The Champ (1931)

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Movie
German title The champ
Original title The Champ
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1931
length 86 minutes
Rod
Director King Vidor
script Frances Marion ,
Leonard Praskins
production King Vidor ,
Irving Thalberg
camera Gordon Avil
cut Hugh Wynn
occupation

The Champ (OT: The Champ ) is a 1931 American film directed by King Vidor based on a script by Frances Marion , Leonard Praskins and Wanda Tuchock . The main roles are played by Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper . The film tells the story of a failed boxer with a drinking problem who tries to get his life back on track for the sake of his son.

action

Andy Purcell is a boxer who is still called "Champ" because of his old successes. He's now addicted to alcohol and is ruining his career. However, he continues to box against young emerging boxers in order to earn the daily bread for himself and his little son Dink and to provide the necessary drinks. When the champ wins a considerable sum of money on a horse bet, his situation finally becomes more hopeful. Champ and Dink decide to quit boxing and devote themselves to horse racing. You go to Mexico and become a racehorse owner. There they meet Linda, who also owns a racehorse and is Champ's ex-wife and mother of Dink. In order to get divorced from Champ, she had once given up custody of her son. However, Dink doesn't know that Linda is his mother. Now she is married to the rich Tony Carleton.

Champ is unsuccessful in horse racing and Tony Carleton offers him $ 200 so that Linda can see her son again. Champ agrees. But when Linda wants to send the boy to school for six months, Champ refuses. Dink now realizes that Linda is his mother, but remains cool and reserved with her. When Champ loses all his money and his horse while playing, he asks Linda for credit. She gives him credit against custody of Dink. Champ takes the money and Dink is heartbroken about leaving his father. However, Champ loses the money again very quickly and returns to New York City.

When Linda, Dink and Tony come to New York one day, Champ is in jail. Tony secretly pulls it out and Champ starts boxing again. For his comeback he should compete against the Mexican champions. He starts training with his friends Tim and Sponge. Meanwhile, Dink can no longer bear the longing for his father and is on the run in San Diego. The boy makes his way to New York and returns to his father. Reunited, Champ hopes to win the unequal battle against the Mexican and trains even harder. However, his son and friends fear the fight could end in disaster.

Linda and Tony also come to the fight, who let the champ know that Dink can stay with him. However, they fear Champ could seriously injure himself in this fight. The fight quickly shows that the old champ is hopelessly inferior to the young aggressive boxer. Round after round he has to take the hardest blows, but initially remains on his feet. When he finally goes down, the judge bell saves him during the break. Dink begs his father to throw in the towel , but Champ refuses and faces the next round. His opponent is now confident of victory, but unfocused, and Champ can actually still win the fight. Champ is overjoyed. He shows his son the horse he bought back. Together they look to a happy future when Champ suddenly suffers a heart attack. He is taken to the locker room and dies there. Dink is heartbroken and seeks protection in his mother's arms.

Awards

The film was nominated for an Oscar in the categories of “Best Film” and “Best Director”, but it was left behind compared to people in the hotel and Frank Borzage (for Bad Girl ). Wallace Beery won an Oscar for "Best Actor" (along with Fredric March , who received the award for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ), while Frances Marion received the Oscar for "Best Original Story".

Remake

In 1979 a remake of the film was made under the direction of Franco Zeffirelli . The champ was portrayed here by Jon Voight . Faye Dunaway played the mother and Ricky Schroder the son.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Osborne, Robert. 70 Years of the Oscar: The Official History of the Academy Awards. New York: Abbeville Press, 1999. ISBN 0-7892-0484-3