Watch Champion For Free

Just perfect...

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

While traveling to California in a cargo wagon, the clandestine Michael "Midge" Kelly (Kirk Douglas) and his crippled brother Connie Kelly (Arthur Kennedy) are robbed and thrown off the train. They hitchhike and get a lift from the famous boxer Johnny Dunne (John Daheim), who is traveling with his mistress Grace Diamond (Marilyn Maxwell) to Kansas City for a fight. They explain that they have bought a share in a restaurant. In Kansas City, Midge gets in trouble while seeking a job and is invited to fight box for 35 dollars. He takes a beat and the promoter pays only 10 dollars to him, but the trainer Tommy Haley (Paul Stewart) invites Midge to go to his gym in Los Angeles to be trained in box. When the brothers arrive at the restaurant, they learn that they have been cheated in the business and the owner Lew Bryce (Harry Shannon) hires them to work in the restaurant waiting table and washing dishes. Soon Midge seduces Lew's daughter Emma Bryce (Ruth Roman) and when her father finds their affair, Emma with Midge are forced to get married to each other. However Midge decides to flee to seek out Tommy and leaves Emma alone after the wedding. He learns how to fight with Tommy and defeats several fighters. When he is scheduled to fight Johnny Dunne, the organized crime orders him to lose the fight. However Midge defeats Dunne and is black-listed and can not fight any more. But Grace convinces him to leave Tommy and be managed by Jerome Harris (Luis Van Rooten), who is connected to the crime world. Now Midge begins a successful career betraying his friends and stepping on women, including Harris' wife Palmer Harris (Lola Albright). How far will he go to make money and be champion? "Champion" is an awarded film-noir based on the story of an ambitious boxer that is capable to betray friend to climb in his career reaching fame and money. The direction and performances are excellent with good choreography in the fights, and the film was awarded in Film Editing category (Oscar) and Best Cinematography (Golden Globe). In addition, it achieved several nominations. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "O Invencível" ("The Invincible")

When it comes to this 1949, b&w, Fight Flick - Here's the Good, the Bad, and the Pug-ly.The Good - Kirk Douglas (at 33) was in absolute top form for this picture, both physically, as well as in his craft as one of Hollywood's most dynamic actors of his day.As the ambitious & unscrupulous boxer, Midge Kelly, Douglas came across at times as if he were an angry, caged tiger ready to claw the world to pieces. And, believe me, Douglas was impressive.The Bad - At times Champion's story-line tended to be quite choppy.And, besides that, Arthur Kennedy's role as Midge's brother, Connie (a guy with a limp, who needed a cane) seemed to have no real purpose in the story. For the most part Connie appeared to be nothing more than dead-weight added to this tale as a mere afterthought.The Pug-ly - While some of Champion's fight scenes really packed a terrific wallop, others just wimped out.I don't know about you, but, for me, a boxing film's "boxing" has got to be bang-on at all times. Otherwise this sort of "pugilist passion play" might just as well take a dive in the ring.Anyways - If you ask me, had Champion's overall story-telling been well up to snuff, then, yes, it would have been a real knock-out.And, that's the Good, the Bad, and the Pug-ly.

A selfish boxer (Kirk Douglas in the title role playing one of his earliest characters as main star) alienates the people around him , his captivating wife (Ruth Roman as the victimized spouse), his loving brother (a restrained Arthur Kennedy) ,trainer (a moderate Paul Stewart) and other women (Marilyn Maxwell, Lola Albright).This interesting movie based on a screenplay by prestigious Carl Foreman is a noir drama about boxing world with an ambitious starring well personified by Kirk Douglas. The violent boxing images shocked audiences of the 40s and still retains quite power nowadays. It's a grueling boxing tale with tough realism full of face-blistering, punch, knocks until ¨Raging Bull¨ surpassed it years later. Top-notch acting by Kirk Douglas as merciless, ruthless boxer in his usual hard-driving style and winning a deservedly best actor Academy Award nomination. Dark cinematography in black and white plenty of of lights and shades by Franz Planer. Atmospheric musical score by the classic Dimitri Tiomkin.The motion picture is well realized by Mark Robson. In the early 40s Robson was much involved with the low-budget terror unit in charge of producer Val Lewton , for whom made ¨Seventh victim¨, ¨The ghost ship¨, and ¨Island of the dead¨. In the late 1940s Robson joined Stanley Kramer's independent company and directed his biggest commercial hit to date with ¨The champion¨. Years later Robson made another good film about corruption in boxing world titled ¨The harder they fall¨ with Humphrey Bogart. In the late 1960s, his work did decline . His last movie was a jinx one titled ¨Avalancha express¨. Robson and his main star, Robert Shaw, died suddenly from heart attacks. Rating : Above average, well worth seeing. This is certainly one of the best movies ever made about boxing world

He's 92 this week. And at 32 CHAMPION made Kirk a superstar. After playing weaklings, smooth gangsters and suburban husbands the part of Midge Kelly released the dynamic that characterised so much of his future work. The Kirk we came to know was born here. It's probably the role he most identified with at the time. His own experience of a father who never praised him and his consequent desire to prove himself - though not exactly paralleled here - can be echoed in the moonlit scene on the beach when he tells his girl of his ambition. And we know he's going to win.Stanley Kramer and Carl Foreman thought smaller - and usually better - in those days, causing a stir on behalf of independent production with a series of modest-budget but striking films on social issues e.g. HOME OF THE BRAVE, about racism in the armed forces and THE MEN, about the problems of disabled war vets (which unleashed another giant, Marlon Brando, onto the screen). CHAMPION, though sprung on more generic elements, adds a dark post-war abrasiveness to a familiar milieu and an uncompromising protagonist who takes no prisoners on his rise to the top. Midge becomes a monster and those closest to him get the worst of it before he finally expires, you could say, of an exploded ego. "He was a credit to the fight game" his brother drily observes, reflecting the film's ambivalence towards the sport, condemning what it exploits and vice versa. Midge's manager (Paul Stewart) wants to walk away but can't resist "watching a couple of good boys work out". We still love to 'cheer the champ' today but the physical and mental risks involved are sobering thoughts.Arthur Kennedy makes a solid presence of the rather thankless part of the kid brother/best friend/voice of conscience who's crippled to boot. The kid brother was usually disabled or a musical prodigy in these ringside sagas and eight years earlier Kennedy himself had gone the musical route in the more sentimental CITY FOR CONQUEST with James Cagney, no less, as his self-sacrificing sibling. The three babes who attend on Midge's life - the good, the bad and the one caught in the middle - are well contrasted with Ruth Roman outstanding as the little shotgun-wife he promptly deserts but returns to for an unforgivable piece of one-upmanship. And yet, despite it all, we retain a sneaking regard for this compelling unstoppable dreadnought. Earlier in the film Midge is ordered to throw a fight, instead he goes on defiantly to win the bout. In the empty stadium he's cornered by the promoter's goon-squad, it's payback-time. But unlike most people in that situation he's got an edge, he knows how to mix it. Before the numbers wear him down he gives them a pasting for their trouble. It's exhilarating to watch. Go get 'em Kirk..... And Many Happy Returns.