Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Champion Blu-ray Movie Review

You'd fight too if you were named Midge.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 20, 2013

While there had been early efforts like 1936’s John Wayne melodrama Conflict and 1938’s The Crowd Roars with Robert Taylor, Clifford Odets probably could be credited with having created the “modern” boxing drama with his epochal Golden Boy, the Group Theatre’s most successful production (which just recently received a lauded remounting on Broadway back at the Belasco Theater where it had originally premiered in November 1937). Odets’ story was a thinly masked screed pitching the old Art vs. Commerce line, but it was filled with the playwright’s visceral intensity and had an unusually tragic denouement (which of course was bowdlerized in the Hollywood adaptation that inevitably followed a couple of years after the stage version). Golden Boy bit player John Garfield (who did his own stint as the star of the show in an early fifties Broadway revival) went on to star in a film which owes a rather large debt of gratitude to the Odets outing, Robert Rossen’s celebrated 1947 film Body and Soul (Garfield would evince the other side of Golden Boy’s hero’s talents by playing a violinist in 1946’s Humoresque with Joan Crawford). 1949’s Champion wants to be a little Golden Boy and a little Body and Soul, and if it doesn’t quite have the goods, it provides Kirk Douglas with one of his signature early roles and the one which snared him his first Academy Award Nomination for Best Actor. Douglas had had a rather stratospheric rise to the top, debuting in a supporting role in 1946’s The Strange Love of Martha Ivers and continuing in a series of interesting supporting and co-starring roles until he was at the point where he got the ultimate above the title billing in Champion. This was in a day when billing and even font sizes for various contributions in film were strictly controlled and where the difference between a “Starring” and “With” billing for even established stars could mean a huge difference in pay. (I have a fantastic old letter from Edward Arnold’s manager taking Samuel Goldwyn to task for having the audacity to have an ad for Come and Get It offer co-star Frances Farmer—who coincidentally starred in Broadway’s Golden Boy—the same font size as Arnold.) Douglas is front and center in virtually every scene in Champion, dominating a film that isn’t quite as gritty as it needs to be but which is nonetheless exciting and involving.

We meet the unfortunately named “Midge” Kelly on a boxcar, where he and his crippled brother, the equally unfortunately named Connie (Arthur Kennedy) are being accosted by a group of toughs who know that the Kelly boys have money on them. An ugly fight ensues, with Midge and Connie being thrown off the train (Connie is actually thrown off the train by Midge in an attempt to keep him safe). The two start hitchhiking and as luck would have it, they’re picked up by boxer Johnny Dunne (John Daheim) and his excessively blonde girlfriend Grace Diamond (Marilyn Maxwell). Grace is none too pleased to have these two haggard guys sharing her car, which of course means that romance can’t be too far off.

Dunne gets the boys to Kansas City and suggests the Kellys can get a job hawking drinks ringside, but that turns into a fiasco when the bar manager calls Connie a “gimp”, bringing out Midge’s violent side. That in turn leads to the local fight manager offering Midge a quick $35 if he’ll replace an injured boxer in one of the night’s matches. Midge agrees, barely surviving the bout, and getting more than a bit perturbed when the manager’s “fees” mean that Midge’s net pay is a measly $10. However, that gives him and his brother enough scratch to try to make their ultimate goal: Los Angeles, where they’ve just bought a one third interest in a little diner.

They arrive at the diner only to find out they’ve been duped and own one third of nothing. However, the diner does have work available, and that gives the boys a chance to settle down and for Midge to start romancing pretty Emma Bryce, (Ruth Roman) the daughter of the owner. Midge is smart enough to know he won’t be able to provide much of a life for Emma, and so he decides to track down a trainer who had seen him box in that impromptu bout in Kansas City. Though initially reluctant, Tommy Haley (Paul Stewart) agrees to take Midge under his wing and develop his inherent talents.

Midge’s rapid rise to the top of the boxing heap of course brings its own increasing set of emotional tolls. He forsakes Emma, whom he’s married, and ends up in disastrous relationships both with Grace and, later, Palmer Harris (Lola Albright), the estranged wife of a manager (Luis Van Rooten) who is carrying a lot of Midge’s debt. The interesting thing about Champion, which in many ways plays like Body and Soul-lite, is how there’s not that vicious of a quality to Midge’s character. He’s ambitious and even avaricious (the scene where he forsakes Palmer for a hefty payday and forgiveness of his debts is one of the best in the film), but he’s shown to be a basically nice guy, something that perhaps undercuts (no boxing pun intended) the dramatic impact of the film. There's also perhaps a bit too much roiling romantic melodrama in the film, especially with the late reappearance of Emma, who now is Connie's girlfriend (albeit almost by default).

Champion was well received in its day, garnering several Academy Award nominations (and winning for Editing), and it holds up rather well, given reasonable expectations. Anyone who has seen the original stage version of Golden Boy or experienced what is now a glut of “gritty” boxing films may find Champion a bit anemic by comparison, but it’s bolstered by a fantastic early performance by Douglas, an actor who, to paraphrase a quote in a famous film by another Golden Boy alum, was much more than just “a contender”.

Champion Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Champion is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. The elements here are in mostly very good shape, and a lot of this high definition presentation looks spectacular. In fact the opening scene of the fight announcer introducing us to Midge boasts incredible contrast and impeccable fine detail. Unfortunately, things take a slight tip downward at various points thereafter, with a somewhat softer appearance and sometimes slightly variable contrast. Still, Franz Planer's gorgeous Oscar nominated cinematography's chiaroscuro lighting comes through stunningly almost all of the time, with crisp whites and deep blacks, and fine detail is quite admirable in the film's close-ups.

Champion Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Champion features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track that sounds quite good given the age of the film. While some of Dimitri Tiomkin's massed brass cues sound just a tad on the boxy side (Tiomkin, too, was Oscar nominated), for the most part the soundtrack here has weathered the vagaries of time quite well and still sounds reasonably spry and vivid. Dialogue is very cleanly presented and the film has a fairly wide dynamic range courtesy of the exciting fight sequences.

Champion Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements are included on this Blu-ray disc.

Champion Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Though Body and Soul is probably the stronger film, Champion is a scrappy welterweight that is worth seeing for the excitingly staged fight scenes as well as Douglas' early performance, one that helped cement his reputation as one of his generation's most commanding screen presences. Despite this film having been written by rabble rouser Carl Foreman, who would soon find himself blacklisted, there's little political subtext in the film even if it once again shows the seamier side of Capitalism. The biggest problem with Champion is that Midge, unfortunate name and all, is too likable despite his repeated peccadilloes, certainly an odd predicament for any film. This Blu-ray offers largely excellent video and very good audio. Recommended.