Twenty-year-old William Holden is on his way to becoming a violin virtuoso when he is ensnared by circumstances into becoming a prize fighter good enough to work his way to "the crown". (We should all have such trouble.) On one side are Holden's father, Lee J. Cobb as the world's least probable old Italian, his sister Anna and his brother-in-law Siggie, Sam Levene. The old man springs for an expensive violin, with which he hopes his golden boy will work his way into an honorable profession.
On the other side are Adolph Menjou, the manager who discovers Holden's skill with the gloves, Menjou's girl, Barbara Stanwyck, and assorted underlings including Edward Brophy. They see a boxing ring in Holden's future, and theirs as well. Attracted by Holden's increasing popularity, the gangster Edward Calleia as Fuseli, which I thought was a kind of spiral pasta, works his way into the arrangement and increases the corruption quotient.
What's a golden boy to do? Should he give up Stanwyck, who is urging him to fight, in order to retain his father's respect? Should he go for broke and fight his way to the top and make a million bucks and get Stanwyck and to hell with the family? In a kind of Capra-esquire twist, Stanwyck is under orders from Menjou to pretend she is attracted to Holden only if he fights. But after a visit to Holden's home, she finds she's truly loves him. He's just a naive kid and trusts her, and just about everyone else. It's understandable that the visit to Holden's family should prompt her to change her mind. Like all peasant families everywhere, in Hollywood, the Bonapartes are full of passion and happiness. They have monumental feasts and imbibe freely. They love to sing and dance, and they have strong family bonds and never betray one another. It takes real tragedy to dampen their spirits, and then they make no show of hiding their emotions.
If there were a contest to see who was the better vaudeville Italian, Lee J. Cobb would have lost out to Chico Marx. William Holden is fresh faced and Midwestern, not an Italian kid from Brooklyn, and his acting is rudimentary. Barbara Stanwyck was no longer a kid and she never looked better or gave a better performance. It's really finely tuned and she's quite appealing as a woman who knows all about the unspeakable features of life and chooses to start over with a genuine mate.
Rouben Mamoulian's direction is sometimes clever. In one scene he has Holden playing the violin in the foreground and through the angle of his arm we see Stanwyck staring at him with growing admiration. In the boxing scenes, though, we see nothing but two guys with no grace pounding away at each other, with every blow landing on target. But the star, I suppose, is really Clifford Odetts, who wrote the play the movie is based on. The plot isn't unconventional in any way, but the dialog can be startling at times. Calleia: "Are you Tom's girl?" Stanwyck: "I'm my mother's girl." Later, Stanwyk to Holden about Calleia: "Funny seeing you without him. Like seeing a shadow without the man." I can't recall the many others. It's not consistently sharp but it always scintillates at least a little.
I found it kind of enjoyable but probably not worth repeated viewings.
On the other side are Adolph Menjou, the manager who discovers Holden's skill with the gloves, Menjou's girl, Barbara Stanwyck, and assorted underlings including Edward Brophy. They see a boxing ring in Holden's future, and theirs as well. Attracted by Holden's increasing popularity, the gangster Edward Calleia as Fuseli, which I thought was a kind of spiral pasta, works his way into the arrangement and increases the corruption quotient.
What's a golden boy to do? Should he give up Stanwyck, who is urging him to fight, in order to retain his father's respect? Should he go for broke and fight his way to the top and make a million bucks and get Stanwyck and to hell with the family? In a kind of Capra-esquire twist, Stanwyck is under orders from Menjou to pretend she is attracted to Holden only if he fights. But after a visit to Holden's home, she finds she's truly loves him. He's just a naive kid and trusts her, and just about everyone else. It's understandable that the visit to Holden's family should prompt her to change her mind. Like all peasant families everywhere, in Hollywood, the Bonapartes are full of passion and happiness. They have monumental feasts and imbibe freely. They love to sing and dance, and they have strong family bonds and never betray one another. It takes real tragedy to dampen their spirits, and then they make no show of hiding their emotions.
If there were a contest to see who was the better vaudeville Italian, Lee J. Cobb would have lost out to Chico Marx. William Holden is fresh faced and Midwestern, not an Italian kid from Brooklyn, and his acting is rudimentary. Barbara Stanwyck was no longer a kid and she never looked better or gave a better performance. It's really finely tuned and she's quite appealing as a woman who knows all about the unspeakable features of life and chooses to start over with a genuine mate.
Rouben Mamoulian's direction is sometimes clever. In one scene he has Holden playing the violin in the foreground and through the angle of his arm we see Stanwyck staring at him with growing admiration. In the boxing scenes, though, we see nothing but two guys with no grace pounding away at each other, with every blow landing on target. But the star, I suppose, is really Clifford Odetts, who wrote the play the movie is based on. The plot isn't unconventional in any way, but the dialog can be startling at times. Calleia: "Are you Tom's girl?" Stanwyck: "I'm my mother's girl." Later, Stanwyk to Holden about Calleia: "Funny seeing you without him. Like seeing a shadow without the man." I can't recall the many others. It's not consistently sharp but it always scintillates at least a little.
I found it kind of enjoyable but probably not worth repeated viewings.