also has a brain, she enrolls in the same classes as Ray and lands a cheerleading gig. In short order, Ray is proposing marriage, but, worried about coming up with the funds to start their life together, he becomes susceptible to a gambler's bribe to throw an upcoming contest with the Russian national team. Letting his moral quandary get in the way of his studies, Ray fails an exam and becomes ineligible; however, the class's instructor (Ray Walston) allows the star player to retake the exam orally, and Ray makes a last-minute appearance on the court, saving the day.