NR | 1 h 42 min | Drama | 1933
Producer-director W. S. Van Dyke’s fast-talking romance depicts two fights, both metaphorical, and nowhere near a boxing ring. First, an insecure boxer fights to prove that he isn’t lovable, or loved, or capable of love. Next, his beloved wife fights to prove that he’s all of that. Then both find out who’s the better fighter.
Washed out ex-boxing manager, the Professor (Walter Huston), fancies the pugilistic skills of barroom bouncer Steve Morgan (Max Baer). Why not enter prizefighting? Under the Professor’s wing, Morgan’s roving fists embrace boxing-world fame, even while his swagger takes advantage of the accompanying notoriety. Morgan falls for and marries gorgeous nightclub singer Belle Mercer/Mrs. Morgan (Myrna Loy). But his roving eye and fondness for the bottle get him into trouble with Mercer. Never mind that he once rescued her from the shambles of a car wreck.
When Mercer finds Morgan cheating on her, she reluctantly returns to her ex-boyfriend and boss, gangster Willie Ryan (Otto Kruger). But Mercer is more than eye-candy to Ryan, so he resists the temptation to get his henchmen to harm Morgan, lest that hurt Mercer. That doesn’t stop him from knocking Morgan down a peg, coughing up $25,000 to hurry him into a match with reigning champion Primo Carnera (Carnera), who’s much more powerfully built.
Alive to the danger, the Professor asks Morgan to clean up his training act and quit fooling around with women and drink, but before the big match, a sulking Morgan ends the partnership with the Professor.
Real-life boxers Baer, standing over six feet tall, and Carnera, closer to seven feet, make respectable rivals in the ring. Boxing celebrities Joe Rivers, Jackie Fields, Billy Papke, Frank Moran, Jess Willard, James J. Jeffries, and the legendary Jack Dempsey appear briefly as themselves.
Van Dyke uses a medium shot to capture the Professor and Morgan arguing. With all the hand-grabbing, pushing, and shoving, their verbal sparring looks more like a confrontation in the ring. But when Morgan slaps the Professor, Van Dyke switches to an over-the-shoulder shot to look from over and behind Morgan’s shoulder at the Professor, his face hung in quiet sadness. Words fly like fists one moment, but it’s all silent. You feel for the Professor.
Van Dyke repeats that during the climactic match. Amid long, medium, and close-up shots of the two contestants, he suddenly goes for a prolonged overhead shot when Carnera knocks Morgan down. Your heart goes out to the forlorn Morgan.
Fighting to Love
Loy brings charm, warmth, humor, and drama to an unlikely romance. Watching Baer, it’s hard to believe it’s his film debut. He sashays, skips, sings, and swaggers his way into the headlines as the overgrown kid with a mean hook. When remorseful, he doesn’t know how to make amends. He endures Carnera’s pummeling like it’s a punishment, a cleansing, for all that he’s put his wife and the fatherly Professor through. Not quite “Beauty and the Beast,” but close.First, the Professor wants Mercer in the background. He figures Morgan is just a fling and that once fed up, she’ll be back with Ryan and the jewels he showers her with. Then, realizing she’s truly “Mrs. Morgan” and loves Morgan, the Professor relents, acknowledging how pivotal she is. He yells at Morgan, “You let the finest girl in the world slip through your fingers. You’re going to do the same with the championship?”
The nearly 25-minute final match sequence is a character arc of its own. Watch the crowd swerve between cheering for the champion during one round, for the underdog the next, and finally swerving right back again in later rounds. Brilliantly, Van Dyke shows how fickle Morgan’s fans are. Morgan soon learns how the caring trio of Mercer, the Professor, and Ryan are the closest thing to family he will ever get.
As if the film wasn’t drama enough, months after filming, Baer and Carnera met again in the ring—this time for real.
