The Champ (I) (1931) User Reviews

Wallace Beery Should Have Shared The Oscar With Jackie Cooper

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 3 June 2009]

Probably the greatest disconnect among film personalities in history is that of Wallace Beery. On the screen he played these lovable oaf types, even when he was a bad guy. Off the screen he was a violent man, given to fits of temper and I can't recall anyone having a good word to say about him. Possibly for that reason Beery could lay claim to the fact he was the greatest actor in films. The crowning achievement of his career was his Oscar winning performance in The Champ.

Of course Beery could not have done it without little Jackie Cooper as well. It's their scenes together that make the film as memorable as it is. Instead of splitting the Academy Award with Fredric March who was also awarded The Best Actor for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, possibly Beery should have given half of his half to Cooper.

Beery is actually a former champ in this film. He's an over the hill, alcoholic pug who lives a hand to mouth existence with his young son Cooper. He split from his wife Irene Rich years ago, taking Cooper and she'd like to get him back. She's pretty well fixed now with a new and rich husband and a daughter by that marriage.

The fly in the ointment is that Cooper is really attached to his father and blind to the faults he has. And Beery really does love his son, the only really happy part about his life. He's probably way too old to be seriously in the fight game, but he needs the dough for his kid.

The Champ is guaranteed four handkerchief film even now almost eighty years after its debut. A remake was done in 1979 with Jon Voight and Rick Schroder in the main two roles, but it wasn't a patch on this one.

Film with a ton of heart.

[Mike-764 · 8/10 · 1 December 2004]

Former heavyweight champ Andy Purcell goes down to Tijuana in hopes of getting a fight. Andy's son, Dink, watches his father train, but Andy gives into his vices of gin and gambling, which constantly gets him in trouble. Andy wins Dink a race horse, which is entered in a race, where Andy meets his ex-wife Linda (with her current husband Tony) at the track and wants to be reunited with her son (Dink) and give him a better life outside of the one Andy gives him. Andy gets arrested and thrown in jail, where he decides that Dink would be best living with his mother, which devastates Dink (who idolizes his father). Andy is released from jail (thanks to Tony & Linda)and gets a bout with the Mexican heavyweight champ, where Dink runs back to his father to watch him hopefully win the fight, even though he is out of shape and not at the level of his opponent. The film is a toughing piece of cinematic brilliance, despite the static camera-work (very uncharacteristic of King Vidor). Beery and Cooper work so well together and their performances are what makes this film a classic. The script does not lose anything in the 70 plus years since its release. If the ending doesn't make you shed tears, you have to be a robot. Rating, 8.

A three hanky movie that will also make you laugh

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 16 January 2010]

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 (Wallace Beery), 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 dame 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.

Only someone with ice water in their veins could fail to be moved

[cphillips5 · 8 August 2000]

The central relationship of the adoring street-wise kid (Cooper) and his devoted, boozing, gambling ex-champ Dad (Beery) is astonishing. We are observing behavior here, not acting. Cooper gives the best child performance I've ever seen and Beery is utterly human, flawed and unforgettable.

This film is full of terrific moments - comedy and heartbreak. The friendship between Cooper and his black pal is beautifully color-blind. When Cooper states, "He's colored," it's with a child's open, untainted honesty. I find King Vidor's films to always resonate with humanity and compassion. He was one of our greatest filmmakers as Frances Marion was one of our greatest screenwriters.

a cinematic punch to the gut

[disdressed12 · 7/10 · 21 June 2010]

this is one touching,heartwarming movie.it's all about the love a father has for his son and vice versa.Wallace Beery is good as the dad,but it's Jackie Cooper(nine years old,at the time)who steals the show)as the son.as a nine year old child,Cooper showed acting ability and maturity way beyond his years.this film has little to do with boxing,and in fact,the one big boxing scene is quite comical,and not in a good way.thank goodness,it secondary,and doesn't lesson the overall impact of the movie.the ending is unexpected and hit me like a punch to the gut.it's a powerful moment,and deeply affecting.for me,The Champ(1931)is a 7/10

"What do we care if they're watching?"

[Steffi_P · 10/10 · 27 February 2010]

In the worst years of the depression, the most popular stars were not the most glamorous or attractive. As revealed in the highly respected Quigley poll (which surveyed movie theatre owners on who their audiences were most likely to come and see), the biggest draws in the early 30s were friendly, earthy types whom audiences could relate to at a time of poverty and desperation. These included genial comic Will Rogers, middle-aged frump Marie Dressler, and burly pug-face Wallace Beery, who played his greatest role in 1931 feature The Champ.

Beery's physique meant he was often cast as villainous thugs, but he had demonstrated enough acting prowess to get a decent number of "gentle giant" lead roles. In The Champ he gets to combine the two, one minute the swaggering pugilist, the next a devoted father. He gives a performance full of tiny gestures, expertly dancing from one expression to another. When he gets to show his character's emotional vulnerability, the scene is doubly poignant coming after the macho confidence he normally displays. The knowledge that off the set Beery was reputedly a wife-beating brute who bullied everyone around him perhaps spoils the effect slightly, but even with this in mind his performance is captivating, believable and utterly flawless.

Supporting Beery behind the camera is a director who was both a poet and a craftsman of the cinema – King Vidor. Vidor excelled at coaxing naturalism from his players at a time when theatrical hamming was the par. His camera focuses on Beery for long takes, allowing the actor to potter about doing his little bits of business and developing the character. Vidor also gives the picture bite with some neat tracking shots. These are usually in the field of depth, so in other words we are either backing away from the actors or following them. The former kind, with the players advancing on the camera as in the shot that opens the picture, gives the characters presence and show them as a force to be reckoned with. The latter kind, where the camera follows the character, physically pulls us into their world. Vidor used these kinds of shot a lot, and they are a neat way of making the audience feel involved without drawing too much attention to the artificiality of the form.

It may come as a surprise that this story of male bonding was written by a woman, Frances Marion. But like Beery, Marion defied expectations simply by being very good at what she did. Her plot for The Champ earned her the second of her two Oscars. It does not perhaps describe the most realistic of situations, but the emotional content is very sincere, and its depiction of determination and human feeling during hard times must have struck a chord with audiences of the day. The dialogue, which is credited to three separate people, is appropriately punchy with lines that sound believable yet are memorable and evocative.

Aside from Beery, the rest of the cast are a good bunch. Of all the lead players, Irene Rich is the only one who doesn't stand out, and she seems simply there to fill the wealthy, motherly type. But having said that she is not at all bad and her presence doesn't harm the picture. The Champ also sees Roscoe Ates in one of his largest roles, and for once getting to appear as a normal person rather than the stuttering fool he was usually required to play. Finally there is Jackie Cooper, one of the greatest child stars of his or indeed any era. While it seems clear that fame has gone to the youngster's head (he's not quite as good as he thinks he is), he is certainly up to the task of carrying his end of the picture. He plays a genuine child when with Beery, but when he is around others he deepens his voice and adopts mannerisms as if trying to be an adult. It's a touching and appropriate performance and very suited to the tone of the picture. And this was perhaps also the only time in which a child actor like Cooper could become a personality in his own right. As the popularity of Beery, Dressler et al proves, this was the age of the unconventional superstar.

Beery & Cooper An Interesting Pair

[ccthemovieman-1 · 7/10 · 9 December 2006]

When I first saw this movie it was my first look at either Wallace Beery or Jackie Cooper. I found both of them very interesting to watch. I also found out why Bob Hope and Jack Benny used to make a lot of sarcastic lines about "being about as pretty as Wallace Beery." He definitely had an ugly "mug." However, he was a lovable loser, at least in this film.

Cooper played "Dink," a cocky little kid who just loved "The Champ" (Beery). On the VHS tape, Cooper's squeaky little voice did not come across well and often was annoying to hear.

The boxing scenes were hokey but I liked the ending because at least Beery won the fight, although he collapses afterward. I believe he lost in the re-make of this with Jon Voight and Ricky Shroder in the 1979 film, but I'm not sure.

The kid's devotion to the champ, even under the toughest of situations, was touching. With clearer sound and picture, I would have kept the tape. I should check out the DVD.

Features one of the best child performances of Old Hollywood

[MissSimonetta · 9/10 · 7 April 2020]

THE CHAMP feels like a quintessential Depression movie: it captures the poverty, pessimism, and sense of desperation so many experienced during that period. Beery and Cooper's father-son relationship is highly touching, and the latter's performance is one for the ages. Cooper's character is a child forced into an adult role due to his father's alcoholism and the hardboiled, macho attitudes of the men around him, yet he still possesses the naivete and steadfast optimism only children possess. It's a complex role for a kid to nail down, but Cooper hits every note perfectly.

THE CHAMP could have easily been a soppy mess, but the gritty aesthetic and underplaying of the actors keep it from such melodramatic excess.

"Gee, the Champ's the greatest guy in the whole world!"

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 23 November 2014]

I'm kind of surprised actually that there are only twenty five other reviews for the film here as I write this, considering it was Oscar nominated for Best Picture and it earned Wallace Beery a co-Best Actor Award shared with Fredric March for "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", the only time that's ever happened. I'd been waiting for this one to come around again on Turner Classics, so last night I got my chance.

In the commentary before the picture, it was noted by hosts Robert Osborne and Drew Barrymore that actor Beery didn't really like kids, much less like working with one. He carried the sentiment over to co-star Jackie Cooper, so it's kind of amazing to watch their on screen chemistry as father and son. They really do seem to adore each other, and in an almost role reversal sort of way, Cooper's character Dink seems more like a parent than his old man. That becomes particularly evident when we see Dink undress his Dad for bed after one of his drunken jags. Beery's portrayal of former Champ Andy Purcell makes it difficult for the viewer to warm up to his character, he's a broken down bum and all around heel with no redeeming social qualities and constantly screws things up in the father-son relationship with Dink.

Regarding Beery's casting as The Champ, I found it hard to imagine why he was considered for the role. Though it works for the story, I'd be hard pressed to believe they couldn't find someone who might have fit the role better in terms of physical condition and athletic ability. There's no question the man was severely out of shape, and even though he was written as an over the hill boxer in his Forties, he looked like he might have been in his Sixties (Beery was actually forty six at the time).

On the flip side, young Jackie Cooper manages to do it all here, and he'll tug at your heart strings every time he takes it on the chin from his derelict father. There's an interesting scene prior to learning about his mother (Irene Rich) where he's clambering around on a tiled roof and any minute you expect the scene to end in disaster. Cooper blithely plays the scene like your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man before stepping off the roof onto a rail and finally down to the landing. I had to wonder how he made it look so easy.

You know, I also have to comment on Dink's friendship with the black youngster Jonah (Jesse Scott). You really have to place yourself back in the Thirties, well before the Civil Rights era to understand how rare this kind of relationship would have been in real life. As director, King Vidor pushed the envelope with this kind of portrayal, similar to the way producer Hal Roach approached the subject with his 'Our Gang' crew. These pioneers were really operating in brand new territory, much to their credit as film makers.

As for the ending, well if you're prone to sentimentality you better have a box of hankies handy. In context, it's not really surprising that the Champ would succumb to the stress of his final match, but seeing it play out with Dink breaking down over his loss is a pretty tough experience. It's the kind of ending that delivers a knockout punch.

Blueprint Film

[Piafredux · 9/10 · 2 March 2006]

'The Champ' seems to have been a blueprint film for all the others of the tough-tender school that followed it, and - owing entirely to Jackie Cooper's playing perfectly off of Wallace Beery's has-been, alcoholic pug - it's perfectly charming.

Yes, the fight scene is rather hokey: had they tried to use Wallace Beery's telegraphed-the-day-before roundhouse punches, even the toe-to-toe sluggers of 'The Champ's bygone day wouldn't have survived one round in the ring. But the film isn't about the fight scene, it's about the love of father for son and son for father - and to this day 'The Champ's' story artfully delivers its soft knock-out blow with tender sucker punches and love-taps to the heart.

Compared with today's fare 'The Champ's' pacing is slow but the time taken works nicely, especially in the one-on-one scenes captivatingly played by Cooper and Beery.

There's plenty of archetypal King Vidor composition-in-frame that's still imitated today, and in many instances the lighting is exemplary of the gorgeous black & white textural artistry of Hollywood's Golden Age. Lovers of classic B&W work might want to grab more than a few frames from the DVD.

Beery's work is quite good here, but Jackie Cooper's remarkable, potent chops steal the show - and your heart; though 'The Champ' has a good many fine, classical attributes there's none better in it than Cooper's unforgettable performance.

1930s Tearjerker

[evanston_dad · 6/10 · 20 December 2018]

What the heck was with the trend of movies in the early 1930s about parents who pretended not to want their kids for the kids' own good? Was it that the Depression was seeping into peoples' consciousness and movies like this tapped into their own insecurities about being able to provide for their own families?

I watched "Min and Bill" not long before "The Champ," another movie starring Wallace Beery that found Marie Dressler pretending not to care a whit about the foster child she raised into young adulthood so that the daughter could go off and have a better life with some rich people. Then in "The Champ," Beery comes to the realization that he's no good for his kid (played by the lachrymose Jackie Cooper) and goes as far as slugging him in the face in an effort to convince the child that he really wants to go live with his mom. Sheesh.

"The Champ" is pretty maudlin in subject matter, though it's got that gritty look common to movies made during the Depression that makes the film feel less sentimental than it is. This movie LOOKS like the Great Depression, like photos you've seen taken of it, and it's fascinating to me to watch movies that capture a time in history because they were actually made during it rather than trying to recreate it.

Beery received an Oscar for his performance, though not initially. Back then, the votes were still being tabulated during the Oscar ceremony, and Fredric March was declared the winner for "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Then, at the end of the ceremony, it was announced that Beery had tied with March (he actually lost by something like three votes, but that was considered a tie then), the only instance of a tie in the Best Actor category.

Workhorse writer Frances Marion also won an Oscar for her original story, the second one she would win for a film starring Wallace Beery (the first being "The Big House" from two years earlier).

Grade: B

Extraordinary

[whackjack-88912 · 9/10 · 6 October 2020]

Yes we've seen it thousands of times, but each time is a wonderful experience. You know the story by heart, but you discover new things again and again. This film is King Vidor in all his glory. Fantastic photography, great shots. For a film of 1931, it's crazy how the image remains beautiful. The story is gripping and the acting is superb even though at times over the top. Deserves to be shown and watched again and again.

A beautiful film about parents and children

[nnnn45089191 · 7/10 · 9 January 2007]

"The Champ" is a heartwarming experience,with a great performance by Jackie Cooper who steals the whole show.Wallace Beery won an Oscar for his portrayal of the brawling ex-fighter who loves his son deeply. The chemistry between Beery and Cooper is the movie's core. It's nice to see that both the mother and stepfather are portrayed as sympathetic people.Beery's portrayal manages also to convey the flaws in the character of The Champ,which is why we understand how his wife could leave him.But as an ex-boxing champ he's not very believable. The final bout is laughingly choreographed and looks silly. But it is a film I would want to see again.

One you just haveta watch, I guess

[geoaar-1 · 5/10 · 1 March 2009]

What else can be said about this film? It's now getting close to 80 years old, and yet it's still watchable. That's something I guess. It is showing it age, though.

While the storyline is incredibly simple, and overall tone is way beyond corny, one thing does stand out, Jackie Cooper's performance. Such a lot of talent in such a little boy. He really did steal the entire show.

Beery (and the whole rest of the cast as well, really) pretty much just play hokey, one-dimensional, "cardboard cutout" characters with no real development or growth. They do the numbers, do what's required, and follow the token script as far as it'll go (which isn't very far at all). And then the credits roll up.

But, hey, as I mentioned, it IS getting close to 80! Anyway, worth watching if your expectations aren't too high...

Swell!

[dbdumonteil · 2 November 2009]

I had seen the 1979 remake starring Jon Voigt and Faye Dunaway (the female part was much more important ) and I was not that impressed.Jon Voigt was too good-looking and too handsome to portray the champ successfully.The original really blew my mind:the Wallace Beery /Jackie Cooper team was a winning one and it's one of the best pairings man/boy in the history of cinema ,with echoes of Charlie Chaplin's "the kid" .Although the movie takes place in the prizefighters milieu,the plot is pure melodrama ,mainly aimed at the female audience .The reactionary side of the melodrama -the posh lady horrified at the people around her boy, a "normal" wealthy family is the safe way to happiness,etc- is present but emotion survives the tear-jerker side .And I dare you not to shed a tear when the boy screams "I want the champ!".

Contrived, But It Works

[bigverybadtom · 7/10 · 21 September 2016]

Andy Purcell is an alcoholic gambler trying to get back into his old heavyweight boxing career, and who has custody of his young son Dink, who idolizes him, despite their living in a squalid apartment and Andy's vices of gambling and drinking. He manages to win a racehorse in a bet, giving it to his son, but ends up running into his ex-wife and her new wealthy husband. Andy ends up gambling further and loses the racehorse, and has to take a $300 bribe from his ex-wife to allow Dink to visit her. The mother can provide a better life for Dink...but will he leave his father? The movie has its contrivances, namely the fact that Andy has custody of his son rather than his mother, which rarely happens either in the past or nowadays unless the mother is clearly unfit (hardly indicated in the story). Also, Beery was supposed to do a poor job of boxing in the fight scene, but he overdoes it, throwing his arms all over the place. Still, the movie works thanks to the performances by the two leads.

Top Father/Son Movie Gets Beery Best Actor Award (Tied)

[springfieldrental · 9/10 · 15 October 2022]

Father/son movies were nothing new when November 1931's "The Champ" was released. But its ending is what struck movie audiences as unique, one of cinema's most potent tear jerkers ever projected on the screen. "The Champ is one of the greatest love stories ever put to film, the story of a man who wants to do right but fails and a son who never gives up on him," film reviewer Jerry Roberts writes. "(Wallace) Beery is what gives the film its foundation."

Beery performance was so powerful he won the 5th Academy Awards' Best Actor in a virtual tie with Frederic March for his role in 1931's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." After receiving the statuette, Berry, in the middle of renegotiating his contract with MGM, demanded he be paid one dollar more than the studio's highest paid actor. The agreement made him the richest salaried Hollywood actor at that time. Francis Marion wrote "The Champ's" screenplay especially with Beery in mind. It proved to be a great inspiration since she won the Academy Award's Best Story for her work on bringing bucketful of tears to millions of viewers.

Her tale has Andy "Champ" Purcell (Beery), a former world heavyweight title holder, down on his luck and turns to drink and gambling. Through his divorce, Andy was able to keep his son, Dink (Jackie Cooper), until his mother Linda (Irene Rich), sees him at the racetrack with his father. Remarried into wealth, Linda gets the court to gain custody of Dink. In a classic highly emotional separation scene, Andy, in prison, says goodbye to his loyal son, only to have Dink jump off the train transporting him to his mother's home. He wants to see his father fight one more match facing off against the Mexican champion in what turns out to be a brutal match. A preview audience loved the movie, except for the ending. MGM's head of production, Irving Thalberg, had the match reshot, ending with one of the most emotional 18-handkerchief scenes in cinema.

Despite the warmth displayed on the screen between the two actors, Beery and Cooper did not get along. Beery hated childhood actors, and it was evident he didn't enjoy his time with the nine-year-old Jackie. Publicly, he diplomatically described Cooper as "a great kid," but the boy claimed the actor treated him like "an unkempt dog." In retrospect, Cooper said it was pure jealousy that made Beery, in scene after scene, try to upstage him. Beery was so fed up with the director calling for tight shots of Cooper's teary face, he demanded in his new MGM contract that no juvenile actor could ever have a close-up in any picture with him. Beery vowed he would never appear in another movie with Cooper again after "The Champ" wrapped. But so popular was the acting duo that he took back his promise in the mid-1930s, sharing screen time again with Cooper in three more films.

Besides Beery's tied win, the Academy nominated "The Champ" for Best Picture as well as its director, King Vidor for Best Director. Francis Marion's award-winning script was so brilliant Red Skelton adapted it into his 1952 film, "The Clown," where he plays the Andy character as a has-been clown rather than a boxer. Later generations are more familiar with director Franco Zeffirelli's 1979 version of "The Champ" with Jon Voight, Faye Dunaway and Ricky Schroder as the son. This film was actress Joan Blondell's last movie.

The Box Office Champ

[wes-connors · 7/10 · 11 October 2011]

Along the California-Mexico border, boxer Wallace Beery (as Andy "Champ" Purcell) is alcoholic, out-of-shape, and unable to fight professionally. Consequently, he and cute son Jackie Cooper (as Dink) are poverty-stricken. Another problem is Mr. Beery's gambling. But, after winning some money, Beery gets young Cooper a racehorse they call "Little Champ" (formerly "Butterfly"). At the track, Cooper meets his mother, Irene Rich (as Linda). Small world. Now married to wealthy Hale Hamilton (as Tony), Ms. Rich decides she wants her son back. Beery refuses to give up Cooper, but his addictions make things difficult...

Directed by King Vidor, this won Beery his "Best Actor" Oscar. During the "Academy Award" presentations, Fredric March won for "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1931). Near the end, there was some discord about the award, so they announced Beery had also won by declaring contests finishing within three votes would be considered a tie. March won by a vote and was arguably a more accomplished actor, but Beery's performance here is better. Later, the Academy stopped revealing vote totals, making the new rule moot. He and Cooper, a nominee for the recent "Skippy" (1931), have great chemistry. The ending is classic.

******* The Champ (11/0/31) King Vidor ~ Wallace Beery, Jackie Cooper, Irene Rich, Roscoe Ates

"I want the champ"

[nickenchuggets · 8/10 · 9 July 2021]

After watching several movies made before the adoption of the Hay's censorship guidelines, I can say that they're some of my favorite movies so far. Movies made in this time period typically included many things that later films would never get away with, such as a great deal of violence, more explicit sexual themes, and drug use. The Champ is not really a violent movie in the typical sense, but because it's about a boxer, there is punching and injury involved. The plot revolves around Andy, who is a boxer known by the nickname "Champ." Lately, he's down on his luck and washed up. His son, Dink, looks up to him, knowing his father used to be one of the world's best boxers. Champ's promises to take part in fights are dashed by his rampant drinking problem which he can't get under control, but his son still has faith in him. Later, Champ buys Dink a pony with money he acquired from gambling. Champ later encounters Linda, who is actually Dink's real mother, but Dink doesn't really show any love towards her since he is just being introduced to her. Meanwhile, Champ's alcoholism catches up with him and he winds up in jail, which means Dink now has to live with Linda after she sees Champ is a bad influence. Dink constantly worries about his father though, and he returns to New Mexico to see him fight someone else. If he wins, he will use the money to reacquire Dink's pony (which ran away earlier). Champ wins the fight, but his body took too much punishment in the ring, and he falls over. A doctor nearby pronounces his wounds mortal, and he dies shortly after. His son is left with Linda and is now her responsibility. This is a great movie, but it's also a sad movie. Champ wins a pyrrhic victory over his opponent at the end during the match, winning the pony back for his son, but losing his life. This movie was also remade in the 70s, but that version is much worse and not as memorable. Sports movies are not typically a thing I like watching often, but this one shows how drinking and gambling can negatively affect your good standing in society and ruin relationships with your own family.

Here's a film that thoroughly deserved all its awards!

[JohnHowardReid · 10/10 · 9 September 2017]

Producer: King Vidor. Associate producers: Harry Rapf and William M. Weiss. Copyrighted on the 19th November 1931 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corp. New York opening at the Astor, 9 November 1931. 10 reels. 87 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Former prizefighter has one admirer anyway — his nine- year-old son.

NOTES: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced a tie for Best Actor in the annual awards for 1931: Wallace Beery for "The Champ" coupled with Fredric March for "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde". Frances Marion won the award for Original Story (defeating Lady and Gent, Star Witness and What Price Hollywood). "The Champ" was also nominated for Best Picture (awarded to Grand Hotel), and Directing (Frank Borzage for Bad Girl).

2nd Best Picture of 1932 (Grand Hotel was first) — Film Daily poll of U.S. film critics. The film was shot on a 32-day production schedule — including real location lensing at Tijuana (Mexico) and Caliente race track — at a negative cost of $356,000. Gross domestic rentals on initial release: $917,000.

Re-made as The Clown (1953) and as The Champ (1979).

COMMENT: Wallace Beery certainly deserved his Best Actor award. In fact, Cooper deserved one too. Both performers play perfectly together. Vidor has drawn equally convincing portrayals from the rest of his cast, and has brilliantly counter-balanced the innate sentimentality of the story by handling it in a gritty, realistic fashion.

Avil's photography and other technical credits are as accomplished as we might expect from MGM. All told, outstanding entertainment. America's film critics voted the picture second only to Grand Hotel (also MGM). That's where I'd place it too. The Champ is a triumph.

AVAILABLE on DVD through Warner Home Video. Quality rating: 10 out of ten.

A drama about a father and son

[alekspredator87 · 6/10 · 26 August 2022]

"Champion" caught my attention because of two Oscar Award statuettes at once. The film was the winner in the Best Actor and Best Story category. The viewing was interesting, but looking ahead, I can say that I did not see a strong drama in the picture and could not feel it.

The picture tells about an incomplete family, where the father, who was once a boxing champion Andy Purcell, is trying to live, and sometimes survive with his son Dink. The glorious past of the main character played by Wallace Beery has long gone, and the man periodically dreams of returning to the ring. These dreams are intertwined with gambling and alcoholic gatherings. A rather meager existence, but it has become the rule of life for a former boxer. However, a man tries to raise his son, to give him something that will make him a man, in general, to raise a real man. And everything is gradually getting better, until the mother who abandoned the family appears on the horizon.

The picture is not bad. The script is sound, but the director does not very skillfully place accents in his picture. It is not very good to show the complexity and inconsistency of the existence of father and son. On the screen we see a grayness that causes apathy. It seems to be the right move, but there is not enough drama.

Personally, I remember the film with the performance of Wallace Beery. The actor had a good idea of the big boxer, who is gradually sinking to the bottom. But the struggle inside the hero is felt throughout the tape. He seems to be aware that he is no longer young, and his strength has left him, but he wants to prove to himself and his son, and to everyone around him that he is capable of more. At the same time, a man is not going to put up with the miserable existence of his child, trying to achieve a lot for him. Beery's performance was well worthy of an Oscar that year. However, it is worth noting that there were only three nominees at that time, and besides Wallace, Fredrik March received an Oscar for another leading male role for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It is difficult to imagine such a double victory today, but in those days it was destined to happen. And times were difficult for the country as a whole, and Oscar was not so popular yet.

Despite the impressive performance of the main star of the film, the picture itself came out to be somewhat superficial. Personally, I didn't have enough drama, it should have been intensified. And the film was like some kind of narrative movie, of which there are many.

The result is an average movie that you probably won't want to review. A good script, but a weak director's work. Beery's acting is good, but at the same time the story is devoid of the necessary drama.

6 out of 10.

perhaps the best on screen father/son relationship

[SexySexySexyMama · 9/10 · 19 September 2004]

(mild spoilers)

I had heard that this was a "tearjerker," but i was completely taken in by the simple story and the incredible relationship between Dink and The Champ.

I spent the last half of the movie with tears rolling down my cheeks, and i was really struck by a lot of the little details that made the film play much better than a lot of movies nowadays. (And i am not saying that all movies today are bad, hey, i liked the Matrix and Lord of the Rings like everybody else.) But there are little moments, such as the way they hold hands walking out of the gambling joint, or the way Beery takes off his son's shoes and gets him ready for bed, then sits up and looks out the window in despair over having lost everything at the craps table. Just blew me away.

The scene in the jail DESTROYED me, as did the final scene. Just such amazing characters, and you couldn't help but feel for them. Beery is such a terrific on screen presence , and Cooper was just a joy to watch.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Years after watching the 1979 remake, I finally got to see the original 1931 version of The Champ

[tavm · 7/10 · 22 November 2014]

Finally watched the original version of The Champ some nearly 35 years after seeing the remake that starred Jon Voight and Ricky Schroder. So I knew the ending wasn't gonna be a happy one. Wallace Beery is the title character who's fallen on hard times and Jackie Cooper is the son he got custody of after splitting from his wife who's now married to a well-off man named Tony. He drinks and gambles and that causes him trouble but Dink (Cooper's character) loves him no matter what. I'll stop there and just say this was quite a touching movie, not unlike that remake I mentioned before though I haven't seen that again for a long time. That fact that Beery was only one vote shy of fellow Oscar winner Frederic March (that's what a tie was considered then) isn't surprising since he's both a little funny and touching, same for Cooper. So on that note, I recommend this version of The Champ. P.S. One time Our Ganger Cooper appears with Marcia Mae Jones here. She was in a couple of the series' shorts after Cooper left. Also, immediately after watching this on DVD, I then listened to the "Lux Radio Theater" version on the same disc that aired on 11/13/1939 with Beery reprising his role though Dink was by then played by Bobby Larson who also appeared in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington that year. Larson's near-age friend of color, Jonah, was played on the show by Matthew "Stymie" Beard, a fellow Our Ganger of Jackie's who first performed with him in the short, Teacher's Pet. Oh, and Tony there was played by Wallace's brother, Noah, father of his same-named son who's best known as James Rockford's father, Rocky, in "The Rockford Files".

Down for the Count!

[ldavis-2 · 2/10 · 4 June 2009]

Finally saw this last night on TCM, and I really can't believe the raves by the other posters! First, if Andy and Linda had actually hooked up, their kid would have looked like a gargoyle! Second, I didn't understand why Andy got Dink. Linda was probably a gold-digger who bailed the second Andy lost the belt, but fathers were very rarely awarded custody back then unless the mother was as an unfit a parent as Andy is!

Which leads me to the fight. Beery flayed around like a crazed fish in search of water! Why no one told him that you punch straight ahead is beyond me! When Cooper started bawling for this loser, I wanted to deck him! He was so damn annoying throughout, but never more so than then!

And what happened to Jonah? Didn't anyone care because, as Dink puts it, he's "colored"? That must be it.

Pretty good film - still looks good today

[dust-7 · 23 August 2000]

SPOILERS!

Hard to believe it's as old as 1931, in a lot of ways. As far as production, it's about what you'd see, today, except it's in black and white. And it could be a movie, today - save that it would highlight the bums that get thrown up against title holders - unlike Stallone's Rocky, who was in pretty good fighting shape and had a few moves. Beery seems out of his element as a fighter - looking at best like a beery (no pun intended) brawler, though his character plays the ex-heavyweight champ. But then, the athleticism of the era wasn't what it is today. On the other hand, there were some great fighters in the 20s and 30s, and Beery's shape and skill is out of their class, entirely. Anyhow - small gripe, perhaps. One might excuse Beery, in the championship fight, just as the bum thrown in to boost the Mexican champ's rating - as is done, today. I don't see it necessarily played up that way in the film. But I might have missed something.

Some things also bring home the era of this film. For ex., the effort, it seems, to mimic the newsreel footage from the theaters of the day, by slowing down the film rate, thus artificially speeding up the action. We see this sort of 'newsreel' effect at both the horse race and the concluding championship fight. There's also an interesting 2 or 3 second montage during the fight which strikes me as 60s style film-making, or later. But it's just 2 or 3 seconds. Generally - it's a good looking film. It plays well, even today.

The subplot with the black boy, who hangs about with the young Purcell, and the other kids - an inspiration (perhaps?) for the 'our gang' crew that followed first in theatrical shorts a few years later? - is clearly intended to encourage racial tolerance, and repel a bigotry which was openly and boldly part of the fabric of world culture in the 1930s and before. The little black boy doesn't roll his eyes, or do goofy things, or talk in a slow drawl, or any of the rest. He just acts normally. When 'Dinkus' Purcell (the Jackie Cooper character) unknowingly runs into his divorced Mom, whom his Dad never much mentioned and never identified for the kid, she asks - who's your friend? 'Dink' replies, and then comments - "He's colored." And Mom/strange lady replies - "And what a pretty color." Again, just clearly something important to the story, and very out of touch, and actively opposed to the ethic of the time.

As for the rest of the story, it's basically a child custody story, about the love and affection of the child in question, with the death of one of the disputants the resolution and which enables the emotional concluding scene where 'Dink', who had kept an arm's length from Mom (once she told him who she was) in favor of his Dad (whom he knew and loved), breaks down at the sudden loss of his father, lying dead on the training table, and for the first time tearfully cries out, "Mother," and then rushes to her. She carries him out through a gauntlet of reporters and onlookers - bringing down the curtain. The End.

There's not much to quarrel with in the story. It is a coincidence that the ex and her new husband run into The Champ, Andy, at the south of the border race track. But coincidence can happen, and does. It is somewhat difficult to believe that an out of shape, fairly weak, and uncoordinated brawler, as Beery is in the ring, could land the lucky punch against a fighter in trim shape, enough to take him out for the full count. But, that's the story, that's Hollywood, that's Rocky, and - what the hey.

It might have been interesting to see brother and sister interact a little more. Cooper's oddly adult inflections and mannerisms seem to play well against the spoiled but good natured little girl - just happy to have a 'new' brother. It might have been interesting to see the game in which Andy wins so much, and the horse he eventually fights to get back. Might have been interesting to see Andy and Dink out and about, a little more, rather than just 'in training' or in the flat. And so on, so forth.

It's clear why Beery got the nod for the award. He seems to have had a sort of Long John Silver, sort of patronizing, slow-talking 'rap'. in various films. Here, save for a few instances, he plays it pretty low key. He seems just like a regular guy in the Mexican prison, thinking over his part in the custody dispute, and thinking he's just not the father for Dink. And when Dink comes to the cell, and Andy tells him to 'shove off', basically, it's believable, with just the right tone, delay, cliched delivery, and choked back tears. When he takes the money from Linda's rich hubby, he comments on being down on his luck, and almost lapses into Long John - but just not quite. And surely he spoke for a fair number in the audience in the early first years of The Great Depression.

It's a good film. The emotional manipulation is right up on the surface, and may be a bit too trite and obvious; particularly as the extraneous 'background' scenes I might like to see, as suggested above, just weren't there. The film was 'tight' and 'stayed on message' in that way. And it feels right, almost. It has its flaws, but remains a good film.