The Champ
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Movie Reviews of The Champ
Movie Review: A three hankie movie that will also make you laugh
Summary: 5 Stars
This almost eighty-year old film will bring both a tear and a smile. It is the story of washed-up and somewhat alcoholic boxer Andy Purcell, just known as "Champ" to everyone, including his adoring little son, "Dink", played by Jackie Cooper. It's as though life has really ceased to have meaning for the Champ ever since he lost his championship status. The only thing that continues to give his life meaning is his son. The Champ isn't exactly providing a wholesome environment for Dink. Dink hangs out in pool halls with his Dad, isn't enrolled in school, and sits up nights alone in their dingy room waiting for the Champ to come home when he is out on a drinking binge. Champ's ex-wife, socialite Linda, sees Andy and Dink at the racetrack one day and tries to convince Andy that Dink would be better off with her. At first the Champ is unpersuaded. However, when he gets a hold of a good sum of money and gambles it away and winds up in the drunk tank overnight he decides that maybe it is for the best if Dink goes with Linda.
Wallace Beery had some lean times after motion pictures transitioned to sound, however he got a new lease on his career at MGM, and it turned out that his coarse voice attracted fans rather than repelled them. He won a well-deserved Best Actor award for his role, but if there had been a Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1931 it would have gone to nine-year old Jackie Cooper. He is comic as the street-wise kid meeting his half-sister for the first time - "The d ame is goofy" he remarks. He is heart-rending when the Champ tells him he doesn't want him around any more, that he's tired of feeding him, just so he'll go with his mother.
A minor point that made this film so refreshing for me is that nobody tries to "lawyer up" or turn Dink's fate into a courtroom battle. Everyone deals with everyone else in this film on decent human terms. In the end the Champ tries to regain the championship so he can provide a good life for his son and so that his son can respect him, not so that he can win a custody fight.
There are two extras on the DVD. One is the 1930 two-strip Technicolor short Cr azy House, the other is a radio production of The Champ with Wallace Beery. Cr azy Horse was a pleasant surprise. It stars comic Benny Rubin and Vernon Dent, the heavyset member of the Columbia comic shorts department that starred in so many Three Stooges shorts. While Rubin tours a sanitarium it doesn't take him long to realize that the staff is as insane as the patients. It's a fun little piece and also stars Karl Dane, Cliff Edwards, Polly Moran, and dancer Snake Hip. It's odd to see Karl Dane in a talking short, and this was one of his last at MGM. He had a successful silent career, but his thick Danish accent made him unintelligible in talking pictures.
The whole DVD is a very entertaining way to spend some time, and I highly recommend it.
Movie Review: This one is a champion alright!
Summary: 5 Stars
One of my favorite films from the 30's (but I LOVE the 30's so, you know), `The Champ' is one of those teary-eyed father/son films that really knows how to tug at those heartstrings. With sentiment that seems natural as apposed to manipulated (although there is a fair share of manipulation if you really look at it), `The Champ' is an unforgettable film that is as funny as it is touching.
You have to love that solid mix of humor and heart.
The film takes a look at a down and out, washed up boxer who goes by the title `The Champ' who is struggling to take care of his young son Dink. They don't have much, and The Champ has quite a few vices (like alcohol for starters), but there is a genuine admiration found in Dink's eyes, and a sincere warmth of father toward son. When Dink's mother comes back into the picture, complete with new husband, daughter and wealth, The Champ feels pressured to get back in the ring in order to provide his son with the life he deserves.
Insert waterworks.
The story is one that has been built off of for years now. It is a model for all dramatic sports movies made today (and of yesteryear) for it is a marvelous example of sports related excitement and poignant family drama. You can see this films influence in many related dramas today, recently in films like `Cinderella Man'.
The performances are really very well done across the board. Some have found Irene Rich to be a little `all over the place' with her theatrical performance, but part of me found her very appropriate for the character (finding her long lost son so-to-speak). Wallace Beery won the Oscar (shared with Frederick March) for his beautifully sincere portrayal of The Champ. It was a truly deserved award, one that I can completely rally behind. He expresses a somberness that really reaches to the heart of the film. The star for me though is young Jackie Cooper. Cooper is just brilliant here, delivering one of my favorite child performances of all time and quite frankly should have won the Oscar. He was phenomenal here, evoking such natural emotions from us with his completely realized and genuine performance. You believed every word and action that came from this kid.
And he wasn't even nominated!
In the end I have nothing but praise for this wonderful film. It is a moving cinematic experience that the entire family can enjoy. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll cheer...and yes, you will cry some more. It is a full circle of emotional reactions that leave the audience feeling completely rewarded.
Movie Review: An Essential, Without a Doubt!
Summary: 5 Stars
It's a good thing "The Champ" is a usually jovial drunk, because he seems to get drunk a lot and has a small son to raise at the same time. Down in Tijuana, Mexico, the Champ is a washed up boxer training for a big comeback but having a hard time getting an actual fight set up. He's just too out of shape and too hooked on drinking and gambling, and the only thing he loves as much as his vices is his 8-year-old boy, Dink, who basically takes care of him. When Dink's mother surprisingly turns up in town at the horse races and discovers her boy for the first time since he was a baby, she immediately wants custody restored to her and her wealthy husband, but Dink and the Champ are a pair that just can't be broken up. The film plays out one very charming, often funny, but very powerfully heartbreaking drama throughout as the Champ struggles to prove himself in the eyes of his son, while the boy's mother tries desperately to be rejoined with him.
I have to admit that I resisted seeing this film for a long time because I expected a sports/boxing movie, and I'm just not into sports. However, I always enjoyed Jackie Cooper in the Our Gang/Little Rascals shorts and had heard so much about this one that I knew I had to see it. I caught it one night, not so long ago, on a TCM airing, and I had to buy the film right away! It's truly a masterpiece. Wallace Beery (The Champ) and Jackie Cooper (Dink) are magic together! It's no wonder the film was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar in 1931 (and Best Director, King Vidor) and Beery won for Best Actor (the film also got Best Story)! And, being a Disney fanatic, I was immediately reminded of Baloo and Mowgli in Disney's take of "The Jungle Book", one of their most beloved animated features. There's no way the makers of that movie weren't playing off this movie. Baloo IS Wallace Beery's "The Champ", and even the story plays out similarly. In fact, while everyone should see this film, I especially recommend it to fans of Disney's animated "The Jungle Book". Having said that, this film is just beautiful and the final scene... wow, it's the tearjerker of tearjerkers.
The DVD is very nice with its selection of extras: Theatrical Trailer, full hour-long Lux Theater Radio Production, and a live-action comedy short, "Crazy House" (though it's pretty awful, ha). If you love movies and want a great DVD collection, you GOTTA have this one. It's an essential for sure.
Movie Review: A Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
I was very familar with the reputation of the movie "The Champ" but never saw it until last night. I was prepared for a film heavy on sentimentality, a fair amount of action (in the ring), and a cute child actor. I got all of that but in a better package than I had expected. Although I was hesitant to give the movie a 5 Star rating, I did so on the exceptional acting from the two stars.
I have seen a number of other films with Wallace Beery and his character is generally the same in every movie; a sort of Victor McLaughlin with a lower voice. He's quite the likable character but what impressed me the most was the many times he spoke his lines as though they were an "in-character" ad lib offering. As I noticed those scenes, I saw others in which he seemed to speak as though from a script. However, his "aw shucks" style never varied and the way the words flowed seemingly spontaneously is probably the reason he won the Best Actor Oscar for "The Champ".
Beery had real competition for that award from young Jackie Coogan. I was equally impressed with his acting and I felt that there were parts of the movie that the director may have turned him loose to do his own ad-libbing. His emotions were very effective and never overdone, even at the end. The scene where he discovers that the drunk being brought to jail in the paddy wagon is actually his father is outstanding. There were many other noteworthy scenes of his as well. The supporting cast is rather standard fare and serves only to fill in the roles necessary for Beery and Coogan to strut their stuff.
The plot is rather predictable and you could sense the ending almost from the beginning. Much of the plot is there to enhance our appreciation of this father/son relationship. At times the scenes let us know how bad a father Beery is while other scenes (often the same ones) let us know how devoted a son Coogan is. I usually succumb to a good tear-jertker but "The Champ" left me more inspired by the acting than teary-eyed from the plot. Either way, this is a worthwhile movie to see.
Movie Review: One of King Vidor's Best
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a wonderful drama, social, human and familial. As all good classics there's more to the story than just surface plot. You can see it from multiple perspectives, among them the social one is always very present in Vidor's films.
But first of all this is a great, great movie. One of those that will make you cry in a couple of scenes at least; if you don't, you'd better check your pulse.
Now, here are the subterraneous plots that I see:
1) The familial, the relation between a divorced father and his little son, whom he loves immensely and by whom he is likewise corresponded. This, actually, is not a plot but a naturalistic depiction of this relationship thru story details and characterization.
2) The social. The incompatibility between high-class minded people and simple minded/humble people.
3) The individual relationships between the three main characters or roles: the uneducated and loving father, the apparently educated and classy mother and the innocent child. This triangle gives a lot of food for thought about the mysteries of the human soul. And every viewer will have his own take on this side of the story.
I hope we'll be able to see soon on dvd more of Vidor's great classics, like "The Crowd", "The Fountainhead", "Our Daily Bread", or the great "The Big Parade".
One more thing: The quality of the dvd is exeptional. It doesn't seem like you are watching an old movie at all.